by Alexa Davis
“Look. My parents didn’t handle that the way they should have,” he stated, pausing for a moment, then releasing my arm.
“Really? Didn’t handle firing me for my own good the way that they should’ve. Okay, how should they have handled firing me for no reason?” I tried not to shout at him, but I was so full of rage I wasn’t sure what I was saying anymore, or how loudly I was doing it.
“You were just done with me. All that bullshit about how goddamn special I was, and it was just another guy who wasn’t used to hearing ‘no.’” I panted as I fought to breathe through my rigid ribcage. It was frozen around my lungs like a vise, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get a complete breath.
My vision swam, and in the background, I heard Daniel yelling at me. I wanted him to stop, but I couldn’t yell back at him, I couldn’t even speak. I sank to my hands and knees on the ground, gasping for air until my sight went black. Just as I thought I was about to lose consciousness, I felt strong hands slide around my arms, picking me up and holding me against a broad chest.
There was whispering in my ear, so soft I couldn’t hear it, just feel the motion of air against my hair and ear. Somehow, I was able to finally catch a lungful of air despite the pain of the panic squeezing down on my chest, and with that, it was easier to fill them again, and a third time.
Soon, I was breathing normally, looking at a very worried Daniel kneeling in front of me. Surprised, I actually listened to the voice in my ear. Tears sprang to my eyes as I realized who had held me when I thought the panic was finally going to kill me.
I relaxed in his arms, and my father turned me so that I was cradled sideways across his lap. He kept repeating for me to breathe, even in this position, so I did. I let my dad hold me shamelessly, like I was four again and had just fallen off my horse. After a few more deep breaths, I realized that my chest felt almost normal again. The squeezing had all but disappeared, leaving a dull ache behind. In my ear, my father was still talking to me.
“And this, my girl, is why you are coming home,” I heard him say. “Not forever, but until you don’t have to worry about Jason Steed, or his cronies who will get him out of jail, or anything else that can undo the good you have accomplished in your life since he nearly stole it from you.” I couldn’t look into his face, so I watched Daniel, to see if my father was telling the truth.
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” he echoed my father. “I don’t want you to go; in fact, I was so against it, I wouldn’t even stand with them when they told you.” He tugged his fingers through his hair, making it stand out at funny angles. The result was so endearing I felt my resolve to hate him forever, slipping away.
“I don’t know why you think that everything that scares me has something to do with some colossal asshat that I dated long before we met,” I declared. “I may have some baggage to deal with, but I’m sure no one here doesn’t.” I pulled away from my dad’s embrace. “I deserve to at least see Texas Tango through y’all choosing him a new jockey.” Daniel helped me to my feet and I tried not to sway too much, even though the world spun around me. “If y’all are so worried about me, then why didn’t anyone ask me?” I pointed out.
Daniel shook his head and scrubbed at his face with his hands. I’d seen him doing that a lot when I was around, it finally dawned on me that when he did that, I was frustrating the hell out of him. For once, I was glad for it. I didn’t want to be the only frustrated person on the ranch, after all.
“Rachel, Daniel, is everything okay over here?” I heard Hannah ask from a distance. I glanced up and she, Henry, and my mother were all approaching from the back garden.
“How long was I freaking out?” I hissed at my dad.
“Only a minute or two. Though I’m sure it probably felt longer.” He patted me on the back. “Don’t worry, they didn’t see a thing. I just followed you because I had a bad feeling.” I nodded and looked at Daniel, meeting his eyes and searching for anything that would tell me what he was thinking.
“So,” I finally offered. “Do you want me to go?” I inquired, asking the one question that made my stomach feel like Jell-O in an earthquake.
“No, I really don’t.” Daniel shrugged. “But, if you need to be away from us to be okay, away from the stupid threats and possible lawsuits that are coming at us, then I will send you away.” I gaped at him, even as the small voice inside my head chided me for not anticipating the ceaseless entitlement of Jason and his kind.
“Daniel, please don’t send me away,” I pled softly as our families got closer. “I need the work now to get through. I need to stay active and be with the horses, with Texas Tango. What else do I have to keep me going?” I implored. I watched the thoughts move through his mind as he weighed the risk of keeping the crazy woman on, or letting her go.
“Will you at least take the weekend off, spend a couple of days with your parents? I promise we’d take good care of Peacemaker and Skipper.”
“I’d go, if I get to take your truck, and I’d be taking Skipper with me,” I countered. He snorted and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“You’re taking my truck so I can’t leave, or so I have to let you come back?”
“Not sure which, really. I mean, Sara is apparently available again, so I guess the first has merit, even though I hadn’t thought of it.” Daniel buried his face in my neck and kissed it softly before he answered.
“Oh, you funny, beautiful girl.” His breath whispered over the sensitive skin at the nape of my neck. “Sara Abbott is always, and I mean ALWAYS available.” I flinched away, but he held me tight. “The truth is that I’m not available for her, and as far as I can tell, I won’t become available in the foreseeable future.”
I pulled away enough to look into his eyes and see the purely masculine glint of possession and lust that shot through them for me.
“I’m still taking your truck,” I asserted, narrowing my eyes at him. He barked out a laugh and kissed me hard on the mouth.
“I would expect nothing less, darlin’. I’ll go get you the keys, and you go ahead and pack an overnight bag.” He chuckled and kissed me again, lightly. It was the second kiss that made me fall in love with him, to my surprise. Not the passion, or the amazing sex, but that one kiss, casual and happy because I’d let him keep me safe, even though I hated it and he knew it.
I realized as I watched him stride towards the big house and his office with a bounce in his step that I was about to live through the longest two days of my life.
Chapter Fourteen
Daniel
Sending Rachel away was harder for me than I thought. It was a hell of a lot harder than it should’ve been. She needed a little space and time away from the gossip and the impending shit-storm that was about to hit the ranch. But I hated her going. I needed her here to keep me on track and make sure we kept the dream going, in spite of the adversity.
So, I planned a surprise for her. First and foremost, we needed a jockey for Texas Tango, and Rachel had already done so much legwork in seeking out good candidates, that I had no good reason not to follow up on them.
Second, I borrowed my mother’s Escalade and headed into Austin. I justified it to myself that Rachel had taken the truck to stop us from keeping her away, not to put me under house arrest, and also, I had no intention of telling her, so it didn’t matter anyway.
I had to admit to myself after she had gone that her perception of my action as disloyalty had stung. A lot. So, I did what any man would do when the only woman he could see himself undressing for the rest of his life thought he might not value her above all others. I drove myself to the nearest Tiffany & Co. and bought her a ring. Or rather, I let the girl behind the counter talk me into having a ring designed, which was four times as expensive and would take a couple of weeks to get back to me.
Designing a ring for her was more satisfying than I would admit to any man, and it gave me the opportunity to make something that was uniquely hers, so that she could be uniquely mine. Walking out of the
store after spending thousands of dollars more than I thought I would, I patted myself on the back for drawing the line at a ring and refusing any other suggestions. That is, until I saw the horse pendants dangling from some silver bracelet, along with beads and charms of every kind imaginable.
The savvy shop-girl saw me pause and pounced on me in an instant. She held up the “Pandora bracelet” and began pointing out each individual knick-knack and charm she could add to make the bracelet completely one of a kind. In the end, I walked out of the jewelry store with a sterling silver bracelet costing almost one thousand dollars with a street value of, probably, less than one hundred.
I’d never felt so good about a gift in my life. I mused to myself all the way home that the only way I could ever do better than I just had, was to buy the girl a horse. Which I had every intention of doing someday. But, I knew better than to buy one without her there to examine it and make the choice herself.
I hummed along with a Florida Georgia Line song playing on the radio and remembered the last time I’d felt good enough to do that. Rachel was the reason the first time, and she was the reason then. I wasn’t sure when I knew that I wanted us to be a family. It had happened somewhere between her telling me that my ranch needed her to make it better, and proving to me that she was right.
I stopped at the light ahead and realized with a shock that I was no longer on the way home, but had taken the turnoff needed to go to Georgetown, where Rachel’s parents lived. I considered my options while I waited for the light to change and decided to go ahead and get back to the ranch before she realized exactly how lost I was without her. Chuckling to myself, I made a U-turn in the intersection and headed home.
I was sitting in my office working on backlogs of my father’s old receipts when I finally checked my phone. On it was a text from Rachel that said: “I saw you. You should’ve just come over. Dad bought a smoker, and he’s killing it.”
I rubbed my face with my hands and shook my head. Of course she saw me looking like a weird stalker. At least she didn’t know where I’d come from. I had to prove to her that I was still worthy of the answer I wanted and sending her away had been a definite step in the wrong direction.
I had another day and a half without Rachel to help me with my jockey selection, so I went through her files and read up on each of her choices, impressed by the notes she had left for me regarding their strengths, weaknesses, and what each of them could potentially bring to Lago Colina.
It was obvious from her notes that she favored one rider above the others, though I couldn’t see why. The woman was a relative unknown. She was less experienced than some of the others, and had no big wins to her name at all. The only upside from my point of view was that she was bound to be cheaper than the others on the list.
However, I wanted to show Rachel I was listening to her. After all, just because we brought her in to talk, didn’t mean we had to hire the young jockey to race the newly acquired Texas Tango. I emailed the agent listed with the jockey’s other contact information and continued through the pile, setting aside two more that I would speak with after the young woman, a jockey named Verica Blythe.
By the time I looked at the clock, it was long past the witching hour, which meant the kitchen was closed and I was the only one on the ranch awake. I shut down my work and made my way to my quarters across the garden by the light of the moon. I hesitated by Rachel’s cabin out of habit and felt an odd gloom settle over me as I remembered she wasn’t there. It was too late to call her, but I had to connect with her in some way before I slept. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and found the last text she had sent me.
I hit reply and sent her the only thing I could think of. “Come home.” I hit send before I could change my mind, and finished my trek in the dark to my cabin on the edge of the woods. She hadn’t responded by the time I finished the midnight sandwich supper I made myself, or when I had finished my second beer. So I stripped down and fell into bed, and dreamt of finding her next to me once again when the sun rose.
It was a mixed blessing when I awoke alone the next morning. On the one hand, dreaming of Rachel all night had left me with a need that I couldn’t dispel on my own, which meant I was in for a cold shower. On the other hand, thinking of her driving here alone in the middle of the night made me feel sick to my stomach with worry. I texted her a good morning, just to see what she was up to, and when she didn’t reply right away, I went ahead and took a shower, until the frigid water coursing over my body gave me gooseflesh and a headache.
The morning didn’t get much better when I went to breakfast with the men and realized that it was the morning after a holiday weekend, which meant most of the men were gone and the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves, while Patty and my mother took one of their few, much-deserved breaks. I settled for grousing to myself as I scoured the kitchen for anything that would require no preparation and wished Rachel was home to talk to me while I ate in silence.
Jason Steed weighed heavy on my mind. I had never really despised anyone before. I hated him. I wanted him in jail and gone for good. Too bad I only knew one lawyer, and he didn’t like me too much. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tucker represented the son of a bitch. Still, even Tucker believed that blood ran thicker than water, and what was a brother for, if not to ask for help when your woman’s ex-boyfriend needs an ass whoopin’.
I dialed Tuck’s number, then thought better of it and hung up. He wasn’t going to help me, so groveling by phone wouldn’t make a difference. I texted him that I’d like to hear from him and that it would be nice to get a drink, shoved the phone in my pocket, my dishes in the sink for the next guy to hopefully wash, and headed out to the stables where Pete had just finished grooming Kaiser.
“Hey, Pete, don’t put him away just yet. I need to go for a ride and clear my head,” I called out as I picked up my pace to an easy jog. Kaiser’s ears twitched forward and he fidgeted and shook his mane as he heard me approach. “Easy there, big guy.” I said as I came around to his head. He bumped my hands with his muzzle and unabashedly begged for love, which I gave him in spades. Pete brought me his blanket and saddle and in a jiffy, and Kaiser and I were on our way.
I rode the fences and tried not to think about how Rachel had looked in her little rockabilly dress at the party or how much I wanted her when she was in just her tank top and tight jeans, working out in the sun better than most of the guys. By the time I reached the mustang pasture, I was done. I needed Rachel beside me, where I could see her and maybe even protect her from the people that were trying to screw this up for us.
I’d be damned if I let that happen. I pulled my phone out of my shirt, but I had no reception. I raced back to the big house and Kaiser happily trotted next to me as I jumped down and paced the yard, trying to find the best reception. She answered on the second ring, and before I could even say anything, she informed me that I was stupid, and she was just coming back, no matter what I said.
“Okay, that’s great. Will you be here for dinner?” I replied to her (adorable) tirade as I scrambled to redirect my thoughts.
“Wait, that’s it?” She sounded almost disappointed that she didn’t have to fight for it, but I was already doing the math on how many hours until I got her naked, so I couldn’t really give her an argument.
“Well, you know, I’d like my truck back,” I teased. I heard her huff in the background before she replied.
“You want sex.”
It was a statement, so I wasn’t sure if I needed to respond. I took a chance and put it all out there for her to judge. Not that it mattered. Even if she didn’t love me, the ranch was in her blood – she’d never leave without a fight.
“I only want sex if it’s with you,” I answered cautiously. She laughed, a bright, happy sound that warmed me to my boots and made my body tight with need at the same time. “So, what time should we expect you?”
“I’m about to start the truck, I’ll be there soon,” she replied and hung up.
/> I was more elated than a cowboy has the privilege of showing, so I took my time walking Kaiser back to the paddock for some free time, in the hope that Pete wouldn’t notice the change in my mood.
“Rachel on her way back?” Pete asked the moment I stepped into the stable to put away my saddle. I glared at him. He laughed me off and sauntered away, though, I’d swear there was a little extra bounce in that bow-legged stride of his as he left, cackling like an old man the whole way to his office. I flipped him off behind his back and hit the shower, preening for my woman like it was our first date – which, in a manner of speaking, it would be when I took her to dinner.
I figured it was a good time to get some work done, knowing I sure as hell wasn’t going to be working late, and sequestered myself in the office with a beer and a stack of documents to go through. As soon as my computer booted up, my email alert started pestering me, so I opened it, only to find my brother Tucker had written me a short note.
“Sorry, bro, in a ‘no phones’ meeting. They think I’m taking notes. Such is the life of a junior partner in a law firm. Mom told me you met a girl, so I’ve been expecting you to call. I’m excited to meet her. Hope she makes you less of an asshole. Drinks tonight, on me, but only if she comes. Our place. ~T”
I read the email and smiled in spite of myself. I’d had a rough road with Tucker when I started seeing Sara. He never believed I didn’t know they were dating, and even though I’d stopped it with her as soon as I found out what she was up to, we hadn’t talked much since. It didn’t help that we both found out about the married man she was also “dating” at the time, and that he was her father’s partner and Tucker’s boss.
So, either he was finally over it, or we were about to tear up Shelly’s Place, and not for the first time. Tucker was, arguably, the most educated one in the family. He’d opted for the city and a career as a lawyer when the rest of us had stayed closer to home, at least at first. I knew he had dreams of sitting on a bench, maybe even Supreme Court. But that little snafu with Sara Abbott had cost him dearly. The partner she was dallying with had made his life miserable ever since he found out that Tuck was raiding the cookie jar.