Mending Mallory (Submissives of Rawhide Ranch #30)

Prologue

Mallory Blackstone held her mother’s cold, dry hand as she watched the green line slowly bounce around on the screen above the bed.

According to the nurses, her mother had been talking out of her head for the past two days, speaking to people who had already crossed.

They explained this often happened as patients approached their final transition.

She shifted in her chair, wincing when her ribs and other bruised areas let her know that she’d been beaten just hours before.

But this wasn’t the time to think about her situation.

Her mother was dying and she needed to focus on that.

Her mother had met Mitchell, and after he’d left, had voiced her dislike for the first man she’d dated since her husband’s death.

Mallory had not said anything to prove her mother’s opinion was correct. The man was an ass.

“I’m here, Mama. I made it,” Mallory said as she rubbed the hand not attached to an IV and the monitors on the wall. “It’s time, Mama. Time for you to go be with Daddy. I’ll miss you, but I’ll be okay. I’ll be fine.”

She was stunned when her mother opened her eyes and looked at her. Her gaze was as sharp and clear as it always had been before she’d been struck down by the rapidly growing cancer that had been discovered only six months before. “Oh, Mallory, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Of course I’m here. Where else would I be?”

Her mother’s grip tightened around her hand.

She took a deep breath before she said, “You have three months to mourn, then I want you to move on. Tell Mitchell to hit the road, you’re too good for him.

Go to that resort you were telling me about when you were here last. Follow your dreams. Let passion guide the rest of your life. Promise me, child.”

Mallory swiped at the tears flowing steadily from her eyes.

She was amazed that her mother was demanding that promise of her, though she’d been talking about visiting Rawhide Ranch since before Benjamin, her husband of twenty years, had suddenly died two years before.

The brain aneurysm exploded as he’d been cutting the grass and he’d been dead before his body hit the ground.

She’d thought Mitchell entering her life a few months before had been a godsend, until he started hurting her.

And now her mother, her last living relative, was dying of cancer that had been found too late to treat in any meaningful way.

“Yes, Mama. I promise. Three months of mourning and then I’ll go to Rawhide Ranch.”

“Good… girl,” her mother said slowly as her eyes drifted shut.

A few minutes later, the bouncing line on the screen and the beeping of each heartbeat from the monitor began to slow until it was a flat line moving across the screen. Mallory winced when alarms rang out, calling two nurses into the room.

Releasing her mother’s now limp and lifeless hand, Mallory stood and backed away from the bed, allowing the nurses to do their job. Though it had not been unexpected, it still hurt to watch her mother pass from the world.

It took an hour to deal with paperwork to transfer her mother to the funeral home and gather her belongings.

At least Mallory had worked with her mother to plan the funeral during a visit several months before.

All she needed to do once she was back at her mother’s house was add the date of death to the obituary before emailing it to the paper and posting it on her mother’s social media accounts.

After finalizing the arrangements with the funeral home and her mother’s minister, Mallory went onto the Rawhide Ranch website and filled out the paperwork, requesting a two-week reservation for three months down the road.

“There you go, Mama. I’m going to Rawhide Ranch in three months. I just hope I’ll be ready to move on with my exploration and learning by then.”