“Hi, Daddy,” she said with a breathless, drama queen sigh. “Hi, Bella.” She was pretty cute. “Rafe,” Jackson said from where he sat strumming his guitar in the best easy chair in the room, “you’ve got an escapee.” What the hell? Alice had decided to leave the family room and head for the stairs. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rafe shouted as he took after her. “You’ve spent too much time around horses today,” Jackson said. “Wrong,” Rafe said. Alice stretched her arms to be picked up, and a knife tore through his gut. Every time he picked one of them up, it was like making promises that he couldn’t keep—that he would stay and that he would keep them safe. Holding them wasn’t always avoidable, but he had to be careful not to do it more than absolutely necessary. He marched Alice back into the room with his hands on her shoulders. “I didn’t spend nearly enough time with the horses. I barely got them settled at Christian’s before you summoned me back here.”
