The animal squealed wildly, straw and debris flying from her churning hooves. Harding shielded his face, stumbled backward, and fell heavily onto the dark ground, where he lay still.
Sabrina grabbed the pitchfork out of his hands and glanced around for Mitch. Her heart caught in her throat when she saw him. He was inside the pen with the mare, easily within striking range if she decided to rear at him. The blood on Harding’s face indicated the perils of getting too close to this horse, who stood poised and quivering, ready to explode. She took a couple of steps sideways, tossing her head.
Then Mitch murmured something and the mare stopped. She pressed herself into the far wall of the pen, breathing hard, froth lacing her muzzle, her ears flat. Sabrina watched, mesmerized. She’d heard Rory talk about Carson’s skill with the horses and now she understood. Apparently the brothers shared this gift. It really was like a dance, she thought, with Mitch as the experienced lead, the mare a reluctant partner. The yellow light illuminated the breadth of his body, the length of his legs, the utter beauty of his movements. And the danger he was in.
“Mitch.” Sabrina put a hand to her throat.
“You okay?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the mare.
“Yeah.”
“Is he out?”
She glanced at Harding, who’d gotten himself into a sitting position and was now looking around blearily. “Almost.”
“Keep that.” Mitch gestured to the pitchfork in her hands. “Watch him while I get her calmed down.”
“Oh, Daddy.”
When Harding looked up at his daughter, his entire body deflated. He turned bloodshot eyes toward Sabrina, as if noticing her for the first time.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, rubbing his head. “Stupid.” Harding glanced briefly at Mitch. He closed his eyes and slumped against the wall of the barn. He didn’t acknowledge Hailey at all.
The girl slung one of the man’s arms over her thin shoulder, avoiding Sabrina’s eyes. “Can you help me get him inside? He…gets this way sometimes.”
Sabrina looked at Mitch. “You sure you’re okay?”
His eyes held hers and in that moment, she felt his trust. And not only that, she felt how much he needed her. “I am if you are.”
Chapter Twelve
Sabrina flicked the knob on the stove and watched until the element glowed red beneath the kettle. She’d done a stint at an inner-city hospital, between semesters in nursing school. Frontline health care in high-need communities had ultimately lost out to midwifery, but she’d never forgotten how, when it came to substance abuse and poverty, it was always the children who suffered most.
She looked at the girl, sitting at the table, hugging her arms, her eyes downcast. Dirty dishes stood in a heap in the sink, crumbs littered the countertop and floor, and the smell of stale garbage hung in the air.
The kettle whistled. Sabrina took it off and poured the water into a clean mug she found at the back of the cupboard, and added a package of outdated instant hot chocolate. She decided not to bother with coffee. Harding was already asleep on the couch, but she could at least get a hot drink into the girl.
“Anyone I can call for you, Hailey?”
She shook her head. “It’s just me and Dad.”
“No other family? Friends?”
“We’re okay. I’m used to it.” Hailey bit her lip. “It’s just…the thing with the horse. That’s not like him.”
She is not okay, Sabrina thought. Maybe even in shock.
“You could use some hot chocolate. Or would you rather have tea?”
Hailey shook her head, her arms trembling, her eyes darting between her father and the floor. Gus Harding had slumped sideways against the wall as soon as they sat down to talk, and was now snoring loudly. A belch erupted, bellowing alcoholic fumes, and he opened his eyes momentarily.
Outside the fly-spotted front window, they saw Carson’s truck and trailer drive slowly off the yard.
“They’ve got the mare,” Sabrina said, touching Hailey lightly. “Carson will look after her. It’s okay.”
“Thank God,” Hailey muttered. She said it with the nonchalant bitterness of a highly defended teen, but her ragged cuticles bore testament to the tension leading up to tonight.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Sabrina asked. She hadn’t seen Mitch come out of the barn yet. He’d probably be anxious to get going, but she wasn’t comfortable leaving the girl like this.
He’d understand that. He felt terrible for Hailey, and Sabrina knew that he’d do almost anything to fix all the wrongs in her life. Mitch’s compassion, she realized, drove him to desperate measures, at heavy cost to himself.
For so long, she’d judged him self-centered, immature, and heartless. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
“I don’t even know why Dad got the mare in the first place!” The words burst out of Hailey, as if they’d been dammed up for months, just waiting for the right moment of destruction. “He doesn’t know horses! That was Mom’s deal! And mine. I could have done something with that mustang, if he’d have let me. But what do I know? I’m just a kid.”
The last word held a world of bitterness and neglect. This was more than garden-variety teen angst. This girl was suffering.
“Carson has a way with them,” Hailey continued. She had a look of hero worship in her eyes. “Mitch, too. I can tell. They know how horses think, especially mustangs, how to not freak them out. That’s what I want to do, but Dad never let me try. He never even let me see her. I should have let Carson get her weeks ago…” She started crying, deep, wrenching sobs. “I wanted to volunteer at the sanctuary, but Dad always said at my age, why would I work for free, when I could get a paying job? Anyway, now it’s too late. That awful troll will kick us out and my life will be over.”
“Shh,” Sabrina said.
“I try to be gone when he gets bad,” Hailey said. “But last night…I should have expected it, I guess. It’s…well, it’s been a year.”
It took Sabrina a second to understand Hailey’s meaning. “Your mom.” She exhaled the words, knowing instantly that Hailey needed to be anywhere but here. She needed to be cared for, like the grieving child she was.
Sabrina got to her feet. Gus was on his side now, a throw pillow from the couch pressed into his face, distorting his features. But his breathing was normal. She felt his pulse. Regular, steady, strong. He ought to wake up alone, feel the full weight of his shame without the additional burden of facing his daughter.
“Do you have some ibuprofen? He’s gonna need it when he wakes up.” She filled a glass of water at the kitchen sink and set it and three tablets on the coffee table in front of Gus. “Listen, Hailey. Come back with us, stay the night. Hang out for a few days, even. I’m sure once Carson understands what’s going on, he’ll let you help with the mare. What do you think?”
Hailey shook her head. “I’d be in the way. I should stay here to help Dad.”
“Hailey.” Sabrina put her finger under the girl’s chin. “Has it been helping so far? You being here?”
Hailey looked away. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“You can come back with us.”
“I couldn’t.” Hailey shook her head. “I’d only be in the way.”
“Rory’s been dying for someone to give her a hand with Lulu,” she added, just as Mitch pushed open the kitchen door.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Gus is sleeping.” Sabrina put her hand on Hailey’s thin shoulder. “What do you say, honey?”
She lifted damp, weary eyes. “You’re sure no one would mind? Really?”
“Really really.” Sabrina smiled at Mitch. “Hailey’s going to come back to Three River with us. Hailey, honey, why don’t you leave your dad a note, so he doesn’t worry when he wakes up?”
“As if he’d notice. He doesn’t need to know everything anyway.” But she did it. “Is the mustang going to be okay?”
She didn’t look up at Mitch, and Sabrina could
tell what it cost her to ask and how much she needed not to be blamed for this.
“You’ll have to ask Carson,” Mitch said. “I hope so.”
Sabrina nudged Hailey toward the bedrooms. “Go on, get your things.”
Mitch paced the small kitchen. “I can’t believe it. It’s like Harding walked off the job! I took a look around—barely any water for the cattle. The fences are a disaster. Everything’s broken down, rusted out, empty, or rotten. Maybe Della should buy it and mow it down, get them both out of here. We’d find somewhere safe for Hailey. Get Harding into rehab. He needs to be locked up for a while until he gets his head screwed on straight.”
“Keep your voice down!” Sabrina glanced down the hallway. “Hailey’s terrified enough already. Don’t make it worse.”
“I know, I know.” He scrubbed his hands through his hair. “But what he’s put her through makes me sick. She’s just a kid.”
“If we all support her,” she countered, checking the hall again, “we can help her through it. Her and her dad, both.”
“You’re right.” The anger faded from his face. “You’re right about everything. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been here. Thank you, Bree.”
Sabrina felt her cheeks color. The open appreciation was a shock. “Oh, you’d have been fine.”
“Not without you, Bree. You’re amazing. You always have been.”
Their eyes met and in the quiet of the night, they gazed at each other, two people working together to ease some small bit of suffering. Like partners. Like mates.
She waited for the terror to set in, but it didn’t. She wasn’t afraid. What did that mean? But before she had a chance to figure it out, they heard Hailey’s footsteps.
“You get her home,” Mitch said, his eyes still on hers. “I’ll stay here, move the cattle into the next pasture where there’s a creek and plenty of good graze. I can make sure Harding enjoys his hangover properly, too, that way.”
Hailey checked on her father once more and followed Sabrina willingly from the house.
“You’ll keep an eye on him?” she asked Mitch again, hesitantly.
Mitch nudged the girl lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I looked after my old man a time or two when I was about your age. Now get going. The weather’s turning.”
Sabrina looked up. Clouds had rolled in and with them came a chilly foreboding. The wind whipped little eddies of dust on the bare patches between grass.
“Maybe I should ride with you, then come back on my own,” Mitch said, frowning at the sky.
“We’ll be fine.” Sabrina reached up and kissed his cheek in thanks, memorizing the feel of his skin beneath her fingers, wishing they didn’t have to part. “Let me know before you leave, okay? I’ll be watching for you.”
He helped get the horses ready, comforting Maya, now stepping back and forth, anxious to go home with her friend. Hailey had a sweet little pinto that she quickly tacked up and mounted. As Sabrina turned Monty toward the trail, Mitch suddenly grabbed her by the leg, stopping them. He leaned up, his face tight with fear, his eyes filled with yearning. He pulled her toward him and kissed her, his mouth hot and urgent against hers. She felt the roughness of his face against her skin, tasted the warmth of his tongue, and wished it never had to end.
Then he pushed her away. “Go. Be careful.”
Sabrina couldn’t speak. She turned Monty blindly, grateful that the horse knew the way as well as she did. Hailey fell in behind her as they set out at a brisk pace back to Three River Ranch.
“Don’t worry about me,” Mitch called, when she looked back. “Now go!”
Chapter Thirteen
Mitch walked heavily up the steps to the main house, wanting only to escape to his room unnoticed. It was a reasonable hope; Rory and her dog had been spending most of their waking hours either down at the riding arena with Desiree or with Rory’s service dog clients; Carson and Herb had found some overgrazing erosion and had been busy ever since, moving stock from one pasture to another; Bliss and Lulu were usually in or around the kitchen.
But this time, he was out of luck. From the pile of shoes on the porch, everyone was around, somewhere. He so wasn’t in the mood to talk. At least, not with them. Sabrina had been called to another birth and she was the only one he wanted to be around right now.
“I hear you, Mitchell Granger.” Damn it. Bliss. “You get in here pronto!”
She was in the kitchen, hammering something to death on the chopping block. With a cleaver the size of a guillotine.
A familiar-looking face glanced up at him from the sink. Blythe’s daughter, the one she and Bliss were always arguing about. Wow. He could see why.
“Hey Melissa, long time.” Time she’d spent getting pierced and dyed and tattooed.
“Hey Mitch. Nice knowin’ you. I’ll say good things at your funeral.” There was sympathy in her heavily kohl-ed eyes. She wiped her hands and hightailed it out of range.
“She’ll be the only one,” Bliss muttered. “All the years I prayed for you to return. I should have known better.”
“Don’t start,” he said wearily. “It’s complicated.”
“Looks simple from here.” Bliss slammed her weapon down and braced herself on the counter, glaring at him. “The Hard Tack buyer we all had such high hopes for? The one we thought might save Gus from bankruptcy? It’s Della, as you are no doubt well aware. She’s lowballing Gus so badly he’ll end up with nothing. He’s ruined, Mitch. A good man. Troubled, but who isn’t? And Hailey? I’m sick to death with worry over that child. She’s trying to hide it, but she’s terrified of what’s ahead. And the pickle in this crap sandwich? This…this woman is going to turn a working ranch into some cheap playground for people who think ranching is all designer boots and country music. And you did this. If it wasn’t for you, swaggering back to show off your fancy car and highfalutin business—not that anyone here cares about that—Della would never have even known Hard Tack existed.”
“Don’t be so sure. She’s been ahead of me from the get-go.” But Mitch took a step backward from the venom in Bliss’s voice.
Rory, entering the room in time to catch the last, stepped up and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Mitch didn’t see this coming, Bliss. And he’s going to fix everything. I’ve talked to Sabrina.”
“Don’t even get me started on that!” Bliss snorted. “This mess is going to end in heartbreak all around. Mark my words.”
“Not Sabrina.” Rory’s voice grew chilly. “He’d never hurt Sabrina. Would you, Mitch?”
Mitch felt gut-punched. Rory’s voice had grown cold. Surely Sabrina hadn’t told her everything? He couldn’t take that too. Not now. Not yet.
Not ever.
“Della had her own agenda from day one,” Mitch said, trying to divert the conversation away from Bree. “I’m still hoping to bring her around. The deal hasn’t closed yet.”
“And you believe her, of course,” Bliss drawled. “Honesty being the bedrock of your relationship and all.”
Mitch whirled around, feeling the weight of public censure grow heavier by the second. He had to get out before he said something he couldn’t take back. He reached for his keys, desperate for Sabrina’s understanding. She was the only one who didn’t hate him. So what if she was at work? He’d wait for her at the clinic.
He’d sit outside her house all night if he had to.
…
Mitch stood at the door, his head bowed, his knuckles raised to knock. But before he could, Sabrina answered. She looked cool and fresh, in some white flowing shirt, her hair bunched up on her head in a mussed knot. His fingers twitched, wanting to free that mass of hair and clutch it in his fists.
“Mitch.” She stood back in a silent invitation.
“Wait.” He gripped the doorframe, unable to meet her eyes. “If I don’t say this now, I’ll lose my courage. Maybe you don’t want me. Maybe you can’t wait for me to leave. Maybe I’m the worst thing that ever happened t
o you. But maybe not. It seems to me like we’ve moved past all the old stuff, but maybe it’s my imagination. Tell me if it is and I’ll go. I’ll never mention it again. But.” Now he met her eyes, those sparkling pools of endless blue. “If it isn’t…”
“Come inside, Mitch.”
She still hadn’t said what he so desperately wanted to hear, but she hadn’t kicked him out, either.
As soon as the door closed behind him, he reached for her. “I need you, Bree. I’ve never needed anything more in my whole life.” Their lips met in a desperate crash, and after that, there was only one word he could say. “Please.”
When she pulled away, he thought it was over. But she took his hand and led him into the little house. Through the kitchen. Past the living room, down the hallway.
Into her bedroom.
At the doorway she stopped and gestured for him to go ahead of her. He swallowed, suddenly aware of not only what was happening, but what it might mean.
What he hoped it meant.
“Bree,” he said. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, then stepped into the room. She closed the door firmly, pulled down the blinds and took the phone off the hook.
“I need you too, Mitch,” she said, finally.
It was enough.
Mitch fell back against the sheets of Sabrina’s bed, breathing hard. He’d had no reason to hope, but when she took him by the hand and led him inside every cell in his body begged for the solace of her touch. And she’d given it. She’d comforted him, helped him forget, for just a little while, the pain of once more being a source of heartache and shame.
“You okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah.” He felt her finger trace a path over his chest.
“Liar.”
What have I done?
They had been on fire for each other, not stopping to think, desperate to get closer, closer, to consume each other, yet no matter how he tried, their lovemaking hadn’t obliterated how he’d felt with the weight of all those angry eyes.
But for just a few moments, he’d felt…whole.
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