12. Piper
CHAPTER 12
Piper
B rent is an absolute mess. He’s lying on the ground in the barn, covered in hay and mud and with a horseshoe-shaped mark on his stomach, right underneath his pecs but still bordering on the edge of his ribcage.
His face looks… pale. Like all the blood is totally gone from it. He’s in so much pain, and of course he is. He got kicked by a horse. I know for a fact that it really hurts to get kicked by a horse.
“Brent,” I say, my hands tugging at his button-down as I try to figure out where he’s hurt. “What the heck? Are you okay?”
He grunts, taking one of my hands in his. “Fine. I’m fine.”
“Um. Are you? I think you just got kicked by that horse,” I mutter.
Brent gives a hacking laugh. “I’d say so, Pipes.”
“Okay. Well, I think we need to get you out of here,” I say. I think it’s probably a good sign that he’s feeling… chipper enough to talk back? I have no clue. But I need to get him inside, so I can figure out how badly he’s hurt.
Brent gives a half-hearted sigh. “Piper. I’m really okay. I just need a second.”
“Well, how about I sit here with you?”
He looks over at me. His eyes look even more green in this light. “Is Sam in his stall?”
I glance over at the stall next to us. Sam, the absolute sweetheart of a gelding, is sitting in his stall, calm as can be. “Yeah.”
“I think he needs some food?—”
“I’ve got it.” I stand, then head over to the hay. Pulling some, I load it into the feeder in Sam’s stall, giving the sweet gelding a quick kiss on his velvet-soft nose as I go. “That horse is the nicest horse on the face of the planet,” I say, coming to sit next to Brent again.
He looks a little better now. Less like he’s going to fall apart. His face has more color in it, which I assume is a good thing.
Brent grunts, looking at Sam’s stall. “Slowest, too.”
“Well, he can’t help that. He’s just enjoying the ride.” I glance at Sam again. Blaire and I had a horse, growing up. He was old as dirt, but we both loved him.
“He reminds me a lot of Corona,” Brent says softly.
My lips curl into a smile. “Corona was a great horse.”
“Do you remember when you used to ride him over to my place?”
The smile widens. “Yeah. You would always get so worried, but it was literally like a mile. And Corona walked the entire way.”
“You never wore a helmet, and you didn’t even wear shoes half the time.”
“Well, of course.” I smile at him. “I would come straight out from the house and use the fence to get on his back.”
“Riding a horse without a single shred of tack over a mile is risky for a twelve-year-old, Piper.”
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Corona walked so slowly, you could have jumped off him and back on, and he wouldn’t have even noticed.”
“Still. You have to be careful when it comes to stuff like that. Kids can’t just be riding horses unsupervised.”
I look down at Brent. “You know, you’re very different these days.”
Brent frowns. He straightens up a little, wincing as he does. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you never really cared when we were kids that I came over like that.”
A shadow crosses his face. “I was a stupid kid, Piper.”
Something in his words tugs at my heart. “You weren’t.”
He huffs out a long breath. “Yeah. I really was.”
“You were stupid when you… did what? Chose to buy this farm?”
“Yeah, for one.”
I settle back, staring at Brent. “Buying this farm wasn’t a bad plan. Your parents’ place was in a shitty location. This is much better, when it comes to doing what you want to do.”
It’s been Brent’s dream for as long as I can remember to run cattle and operate a cattle farm.
Brent’s gaze darkens. “I’m not talking about that.”
“So what are you talking about?” I demand.
His jaw works, and I can see him wince again as he fidgets. “Never mind.”
“Come on, Brent. Just tell me.”
“Piper, it’s not… relevant.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, I think it is, because you’re over here lecturing me on horse safety when you’re the one who just got kicked, and I am not.”
“Piper…”
“Tell me,” I demand.
Brent leans up, trying to pull himself to his feet. I stand in front of him, folding my arms.
“Oh, no. You do not get to just run away. For one, I think you need my help to get up off the ground. But you don’t get to just skip out on me when you’re obviously hurting from something.”
“I got kicked by a horse, Piper…”
“I’m not talking about that,” I snap.
Brent and I glare at each other. But I’m absolutely not backing down.
Finally, Brent sighs. “Look, there’s some stuff you don’t know about me. About the farm.”
“I kind of gathered that,” I snort.
He looks down at his hands. “When we first bought the farm, we were on track to pay the whole thing off. And then one day, I was in a bar, and some guy came up to me and talked to me about… investments.”
I frown. “Investments?”
“Yeah. Like places to put our money, different things we could do to try and… increase our funding.”
Oh. “What kind of investments?”
Brent huffs. “Does it even matter? It’s not a business, Piper. It’s gambling. Rich people playing with money that isn’t theirs. By the time it was all said and done, every ounce of profit we’d made so far on the farm was gone. And then some.”
My heart aches for him. “Brent. You were trying to do the right thing. It’s not your fault that someone screwed you over like that.”
“It is my fault,” he says darkly. His voice is so full of bitterness that it makes me feel like he’s drowning in darkness over this.
“Brent. You were a kid. You guys bought this farm with your inheritance when you were eighteen years old.”
“I should have known better.”
“You literally couldn’t have!” I practically yell.
In her stall, the copper mare snorts and shifts.
Brent shakes his head. “I’m the one who fucked it up, Piper.”
But this time, it sounds like there’s more emotion behind those words.
I kneel down, tucking close to him. My mind is racing. Clearly, Brent is not going to forgive himself for this anytime soon.
Gently, I put my hand under his chin and tip his face up to mine. “Okay.”
He looks confused. “Okay?”
“Okay. I believe you. It was your fault.”
Brent looks away, but I keep my hand on his chin, and I pull his eyes back to mine.
“It might have been your fault then, but guess what? It’s over now.”
Brent’s eyebrows pinch together in confusion.
“It’s over. You’ve got a really good plan to make the farm profitable. You’re on the right track, and I know what the farm’s like financially right now, but I bet it’s not nearly as bad as it was.”
He frowns. “But it’s been years, Piper. Almost a decade. We could have spent that whole time?—”
“How you could have spent that time doesn’t matter. You didn’t lose the farm, did you?”
Brent clearly doesn’t want to, but he shakes his head.
“Right. You didn’t. You made it, Brent. You fixed it. So can you be done making yourself feel terrible now?”
“Piper…”
“I’m done with it, Brent. It doesn’t matter. You’ve done everything you can, and it’s all fixed now.”
He studies my face. “I don’t want to do it again.”
My heart crumples. “You won’t, Brent. People make mistakes. All of us. It’s what makes us human. Then you just grow and learn from them, and that’s what life is. You grow. You learn. You change to be better.”
He snorts. “Have you ever made a mistake like that?”
Yes. “Yeah, I have.”
“Like what?”
I said that no kissing was a rule. That was a stupid, stupid choice.
I wanted to kiss Dalton. I really wanted to kiss Tate. For some reason, it feels like I’m struggling to tell Brent what he needs to hear right now. And something’s telling me that the only thing he’ll really hear is if I kiss him.
I want to kiss him so badly, it hurts. Instead, I give him a weak smile. “I kissed a whole lot of frogs, looking for a prince.”
His eyes go a little hard.
“Don’t remind me,” he grunts.
I laugh, and the heaviness of the moment dissipates slightly. “You think you can get up?”
“I’ll try,” Brent mumbles.
Between the two of us, we manage to get him up. His back clearly hurts, and getting him into the house is a slow process. Brent’s doing the best he can not to lean on me completely, but I can tell he’s hurting.
We manage to get into the house. He insists on showering, and I hover nervously. Tate and Dalton are nowhere to be found, and I’m not sure what I’d do if I saw them.
It’s Brent’s day. But somehow, I have a feeling that nothing much is going to happen right now.
Finally, Brent is out of the shower. He comes out, loose basketball shorts on, and I wince as I see the truly spectacular bruise spreading across the top part of his abs.
“Sheesh,” I whisper, getting closer to look at it. “That’s a heck of a bruise, Brent.”
“Might have a bruised rib,” he grunts.
Alarmed, I look up at his face. “Are you serious?”
“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” He nods. “Shit hurts.”
“Do you need anything?”
He shakes his head. “Honestly? Just sleep.”
Oh.
Brent heads for his bed, and I help him while he slowly leans down. When he’s finally settled, he puffs out a huge breath.
“Shit,” he murmurs, adjusting slightly. “That hurts.”
“Sorry,” I murmur.
Brent’s eyes flutter closed.
I linger. I don’t know what to do. I want everything to be fair, and I guess that tomorrow could be Brent’s day, but…
“Piper?”
“Yeah?” I say quickly.
Brent pats the bed on his good side. “Come here.”
I meekly walk over and lay down. Brent takes his good arm and wraps it around me, pulling me closer.
“There,” he murmurs.
I’m stiff.
“You can relax,” Brent whispers.
“I know. But. Um.”
“Say it, Piper,” he yawns.
“Well, it’s… look, I don’t want it to get weird because… things weren’t equal, and it’s your day, and…” I can’t say more. I can’t do it. Squirming, I wiggle slightly away from him.
Brent tugs me closer. Then, he starts to laugh.
“What?” I ask, looking at him, propping myself up on an elbow so that I can see better.
“Piper. If the only reason you want to have sex with me is so that it’s fair with Dalton and Tate… please don’t.”
I blink. “What?”
Brent sighs. “If you want to do this with me, then I want you to want it, baby. Not because you want it to be fair, or some shit like that.”
“But…”
“We’re big boys, Pipes. We’ll figure it out. But please don’t do it just for pity.”
“Okay,” I say. “So. I guess I’ll let you?—”
“Stay.”
I freeze.
“I can’t have sex, Piper. Not tonight. But if I have to spend my night with you just resting… I want that.”
In my head, I’m pointing out that it isn’t fair. That I didn’t stay with Tate or Dalton.
“Please,” Brent says. His eyes are closed. His face, however, tells me everything I need to know. He’s begging me. And I don’t have the heart to turn him down.
Sighing, I snuggle into his side.
“Goodnight, Brent.”
He shifts slightly. Before I can stop him, he presses a kiss to the top of my head.
“Goodnight, Piper.”