Stay with Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte Book 4)

by Heather Slade

  Her hand rested on the bedding but remained outstretched to him. He let his jeans drop to the floor and pulled the covers back on his side of the bed. As he climbed in, Bree slid over and wrapped her arm around his waist, bringing her head to rest on his shoulder.

  “I wish…” he whispered.

  “Me, too,” she answered.

  His friends were gone when they woke the next morning, but he found a note in the kitchen, apologizing that they’d had to leave. There was a basket of muffins on the kitchen table and a bag of ground coffee near the coffeemaker.

  Bree and Jace moved around each other slowly. They’d fallen asleep easily, given the lateness of the hour, but there remained a tentativeness of things unspoken between them.

  Last night had been different. She hadn’t crept into his bed in the middle of the night, seeking his comfort. This time they’d found comfort in one another. As they waited for the coffee to brew, Jace opened his arms and she filled them. Bree wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest.

  “Sometimes it’s almost too easy,” he said.

  “I know.”

  “I have to come to terms with what I did to Tuck, and you have to mourn Zack. And we both have to do it on our own. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can be together.”

  They made the drive back to the ranch in near silence, but it was a comfortable one.

  “When’s the auction?” she asked.

  “Saturday.”

  They had three whole days and four nights, and then it would be time for him to leave. Jace no longer felt the need to ask her if he should find a place to stay in town. He knew they would sleep in each other’s arms, yet neither of them would let it go beyond that.

  They spent the next three days fishing. They talked and tried to dance, but Jace’s leg hadn’t healed well enough for him to do more than sway with her to the music. They sat on the porch and looked at the stars, and then held each other close as they slept.

  The pretense of Jace staying in the other side of the cabin was dropped. He moved his travel bag over to her room, and came and went from her door.

  They invited Red to join them at the bull bucking, and he went along enthusiastically. Bree sat, nestled between the two men on the bench seat of Jace’s truck.

  “Been a long time since I’ve gone to see anyone buck bulls,” commented Red.

  “It’s become a way of life for me recently,” answered Jace. “Although it’s been a long time since I tried to cover one myself.”

  Billy Patterson had convinced him he had more talent as a saddle bronc rider than as a bull rider. Jace had been skeptical at first, but soon believed Billy called it correctly.

  He’d spent several months, out on the rodeo circuit, riding broncs, and did well. He almost always ended up in the money, but his heart hadn’t been in it.

  Settling down on the ranch with his parents had been the best decision he’d made in a long time. He had a knack for recognizing good bucking bulls, the same as his father did. Soon, he hoped they’d be able to add broncs to their list of rough stock.

  There was only one bull Jace bid on at the auction, and then made arrangements to pick him up on his way back to Montana in the morning. Red offered to let him bring the bull down to the ranch, but Jace knew the logistics of doing so would be far more complicated than Red imagined.

  Bree had a big smile on her face while she watched the bulls and riders. Jace would take that smile away when he left the next day. As hard as it would be to leave, he had to remain steadfast, and he knew it.

  They agreed not to make plans as they lay next to each other that night. There weren’t any rules about not talking, or texting, or even seeing each other. The only thing they’d agreed on was, come morning, Jace would drive back to Montana, and Bree would stay at the ranch.

  Saying goodbye was as hard as they both knew it would be. Jace held on tight, hoping she’d give him just another minute before she pulled away. She did.

  “I’m going to miss you, Bree.”

  “I’m going to miss you too, Jace.”

  When her eyes filled with tears, he almost lost his resolve. He wanted to tell her to come with him—their troubles be damned. He wanted to assure her they could work through them together, side by side, and come out of it in the same place, the same way they would if they each did it alone, but he’d be lying.

  “It is so hard to say goodbye to you,” he told her.

  She held on tighter. “I don’t want to let go.”

  “Me, either.”

  Finally Jace knew he had to. He kissed her softly, took her hands from around his waist, and stepped away. The hardest part was turning away from her. He watched her in the rear-view mirror, as he pulled away.

  Jace made the trip back to Montana with less than a handful of stops. Once he picked up the bull, he only stopped twice to check on it and rest his leg.

  He pulled into the ranch outside Helena a little after nightfall. His house was dark, but his parents’ place was all lit-up, like a welcoming beacon.

  He got the bull settled into a pen of his own, un-hooked the trailer from his truck, and drove up to see his mom and dad.

  His mama was on the porch, waiting for him, when he climbed the steps.

  “It is so good to see you,” she said, wrapping her arms around him when he got close enough. His daddy stood behind her, smiling.

  “Brought back a good bull, did ya?” he asked.

  “I sure did.”

  “And I trust the rest of your trip went well?” his mother snooped.

  “We’ll talk tomorrow, Mama,” he answered. “I’m beat.”

  “I’ll be by in the morning, to make breakfast.”

  “Nah. I’ll come to you tomorrow.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “It’s all good, Mama. I know you’re dyin’ to hear, but you’re just gonna have to wait until I get some rest.”

  “You’ve waited this long, Carol,” his daddy added. “A few more hours won’t kill you.”

  “Just might,” his mama muttered.

  Jace didn’t keep his mother waiting long the next morning. He showed up just after sunrise, wishing he’d been up earlier to help his father with the morning chores.

  “You’re in some trouble,” he said to her when he walked into the kitchen.

  “By the look on your face last night when I asked about your trip, I know you aren’t the slightest bit angry with me, Jace Rice. So don’t think you can intimidate me now.”

  “Can’t fool you, can I?”

  “How is she?”

  “As amazing as she’s always been.”

  “So forthcoming…I have to admit, I’m surprised. I expected you to be more tight-lipped about her.”

  “No sense. Seems you know more about how I’m feeling than I do. Trying to keep it a secret from you is a waste of time.”

  She laughed, but quickly grew serious again. “What’s next for you, Jace?”

  “I have to figure out this thing with me and Tuck. I’m at a loss about how to, but I gotta.”

  “If she had anything to do with you coming to that conclusion, I’ll love her until the day I die.”

  “Some, I suppose. Mostly she convinced me there were a lot of good reasons I needed to try harder.”

  “Oh! Before I forget, Billy Patterson called your daddy while you were gone. Said he’d been trying to reach you.”

  “Wasn’t much cell coverage where I was, but I don’t remember getting a message from him.”

  Jace told his mother about his time with Bree, the abridged version of it anyway, and then went in search of his father.

  “What did Patterson want?” he asked when he found him.

  “Wants to talk to us about partnering with the rough stock.”

  “In what way?”

  “Ben Rice and his brothers want to expand their rough stock business at the Flying R in Crested Butte. Given Billy’s experience on the rodeo circuit, and the contacts he ha
s, along with what we’re doing here, they think it would be better to partner rather than each of us trying to build it on our own.”

  If anyone knew about broncs, it was Billy Patterson. It was almost as though Billy had read his mind from a distance. He’d been thinking about expanding their operation into horses while he was in Idaho. He hoped his cousins and Billy were interested in raising bulls too.

  “They want us to come to Crested Butte in two weeks,” Jace told his father after he ended his call with Billy. “It won’t be easy for both of us to go, but if we fly, we can minimize our time away.”

  “I’ve been givin’ this some thought, son, and I believe it’s time for us to hire a full-time ranch manager. Particularly if we can make a deal with Patterson, Ben, Matt, and Will. I can see you needing to be in Colorado on a regular basis, and while I can fill in for you in the short term, I’m gettin’ too old to do this kind of work day-in and day-out.”

  Jace hadn’t considered that, even with a full-time staff of hands to help, the ranch work might be too much for his daddy. Now that he was paying attention, he could see the exhaustion on his father’s face.

  He remembered the conversation he’d had with Tucker a couple of years ago when they went to Crested Butte for Thanksgiving. Tuck said he thought their father was winding down his life. Investing in this ranch was the antithesis.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy, I didn’t—”

  “Stop right there. Partnering with you was my idea, and I knew there’d be hard work involved. I’m still as committed as ever.”

  “You got anybody in mind? You don’t need to talk to me about it. Whatever decision you make, I’ll be fine with.”

  “I’ve mentioned it to Yance. Seems interested.”

  “Great. You’ll handle it?”

  His dad nodded.

  Two days later, Bree ventured into the dining hall for breakfast. She hadn’t since Jace left, but morning and night, there had been a knock on her door. When she answered, there was a tray of the morning or evening meal, waiting on the table on the cabin porch. She never saw who delivered it but knew it was Red.

  “Good morning,” he said cheerfully when she walked into the dining room.

  “Good morning. Mind if I join you?”

  “Nothin’ I’d like better.”

  “Headin’ out to do some fishin’ today. Wouldn’t mind some company.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Red eyed her plate and raised his eyebrows.

  “I’m okay, Red,” she answered without him asking. “You’ve kept me well-fed the past couple days.”

  “Let’s get out on the water and work up an appetite, then.”

  He took her to a spot they hadn’t been before, and their hours fell back into the rhythm of their earlier days.

  Hank hired the ranch manager, and then he and Jace made arrangements to go to Crested Butte.

  His mother was going with them, but on their way, she wanted them to take her to Monument. She planned to stay there while Jace and his dad made the rest of the trip.

  7

  “What would you think about me staying on here a while longer?” Bree asked Red when they returned to the ranch for dinner.

  “I figured you were going to.”

  “Why, Red? Are you some kind of shaman?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. But I’ve been where you are, more than once in my life.”

  From the first day he had breakfast with her, Bree felt as though she’d been destined to meet Red, that they’d been brought together for a reason.

  He hadn’t been at the ranch the week she and Zack were here, and she was glad he’d never met her late husband. She wouldn’t have felt as comfortable talking about Zack with him if he had.

  “I don’t think you’re ready to go home yet.”

  “See? How do you know? Seriously, Red, what makes you say I’m not ready?”

  “You haven’t done what you came here to do.”

  “What is that? What am I here to do? Because, I have to admit, I can’t figure it out. I know what I wanted to do while I was here, but now I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t something I can force. It has to happen on its own.”

  “Then, I’d say you’re gettin’ closer than you think.”

  As frustrated as she was with him for talking in riddles, if she was honest, she understood more than she was willing to admit. Wouldn’t it have been neat and tidy if she’d simply been able to go to the places she and Zack had been together, cry her heart out, and then move right into the acceptance phase of grief? She knew better.

  Early on, Bree had faced the denial phase. Both in denying it happened, and then by denying herself the time and space she needed to grieve.

  Coming to the ranch had been about isolation. She’d hoped, by being so, she would be able to push herself through the remaining phases. Maybe that was the problem—she was spending too much time intellectualizing her grief, rather than allowing herself to feel it.

  “I have to stop thinking about it so much,” she said, not sure if Red was still listening to her.

  “I agree.”

  “Really? First you challenge me, then wait for me to process through it, and then simply agree with everything I say?”

  Red looked at her with softened eyes. She waited for him to say something, and about the time she was ready to give up and walk away, he said, “You know what you need to do. Get out of your own way and do it.”

  “More riddles,” she huffed.

  “On that note,” he rose, “I’m going out of town for a few days. I hope you’re still here when I get back, and we have the chance to fish together before you go back to Colorado.”

  Bree’s eyes filled with tears. “Red?”

  He stood behind her, put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “You’re gonna get through this, Bree. Give yourself the time and space to do it. You said it yourself, this isn’t something you can force.”

  He walked away, leaving Bree sitting in the dining room of the main lodge. She’d never felt more alone than she did right then.

  Jace and his parents stopped in Casper, Wyoming, for the night, since it was about halfway between Helena and Monument. He called Billy and asked if he could stay at his place in Black Forest. His mom and dad were staying with Tucker and Blythe.

  When he pulled into the driveway, his mother argued with him about it.

  “You’d make more progress with your brother if you stayed with him rather than here.”

  “Drop it, Mama. I’m not showing up at their house unannounced.”

  She kept at him, insisting that they were both being stubborn. Once they saw each other, it would be different, she told him.

  He ignored her, climbed out of the truck, grabbed his bag, and walked into Billy’s house without looking back. It might mean he’d be stranded there for the night, but he didn’t care.

  He was feeling the way he’d expected to, like an outsider in a life that had once been his. If he hadn’t met Irene at Colorado Black Mountain Ranch that summer, none of this would be happening. His life’s chain of events would be entirely different. It wouldn’t have changed what happened in the past though, so regardless of how it came about, his role in the accident would’ve come to light eventually.

  Through Irene, Jace had met Billy Patterson, and even though it had been complicated for a while, they’d become close friends.

  Two Thanksgivings ago, Jace reconnected his parents with another branch of the Rice family, who they hadn’t seen since they were kids. Irene’s mother, Liv, had married Ben Rice, and they invited Jace and his family to join them in Crested Butte for the holiday. That had been when Jace and Tucker met Blythe Cochran, who was now Tucker’s wife.

  It felt as though that week was a lifetime ago. In reality, it hadn’t been two years.

  Jace opened the refrigerator, expecting it to be empty. Billy and Irene lived in Crested Butte almost full-time. He should have thought of that before he let his parents leave with t
he truck. To his surprise, it was stocked with beer.

  He sat on the back deck, took in the view of Black Forest, pulled out his cell phone, and called the one person he knew would welcome him with open arms and not an ounce of judgment: Lyric Simmons.

  He’d been with Blythe the night they met Lyric, the week before the start of the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Once again, it felt as though that had been a hundred years ago; so much had happened since then.

  Blythe and Lyric had become fast friends, and shortly after they met, Lyric hired Blythe to work with her at RodeoChat, a social media-based outlet for the latest rodeo news.

  “Jace Rice, how the hell are ya?” was the way Lyric answered his call.

  “I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse. How ’bout you, girl?”

  “Busy, as always, back and forth between here and Oklahoma. Never a dull moment, right?”

  “Right. Hey, uh, I’m in town and wondered if you would like to get together?”

  “In town meaning what? Where are you exactly?”

  “Billy and Irene’s place. In a couple days, I’m headin’ down to Crested Butte.”

  “You see Tuck and Blythe yet?”

  “Nah. My parents are stayin’ with ’em, though.”

  “Why aren’t you?”

  Lyric knew why he wasn’t, but it was just like her to poke at him about it.

  “Give me a break here, would ya?”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll give you a break for now, but we aren’t done talkin’ about this.”

  “Right.”

  “What are you doin’ now?” she asked.

  “Drinkin’ a beer.”

  “Give me twenty and I’ll join you.”

  “You’re a sight,” she said as she hugged him hello.

  “Better sight than the last time you saw me, I hope.”

  “I’ll say.” She stood back and studied his face. “Looks like your nose healed up okay.” She tweaked it with her fingers. “How ’bout the rest of you? You healed yet?”