The Grump Whisperer (Morningsong Farm #1)

Epilogue

I an leaned on the top rail of the outdoor ring fence and watched as Bronwen pulled Hades to a stop. The big stallion snorted as if he didn’t want his workout to be over, then shook his head and stretched out his neck as he walked with big, swinging strides toward Ian.

“How was that?” Bronwen asked from up on his back.

“Great,” Ian replied. “He’s building muscle and you can really see him engage his hind legs in that walk-to-canter transition now.”

Bronwen gave Hades’s shoulder a pat, then swung down from the saddle.

“How do you feel?” Ian asked, more out of habit than anything else.

Bronwen had been riding Hades almost every day for the past month, and while she was honest about her anxiety, her confidence had clearly skyrocketed with practice riding the big black horse. They’d worked on building his muscle and advancing his training, with Bronwen taking him to a couple more local dressage shows and successfully building his reputation in the area. She’d even started taking him over a few jumps.

Eventually, he’d need to compete on a bigger stage if Anne wanted to stake a breeding operation on him. Local people might be interested, but in order to turn the farm into a top-notch breeding business, Hades would need to be known nationally, if not internationally. Which would probably mean introducing a new rider, trainer, and getting him used to travel, strange barns and big crowds.

But for now, the horse was happy and productive living on the farm and having his favorite person ride him. Anne would need to figure out the next steps, and Ian would defer to her.

Bronwen gave him a knowing look. “I feel great. And...older.”

“Ah, birthday blues, huh?”

Bronwen laughed. “Not really. It’s just a number, right? Thirty.”

Ian pushed off the fence and slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “It is. And I promise the thirties aren’t that much different from the twenties. Just a few more aches and pains in our old joints.”

She gave him a considering look. “And your aches and pains? How do you feel about what the doctor said?”

He’d seen his new doctor in Boston the other day, and had been stunned by their declaration that there was no reason why he couldn’t occasionally sit on a horse, as long as he didn’t push his luck with jumping, competition or risking a bad fall. Sedate trail rides, basically. Which was more than he’d been told right after his fall that he’d ever be able to do.

“Still digesting, really. I know I should be eager to get right back in the saddle, but...”

“But it feels like a big step.” Bronwen looked at him sympathetically.

“Yeah.”

She would know, given her own struggle. Bronwen understood in a way that few other people could. It was welcome news. Exciting. But...it had been a long time since he’d been on a horse, and that last time hadn’t exactly been a good one.

She started walking Hades toward the gate, and Ian followed along on the other side of the fence.

“No rush,” Bronwen said casually. “There’s plenty of horses here you could ride, but none that you have to.”

“True.” And he knew that there was no expectation here at Morning Song that he do anything he wasn’t ready for. If he did nothing else for the rest of his life other than ride Hades around bareback just for fun, not only would no one ask him why he wasn’t trying to do more, but more than likely several boarders would join in and tell him how they also just wanted the occasional trail ride.

Thank God he’d landed here.

He opened the gate for Bronwen and held it as she let Hades out of the ring, and then he took the reins from her as she looked up at him with a question on her face.

“Go get cleaned up,” he said. “And then meet me in the tack room.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why? What did you do?”

“So suspicious.” He held a hand to his heart and pretended to be hurt. “Nothing you won’t like, I promise.” He leaned over and kissed her briefly. “Go. Before I get other ideas.”

“Hmm. Like what other ideas?” Bronwen stepped close to him, and reflexively he wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Well...” He lowered his mouth again, but a loud snort interrupted him, followed by a large nose pushing Bronwen several feet to the side.

Ian glared at Hades, who pawed the ground impatiently.

“He wants his post-ride treats,” Bronwen laughed.

“I swear to God, this horse.” Ian gave the horse a look, but really, he had plans for the afternoon, and Hades was doing him a favor. He didn’t need to get distracted now. There would be plenty of time for distraction later.

“As someone who also enjoys treats, I can see where he’s coming from,” Bronwen commented.

“In that case, you should definitely go get cleaned up. Shoo.”

“Hmm... What are you planning?”

“Go” was all Ian said in response, and he led Hades away from Bronwen and down the hill to the big field.

The spring sun lit up the trees and shone warm on his back. In another field, Applejack and Percy lay flat on their sides as if trying to absorb as much solar heat as possible. Birds sang from the trees in the distance, and Hades tromped happily next to him, large feet leaving divots in the damp grass.

“All right, big guy. This is a little different from our routine, but I’ve got things to do and you deserve to be outside in this beautiful weather.”

He led the stallion through the gate and unbuckled his girth. He placed the saddle on the fence and made sure the horse wasn’t overly sweaty or warm before removing his bridle and slinging it over his shoulder.

Hades stood in front of him, nosing the front of his shirt.

“What a change from a few months ago, huh, Hades?”

Not long ago he wouldn’t have been able to lead this horse anywhere, and even if he had, the stallion would have been off and running as soon as his bridle was removed. Now he stood...if not patiently, then calmly.

Big teeth nipped at the hem of his shirt, and Ian laughed.

“Okay, okay. I know what this is all about.”

He dug several horse treats out of his pocket and held them out on his palm. They were gone in less than a second. While Hades chewed, Ian stroked his neck, marveling at the change in the animal. Had he really ever considered selling him off as quickly as possible? Now Ian could hardly imagine life without him.

With a pat to Hades’s neck, Ian left through the gate, latching it behind him. He grabbed the saddle and held it on his forearm.

Hades watched him with his head over the gate, big dark eyes tracking Ian as he moved.

“Sorry, bud. I’ll give you more attention later, okay? Promise.”

He turned and headed toward the barn, looking back to see Hades already lowering himself to the ground for a good roll. He’d be nice and muddy later.

In the barn he put Hades’s tack away, promising himself he’d clean it before the end of the day. Then he walked up and down the barn aisle, catching the attention of the boarders, careful not to make too much noise, and they all followed him into the tack room.

Once inside, he closed the door.

“Do we have the cake? Pizza?” he asked the assembled group.

“I carried the cake all the way from the house myself!” Rachel said.

Ian turned to Martha, who had been tasked with getting the homemade chocolate cake safely from the farmhouse kitchen. He’d sneaked out of Bronwen’s apartment well before dawn to make it, and had been back down at the barn before she’d woken up. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Rachel, but...

Martha shrugged. “I held the doors.”

Good enough.

“Brian wanted to get pizza from the new place,” Scott said, “but I said no way are we risking an unknown pizza situation—not for Bronwen’s birthday. So, it’s the usual.”

“The usual’s good,” Ian said. “Drinks? Coffee?”

“Bought and made,” Olivia replied, pointing to the full coffee carafe. “Drinks in the fridge.”

“Perfect.”

“And Abigail and I went out and got candles,” Anne added. When Ian turned toward the cake, placed in the middle of a folding table in the corner of the room, he saw the barn assistant still sticking the last few candles of what looked like the whole thirty into the top. “Sorry if we defaced your masterpiece, but it’s not really a birthday without candles, is it?”

Ian glared at his sister on principle, but in reality the cake looked great, and far more festive than leaving it plain.

“Ian?” Bronwen’s voice came from outside the tack room. “Where is everybody?”

Everyone fell completely silent, as if frozen in place. Ian held up a finger to his lips and moved to the closed door. He opened it wide, moving out of the doorway as he did so that Bronwen could see everyone inside.

“Surprise!” everyone shouted, and Bronwen laughed and held a hand to her heart.

“Oh my God, it’s all of you,” she exclaimed, moving her hand to cover her mouth. She stood there for a moment, and Ian placed a hand on her shoulder.

“All right?” he murmured.

“I know we’re a lot, but she is happy, isn’t she?” he heard Martha say in what she probably thought was a quiet voice.

Bronwen reached up to place her hand over his. “Of course I’m happy,” she reassured the assembled crowd. “Just surprised. We’ve never done birthday parties before.”

“Except for the horses,” Rachel corrected.

“Well, of course for the horses,” Bronwen said with a smile. “But maybe we should do more people-centered stuff sometimes.” She glanced around the room at the cake, drinks, coffee and pizza. “This is lovely. Thank you.”

She squeezed Ian’s hand and turned in his arms. He looked down at her, this woman who had barged in on him and pulled him right back into the life he’d sworn he’d left forever. Between Bronwen and his sister, he’d never had a chance, and thank goodness. He couldn’t imagine a place he wanted to be more than here, or a life he wanted to live more than this one with this woman, at this barn, surrounded by this community.

She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him. A few boarders burst into applause, while he was pretty sure he heard Rachel whisper “Gross” under her breath.

“Okay, okay,” Bronwen said as she pulled away from him and faced the crowd. “Enough gawking. Let’s eat!”

And they did, demolishing the pizza and diving right into the cake.

As everyone mingled and chatted, Bronwen ate her last bite of cake and then leaned back against him in a quiet corner of the room, watching everyone having fun.

“I’m so full,” she moaned. “I’d complain that you’re always trying to stuff me full of food, but I like it.”

“And I know what else you enjoy being stuff—”

“Ian. There are children present,” she scolded him, covering her mouth to hide a laugh.

“She’s too busy to listen to us.”

“Too busy eating, you mean.”

Ian glanced at the cake, which had been reduced to crumbs in short order.

Bronwen shrugged. “Horses work up an appetite.”

They stood there together, quietly watching the others, content to just be in that moment.

“I’m so glad I’m not leaving Morning Song,” Bronwen finally said. “I’d miss this so much.”

Ian grunted in agreement. “I would have missed it, too. You know, if you’d thrown me out on my ear.”

Bronwen huffed a short laugh. “I never would have done that. I wanted you to stay long before you knew you wanted to stay.”

“Mmm.” Ian wasn’t so sure. Maybe before he’d consciously realized he wanted to stay at the farm, and with Bronwen, but some part of him had fallen for her right away. He’d just needed some help to get his head out of his ass.

He lowered his head closer to hers.

“Do you have all your stuff packed up?” he murmured into her ear.

Anne had bought a bed for the farmhouse’s spare room the day after her arrival, and Ian had spent more and more time in the barn apartment with Bronwen. After a couple of weeks his sister had declared the situation ridiculous, told Ian in no uncertain terms that he should take the house while she’d move into the apartment, and left him to the nerve-racking task of asking Bronwen to move in with him.

He’d fumbled it, of course, worried she’d turn him down. Bronwen had to ask him to clarify what, exactly, he was proposing, before she’d happily accepted and told him that he should just ask clearly the next time.

Now he felt Bronwen’s silent laugh and smiled into her hair.

“Yes, it took forever.”

“Really?”

Another laugh. “No, not really. I have some books, and then barn clothes and more barn clothes, and that’s pretty much it.”

“What else could anyone need, really?”

She turned in his arms and laced her fingers behind the back of his neck. “Nothing. Except you, and everything we have ahead of us.”

There was nothing else he could do then but kiss her, gratefully sinking into the feel of her lips on his, her warm, solid body in his arms, her hay-and-flowers scent mixed with horse. He’d never get tired of this, he knew. He’d never tire of her. Somehow, against all odds and likelihood, he’d ended up with the person he’d least have expected, and who he most wanted to be with.

“You’re sure your sister wants to live in the apartment?” Bronwen asked when they finally drew apart.

They’d had this conversation before, but Bronwen didn’t know Anne as well as he did, and he couldn’t blame her for wondering why the farm owner would want the tiny room above the barn. “Yes. If Anne says she’s doing something, then she’s doing it. Better for everyone to just accept it and get out of her way.” He pressed another kiss to Bronwen’s lips. “And it’s hardly as if the house is much more luxurious than the apartment. Just bigger.”

“And it’s temporary.”

Assuming Anne managed to secure a loan for farm improvements, she’d eventually build a second barn for the breeding operation and a house for herself on the far side of the property.

“Yep. She’ll be fine—and she says it will be nice to have her own little spot to herself.”

“Ah, so this is just a ploy to get away from her annoying big brother.”

He grinned down at her. “And she’s throwing you under the bus to do it.”

Bronwen gave a long-suffering sigh. “I suppose someone has to keep you out of trouble.”

He raised one eyebrow at her. “Trouble? Me?”

“Well.” Bronwen gave him a knowing look. “If you play your cards right, I bet we can find some trouble for you to get in later.”

“How much later?” Even knowing Bronwen was teasing him, his body tightened in response, and he wanted nothing more than to carry her up to the apartment. Or better yet, the house, where they’d have more privacy.

“Hmm...” She glanced around them. “Everyone seems pretty much occupied with either food or talking. Why don’t you slip out and I’ll meet you at the house in a few minutes?”

“Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to say after evening feed.”

“It’s not bad form to leave your own party, is it?”

Ian shrugged. “Probably. But it’s your birthday. I’ll let Anne know we’re headed out, and she can make excuses for us.”

“Okay.” She smiled at him, and he groaned.

“Get going before I throw you over my shoulder and haul you back to my lair.”

“Fine, fine,” she laughed at him. “Go get your sister to do your dirty work. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Reluctantly, Ian let the woman he loved go, and watched her move easily through the crowd of their friends, the community that had accepted him wholeheartedly, and made him feel like he belonged somewhere for perhaps the first time in his life.

And then he turned to find his sister, who he knew would cover for them. The only thing he wanted more than to celebrate Bronwen’s birthday with the people they cared for most was time alone with her, to explore and celebrate what was between them. And he hoped to do the same every day, starting today, and for the rest of their lives.