Chapter 22 – Sunshine
TWENTY-TWO
SUNSHINE
“We’re definitely going to have to kill him this time.”
I blinked awake at the sound of Carter’s voice. Again? What was wrong with them? This wasn’t how normal people behaved.
“What do you think the excuse will be this time?” Mac asked.
“Maybe her clothes accidentally fell off.”
That was Ethan.
I was still tucked in bed with Tag. Again, I’d slept like I’d never slept before. Heck, we were still in the same spooned position we fell asleep in last night, when normally I spent most of the night tossing and turning.
Maybe I just needed a super weighted blanket.
With calloused hands and a big cock.
“We should take him to the gallows statue in town,” Carter mused. “You think if we put a rope up there, that thing would still work?”
Oh, these men, my half-brothers, were going to learn something important about me.
Come after me, sure. Come after someone I cared about, prepare to face the consequences.
In my first few years at the firm, I signed up for all the rec leagues.
So all those sports I didn’t play growing up in Last Hope Gulch, I got pretty good at in the city.
Particularly soft ball. Come to find out, I had an arm.
I grabbed the pillow underneath my head in a tight grip and flung it in the direction of where they were standing.
Ethan’s solid umph gave me great satisfaction.
“What. In. The. Fuck.” Tag was now awake and sitting up in bed. “We are not doing this again. You motherfuckers do not have permission to be in my bedroom at,” he turned to look at the clock on his nightstand, “five fucking am in the morning.”
“Ethan said Sun didn’t come home again last night. Harmony was sick with worry.” Carter said, pointing to me like I was state’s evidence.
“Uh, actually she wasn’t,” Ethan countered. “She was pretty delighted, actually, when she told us to come look for Sunshine here.”
“And here you are!” Carter said, like he’d found me drunk and passed out at the Last Stand.
I looked at Tag and he gave me a subtle nod. In a blink, I had Tag’s pillow in my fist and tossed it directly at Carter’s face.
It smacked him pretty hard. So much, he took a step back.
“Nice throw, darlin,” Tag said. “You’re clearly better at pillow warfare than I am.”
“Hey, I’m just looking out for you,” Carter told me.
“All of you, out!” I shouted at them. “I don’t need older brothers!”
“For the record,” Mac said, right as he got to the door. “I was against doing this the second time and I’m a younger brother. ”
Ethan pushed Carter out the door with a laugh.
“I’m feeling very under appreciated as the head of this family,” Carter called out.
“Who said you were the head of the family?” Ethan asked him.
Tag was sprawled back in the bed, chuckling.
“It’s not funny,” I said. “What if I’d been naked?”
He stopped chuckling immediately. “Okay, you’re right. That’s not funny.” But that only lasted a second. “You really do have incredible skills with a pillow. You might have broken Carter’s nose, you threw that thing so hard.”
I explained my softball league and my run as a winning pitcher.
He smiled at me until I blushed.
“What?” I asked, feeling like a kid in front of the most handsome guy in school.
“I like seeing you bloom, Sun.” He tucked my hair behind my ear and I wondered if anyone had ever complimented me so sweetly. So…perfectly.
“Now, let’s get you dressed and take you out to the barn for your next riding lesson.”
That got me moving. It was time to start cow-girling again.
“I have to head back to the Lodge, first,” I said, stepping into my jeans.
“Just wear what you’ve got on.”
“Absolutely not,” I beamed. “I need my cowboy hat!”
I checked the markets and updated the alerts on my phone. I could feel the moment was coming when this whole plan would come to fruition. But it wasn’t this moment. So, once I was dressed, I ran out to the paddock where Tag had Shirley waiting for me.
“Nice hat,” Tag said, with a long, slow smile that warmed me from the inside out.
“Thanks, cowboy,” I said, with a saucy little grin.
I said hello to Shirley, who looked happy to see me, and Tag walked me through the process of mounting a horse without any help. They were the same instructions I got yesterday, but it was somehow so much easier.
Or, maybe, it was just Tag who made the difference. His calm voice, his even keel. The man was a natural teacher.
He would be an amazing father.
The thought crackled through me like lightening. Leaving me dazed and hurt.
“You all right?” Tag asked, and I shook off the thought. The sudden and strange melancholy.
“Fine,” I said, my voice rough.
It took a couple of tries for me to trust Shirley could hold my weight and stand still as I lifted myself up.
But the second I knew the saddle wasn’t going to slide off, that Shirley wasn’t going to bolt, and that I actually had enough strength in my thighs to get the job done, I was swinging my leg over Shirley and settling comfortably in the saddle.
Tag made me dismount and re-mount a bunch of times until it was second nature, and Shirley was patient through the whole thing.
“Good girl,” Tag sad with a wink. “You’re a natural.”
“What’s your horse’s name?” I asked him, as he led his horse, which he’d already saddled, next to me and Shirley.
The massive brown gelding leaned his head towards Shirley as if to say hello. Shirley pushed her head back.
“Oh, look, they’re friends,” I said.
“Friends is questionable. Diablo pines for Shirley, but given his lack of balls, she is indifferent. That’s why she’s happiest when she’s in the stable with Gus. She tolerates Diablo, while he suffers his crush from afar.”
“That sounds tragic,” I said.
The horse snorted and lifted his head, as if acknowledging his silent pain.
Tag made a clicking sound with his tongue and teeth and Diablo stepped forward.
I attempted the same sound and Shirley lifted her head as if to suggest I was embarrassing myself. I tapped my heel against her hind quarter and then she dutifully followed Diablo. I couldn’t help but notice, how with Gus, it hadn’t taken any nudge to follow him out of the paddock.
Poor Diablo.
We rode south through the valley, and this time all of my energy wasn’t focused on staying on Shirley and I could relax and take in my surroundings.
The buttes in the distance, the clouds drifting overhead.
There was no noise other than the chirping of birds and the hum of insects in the tall grass.
There was peace here. Simplicity. The smell of cow shit and the low rumble of their moos reached us before I caught sight of the herd.
“Why do you only keep part of the herd here? Wouldn’t they all benefit from open grazing?” I asked Tag, as he moved with the ease of a man born to this life.
Even I could tell this was only a fraction of the total operation.
“Grass fed cattle creates a lower fat and lower calorie product, which brings in more dollars per pound. Problem is, you need more land for grazing. This is about how many cows this amount of land can hold without overgrazing. I think that’s what Leroy was thinking when he over extended himself with that purchase of land.
Our Asian markets are looking for more and more grass fed beef. ”
“I never paid attention to any of this,” I admitted.
“Why would you? You didn’t grow up on a ranch. You were a town girl.”
“Yes, but it’s like you said, this whole town relies on this operation. Everyone should understand it. Know how it’s all connected. I feel foolish having grown up this close to something I was so ignorant of. I should have been more curious.”
“That’s Smarty Sunshine talking.”
“Don’t call me Smarty Sunshine,” I growled at him. “You know I hate that!”
“I never understood why,” he said.
I gave him my imperiously raised eyebrow.
“No, I mean, sure, no one likes name calling, but aside from it being unoriginal, they were teasing on you for being smart. And you know smart is a good thing, darlin.”
“I didn’t feel like that back in high school,” I said.
Thunder rolled through the valley.
“Shit,” Tag cursed. “Wasn’t paying close enough attention to the sky.”
Dark clouds were gathering on the mountains to the west and the herd perked up, gathering together for protection against the hard wind blowing the storm closer.
“Let’s go,” Tag snapped, turning Diablo on a dime and taking us back up the valley. “Now.”
“Are we going to have to gallop?” I asked, unable to hide the fear in my voice. I could sit a horse. I didn’t know if I could sit a horse in a gallop.
“Not if we move, now. ”
The wind gusted again and this time it smacked me directly in the face. I could feel my hat blowing off and I reached to grab it, but it was too late. It swept away from me and I cursed.
Instinctively, my thighs squeezed Shirley’s flanks and she came to a stop. Acting on what I’d been taught without over thinking it too much, I dismounted and started running as soon as my boots hit the ground.
“Goddamnit!” Tag barked. “Sunshine, get your ass back on that horse!”
“I need my hat!” I shouted back over my shoulder, as the wind tumbled my hat into the long grass.
Fortunately, it got caught in brush a couple of yards away. I scooped it up as soon as the first big drops of rain started to fall.
“Forget the damn hat!” Tag shouted.
I couldn’t.
I was trying to belong to this place. This hat was my first real cowboy hat. I had to save it. Giving up on it felt bigger than just a lost hat.
I shoved it on my head and turned to run back toward Shirley when lightening lit up the sky, followed by a sudden bang of thunder so loud I flinched and froze at the same time.
If the thunder was that fast after the lightening, it meant the storm was close. I didn’t know what the protocol was for being this exposed during a storm. Normal rule of thumb, if there was lightening in the area you needed to take shelter, but there was no shelter to be found.
Should I flatten myself against the ground, curl up in a ball to make myself smaller?