Unbridled

by Fox Brison

  She started.

  “Shocked?” I asked with an amused grin.

  “Maybe,” she admitted. “You said something, once. In the hospital. But you were in cloud cuckoo land at the time.”

  “Well wherever I was I meant what I said,” I chuckled.

  “Dani, I don’t think now is the right time to have this conversation.”

  “There’s never a right time. Please, Haley, just tell me how you feel.”

  “How I feel? You pushed me away. How do you think that made me feel?” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “Right now I feel like a holiday fling if I’m truthful. That you don’t think I’m here for the long haul, that I’m one of your hook ups. You showed a complete disregard for me. You wouldn’t trust me, hell, you were willing to kill yourself before accepting my help.”

  “It wasn’t your help, it was Dawn’s,” I protested.

  “Oh Dani, when will you get it through your thick skull it was my help. I’m sorry, I can’t do this again,” she said quietly.

  “Do what again?” She hadn’t said anything about love yet. I wasn’t expecting her to say it straight back, but I did think she would say it eventually.

  “I can’t give everything only to be given nothing in return. I want an equal partnership in everything not only when it suits you.”

  “That’s unfair,” I reared up angrily.

  “Is it? You’re happy for me to make you scones and look after your horses, but when it comes to the big decisions it’s all on you? How is that fair?”

  “Because this is my ranch, my world,” I argued hotly.

  “Exactly,” Haley said quietly, tears in her eyes. “Your world. Your ranch. Yours. Not ours. Where do I fit in? I won’t do this again, Dani. I gave up everything once and lost out because of it. I can’t make the same mistake twice, it doesn’t matter if I love you or not.”

  She stood and it was only then I noticed her suitcases by the door. “Goodbye, Dani. And thanks. Really. One day, maybe …” she shook her head. “I need you to know I don’t regret a single minute and I mean that. Look after Stormy and Red for me.” The tears were now flowing from both of us.

  She walked out and just like in San Francisco I let her go.

  Chapter 44

  Haley

  I’d been home a month and I was finding it unbearable. Dani consumed my mind, my heart. Would it have killed me to give an inch, to have told that her I’d never loved anyone the way I loved her.

  Yet therein lay the problem.

  The reason I hadn’t ran as fast as I could back into her arms was because the question remained in the back of my mind; did she love me as much as I loved her? Would my relationship with Dani end up being a repeat of my relationship with Dawn?

  Because if it did I’m not sure my heart would survive this one.

  “Alec, can we talk?” I stood at the door to his office. Alec Derry was my mentor, and now my partner in the veterinary practise, and I valued his friendship and advice.

  “You’re leaving, aren’t you?” he said rhetorically. “Lucas said as much after you came to dinner last weekend.”

  “Depends,” I admitted. “An opportunity has opened up in a practise near to where Jen is living in Wyoming. Most of the work will be with horses but I’m not even sure about that. I feel like I have to get away for a while. Maybe go travelling.”

  “Travelling? Have you forgotten your flying phobia?”

  “I kinda got over that in the States. I actually got over a lot of things whilst I was there,” and under one wonderful thing. “But I don’t want to leave you in the lurch, Alec.”

  “You wouldn’t be. Grant’s keen to stay on,” Alec said, grinning. Grant was the locum we’d hired when I went on my holiday to America.

  “Yes,” I chuckled, “He and Liv are hot and heavy.”

  “They make a good couple,” Alec added warmly.

  “That they do. So you wouldn’t mind?”

  “Of course I would. Grant’s a good vet but he isn’t a patch on you.” He must have seen the look of shock and the sheen of tears because he hurried to correct himself. “I’m kidding, Haley. Sometimes you have to follow your heart and it goes without saying you can count on a glowing reference. Let me speak to Grant and then look at the numbers. Give me a week?”

  “Thanks, Alec.” I had to do something because at the moment I was living a half life and that was even less of a life I had before Dawn and I split.

  ***

  It was early afternoon when I left the office. I still hadn’t bothered trying to find a place of my own and that was telling. I was in my bedroom at my parent’s house trying to connect to Dani via skype but there was no answer. “Damn time difference,” I groaned when the call disconnected again. I heard a car pull up outside and then a door slam. I ignored it and listened to the familiar bee boo bee of the Skype ringtone which was accompanied by a rat-a-tat-tat on the door knocker.

  “I’ll get it,” Mum called.

  Good. I was going nowhere until I saw Dani. I missed her. I missed everything about her. Not only her damned hot body, but the tender way she would hold and watch me. The desire in her touch and her eyes. The care she held for her animals and land. Heck, I even missed her enamel coffee pot and stove.

  It was getting to the stage where I was going to say fuck it and book a flight back to the States. I’d barely made it to San Francisco for my connecting flight before I acknowledged I had made a mistake leaving her.

  But I’d had to walk away so I could run back into her arms.

  “Haley, it’s for you,” Mum bellowed up the stairs.

  “Tell Liv to come on up. I’m still on the computer.” I wasn’t that bothered about going out for Chinese, in fact, if I didn’t speak to Dani I’d be too depressed to go anywhere except to the bottom of a box of wine.

  “Haley.”

  I heard Dani’s voice. “Fuck,” I groaned. “No video. Hey, I’m sorry, the internet is going slow so the video isn’t-” the computer made a familiar blooping sound as the call disconnected. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I pressed the phone sign on the screen. C’mon, I need to talk to you. I need to tell you I love you. Beg you to listen.

  “Haley,” Dani’s voice reverberated softly again, a husky purr full of…

  “Hey. Dani, I’m going to call your mobile, the line here is shite. We have to talk. I miss you so much, sweetheart, so damned much.” I tried to stop the tears, but I failed, miserably. Actually, I failed happily.

  I pressed the number one on speed dial and heard the ringtone I’d set on Dani’s mobile after we’d made love for the second time in Cody. Breathe. Faith Hill. Our song. We’d danced to it in San Francisco. It was as if it had been written for us and I began to sing it softly… I know my heart is waking up. Walls come tumbling down. The music was echoing almost as if… I gulped and turned.

  “Hey.” Dani was stood in the doorway with her phone held to her ear and a smile as big as the creek on her face. It was like I was having an out of body experience and staring at the scene from a great distance. Dani made my room appear so small, not because of her size, but because I was used to seeing her in Wyoming and its infinite space.

  “Hey.” Yes I sounded stupid. I was shocked. Gobsmacked.

  Happy.

  “I’m yours, Haley. I can’t be apart from you, my heart was breaking. We have time to work out the fine details but the big picture is clear. I don’t want to walk out of here without knowing we’ll be together. I fight for what I want, have done since I was small. This is the most important fight of my life and I’m not going to throw in the towel.”

  “Dani-” I said softly,

  “No, hear me out. I would have been here sooner but I couldn’t fly whilst my arm was still in plaster. I spoke with Jack and he’s willing to buy me out of the ranch,” Dani said the words so softly I almost missed them.

  “Dani, you can’t give up the ranch! I love you and that ranch is as much a part of you as breathing is.” And then I realis
ed what she was saying, what she was willing to do. “You’d give up your dream for me?” I whispered.

  She truly loved me.

  “You don’t get it, Haley, you are my dream. The ranch means nothing without you. Everywhere I look, you’re there. Except you’re not and I can’t live like that any longer.”

  I nearly broke my neck as I flung myself into her arms. “I’m warning you now, I’m a really nervous flier.”

  Dani instantly knew what I meant and grinned her sexy grin.

  “Oh I think joining a certain club will help you relax.” She waggled her eyebrows and for the first time in my life, I was actually looking forward to boarding a plane. However, Dani’s promise of becoming a member of the mile high club wasn’t the only reason.

  It was because I was going home.

  Epilogue

  Dani

  We spent two weeks in Brighton whilst Haley tied up a few loose ends. She took me riding on the Downs and it was as she described it – beautiful. It wasn’t as muscular and rugged as the Wyoming landscape, it was a gentle beauty, exactly like my Haley.

  On the way back we spent a couple of nights in San Francisco, seeing the sights Haley had missed the first time round. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone as excited to ride a trolley car, but there you go. It was another thing I found I loved about her; she took such joy from simple pleasures.

  When we arrived back at the cabin, Mom had left a couple of leaflets on the nightstand. One was for adoption, the other was for IVF. Haley has already started three lists with the help of my mother.

  One for boy’s names, one for girls and the final a list of attributes our sperm donor should have.

  The ranch entertained its first paying guests, which was a roaring success. We even managed our first five star review on Trip Advisor. Nothing much else had changed, except mine and Jack’s ritual of enjoying a long neck on the porch after a hard day’s work acquired an extra couple of bodies – Haley and Jen. We sat on the porch at the main house and watched, thankfully, the rain falling. It had been coming down steady for a few days now, enough to soak the land and replenish the water supply, but not so much that we were worried about flooding or losing some of the hay that had yet to be cut in the north pasture.

  It was as perfect as I dreamed it would be, except times a billion.

  “So, Haley, what did Dani show you in San Francisco?” Jack asked.

  “Well more than just her hotel room this time,” Haley said with a giggle.

  “This time?” Jack asked.

  “Yep, the last time all I saw was her room and the lobby of the hotel,” Haley was sitting on my lap and she reached down and kissed me.

  “Hang on,” Jack said with a frown, “You met Dani the last time you were in San Francisco? Why didn’t anyone say? And what are the odds?”

  Jen looked at us and then Haley and I looked at each other, before we all burst out laughing.

  Seems we were good at beating the odds.

  Other Books by Fox Brison

  Island Skye

  Skye Donaghie is having the worst day; she gets stranded twenty feet above the North Sea, her girlfriend dumps her and her neighbour is run over by her car – whilst fishing.

  The only saving grace is that she reconnects with Natalie Jeffries, the gorgeous soccer star sister of her best friend, Sara. However, the reunion is bittersweet as it brings back memories Skye has spent the past decade trying to forget.

  Faced with a family who abandoned her, and a friend who doubts the new found relationship, Skye must conquer her demons and lay the past to rest, or she risks losing everything.

  Heavenly Heirs

  Rachel McTavers is a waitress struggling to make the two ends of nothing meet. She rarely accepts charity, yet is always the first to offer it. Will pride stand in her way of finding true happiness?

  Devon Williams appears to have it all, yet appearances can be deceiving. When she looks at her reflection in the mirror she is terrified by what she sees. Will fear stand in her way of finding true happiness?

  The chance discovery of a two hundred and fifty year old diary presents both women with the opportunity to live a life they had only ever dreamed of. Will they grab it with both hands or will they need a little divine intervention?

  A Game to Love

  Georgia Maskel is on the brink of greatness as an international tennis player, when the revelation of a devastating family secret causes her to make a mistake so monumental it destroys everything that she has spent her entire life working towards.

  Five years later, and struggling to resurrect her career, Georgia cannot escape or rise above the mediocrity that now plagues her game. Running out of ideas her coach, much to Georgia’s displeasure, enlists the services of Dr Emma Myers, a well-respected sports psychologist, with a reputation for getting results. After a difficult start to their relationship the women soon find a way to work together, but as emotions run high and the search for answers intensifies, professional and personal boundaries are pushed to the limit.

  Will they make the breakthrough necessary to get Georgia’s career back on track? Can they trust each other, and themselves, enough to lay their souls bare and dare to dream again? Do they have the courage to accept the truth and ultimately discover a way to win the most important game of all, the game to love?

  Awakening Sorrows – Book 1 in the Sorrows Series

  The Dark Times are a whisper of a memory, of a time when Terrakuis was invaded by a vicious and merciless host, an army which tore through the continent like a vicious plague. But after being decimated in a battle seared on the souls of those left standing, the Kortoban army retreated to their homeland…

  Teran, his sister and their two friends are living a peaceful life until their world is ripped apart when one of them is discovered to possess a rare and dangerous gift. Accompanied by two master magicians, Jacob, the wily Hunter of the Light and his much maligned apprentice Eslin, they become embroiled in a conspiracy which leads them to unearth an even more horrific truth; the only object that can halt the impending destruction of not only their world but the Light itself is The Star of Boran, a gift from the gods.

  Hounded by those they fear and betrayed by those they should trust, their journey towards self-discovery ultimately turns into one of self-preservation.

  The Shadow Moon is rising, an ominous warning that The Mistress of the Dark is gaining in power.

  Her army is set to march once again.