“Harry Styles, Dad, from One Direction.”

“Oh,” Riley said dramatically. “That Harry.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t know that,” she said with a sigh and shook her head sadly.

Riley left his daughter texting a friend and thinking he should maybe talk to Josh about Hayley and her crush. Or Jack maybe, he could talk to his brother. It was only when he stood watching Jack helping to push along Thomas on the track that he realized something.

Hayley was growing up.

She hadn’t called him Daddy, she’d called him Dad.

Chapter 16

Liam tried his hardest to ignore it, but there was something off about one of the guys who had flown up from Laredo. Liam knew both of them by name. Yuri Fensin was the grandson of the owner of the Triple-K, which butted up against the Bar Five. That wasn’t the issue, it was the hand he’d bought with him who kept staring and frowning like he was trying to place Liam but couldn’t quite do so. Vaughn Neilson, hand and wannabe horse whisperer, was built like a brick outhouse and had features carved from granite. In a way he reminded Liam of Hank, and those feelings of fear made him nervous and skittish. If anything, he kept away from Vaughn and stood with Robbie and Yuri. Yuri was a funny guy who seemed to take being the grandson of a ranch owner with a grain of salt.

They’d gone through the horse selection, and Liam was partnered with Vaughn for the part Jack referred to in private as the horse whispering. A lot of ranches paid good money to learn new skills where horses were concerned, and Jack was one of the best in the business now. He not only sold trained horses, but he taught others what to look for in new horses. Liam had to push hard to be able to talk directly to Vaughn, but at least he had the work they needed to do between them. And Robbie wasn’t far away. Yuri had seemed disappointed not to be partnered with Liam, and to be honest Liam had felt the same way. Yuri even appeared to be a little flirtatious, which put an interesting spin on the whole thing. Liam was even a little flattered.

Solo scooted back a little as Vaughn approached her talking nonsense.

“Softer,” Liam said firmly. “You approach a horse all guns blazing, and you’ll never see the parts of the personality you want.” Solo was an easy horse, not at all the kind of hyperactive horse that owners would struggle with. “You won’t see the bright eyes or the sensitive nature if the horse is on the defensive.”

Liam waited for Vaughn to back off and demand how the hell Liam could tell him what to do with horses. He was expecting it. Twenty and talking to a man probably twice his age was enough, let alone telling said man what to do.

“Softly,” Vaughn repeated. He stepped a little closer, then kept on talking, but he tempered his voice, kept it low and Solo’s ears twitched.

“You’ll need to look for a horse that responds to your voice in the right way. Like Solo here will listen to you and trust you after a while.”

“I want one of her foals like you wouldn’t believe,” Vaughn said in the same soft voice as if he was talking to the sorrel mare. He didn’t seem so scary when he was trying to be careful in tone and body positioning. Without conscious decision, Liam found it easy to talk to the big guy.

“Solo is definitely special. I wanted to work with her and Taylor’s Wood from the minute I realized what I wanted to do.”

Vaughn flicked a glance at Liam, but kept his face turned to Solo. “Bar Five,” he said finally. “Little guy. I remember now.”

Liam forced a smile on his face. No one knew why he’d left, and he wondered what people said.

“Yeah,” he offered. He really hoped Vaughn would leave it there.

“Heard you had a run-in with that asshole Hank.” He looked around as he said it as if to check who may hear.

“You did?”

“Word was he made your life miserable. I’m close to Hank’s younger brother, Darren, and he was mostly honest with me, though I guess he left a lot out.”

“Darren is a good man.”

Vaughn nodded. “Yeah, he is.” There was sadness in his voice, and Liam wondered at the story that might be in those three words. “You want to watch Yuri. He came back from college and got into it with Hank a few times, all piss and vinegar, and now he’s all over the Castille family like a rash. Darren doesn’t much like him.”

“Thank you,” Liam said. Maybe looks were deceptive. Could the mild-looking Yuri be the one to avoid? Was Vaughn just yanking his chain? Liam put a lot of store in how a man was with the horses. Vaughn had a connection with Solo, and Liam had a feeling he’d misjudged Vaughn as brawn over brain.

The rest of the afternoon passed pretty uneventfully, and dinner was with Robbie and Eli. Jack made a brief appearance but the virus he was fighting left him looking exhausted and as pale as death. He left after a bit of handshaking, and the remaining men fell to talking horses. Now his instinctive distrust of Vaughn had passed, and with Yuri this pale version of a cowboy, Liam felt safe and secure. He also thought it was a good time to finally make his excuses and leave the house. Marcus was visiting later tonight, and Liam wanted more kissing and maybe even a progression to a hand job or a blow job. He was falling under Marcus’s charms, and he kind of liked it.

“We need to go in ten,” Yuri said to Vaughn, who nodded his understanding. Yuri stepped out for a smoke, and Liam stood to leave.

“You going?” Robbie asked.

“Marcus is due in thirty and I just want to check in on Solo.”

“Thanks for your work today,” Robbie said. “I’ll pass on everything to Jack.” He winked and Liam cracked a grin. Liam passed Yuri and they exchanged easy smiles. Liam could do this. He doubted he could handle someone from the Bar Five, but Vaughn saying he understood and with Yuri not even recognizing him, Liam finally relaxed for the first time in years.

“You love these horses, eh?” Yuri said from behind him. He had followed Liam out to the barn and was leaning against the barn door. He straightened to saunter toward Taylor’s Wood.

“Yes, sir,” Liam answered with a smile.

“You certainly have a way with them.”

“Thank you.” Liam concentrated on checking Solo’s front left hoof. She’d been favoring the leg a little, but it didn’t seem there was too much to worry about. Stroking her from mane to tail, he turned to go and came face to face with Yuri, who had quietly moved into his space. For a second Liam smiled at the man, but then he realized two things at once. Yuri didn’t move out of his way, which meant Liam was caught between horse and man, and Yuri had a wicked-looking steak knife in his hands that Liam recognized as from Robbie’s table. It wasn’t big, but fuck it was sharp.

“Seems to me Hank was right,” Yuri said with a smirk. Liam moved his head back as the smoky breath of the other man reached his face.

“Let me pass,” Liam snapped. There was no way he was going to be cowed by this asshole.

“He told me you were a skinny fucker, but that you were tight. Said I could deliver his hello personally, and that you wouldn’t say a fucking thing to anyone ’cause you’re chicken shit.”

“Robbie!” Liam shouted loudly. Yuri placed a hand over his mouth and gripped his face hard. He pushed Liam back and away from Solo until his back was against the wood of the stall. Solo snorted her disapproval.

“What you think you doing, whore?” Yuri snapped. He placed the steel, cold and hard, against Liam’s throat. “Message is, you owe Hank some more fucking time, and he’ll come collect everything you owe soon.” Liam struggled against the hold and the prick of the knife was the only thing that stopped him from wrenching away. Where had calm business-like Yuri gone? The man who talked about horses and ranching like that was what mattered to him? Yuri pushed back and Liam could feel him hard against his thigh. Fuck, Yuri was really getting off on this. Liam wriggled and pushed to get away, but that did nothing. Yuri released the hold on Liam’s mouth, and Liam took a deep breath of fresh air. At the first sign of any space between them, Liam kneed the other man in the balls. He didn’t quite make enough contact, but whatever he did was enough to anger Yuri.