Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
Tagger
I get out of the car and scan the area of Rollingwood Ranch. Although I’m not seeing any action, I know everyone who works here stays busy.
And who am I kidding? I’m not here to see anyone but one little firecracker I haven’t stopped thinking about since I last saw her. Five weeks is too long to not kiss Pris.
Mr. Greene comes from the barn, and a noticeable limp on his right side seems to have gotten worse. “Hey there,” I say, walking toward him.
“Hey there, Tagger. Back for another shift?”
“Tempting,” I joke, stopping just shy of the utility task vehicle he drives around the property.
He thumbs over his shoulder. “The cattle were moved already, but I’m sure Christine can put you to work.” He looks westward. “She’s down with Julie.”
Her name is said so casually, as if she’s still here, that I’m not sure how to react. “I can wait.”
“She might like to see a familiar face. She’s usually stuck with me.” He moves closer to the UTV and holds the back rack for support. “You know the high cliff due west of the equipment barn?”
“Sure.” The property is big, thousands of acres. As much as Baylor and I explored when we were younger, there are parts I’ve never been to, but I’m familiar with the high cliff over the raging part of the river below. “I remember being stupid enough to stand on the edge a few times.”
His expression falls, but he says, “Griff and Bay used to scare the heavens out of Julie by getting too close to the edge.” Baylor and I need to talk. I think it’s time he gets back home. “She’s just south of the ledge.” He glances at the barn and then back. “You can take a horse or utility truck.”
The UTV will be faster but also louder. If Pris is visiting her mom, I don’t want to ruin it with noise pollution. “I’ll saddle Nightfall.”
We part ways, but he calls to my back, “Staying for dinner?”
“If I’m welcome.”
“You’re always welcome, Tagger.”
He says that now. If he knew what I did to his daughter in the cab of a truck, I have a feeling he’d be singing a different tune. It’s just one of many things I need to discuss with her.
It feels good to be riding again. Realizing what I’ve been missing makes me wonder how I can get back more often.
I take off past the cornfields and gallop past the side of the equipment barn. I used to know the usual spots by heart, but things have changed. Trees have grown. Fences rearranged. But the trails remain from years before when we wore a path through the tall grasses.
The sun hangs low in the sky, and the clouds rolling in make me think a storm is coming. I ride until I spy her small frame sitting in a patch of wildflowers. I slow the horse and dismount, walking the rest of the way with the reins in my hand.
She looks up with her hair as wild as the flowers and cascading freely over her shoulders. Beautiful, even more so as if that was possible.
Considering the circumstances, I’m not sure if I can expect a smile or a frown. She gifts me with an eye roll and a gentle laugh that still manages to cover the distance. “Howdy, stranger.” The usual strength in her tone is missing, which is concerning.
“Howdy, good-looking.” Her cheeks still pink for me, and her smile blooms like the wildflowers surrounding her. Her white dress makes her look like an angel next to the red and yellow flowers, and the purples that bring out the blue in her eyes.
Her brown boots are scuffed to high heaven, but somehow, they work with it. Everything works on her.
Looking at the headstone next to her, I read the name of her mother and years of her life. Each of her children’s names are lined up at the bottom just under her father’s. No flowers are needed because they surround her.
Her gaze has fallen to a flower in her hands, a petal being slowly plucked from around the stem. I kneel with Nightfall at my back and only a few feet in front of me keeping me from her. “I’m sorry, Pris.” She looks up at me, her smile almost vanished. The corners of her eyes are filled with unfallen tears, and she still manages to be the most stunning creature I’ve ever seen. “I should have been here for you and your family. I should have come back for the funeral.” I glance at the carved granite that was probably quarried from the property somewhere. “I . . .” Out of excuses, I lower my head as shame comes over me.
“Beckett was young, probably barely one. No one expected you to drop your responsibilities to comfort us.”
No one did. I never heard a peep about it. Not from Baylor. He was aware of my situation, but he still had a right to expect me to be here for him. Nothing from Mr. Greene, not from the pastor, or even my family. Not even Pris. Even now, she’s making excuses for me. “She was like a mother to me.”
“I used to tell my mom I couldn’t wait to leave this place. I wanted to leave my boots in the closet and my hat on the hook, hide my raggedy work clothes and pretend I was from somewhere else.” A tear falls, and she drops her head in her hands. “I was so mean at seventeen.”
“You were never mean.” I stand, noticing she doesn’t have a horse out here. I settle the reins on him and let Nightfall go where he pleases. He’ll return to the barn sooner or later. “You were a teen, though, and she’d gone through the same stage with two others at that point. We say shit we don’t mean. Trust me, I was a complete asshole to my parents.” That makes her smile. Figures. “Your mom was wise enough to love you through it.”
“The last time I saw her was at my college graduation. She told me how proud she was.” She takes a shaky breath. “And then she told me to follow my heart wherever it leads.” I pat the horse before going to the grass and sitting next to her.
The long pause has me tilting to catch her eyes, but she’s closed them. I wrap my arm around her and pull her to me. With her head on my shoulder and her wet cheek against my shirt, she whispers, “I had a job in Denver and an apartment downtown. I was living the high life. I was even dating a guy . . .” I shouldn’t have tensed. I’m not surprised. Any guy would be lucky to have her. “Then I got the call.”
Nothing more needs to be said.
I got the call from Baylor in the middle of the night. Anna told him to call back in the morning. A lot went wrong around that time. And he was already on a plane the following morning. I didn’t get the news until a few days later and couldn’t make it in time.
Pris doesn’t need excuses. She needs answers, and no one can give those to her.
Her quiet sobs leave me feeling helpless, so I lift her to my lap and curl around her, holding her in my arms, and try to make up for all the time I wasn’t here. I kiss her head and rub her leg. “I’m sorry.”
This isn’t how I saw our reunion going, but it means more.
Lifting her head, she then shakes it. “You don’t owe me an apology. You’re here now, and it’s the first time I don’t feel like I’m carrying the weight of what happened all alone.” She exhales a long breath, then takes a deeper one before repeating. “You made me feel better.” She kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”
It’s then I realize being here, being with her, and close to her mom frees me from the guilt and shame I’ve carried for years. We found healing together.
She sits up, her shoulders rising and her smile blooming again. “You’re here.”
“I came for you.”
Straddling me, she wraps her arms around my neck, her pretty eyes staring into mine. God, I’ve missed this. I missed her. She asks, “How did you know I needed you here?”
I rub her back, and confess, “I took a chance.”
She leans back, resting in my arms, her energy seeming lighter by that spark in her eyes. Damn, I missed that spark. “I didn’t take you for the kind of guy who left anything to chance.”
“My whole life and career were built on taking chances. Most have paid off. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.”
“Careful, cowboy, or I might just think you’re trying to charm me.”
Pulling her close, her chest against mine, our mouths just inches apart, I whisper, “I am.”
“Right here at my mother’s grave?”
Oh shit. I glance next to her, feeling like the asshole I am. “I wasn’t think?—”
I’m playfully whacked on the shoulder. “I’m just giving you a hard time. She’d totally approve of this.”
“What about me?” I always have to fucking push it . . . Pris and I are the same that way. Is it ego? For me, probably. For her, she’s just holding her own.
Her grin softens again. “She adored you, Tagger.”
When she caresses my cheek, I ask, “What about you, babe?”
“I adore you, too.” There was no pause or question in her eyes. She spoke from the heart straight to mine.
Maybe I’m a terrible person, but I kiss her . . . next to her mother’s gravesite . And she kisses me. Her fingers weaving into the hair at the back of my head, the tilt of her hips giving me an erection on contact, and the caress of her tongue against mine, and I have not one regret for showing up uninvited and unannounced.
I got up at three o’clock to get to the airport on time for a flight that took four and a half hours. Almost two hours after landing, I got to my parents’. A change of clothes into jeans, a tee, and boots, and I was fifteen minutes from her house. Add in the horse ride to finally see her again, and it was all fucking worth it.
But I will not let this go further until we find a new location. I pull back, which takes some effort. “Hey, we should go somewhere else. What do you say?”
“Probably.” We’re shadowed under a large rain cloud, and the sky rumbles, drawing us to both look up. “We’re a long way from the house.” She looks back at me. “Should we ride it out in the equipment barn?”
I’m onto her these days. The dirty little bird loves to tease. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Her eyeing me like I’m ridiculous wasn’t exactly what I was going for, but that’s what I got. “Okay.” She crawls off my lap and offers me a hand up. We both know she can’t stabilize my weight, much less lift me like a dead weight. She acts tough, but she’s still got that small frame.
I let her try by taking her offered hand.
Damn. It would not be too bad if I used my core to stand while pretending she was successful in her mission.
When thunder rolls across the sky, we need to get to shelter. Texas storms are not something to mess with. With no other option, we take off running. The first drops pelt us just before we reach the building. The warehouse garage doors are closed, and when I try the main door to enter, frustration sets in. “It’s locked.”
“We must have just missed Davey and the others.” The rain falls harder, so we huddle under the small metal awning. “We’re going to be soaked,” she says, looking up at me from under my arm. Panic rises in her eyes. “I can call my dad, but I don’t want him out in this mess. The sudden weather changes cause pain in his leg.”
“I remember he never got knee surgery after that bad fall from a horse back in high school.”
“It’s getting worse.”
His limp was definitely prevalent when I saw him. “We shouldn’t bother him. Let’s wait a few minutes to see if it lets up.” Pulling out my phone, I check the weather app. Welp. There goes that plan.
When I show her the radar, her eyes flash to mine. “Five hours? It’s not stopping for five hours?”
“And getting worse in the next hour.” I tuck it away. “I think we need to head out. We’ll get wet, but at least we’ll be safe.”
“Yeah, standing next to a metal building during a lightning storm probably isn’t the wisest.” She looks ahead at the makeshift gravel road that bends around a cabbage field. “It’s only rain.”
“It’s only rain.”
As if the words and a shared glance were enough of a plan, she takes off running.
This view—her running in her dress, hair wet and already sticking to her body—This view is all I ever want, and that smile she gives when she turns back to make sure I’m with her is all I need to dash after her.
Not just for fun or to hear her laughter, which I do, but because it feels like my heart is already with her, beating in her chest instead of mine. Oh shit. This isn’t just a visit . I want to be with her more than a friend I kiss sometimes. I want her.
“Pris?”
Glancing over, she contorts her forehead in confusion. “What is it?”
I understand the emotion. I feel that way, too. I can’t explain what’s happening because it’s so fast and out of the blue. I try to remind myself that she’s the forbidden fruit and I should tread carefully. But I don’t want to be careful anymore.
I want her.
Closing the gap between us, I take her hand and bring it to my mouth. I kiss the top and then her palm before setting one hand on her ribs and holding the other in my hand. If she asks me what I’m doing, I have no answer. Running for cover? Slow dancing in the rain? I don’t know what’s happening to me other than I’m a fool for this woman.
Lightning strikes too close for comfort, but what does it matter? I’m already a goner for her.
Capturing her face in my hands, I kiss her. And when our lips stop, I confess, “I’m falling for you, babe.”