Chapter Thirteen Savannah #2
“I shoulda been better, Savvie. I’m still pissed as hell at you for leaving me here and at Aunt Marg for fuckin’ me over, but .
. .” His lips curl up the tiniest bit. “Let’s face it.
You don’t know shit about running this place.
And I know everything. So I’ll help out.
Between you, me, and the ranch hands, we can take care of things. ”
I run over to him and throw my arms around his neck. Not because he said he’d help but because he really does care, and maybe there’s a chance we really can keep the past in the past and move forward without all the festering anger poisoning our already fractured relationship.
He doesn’t hug me back. Not fully. But he also doesn’t pull away, and to me, that’s a definite win.
And once we turn this place around, I’m so happy I’ll be able to hand it over to him. The faster I can make Red Rock profitable, the quicker I can leave Whiskey Creek and escape the clutches of Blaze Hartman.
“I have some news,” I say, then tell him about the land-rental prospects that might just help save Red Rock.
He continues to work, quiet for a long minute. Then, “That’s a good idea, but I don’t think we can handle more cattle right now. Too much needs to be fixed. You shoulda asked first.”
“Well, I think we have a solid team,” I say. “I say we give it a try. No risk, no reward, right? And we don’t have the time to be too cautious. I don’t think we should pass on potential opportunities.”
He slowly lifts his head and tips the brim of his hat, squinting at me. “Yeah, okay.” But his voice has zero trace of enthusiasm.
I put my hand on his arm. “Together, we can make it great again, Nash. I know it.”
His eyes drop to my hand, and when he looks back at me, a flicker of sadness darkens his gaze. It jars me, gone almost as quickly as it came, and he walks toward the pasture.
“Well, howdy, Miss Bea,” he says in that syrupy, smooth voice, nuzzling the area under her neck. The rest of the cattle hear him and wander over. He chuckles and chats with them all as he fills the feed troughs with grain.
My heart clenches. He’s all I have left. I can’t lose him again.
“You know,” he says, glancing at me over his shoulder. “I heard about what happened at the Boot Barn last night.” He shakes his head. “You need to be real careful. Blaze pisses people off, and if you’re standing too close when the shit flies back, it’s gonna take you out.”
“Those guys were just foulmouthed ranch hands. Nothing too scary.”
“Yeah, but Blaze has enemies, Savvie.” Nash’s eyebrows draw tight together. “People from the past who hold grudges. They won’t think twice about hurting someone they think he cares about.”
“Well, then, I wouldn’t worry about me becoming a target.”
“I’m just saying, watch your six.”
My lips quirk up as I fiddle with the water pump spout. It’s nice to hear him being so protective when not too long ago, he made himself out to be my archrival.
I continue struggling with the water pump, examining it from all sides, trying to make sense of how to fix the darned thing. Nash comes up behind me.
“You still having trouble with that pump?” he asks, peering at the spout.
“Yeah. I thought it was fixed the other day . . .” I leave out the part that Blaze was here working on it the other day because that information would probably land like a lead brick.
He moves past me, checking out every piece, including the one I might’ve just cracked with the wrench. A shadow darkens his face. “This problem is bigger than the spout. Someone’s been messing with this. Recently from the looks of it.”
“But who would—?”
He looks up at me, an unspoken warning in his eyes. “Like I said, watch your six.”
Nash’s warning reverberates between my ears as I walk down Main Street toward Brixton’s after finishing up my ranch tasks.
I wanted a distraction from all of the inconvenient X-rated thoughts of Blaze that looped through my mind.
Now I can’t stop thinking about what he might’ve done to piss off the wrong kind of people .
. . and why Nash was so focused on me keeping an eye out.
It’s a little far-fetched that I’d be caught in any cross fire, considering the fact that I’m trying to distance myself from Blaze.
And really, my water pump? Doesn’t seem like the work of hardened criminals.
It has to be a coincidence. Our ranch equipment is old and unreliable.
Nash has told me so plenty of times. He’s just being paranoid.
“Hey, Savvie,” a male voice calls out, jolting me from my spiraling thoughts.
I shield my eyes with one hand and grin up at Wyatt walking toward me. “Hey, stranger. Twice in two days. Think the universe is trying to tell us something?”
He flashes the smirk that used to make all the girls go crazy for him in high school. “Yup. I think it’s trying to tell you to come join me and some friends at Dolly’s for lunch. Whatdya say? See some familiar faces, maybe meet some new folks?”
Connection. God, yes. It’s exactly what I’ve been missing. Conversations with actual humans that aren’t brimming with darkness and cryptic warnings. “Sure, sounds great.”
I fall into step next to him as we cross to the other side of Main Street.
“Y’know, Blaze . . . I think he’s having a rough time being back,” Wyatt says. “Last night . . .” He pauses. “He was ready to break that guy in half. That wasn’t my brother. Not the one I remember.”
“I’ve seen some changes too.” I twist the end of my ponytail around my finger. “Did something happen while he was away?”
He shrugs. “He’s pretty tight-lipped about things. Just seems angry all the time. He’s just . . . I don’t know, different. Seems like something died in him.”
“Have you spoken to him about it?” I ask. “Maybe he’d open up if you—”
“Nah. Besides, we just got into a big blowout. Didn’t end well, and I walked out of the house before we could finish.
I’m still angry that he left all those years ago.
” Then he lets out a deep sigh. “I don’t know.
Maybe I’m being too hard on him. He got mixed up in some business with my dad that went sideways.
Took a lot of heat for it when he left. At least, that’s what I put together, listening in on Colt and Dad talking.
They never told me anything themselves. I guess they thought I was too young to handle it. ”
“Oh,” I say. Blaze never spoke a word about his dad’s business. Whenever his dad’s name came up, he got all prickly, so I avoided the topic of family unless he brought it up. Which was pretty much never.
And for as close as Nash and I were years back, he never said a word about anything to do with Blaze or his family’s business. But all these mysterious warnings are starting to make me wonder exactly what it is I don’t know.
I stare down at the cracks in the sidewalk and sidestep them because bad luck is the last thing I need right now.
“Superstitious?” Wyatt asks when he sees me hop over one.
“Always.”
We stop once we get to Dolly’s, my favorite restaurant in town.
Wyatt pulls open the door for me, and I step inside, my senses consumed by the rich scent of chicken-fried steak and dumplings in the air, the familiar old black-and-white photos covering the bright-pink walls, and the boldly colored floral tablecloths that graze the scuffed hardwood floor.
It feels like home. Cozy, comfortable, and warm, just like Miss Dolly herself.
“Savannah,” she exclaims, rushing over to me and pulling me close for a vanilla-scented hug.
“You look too thin, my sweet girl. Are you eating?” She pulls away, a sad look on her cherubic face.
“Poor thing. I know it’s been a time for you.
Such a sad thing about Marg. We miss her so much, dear lady that she was. ”
“Thank you.” A lump rises in my throat, as it always does when someone mentions Aunt Marg now. I force a smile and squeeze her hands. “I’m so happy Wyatt suggested we make a visit. I sure could use some of your dumplings. They don’t make them like you up in Denver.”
She waves a hand in front of her face. “Of course they don’t. They’re probably all gluten free, non-GMO, and no trans fats up in those parts. If you want the good stuff, you come to see Miss Dolly.” She winks at me, then nods at a table in the corner. “Wyatt, your friends are already here.”
We walk over to a crowded table in the back. I take a seat at the end of the table next to Mindy Travers, a girl I went to high school with.
“Hey, Savvie, how are you doing?” She pours me a glass of wine from the bottle in the center of the table and hands it to me. “Y’all hanging in there okay?”
I nod. “Thank you for coming to the funeral. It meant a lot to me and Nash.”
“Of course, sweetie. How’re things at the ranch?”
“It hasn’t been easy. I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m working hard,” I say.
Mindy leans in and whispers, “The way I heard it, Dr. Burgess came over to your place for a house call the other day. Folks said y’all were getting real close at the Boot Barn too. Maybe he’d be interested in partnering with you. You know, to get that capital you need to keep running Red Rock.”
My mouth falls open. “Partnering? I couldn’t ask him to partner with me. I barely know him.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter. He’s hot. You’d get to look at him every day, shirtless, breaking logs, riding horses . . .” She licks her lips. “Yum. I’d ask him for sure.”
I giggle and take another long sip of my wine. “He is cute.”
He’s not Blaze, though.
Shoot. No. I did not mean that.
“I hear he’s interested in more than just your cattle, sweetie.” Mindy holds up her glass of wine and clinks mine. “I think you oughta find out exactly what that is.”
“Well, we do have a date tomorrow night.”
Mindy gasps. “See? The stars are aligning for you guys!”
A giggle slips through my lips. But it’s not long before my sobering reality wraps itself around my alcohol-clouded brain.