63
ONE MONTH LATER
I t’s a crisp and cold morning on Runaway Ranch. October’s landed with a vengeance, just like this entire last month.
A lot’s happened.
After Cole Weston released the article, Pappy effectively got ousted from anything to do with rodeo.
I declined the offer to continue with the Younger School.
As luck would have it, a few past students came forward accusing Rand Younger of abuse, forcing him to close his school. Tripp’s still fucking dead.
Life’s goddamn great.
And I’m about to blow it all up.
I swing open the door to the Bullshit Box, stroll inside, and grin.
My brothers stand around, tossing darts and drinking beers. Keena lies in her bed, Mouse is perched on a windowsill. Lainie, swaddled tight in a pink blanket, sleeps in a small bassinet on top of Davis’s desk.
“Anyone work anymore, or y’all just loafin’?” I ask, perching on the edge of the sofa arm.
“Get in here, have a beer.” Charlie tosses me a cold can from the cooler.
“What’s goin’ on?” Ford asks, launching a dart at the bullseye. “Ain’t seen you much.”
“We’re all busy.” I shrug. The off-season has all of us doing our own things. “Ain’t you and Reese ’bout to go on tour?”
He grins. “Through the end of the year. Then we’ll be back to make a baby or some shit like that.”
Charlie grins.
Davis’s eyes drop to my ring finger. The new tattoo that lives there. “You and Fallon doin’ okay?”
“Yeah, we’re doin’ okay.” I give my brother a look, and he nods. “Best we can, right?”
After her accident and the kidnapping, I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.
We both have our fucking traumas from that night. But strangely, I think it healed something in Fallon. She won. She needed that.
But me, I feel on edge.
I don’t like her being out of my sight. Whenever she’s gone, my mind drifts. To that basement. Tripp with his hands around Fallon’s throat. That fucked-up night haunts my dreams.
But that’s why I’m here.
Fallon’s in town at The Huckleberry currently breaking the same news to Dakota and Stede that I’m about to tell my brothers.
She and I have made a lot of decisions in the last two weeks, but they’re the right ones. Life is short, and Fallon and I won’t stop living it. That night forced us to look at our lives. At how quickly they could be taken. No more waiting.
My wife will always come first. What Fallon wants, she gets.
Here goes nothing.
I whisk my sweaty palms together. “I gotta talk to y’all ’bout something.”
My brothers’ hawk-like gazes settle on me.
Ford eyes me in suspicion. “You didn’t knock Fallon up, did you?”
Davis groans and needles his brow.
I inhale a breath then announce, “Fallon and I…we’re goin’ back on the rodeo.”
Silence. Charlie crosses his arms, shares a glance with Ford.
They’re worried about us. I get it. Hell, I’ll worry about Fallon every day for the rest of my life, but it’s what we both want. Fallon’s antsy, I’m antsy. We need that open road.
“It ain’t permanent, but we won’t be around. We’re plannin’ to buy a camper and follow the rodeo. See where the road takes us.”
Voice tight, arms crossed, Davis asks, “When are you takin’ off?”
I push off the couch and move to Lainie’s bassinet, running a finger down her yawning cheek. “Next week.”
My brothers go quiet again. Too soon for their liking.
“You don’t gotta worry about us,” I tell them, because it looks like they need it. “I got her. And she’s got me.”
The truth. Fallon’s the most terrifying, beautiful woman who forced me to change my life in the best possible way. She makes every damn day I live better. My heart and all my dreams are for her.
Charlie swallows hard. “So, you’re leavin’?”
I extend my arms. “So, I’m leaving.” I shake my head. “If you need to do somethin’ with the land, sell it—”
“That land is yours,” Charlie says in a tone that broaches no argument. “You earned it.”
“Then keep it for me. We’ll be back. We’ll be home,” I amend. “Before you know it.”
“Fuck,” Ford swears, looking disgruntled. “We’ll miss you, you little shit.”
“We’re happy for you.” A faint smile curls Davis’s lips. “You two ever need anything, we’re just a call away.”
My heart hammers. “Yeah, I know.”
“It’s bittersweet, kid,” Ford says, reaching out to affectionately rub my hair. “But I get it. You make that girl happy.”
“You gotta live for yourself, Wy. You came out here to help me, and you did that.” Charlie squeezes my shoulder, and my throat locks up. “Runaway Ranch will be here when you come home.”
Fuck. I’m gonna cry.
Davis steps up, pulling me into a crushing bear hug.
“You’ve gone soft, man,” I tell him even as a flood of warmth hits the backs of my eyes.
“Shut up,” he rasps. We’re rocked forward as Ford and Charlie join in on the hug.
We break apart, clearing throats and acting too interested in the posters on the wall.
My gaze drifts to the windows. Fallon’s busted-up Chevy squealing into the driveway of the lodge. In a few minutes, she’ll find me. But until then, I want a few more seconds with my brothers.
“C’mon, advice,” I croak, after a short silence falls. “Give it to me. I know you want to.”
“Just because you got her doesn’t mean you stop trying,” Davis says, and Ford and Charlie nod in agreement.
Ford grins. “You always have to be a little afraid of your woman.” He lifts a finger. “And never get too drunk at an open bar you’re not paying for.”
I snort.
“That,” Charlie says and points at the pasture, at Fallon and Ruby who walk arm-in-arm, “is what bein’ rich looks like, brother.”
I watch our wives. “Without a doubt, we’re fucked.”
“No shit,” Charlie murmurs, lifting a beer to his bearded lips. “Rest of our damn lives.”
I grin.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Everything I love on Runaway Ranch.