16. Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Grayson
T he week passes in a blur. My tech duties have kept me away from practicing and home more than I’m used to. But the best part has been having River here. I’d expected a little pushback when I asked her to pack enough for a few days, but she’d walked up to my front door with a whole suitcase. I’d cleared out drawers for her to put her clothes in, and there was plenty of room in the closet, so it worked just fine.
Better than fine. Our lives seamlessly blended as if they’d always been this way.
She’s been in my bed every night since. We’re blissfully perfect together. She makes me forget all the shit weighing me down, and I make her smile. We’ve talked about everything and nothing. Made love and tended to the animals together every morning, no matter how early her clinic or surgery days started.
She’s always there. A partner in every way that matters.
Each night ends with her curled up at my side, falling asleep in my arms. My whispered I love you’s falling on deaf ears. It doesn’t matter that I’ve only known the woman for three weeks. My heart knows what it wants, and it’s her every damn day.
Yet, the past keeps me from telling her. After our breakup, Stacy told me I loved too easily, too hard, and too fast.
Though Stacy was an amazing woman, River has a tougher edge that makes me wary. The exterior she’s built to protect herself from the world is a potential barrier to her falling into a long-term relationship with me. Maybe from falling in love with me at all.
“Gray, your phone!” River calls from the kitchen.
Jogging down the stairs, I catch it on the last ring.
“Hey, Austin. What’s up?”
“One of the cows got stuck in the fence. Tate thought he fixed it, but not well enough. I need you to come out. His usual vet isn’t in town.”
My molars grind. Of course, some shit with Tate would interrupt my blissful bubble with River. I’d deluded myself into believing we could just keep playing house without my brother somehow ruining it.
“Find someone else.”
“Gray, come on. Please.” I don’t have to see his face to know the pained look pulling at his features. The one that speaks of years of dealing with Tate and I’s shit relationship. A not-so-subtle reminder of the effect we have on everyone else around us.
Yet my determination to keep Tate at a distance validates my response. “I said, find someone else. Tate wanted the family ranch. He got it.”
The crack of my phone against the cement countertop makes River jump. For a moment, I’d forgotten she was there. I hate that, once again, she saw me lose my shit over my brother. If she keeps seeing me like this, she’ll find her breaking point and decide a relationship with a mess like me isn’t worth it.
Slumping onto the couch, it’s not long before she’s at my side, her fingertips brushing over my shoulder before she sinks down, straddling my lap. My t-shirt rises high enough to reveal her hot pink panties. A taunt.
It’s interesting she brought a whole suitcase of clothes but has only worn mine when we’re here at home. Her underwear is the sole exception, but still a rare sight when she prefers my boxer briefs.
“Take this how you will, but you’re better than this, Gray. That animal has nothing to do with your brother. They were your cows once, too.”
“I’m not helping him.”
“Why? Because of some stupid grudge you two hold against each other? The both of you can pretend you hate each other, but everyone can also see how much you love one another. It’s just you two left. Do you know what I would give to have my brother come find me before every surgery to make sure I was ready?”
She immediately looks down, playing with the buttons on my henley. River talks about her brothers a lot. It’s clear she misses them, but she never says it. Their relationship fizzled out a long time ago, and she’s accepted it for what it is. And suddenly, I want to give her that.
I wish I could.
Maybe I can’t get her brothers here, but for her, I can do this one thing for mine. Maybe.
Running my hands up her bare thighs, I stare up into those captivating green eyes. “River, Tate, and I are complicated.” She only snorts, but doesn’t interrupt me otherwise. “I’ve spent so many years angry at him. He treats me like a child. Like I’m his—” I can’t say the word.
My mother is dead. I never got to meet her. I am her son.
Dad is dead now, too, but I am still his son.
Tate has never been my parent and never will be.
“Grayson, look at this another way… Many people would kill to have someone care enough to want to look out for them. Whether Tate does that to your liking or not isn’t the point. Go look at the cow. It’s not like he’ll be there, anyway.”
“How do you know?”
“Joy said he’s competing out of town.”
My jaw clenches. He’d told me he was going to compete this weekend through a text the morning he left. I wasn’t aware he’d told his girlfriend, who apparently is now best friends with mine, and telling her things about my brother.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
River’s mouth presses to mine. There’s so much love and gratitude in the kiss that I can only melt into her. My arm looping around her back, holding her close to me. “Thank you,” she breathes.
“Just be here when I get home.”
Her head tilts to the side as if I just said the most puzzling statement she’s ever heard.
“Where else would I be?”
“Your home.”
Her nose scrunches before she kisses me again. Just as soft and loving as the last. “Eh, I think I’ll stay here for a while.”
Austin greets me as I pull down the dirt drive to the cow field. So much is exactly the same as when I grew up here. Sure, the fencing has been updated, and the barn door might be newer, but this is every bit my childhood ranch—a place I loved my whole life until Tate took off and Dad died.
“She’s over here.”
Lugging my medical bag out of the back of my truck, I follow him through the field. Austin was smart enough to isolate her. The gash along the side of her body and down her leg accompanied by numerous shallow puncture wounds, are concerning but not life threatening. If this cow died while Tate was gone and I’d looked at her, it would just be one more thing for him to bitch at me for.
“How long has she been like this?”
“Not sure. I found her this morning. Took me and a few of the other guys to get her untangled from the wire and then fix the fence. That’s when I called you.”
I only nod, getting to work.
The wounds are clear and relatively clean. It doesn’t take me long to bandage her up and inject her with some antibiotics and pain medication before finding Austin leaning against the fence.
“Thank you for coming.”
“Thank River.”
He only smirks. “I heard you landed yourself the rodeo doctor. Good for you, man.”
“Thanks.”
We stay there silent for a while, staring out across the land my family purchased when they were just twenty years old. Two people young and in love. My mom wanted horses and chickens, and my dad gave that to her.
“She’s good for you. I can tell.”
My gaze shifts to a man I would call a distant friend. Like many of us from around here, we all grew up together. Austin is Tate’s age, but I recall him being around in his teenage years.
My eyes drift down to his hand hanging between us while his elbow posts on the fence. His gold wedding band glints in the sunshine. Something like envy settles in my chest, knowing he found the woman of his dreams.
“She is,” I mumble. “Best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Then here’s my advice for you.” I turn to face him now. “Listen to her. She got you here despite how you feel about Tate. Don’t let your unresolved shit with him ruin it.”
“Trying not to.” My swallow is forced, attempting to come up with something more to say. There’s nothing. Not a single thought that won’t have me vomiting all the emotions flowing through me at the moment. “I’m going to get going.”
“Good seeing you. Let’s grab a beer next weekend after you wipe the floor again.”
“Deal.”
We clap hands before I take off tramping through the field that holds my family’s legacy.
Something like guilt settles in my gut for leaving Tate to handle this all on his own. He’d begged me to help for years, but my answer was always a no. I was so determined not to let him run or ruin my life any more than he always had.
Slipping into the truck, I unlock my phone.
River: Everything okay?
River: Do you need my surgical skills?
River: Please say yes.
I can only chuckle. I’ve come to learn no one loves cows the way my woman does. She doesn’t know it yet, but tomorrow we’re going to pick up fifteen new ones. A cattle rancher a few counties over is selling his land, and that was the last of the stock he had to get rid of.
Me: No surgery needed, but we can play doctor when I get home.
Her response is immediate, as if she’d been waiting for my reply.
River: Get home safe cowboy.
Staring at her messages, my pulse bounds. Her words from earlier replaying in my mind. I think I’ll stay here for a while . I hope she does. Hell, I don’t want her to ever leave.
Searching my contacts, I find Tate.
Me: Checked on the cow. She’ll be fine. Left Austin with some more antibiotics. If there’s any trouble, I’ll come back out and check on her.
It’s a few moments before the three little dots dance across the bottom of the screen, disappearing, reappearing, and then disappearing again just before my phone rings. The background picture I have for Tate’s contact fills the screen. It’s been so long since he called me that I forgot about it.
He’d been a teenager then, Tate’s arm looped around my neck while I held up our trophy for the team roping competition we’d won at Boulder Ranch that weekend. It wasn’t anything we practiced doing other than for work on the family farm, but somehow, we pulled out a win.
“Hello?”
The line is silent, but I can hear Tate breathing on the other end. “Thank you, Grayson.”
And for once, there’s no animosity coating our interaction. “You’re welcome.”
“Can we grab a drink this week?”
I only hesitate a moment, swallowing down my resentment before I respond.
“Okay.”
Then I hang up.
Sitting here in my truck, staring at the past, I can only wonder what future it might hold.