by Cindi Madsen
Tanya turned to leave, but stopped when Dr. Rojas placed her hand on her arm.
“Mind sticking around and helping me keep the horse steady and calm?”
“Of course. I mean, of course not. I’d be happy to help.” Tanya glanced over her shoulder to signal the boys. Brady’s flinty expression confused and concerned her, but before she could address it, Nash gave her a look that conveyed he’d take care of it and nudged his brother away from the melee.
* * *
Brady paced the length of Nash’s truck, back and forth, back and forth.
“Bro. Sit down,” Nash called from where he was lounging on the tailgate. “You’re making me nervous.”
“Well, at least one of us has enough sense to worry. If you’re going to ride bulls and Tanya’s going to take on every abusive lowlife this side of the Mississippi, that leaves me to be the responsible one.”
“Nah, that’s Wade’s job.”
Brady whirled on his brother, not in any mood to joke. “He’s got other things to worry about. He’s engaged, with a baby on the wa—” Too late, Brady caught himself.
“Wade and Jess are having a baby?”
“Dammit.” Brady scrubbed a hand over his face. “I was supposed to let Wade tell you. Didn’t he call you?”
“He left a message, but I haven’t gotten around to returning the call.”
“Because you know he’ll give you shit for not coming home to say hello to Ma once in a while?”
Nash’s usual humor faded, and a muscle flexed in his jaw and cheek. “I get it. I’m the asshole who abandoned the family who actually wanted me. If you don’t think I know that, don’t worry. I do.”
“That’s not what I was sayi—”
Nash held up a hand and said, “Don’t bother.” He scooted to the edge of the tailgate, and then closed it with a loud clang. “I’m gonna go for a walk. Clear my head. Maybe you should do the same.”
With a groan, Brady threw back his head. His entire body vibrated with rage, his nerves stretching and fraying, a second from snapping. He was about to take Nash’s suggestion to take a walk and cool off, but he spotted fiery-red curls, and his feet quickly ate up the space between them.
“What were you thinking, getting between that asshole and that horse?” He hadn’t meant to bellow the question, and the anger that widened Tanya’s eyes let him know she didn’t appreciate his tone.
“I was thinking I needed to stop him. That’s as far as I got.”
“That’s the problem,” he said, keeping his words softer but unable to keep himself from speaking his mind. “You can’t go around all half-cocked, flinging yourself in danger’s way. Next time, just give me a heads-up. We can make a plan, be smarter about it, and stop it together.”
“Smarter about it?” She crossed her arms, the move emphasizing her cleavage and scrambling his brain. “Please, tell me about how impulsive and hotheaded I am. How I don’t think things through enough. You wanna call up my dad while you’re at it, so you guys can present a united front?”
Brady blew the air from his nostrils, understanding those raging bulls that charged into the arena looking for a target. “That’s not fair.”
“You sure about that? Or do you want to hear the rest of what I’ve got to say before you decide?” She stormed closer, and Brady did his best to maintain a neutral expression. “Because that horse needs a place to recover and someone to help, and you bet your ass I volunteered. Unfortunately, that means we’re gonna need to cut our trip short.” Her voice cracked, and the hard shell that’d formed around him did, too. “But if all we’re gonna do is fight, maybe that’s a good thing.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose, frustrated they’d somehow ended up here when this was supposed to be a carefree weekend away from complications. “Look, it just scared the shit out of me. Can’t you understand what it’s like to see someone you care about seconds from getting hurt? And then have to leave them behind?”
Tanya glanced away, and when her gaze returned to his, unshed tears glistened in her eyes. “Can’t you understand that I can’t not do something? This whole experience proves I can’t sit back and wait any longer.” A tear slipped down her cheek, and she swiped it away. “I have to do whatever it takes to help. And I have to do it now.”
Brady surged forward and gripped her shoulders, unable to stand there and watch her cry without attempting to comfort her. “I do. It’s one of the things I love about you. But I’m here. I want to help. But you have to let me.”
“I’m sick of everyone telling me what I should do. Of not having a say in my own life.”
That stung, and his defenses pricked. Was he included in that “everyone”? He reckoned he could’ve worded things better. “Let me try again. I want to help. Please let me?”
She hugged him around his middle and dropped her head on his chest. “I don’t know why I’m crying. Yeah, it was intense and kinda scary, but I’m”—sniff—“fine.”
He tucked her head under his chin as he held her. “Adrenaline’s awesome, but coming off it after a traumatic situation, not so much.”
He felt her nod against his chest, and she sniffed again. “The fresh injuries were bad enough, but the horse has so many scars, and I can’t stop thinking of everything he’s endured, which is why when they said they didn’t have any place that could take the horse right now, I volunteered.”
Of course she did. It didn’t surprise him in the least, but it didn’t bother him, either. He’d seen her with Phoenix, Winston, and every other injured animal that crossed her path. Hell, she’d gotten a reputation in the three counties that surrounded theirs. “Do we need to find a horse trailer?”
“No, I already worked it out with a guy from Loveland. He’s gonna put his horse in with a friend’s and said he doesn’t even mind picking it up from Bullhead Valley because he wanted to do what he could to help.”
It probably didn’t hurt that Tanya was also a beautiful woman, but saying so and letting his jealousy get the best of him might undo the peace.
Tanya broke the embrace, wiped at her cheeks, and glanced around, her eyebrows ticking together. “Where’s Nash?”
“Ah, I pissed him off, too. I’m on a real streak today.”
She gave a half laugh, half sob. Then her features grew serious, and he instinctively steeled himself. Days like this, he couldn’t help wishing he had a rewind button. Then he could undo and make it right. Although, truth be told, he would’ve just put himself in the way of harm instead of letting Tanya do it, and that likely would’ve made her mad, too.
“What does it say about us that we couldn’t even make it through a weekend without a fight?”
Brady shrugged. “That’s hardly unusual for us. Sometimes it’s a playful kind of an argument, or we’re talking trash during competitions, or rubbing one another’s face in our victories.”
“True. I guess I just thought that with us dating, things would be smoother. Since we already know each other and have since forever.”
“Hey.” Brady cupped her cheek. “We agree on a lot, but we’re both stubborn and opinionated, so we’ve got a few angry fireworks to mix in with the sexy kind.” He looped his finger through her belt loop, fervently needing to keep her close and placated so she wouldn’t go doubting them already.
She nodded her head, and he hoped that meant she believed him. Crazy how they could go from pure bliss to so much friction and unease in less than an hour. “It might be trickier, and more work than either one of us realized, but I’m all in. Okay?”
One corner of her mouth twisted up, and while he’d prefer her full smile, he’d settle for half. “Okay.”
A loud throat clearing announced Nash’s approach. “You two get things all patched up?”
“Yeah, and I guess it’s time for apology number two,” Brady said, turning to his brother. “I was worried an
d grumpy, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“Ah. Probably needed to be said. I can’t exactly explain why, but I…” Nash rubbed his fingertips along his jaw. “I have plenty of good memories at the ranch, but sometimes being there just reminds me of the first fifteen years of my life and of my dad, and then I didn’t come home when Ma was in the hospital, and after that, I didn’t feel worthy to drop by anymore.”
Brady’s throat tightened, and Tanya flung her arms around Nash. That belief system Brady was working to shake, about how people broke those they claimed to care about, seemed to be tapping him on the shoulder. Despite all the progress Nash had made, he was still restless and averse to counseling. Ironic, considering Nick was such an amazing therapist. Not that Nash would see his brother, but there were plenty of good ones out there—for instance, Liza.
“Now, now, I don’t need all this,” Nash said in a husky voice that belied his statement.
“Your family loves you and always will,” Tanya said. “They’re also fairly understanding and big believers in second, third, and twentieth chances.”
“Twenty?” One blond eyebrow rose higher than the other. “Really?”
“Too low?” Tanya quipped, and Nash laughed full-out, back to his charming, boisterous self. “So not to break up the happy, but we should get that horse loaded.”
“That hors—don’t tell me,” Nash said. “You’re gonna rehabilitate it and find it a good home.”
“As long as the officer and the law back me up, I’ll be able to do it without a big fight. Well, save maybe a fight with my pop.”
Nash backhanded Brady’s pec as they started over to where the trailer and horse were. “Remember that time she made us stop in the middle of a road for a bird?”
“Oh yeah.” Brady smiled as he recalled the day he, Nash, and Tanya had been late for school trying to save the tiny creature. “On her insistence, we were gonna drive it to the clinic, but the poor thing shuddered its last breath.”
Nash took up the familiar story, the sense of nostalgia tinging the evening once again. “I tried to put it in a nice patch of grass, but this girl vehemently shook her head.”
“Coyotes could’ve gotten it there,” Tanya said, and Brady and Nash chuckled, not because the bird’s death hadn’t been tragic but because she’d given them big puppy-dog eyes until they’d relented and let her pick a burial spot near the trees.
Brady drifted a hand over her back, this amazing woman who’d always been so fierce yet kind. “So we pulled the shovel out of the back of the truck and got to work, even though the ground was frozen solid. Gave it a proper burial, and for our efforts—”
“Detention,” they all grumbled together, as if they were teenagers again. It wasn’t the first or last time they’d had detention. Ma used to lecture them on setting a good example and giving the townsfolk hope she could rehabilitate teens instead of proving she couldn’t even handle her own kids. Tanya had been part of that, too, as she and her family had always been considered part of theirs.
They talked to the cowboy from Loveland, got the gorgeous blue-eyed Appaloosa into the trailer, and then headed to the hotel to grab their bags and switch trucks. From there, they made their goodbyes.
After one last hug, Tanya told Nash and Brady she was going to give them some privacy to say goodbye and if they needed to clear any of their earlier shit to do so. They both saluted her, earning them a shake of the head and a muttered “smart-ass cowboys” before she climbed into the truck.
Once again, Brady found his throat too tight. Here he was, borrowing a page from Ma again. He didn’t know when he’d see his brother next, and with his high-risk career, there was always a chance that… Well, he wasn’t going down that road. He hugged Nash and clapped him on the back. “It was really good to see you. I’m not gonna pressure you to visit, but I will say you’re always welcome and should never hesitate. The local rodeo’s coming up, if that’s the only way we can get you there.”
Nash grunted, which meant he’d think about it. Or that he wouldn’t discuss it. Either way, it was the best he could give. Then he patted Brady hard on the back and headed toward his truck. He abruptly spun around and gestured toward the cab of the truck. “Don’t mess that up—you and Tanya. You’re good together.”
“Trust me, I’m gonna do my best.” Brady hadn’t been worried until their fight this afternoon. He couldn’t lose rodeo and Tanya on top of everything else, so he sent a wish into the universe that his best would be good enough.
Chapter 21
Tanya stormed out of the office and nearly slammed into Eric. She stuttered to a stop, her eyes and nose burning with the urge to cry. To say the meeting with her parents had not gone well would be a massive understatement.
“Sorry,” she choked out. “Did you need something?”
“Sounds like you might. Would you like to go for a horse ride? I might be able to keep up with you—as long as you go slow.”
Tanya barely kept her laugh from turning into a sob. “I could use a ride.”
Over the past month, Eric’s cowboy skills had vastly improved. She wasn’t sure he was ready to run a ranch, but sometimes you had to dive in. Unless people insisted on blocking the path, the way her parents were doing.
As if he sensed her distress, Diesel didn’t complain about the slower pace. They cantered across the rolling green miles to the top of the hill that provided a stellar view. “See how the valley looks like a bull head, complete with horns?” Eric’s brow furrowed, and she trotted a bit closer to him and Taffy and pointed out the shape with her finger. “That’s how Bullhead Valley got its name.”
“Now I see it. Kind of.” His gaze fixated more on her than the view, and judging from the concern crinkling his brow, she’d failed at putting on a happy front. “So full disclosure, I couldn’t hear what the fight was about, but it sounded heated.”
Tanya put a hand to her face. “How embarrassing and unprofessional. I’m so sorry.”
“You forget that I’ve been in corporate meetings with twenty men who argue and yell and then throw a tantrum if they don’t get their way.” Eric waved a hand through the air. “That was nothing.”
It didn’t feel like nothing. More like she’d caught a fragile butterfly of a dream, only to have batted it to the ground and squashed. The business plan she’d spent the last twenty-four hours perfecting twitched, legs up and a moment from death. “I want to start a horse rescue ranch.”
“Ah. I saw that you’d brought another pony home.”
“Yeah, after I stepped between the horse and the asshole who’d tied it up to beat it”—she gritted her teeth, and she’d been doing enough of it the past couple of days that her jaw ached—“and then Brady was pissed I put myself in danger without consulting him first.” As if talking things out ever helped. “Maybe I do have impulse-control problems, but if the other option is to stand by and say nothing, I’d rather embrace my obstinance.”
“I’d say it’s more compassion, passion, and ambition—all qualities I look for when I hire someone, by the way.”
“Well, it doesn’t so much matter what qualities I have if I can’t get anyone else on board. This part of the ranch is great for grazing, but there’s more than enough room to build another set of stables and still allow the horses room to roam. And still, my parents refuse to let me try. I told them I’d start searching for other properties and take out a loan, but it’s not like I have a down payment saved. As my dad so nicely pointed out, my credit’s not great. I got a bit carried away pretending my credit card was free money in college.”
While her scholarship took care of tuition, she’d had to buy a laptop and books and pay rent in one of the most expensive cities in the state. “But I chipped away at it, and I’m working on improving my credit score.” Tanya wrinkled her nose. “Wow. That might be the most boring phrase I’ve ever uttered. Being an adult is
so overrated.”
“I hope I’m not overstepping by saying so, but that goes double when people don’t treat you like one.”
That twang in her chest sharpened, and because it hurt too badly to admit he’d hit the nail on the head, she shrugged. “My parents are old-school. It’s their way or the highway.”
“Have you ever considered the highway?”
Tanya lowered her eyebrows, trying to figure out what he meant by that. Just walk away from the ranch that’d been in her family for generations? “Did you not hear the part about not having money?”
“Let me back up a bit further, and maybe then what I’m about to say will make more sense. Have you ever gotten in over your head for a bet?”
If Tanya rattled off every time her and Brady’s competitions had grown out of control and how far she’d go to win—for instance, her rodeo team was now doing two-a-days—they’d be there all afternoon. “More times than I can count.”
“Then you might get a kick out of what I’m about to tell you.” Eric braced his crossed forearms on the saddle horn. “When I found out my aunt had left her ranch to me, I was shocked. The summers I spent there were amazing, but I hadn’t spent more than a day or two there since high school, and I spent most of that time cursing the slow internet.”
This time, her smile came easy. “We finally upgraded a couple of summers ago because every single complaint was about the weak internet connection. People seemed to miss the point about getting away from it all.”
“Well, it’s easier to do that if you can send a quick email.”
Tanya rolled her eyes, nice and big, and Eric laughed.
“But to your point, my reliance on my Wi-Fi connection and phone is probably why my buddy laughed so hard when I told him I was considering selling my business and becoming a full-time rancher. He bet me I couldn’t make it a month here, and I was determined to prove him wrong.”