A man’s words are only as true as the actions that follow.

I want to teach them the things my own daddy taught me. He’s given my mother the world and treated her like she owned it. He never complains. He told us once that if she ever left him, he’d lose himself. I used to think he was out of his mind, until I lost Presley.

Presley takes my hand in hers. “I think,” she says with enthusiasm. “We should team up and race again. What do you say?”

Logan and Cayden perk up. “I don’t know,” I joke back. “I whooped you once, it was really embarrassing for you.”

“Ha!” she says in my face. “I beat you! I think your memory is going, old man.”

She wasn’t calling me old when I was making her back arch and cry out in pleasure. “Old?”

Presley’s eyes shine as she looks at me from over her shoulder. “Older than me.”

“Regardless, you’re wrong. I won, right, boys?”

“You lost, Mom. I think since Cayden is the youngest, he should be on her team,” Logan offers. I take it as a good sign that he wants to be on the winning squad.

“Sounds good to me.” I fist bump him.

“Again?” Cayden grumbles. “I get stuck with Mom again ?”

“Hey!” Presley jeers. “I got stuck pushing you two melonheads out, you don’t see me complaining.” She turns and mumbles. “I give birth to them and they like him because he gives them a horse,” she gripes. “Insane.”

“We can hear you.” I remind her.

“I’m glad,” she taunts back.

She’s so cute when she gets like this. But while my girl was off in the big city, I was raising horses. I’ve learned a thing or two. I’m going to school her ass.

“Okay,” she says as she takes out Shortstop. “Rules are there’s a new route.”

I narrow my eyes at her. She’s up to something. “I don’t think so.”

“Are you going to deny me, Hennington?”

“You’re in trouble.”

She saunters up to me with those green eyes full of mischief. “I think.” She pats my chest. “That you’re the one in trouble, Cowboy.”

When she says my nickname, I can’t handle it. I want to throw her to the ground and make her scream it. “Presley,” I warn. “You’re going to pay for this.”

Her lips form a straight line and my body goes still. Her fingers graze across my chest. “I look forward to it.”

“I bet you do.”

We race as the boys root for me. Logan and I have our own victory dance at the end. Presley swears that, once again, she’s been cheated. And she thought she could win.

The rest of the day I spend time with the twins working on training their horses. We decide to go for a really easy ride with them both. It’s a slow, relaxing day for the four of us. The boys laugh a lot, mostly at Presley’s expense, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Each time one of them lets loose and smiles—she lights up.

She’ll give me a look every once and a while that tells me how grateful she is.

“How about we cook out at my place?” I offer when the four of us get everything settled after our ride.

“Cool!” Cayden exclaims. “We get to see where Zach lives.”

Logan looks at his mother. “Can we?”

“You know how to cook?” she challenges me.

“Men grill. Women cook.”

She removes her hair out of the clip, letting it fall around her. God, I want her. But then I see what I said registered. Her arms cross and her eyes widen. “Is that so?”

Here we go.

“Just a different choice in words,” I try to cover my slip.

“Uh huh.”

“Hey, Logan,” I call out. “Can you help me?”

Presley shifts from being a little hostile to curious.

“Sure!” He rushes over.

I walk over to her and pull her close. “Give me a few with him, okay?”

“Cayden,” she calls out. “How about we go check and see if auntie has slipped into a sugar coma. And let her know she’s coming to dinner at Zach’s.”

Logan and I walk the horses back to their stalls. “You think we can talk man to man?”

He sits on the bale of hay and nods his head. I choke back the laugh at how mature he’s trying to be. I remember being his age. Ballsy as hell and thinking I was already a man. I won’t rob the kid of that.

“I want to know if we’re cool.”

“We are,” he says. “I like you and all.”

I chuckle. “Well, that’s good.”

The thing that has been bugging me is what he overheard. “Yesterday, you overheard your mom and me fighting. I wanted to know if there was something you wanted to ask me.” If he didn’t hear anything about the baby, we’re good, but I need to make sure. It didn’t even dawn on me until we were out on our ride.

“Are you and my mom going to break up because she kept something from you?” he questions.

I feel a bit of relief that he didn’t hear all the shit that came along with that fight. “No, we’re not.”

“Are you mad that she lied?” Logan looks away with worry.

“We both kept things from each other when we were young, but it all came out. That’s why we were fighting. Both of us forgave each other.”

“She kept the truth about my dad from me.”

“You know why, right?”

These kids should’ve never had to go through this. I’m glad Presley has found a way to move on from her anger, but I haven’t come close. I look at these boys and rage fills me. They’re good kids, she’s a good woman, and he left them like this? Makes no sense to me.

He lets out a heavy breath, “I do. I’m not little though. I can take it.”

“I know you’re tough.”

“Will you promise me something, Zach?”

Logan Cayden both have Presley’s eyes. They’re identical and I find it hard to look at those boys and not offer them anything they want. “I can try.”

“Promise you won’t hurt my mom.”

That’s a promise I would do anything to keep. But these boys have had their fair share of half-truths. “I promise I’ll never intentionally hurt her. I can’t promise it’ll never happen because sometimes we make mistakes and hurt the people we love.”