23. Gareth #2
I moved to grab her and instantly, Bandit lifted his head and pinned his ears, warning me not to get any closer to his food. “Take a step back for me, okay, baby girl,” I whispered. “Bandit isn’t all that friendly when it comes to anything getting close to his grain.”
“Oh, really? He doesn’t seem to mind me,” she commented but did as I asked.
“Either way, we still need to grab hay for these guys, and then they’ll be settled for the night,” I said, wrapping an arm around her waist to keep her close.
The guys might make fun of me for being overprotective, but I’ll be damned if I ever let anything happen to Bailey-Rose, especially here at the ranch.
Hay was the easy part, and we got the horses settled in no time.
Bailey-Rose lingered watching Bandit as the hellion tossed around his hay, searching for the bits he liked best before eating the rest.
Turning to look at me, she searched my face as if looking for something. “Can I ask you something?”
“Baby girl, you can ask me anything. I have no secrets from you,” I told her.
“Was Bandit Callie’s horse? I only ask because when you look at him, I feel this sadness from you, and it’s the only reason I could think of,” she explained.
Stepping up behind her, I rested my hands on her hips as I peered over her head at the horse. “Yeah, Bandit was Callie’s partner in crime. He’s a pain in the ass to everyone else, but he loved my sister.”
“You know, if you ever want to talk about her, I’d love to listen.
She sounds like someone who would have great stories,” Bailey-Rose commented.
“When Papa Addy died, it helped to share how amazing he was, to keep his memory alive. People always tell you to move on or get over it, and things will pass. How can you simply move on from the pain of losing someone you loved? It doesn’t make any sense. ”
A bitter laugh escaped me as I rested my head on hers.
“My fathers are those people. After Callie’s funeral, they demanded the housekeeper pack up all her things and remove any pictures that would have my little sister in them.
I know people grieve differently, but they had no right to dictate that when they didn’t even live here five days out of the week.
No one asked my mom what she wanted or hell, even me since I still lived in the house full time.
My relationship with my fathers hasn’t ever been great, but that was the moment I knew we’d never be able to see eye to eye. ”
Bailey-Rose turned to face me, resting her head on my chest as she wrapped her arms around me.
“Grief makes you selfish and lash out at those around you. It’s no excuse for what they did, but sometimes it helps to understand their actions.
When things don’t make sense, we stew on them, trying to unravel the reasoning behind it all. ”
When she started to purr, offering me all the comfort she could, I closed my eyes and held onto this amazing woman who loved me for some reason.
There were no words, just feelings drifting between us as we let our bond do the communicating.
How could my fathers not have known how much pain my mother was in when they have a direct connection to her soul? Or could it be they didn’t care?
“Will you tell me about Callie?” Bailey-Rose asked in such a soft voice I almost missed it.
“You two would have been best friends, I know it. She was wild, but only because she loved to live life to the max. I don’t think there was a single thing she was afraid of…
well, except for shots,” I remembered, grinning.
“There was one time Mom forgot to tell Callie she had a doctor's appointment, and the three of us had been running errands. So there we are, Callie lost in her own world playing on her tablet when she looks up and finds out we’re in a clinic waiting room. To make matters worse, it was the appointment to get her school shots. I swear if I hadn’t been there to calm her down, she would have decked the nurse for coming near her with a needle. ”
Bailey-Rose chuckled as she took a step back. “Was she really going to punch the nurse?”
“One thousand percent yes, she was,” I stated without question.
“Callie was a country girl through and through. She knew how to hold her own against just about anyone or anything that tried to get in her way. Hell, for the fun of it, she trained one of the bulls to charge up to her and tap her outstretched hand before she’d give him his grain.
I about pissed myself watching it happen, but Callie just laughed her ass off, telling me I looked as white as a ghost.”
Taking my girl’s hand, we headed back to the house.
Mom would want us all to sit down together for dinner—it was her one rule.
No matter what, if you were home on the ranch, dinner would be eaten together as a family.
It also made me realize how lonely Mom must be out here all by herself during the week.
I’d half expected her to move to the city when I left the house, but here she was living life as she always had.
“Oh good, I was just about to send one of the others out to get you,” Mom said as we walked in. “Come on, dinner’s ready. Oh, don’t forget to take off your boots. I hate when shavings get tracked through the house.”