Chapter 10 Forest
forest
My ladies and their babies had been stressed out since we had caught a few wolves in the area.
The fires in the west were pushing a lot of wildlife out to us and it was making all of us nervous, especially the cattle.
I felt like shit when we found one of the babies dead.
I know it was a part of nature, but it still hurt like shit when the mama was crying for her baby.
Last week, we had all been taking turns watching the herd and the last few days we hadn’t seen any wolves. I was still stressed, coming out early and leaving late to ensure that the herd was ok. It wasn’t just the herd I was checking up on either.
After finding Webber on the floor of his home, I had stopped by a few times just to make sure he was ok and not on the floor. He was grumpy, snippy and while that should deter me, it was adorable.
He was so different from when we first met, and I loved his confidence, his sexiness.
This grumpy, snarky and annoyed man was still endearing.
It was hilarious that he got upset at everything I did, but I couldn't help it.
Making him mad was hilarious, and while I didn't like being wrapped up in the friend drama, being iced out by Jude made me feel a little bad about Webber.
Sometimes I wondered if he was in love with Jude and how starved he was for any piece of information I could give him about his friend.
Once I found out he came here for Jude, it made me feel even worse for him, so, here I was after work bringing him food and pie from Mae’s diner because I was nice like that.
“Webber, open the damn door!” I yelled knocking on the door again. “I have food and pie, I know you’re home too!”
I knocked again hearing him moving inside of the house.
“Samuel Xavier Webber the Third open this—”
The door opened abruptly, and I lost my train of thought when he appeared in front of me in nothing but a towel, still wet from a shower.
Rivulets of water came down his shoulder, down his pecs, abdomen, down this happy trail disappearing into his towel that I very much wished would fall off at this moment.
“My middle name isn’t Xavier and I’m not a third.”
I followed another droplet down the same path as his cock grew half hard.
“Forest!”
I startled.
“Eyes up here.” He snapped his finger at my flushed face.
I didn’t know if it was the shower or my blatant perusal, but fuck me, Sam Webber was a snack I wanted to bite into.
“Peaches, you should have waited for me. I would have washed your back,” I smirked.
He rolled his eyes, but his lip slightly lifted ever so as he turned around, leaving the door open for me. I watched him walk away as his strong back flexed with each movement. His limp was very apparent and I noticed he didn’t have his brace on.
“Dammit,” I muttered, dropping the bags and rushing towards him. “Peaches, don’t be walking without your brace.”
I put his arm around me as I put my arm around his back, pulling some weight from his bad side.
“Well, if you hadn’t been pounding like a mad man and actually called before you got here, maybe I wouldn’t have had to rush out here,” he snapped.
“You know if I gave you a heads up, you would ignore me,” I said, steering him to his bedroom.
He grumbled something under his breath as I sat him on his bed.
“Don’t be such a sourpuss, Peaches,” I admonished, going to his dresser to look for his underwear.
He stayed quiet as I finally found his boxer briefs, bringing them over to him, leaning them down so I could help him put them on.
“I can put my underwear on,” he said, trying to grab them from me.
“Yeah, but what if you fall and then—”
“Well, you're here so what does it matter?” he growled.
“Yeah, but we can’t have you hurting your knee,” I said, pulling his towel open and seeing he was half hard.
I tried to act like I wasn’t affected, but Sam’s cock was a fucking treat. He didn’t have a monster cock, but god, it fit in my mouth perfectly and it looked good as I fucked him hard and it leaked against his stomach.
Being the gentleman I was, I helped him into his underwear only brushing against his cock twice because how could I not? As I pulled his underwear up, the scar on his knee made me wince and I wondered if he was really going to go back to playing hockey.
I grabbed some shorts and a tee for him and then helped him put the brace on.
We were working in a comfortable silence and as I locked in his brace, I looked up to see him lost in thought.
He looked so miserable that I felt like hugging him and wishing I could make whatever was bothering him go away.
“You, ok?” I tilted his chin towards me. “I’m just trying to be helpful, but if you need me to leave I can.”
“My agent said the Yetis aren’t re-signing my contract and no one is really interested in picking me up.” His lip trembled.
I’m pretty sure this was bad, like really, really bad. I knew he loved hockey. Jude had told me he did and he had been playing since college.
“Hasn’t therapy been going well? You look better,” I said quickly. “They can’t just dismiss you without—”
“I’m thirty years old, no one wants to spend money on my contract when there's a big chance that my knee might give out again,” he said, pulling away from my grasp. “My agent said he’s trying, but if the Yetis didn’t re-sign me there was a small chance that anyone else would pick me up.”
“But there’s still a chance, right?” I asked, trying to be hopeful.
“I think there is more of a chance of me sleeping with you than me getting a contract with a hockey team.” He tried to laugh, but it fell flat.
I stood up and pulled him to me. His head came up to my chest as I hugged him. It was more like a one-sided hug until he finally put me out of my misery and hugged me back. I ran my hands through his hair until I felt him slowly release his tension.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
“Me too,” he murmured into my chest.
“Come on,” I said, pulling away slightly so he could look up at me. “Let’s eat and let me take you to the ranch. I think you need to get some fresh air, plus we have a momma and her newborn close by.”
“I’ll eat, but—”
“The goats just had babies,” I said quickly.
He stared at me blankly.
“One of the horses just had a fowl,” I said, trying to figure out what else would entice him.
“I grew up in Texas, aint nothin—”
“Nova made green chicken enchiladas and I could steal—”
“Fine, but I’ll stay with the goats while you steal the enchiladas for me,” he grumbled like it was such a hardship for him.
“Awesome, come on, Peaches, let’s eat and then we can go steal some more food,” I said, helping him up.
I slapped his ass as he walked out of the room. His gait was definitely better from the last time I had seen him, but I could still see a little stiffness.
“If you’re a really good boy, I just might suck your cock while—”
“I draw the line at doing it in front of the animals,” he said and I laughed.
I almost thought I heard him laugh too. One day, maybe I'd figure out a way to get him and Jude in the same room. Then they could figure their shit out and maybe be friends again because mopey Sam was killing me.
I hated fixing fences, but it was the most important job out here.
The land was vast and if we didn’t keep them on the land, well, there went all of our hard-earned money.
We already had a few calves stuck out here since we had been trying to keep the herd out this way until the fires calmed down out west.
The more time that those fires weren’t contained, made me more worried that one day the wind would carry them out this way.
The bigger fires had been contained, but it seemed we kept seeing small fires popping up all over the state.
It was only a matter of time before it hit a little too close to home.
We needed rain and we needed it now.
The sun was scorching today, I was wiping my brow every minute because I was sweating so much.
I was finishing the last post as I heard the heifers mooing like they were spooked.
I stood up; I had a bad feeling. A few of the heifers were still uneasy as I walked to the ATV to grab the gun I had brought with me.
I looked around when I heard what sounded like a dirt bike.
I took a deep breath, putting the gun away to go back to the fence to finish my work.
I got the post and the wire fixed and as I was packing all my stuff, the bike got closer.
Before I left, I heard the loud rev of the engine.
It was not one, but a few engines. The few cows around me got spooked.
I knew what was going to happen before it did and no matter how fast I thought I was, one of the cows rammed me into the ATV.
Extreme pain made my vision blur and out of sheer luck I got on the ATV and drove before I got hit again.
I was about to start shouting at the stupid bikes when they drove away. My ribs and my shoulder were throbbing as I drove away, each bump or turn was making the pain even worse. I was sweating and panting by the time I made it back to the barn, keeping my arm close to my ribs to minimize the pain.
“What the fuck happened?”
I flinched at Colt’s sharp tone.
“A few people were riding bikes close to the fence, spooking some of the ladies. One of them rammed me into the ATV,” I said, getting it off without grimacing. “I’m fine.”
I gritted my teeth as I stood up.
“Son of a bitch. Like hell you are,” Colt said, coming close to me. “You probably have a broken rib or maybe a broken arm.”
“I think I’m just banged up,” I said, wincing at the deep breath I had taken.
“You look like you're in a lot of pain,” he said, looking me over. “Get in the Rhino, I’m taking you to see Atlas at least.”
I wanted to argue, but I was really feeling like shit.
“Ok, but only if Nova feeds me,” I said, as Colt chuckled.