Chapter 29
RILEY
H e was really getting too old for Wrangler’s Tavern on a work night.
At least, that was the conclusion Riley came to as he dragged his hungover body out of his truck.
Snatching his ten-gallon hat off the dash and depositing it atop his head, he leaned back in for his tin coffee cup in the center console before starting towards the barns.
His head was pounding, and despite the thick cloud coverage today, it seemed far too bright out.
The night had started with a plan for a beer or two. How he ended up throwing back shots with Cooper and Knox was beyond him.
As he rounded the corner into the stables, he found Brett at Lucky’s stall. Reaching them, he folded his arms on top of the stall door.
“How’s he doing?” Brett asked.
“Really well, actually. His quarantine is almost up, and I’m hoping he’ll acclimate pretty seamlessly into the herd. He seems like a social guy.”
Brett nodded, studying the foal. “He looks good. Maddie mentioned you haven’t needed her at all, you’ve taken over his care and made him up a special regiment for the girls to follow while you were out on the pack trip the last few days?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Riley nodded hesitantly. He wasn’t sure where this was going, and he suddenly wondered if he should have just left the care details to the veterinarian.
“I asked how you knew to do it all, and Jules said you’re a legend up at the Blue Sky Sanctuary. Did you ever mention having experience there?” Brett studied him with that stoic gaze, the scars from his days in the service gleaming amongst his beard in the morning light.
“Maybe only to Grey,” Riley admitted, holding his hand out as Lucky rose and approached him. He smiled as the young horse began to nibble on his fingers. Maybe he didn’t need to run his pitch by anyone. Brett already seemed to be heading down the same thought process as him.
“After Dune came along, I always thought it might be cool to rehab wild horses here. But I don’t have the bandwidth—especially with a baby on the way now.”
With a gulp, Riley worked to rein in the reaction that was rising in his chest. This could be it. His mind had already been swirling with ideas. Even without having a chance to talk to Jules, this could be his thing . It felt right. It made sense.
“Might be something to think about,” Brett continued. “We could talk about what I had in mind later?”
“Absolutely,” Riley agreed. “I have a few ideas, actually.” More than a few, but he could play it cool for now.
“Great. I came in to see if you could head up to the hay barn and help Coop get some supplemental hay out to the heifers.”
What he wanted to do was work alongside Jules as usual. To find her and finally talk. He needed to apologize for assuming she was flirting with Knox, amongst other things. But he had his marching orders, so Riley agreed and headed for the range.
He parked his truck beside the pole barn out in the hills, finding Cooper already sitting in the tractor.
“You’re feedin’ today. I can’t see straight.”
A laugh escaped Riley. At least he wasn’t the only one struggling after last night. “Should you really be operating heavy machinery then?”
His friend glared back at him, unamused. He clearly wasn’t budging from that seat.
“Alright. But if you roll us off a ridge, just remember you’ll have to answer to Hayes,” Riley pointed out as he climbed up onto the trailer.
A sweet, pleasant aroma wafted off the hay loaded around him.
It was fresh, good quality hay, which made sense seeing as they grew and harvested it themselves.
Everything at Hayes Ranch operated in house—why not have a way to care for their own wild horses that ended up on the land too?
He leaned against the bales as they started to the upper place where the ladies were grazing.
Even on a gloomy day like today, there was nothing quite like being out here.
The pastures up this way were still decently green, there was still plenty of summer remaining.
But this year, it felt like the sight of nature giving way to fall would bring a whole new host of disappointment for him.
There was nothing like the summer season at the ranch.
But now he’d gotten the pleasure of having Jules present for it.
Working side by side. The question of who would take the permanent position gnawed at him.
Laurel wouldn’t step back in as his second.
And that was understandable—fine even. Because he could only imagine having one person around every day now.
Riley had never considered himself to be particular.
He got along with just about everyone he met.
Comradery came easy. Problem was, now he had a taste of more than comradery.
He was in love. It wouldn’t ever be the same, working alongside anyone else but that punchy woman that had worked her way thoroughly under his skin.
It was still twisting him up that he couldn’t tell what her blowing him a kiss goodbye meant. After all, it was right in front of Maddie. Was that her way of agreeing to drop the secrecy?
They slowed their climb in elevation. The leveling out of the rolling pastures was the sign that they were nearing the upper place. He pushed himself off the hay and began preparing for the trail of cows that would soon be following them.
And it didn’t take long before they had a whole herd of heifers nipping at their heels.
Cooper continued to move at a steady place as he fed them, and the pain creeped up his spine at a steady pace as well.
He wrote it off as a consequence from the force to parse off sections paired with the twisting motion required.
But as they moved along, the pain only increased.
It was as if an electric shockwave was pulsing through one side of his body.
It soon became paralyzing. Blinding.
Riley let out a howling string of profanities as he dropped to his knee. This time however, the pain didn’t improve from this position. Instead, he noticed that he no longer had any sensation in his leg.
This was bad. He knew it was bad. He had ignored doctor’s orders, lied about his worsening symptoms, and now here he was… unable to move or feel his legs, with pain still radiating up his back.
He dropped, his chest hitting the deck as Cooper brought the tractor to a halt, either noticing he was no longer visible, or hearing his hollering.
Whichever the reason, Riley appreciated the fact that he was jumping down and coming around the side.
He watched his friend moving quickly as he weaved through cows nearly as noisy as Riley had just been.
“Are you good? What’s going on?” Cooper called as he approached.
“My back,” he managed to grit out through tightly clenched teeth. He dropped his forehead against the wood slats beneath him. His eyes squeezed tightly shut in agony.
“Shit. Shit. Shit. What do we do?” The younger cowboy lunged up onto the trailer and crouched at his side.
This pain was persistent and strong. The event all his ignored symptoms had been pointing to, he assumed. The event his doctor had tried to prevent. If only Riley had allowed him.
Defeated, he admitted, “Take me to the hospital.”