46. Chapter 46 - Cade
I used to hate the fact that my injuries kept me from doing a lot of field work and I was usually stuck working at my desk.
Since it keeps me at home, my opinion has completely swung in the opposite direction.
The soft knock on my office door makes my stomach growl as if she has me trained.
“Cade?” Rosalyn pokes her head inside.
“Come in, baby.” I lean back in my chair and stretch, propping my legs out in front of me. Five months in Texas and I’m still in awe every time I see her.
I love how she’s starting to find her confidence. She walks with her chin up instead of looking for a corner to run to.
It makes me feel good that she feels safe enough with me to start letting her inner shine come through.
“I have the sandwiches packed if you’re still up for a ride?” She drifts in and slides onto my lap, circling my neck with her arms.
“Hmm,” I rumble, burying my nose against the hollow of her ear. “How about I have dessert first?”
Her giggle is the sweetest music as she wiggles against the hardening bulge in my groin. “You’ve had that three times already today.”
“I’m a growing boy, Ros.” To prove my point I jerk my hips up. “See? Always hungry.”
She laughs even more, tangling her fingers in my hair, but tilting her head to expose more of my delicious throat. “I think we’ve missed a few trips already because you were starving.”
“Ravenous,” I snarl exaggeratedly and latch my teeth to the tender skin, nipping just to see the pink of my mark.
With a squeal, she leaps from my legs and rushes towards the door, only pausing long enough to give me a ‘come and fuck me’ look with her bottom lip pinched between her teeth under a blaze of red flush on her cheeks before darting into the hall.
It’s damn difficult to move fast when my dick is this hard.
When I make it into the corridor, I just catch a glimpse of her standing in the kitchen, waiting for me to spy her, then she bolts out the back towards the barn.
I swear she does this because she knows I can’t run worth a shit. It’s her way of making me know it’s her choice when I catch her.
And she always lets me win.
I’m hoofing it to the barn and just about to the big bay opening when Petunia comes galloping out with my beautiful woman on her back.
Her blonde hair is a golden banner as she blows me a kiss and waves as she rides past.
Oh, she’s really wanting me to work for it this time.
At a trot, I am pleasantly surprised to find Bessy already tacked up.
Rosalyn certainly planned this well.
“Come on, ol’ girl.” I pat her flank and climb on, digging in my heels for a racing start.
Eyes on the prize, I lean over Bessy’s neck and follow Rosalyn’s dust cloud up the small incline and into the pines.
I can hear her laughter carrying behind her as she expertly weaves her mare through the trees.
My heart pounds as I chase her, the tantalizing flavor of her sweet pussy is a hell of a lure.
It’s only as she breaks through to the clearing by the creek that she slows enough I can rein in next to her.
“I guess you caught me.” Her white teeth flash in the sun.
“Now I get to eat you.” I get my horse close enough to tug Ros into a lingering kiss.
Of course my fucking phone rings.
“Technically I’m still on the clock.” With a groan, I dig it out of my back pocket. When I see the name, it cools the fire in my blood.
“Wade?” I haven’t talked to him in a couple of weeks.
“Cade. It’s bad,” he says gruffly.
My gut rolls. “Who died?”
Rosalyn’s eyes widen and her cheeks go pale.
“About two hundred head of heifers,” he sighs. “They came right up to the east field and wiped ‘em all out.”
“Yea,” I grunt. “That’s because we rousted out their fence down here. They aren’t moving them any more.” I feel sick. My poor brothers just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the span of an afternoon.
“There’s something else.” He pauses to take a deep breath. “Two things, really. Your nephew got married.”
That’s a dose of cold water. How in the hell is he old enough?
Shit. The man I stood eye to eye with at Hilltop that day still had a little bit of that gangly edge of youth but he carried a maturity in his stance.
“I didn’t expect an invite, Wade. They don’t talk to me much.” Never, really.
“I hate that, Cade. It’s a bunch of bull hockey and you know it. They’re ripe mad at you and Pete won’t let me say a damn thing because you said not to.” He makes another disgruntled sound that reminds me a lot more of a bear than a man.
“It won’t do any good now.” My jaw clenches, making Rosalyn reach to touch my thigh.
Just covering her knuckles with my palm makes me feel better.
I don’t deserve the strength she gives me.
“Sophia’s engaged, Cade,” Wade continues.
“Good for her.” I close my eyes and shake my head. Their lives are going on without me in it just fine.
“Well, she’s fucking stubborn. Mason tried to talk her into a bench wedding like Sawyer but she’s getting married at the damn rodeo in front of a huge ass crowd.”
I can’t fight the snort. That sounds like the little girl I remember. She was full of attitude and ambition since she was walking.
Born to rule the world, her mom used to say.
A pinch of pain hits my chest at the memory.
“I don’t think a rodeo wedding is a good idea, either. But I don’t think there’s a person in the world that was ever able to make Sophia do what Sophia didn’t want to do.” It brings a rueful smile knowing I’m missing out on their lives.
I love my niece and nephew fiercely.
It sucks I haven’t been able to see them grow.
Rosalyn squints, narrowing her eyes and pulls her hand away. Something shifts and I see her lower lip roll between her teeth.
What is that about?
“Cade. Mason and Dixon have both come to me at least a dozen times to see if we can nail down who in the fuck is messing with them before that happens. I’m sick of diverting their questions because I don’t have any answers.
Y’all are my family too, even if your ass is a few thousand miles away.
” His voice cracks, then he clears his throat. “I need your help, Cade.”
My chest aches.
I have a new life here with Rosalyn. She’s finally coming into her own.
There’s no way I can leave her. Would she even dare to go back with me?
Although rare, she still wakes sometimes whimpering to find me in the night from the monsters in her dreams.
When I glance down, I catch her finger digging into the skin of her thumb.
“Let me call you back.” I hit the end button without waiting for Wade to say anything.
But when I reach for Ros, she bolts.
Damn her fucking well trained horse. With just a basic squeeze of her knees, that mare takes off like a rocket, leaving me floundering to catch my cell before I drop it.
“Come on, Bessy, don’t let me down,” I grit, digging my spurs into her sides.
She leaps under me, used to this game of chase by now. Except this time, the stakes feel real.
Rosalyn is hunched over her saddle horn, hugging the neck of her horse as I gain.
“Ros, stop!” I yell over the galloping hooves.
When she glances at me over her shoulder, her red-rimmed eyes lock with mine. The pain marring her features is a knife into my heart.
Whatever it is, it has her running as if the banshees of hell are on her heels.
Twisting through the trees, Petunia falters on a hard cut to the right. That old injury getting the best of her and giving me the only advantage I have.
“Ros!” I manage to gain a few yards but am quickly seeing that this isn’t going to end until she wants it to. “Please?” I call to her, hoping she can hear in my voice that I need her.
She slows, letting me ride abreast, wiping her cheeks with her wrist.
“I can’t,” she stammers.
“Can’t what, baby? Can we talk?” Both of our mounts are heaving in the heat. “Let’s find a spot and sit.”
Her lower lip juts but she nods, falling into step behind me as I take over the lead.
I pull up at different clearing and dismount, hurrying to grab the reins of her ride before she changes her mind.
“I’m sorry,” she sniffles, sliding down into my arms.
As soon as she buries into my chest the sobs start.
“Ros, you gotta tell me what’s going on. I’m not making any decisions without your input.” Wrapping her to me, I tuck her under my chin to hold her as she cries.
“I don’t know.” Each word is punctuated with a hiccup.
“I don’t want to go but I don’t want to stay.
I don’t want you to blame me if you stay here and something happens there.
It isn’t fair. I never knew it was your Sophia.
I didn’t know it was her.” She runs everything together through her whimpers until none of it makes sense.
Knotting my hand in her hair, I tip her head and seal her mouth with mine.
It takes a moment, a sharp inhale and her fingers to tighten in my shirt. Then she gives, softening her kiss and relaxing in my grasp.
When I pull away, she takes a ragged breath.
“Better, baby?” I brush her forehead with my lips again before I loosen my hold. “Remember always I love you, okay? Start over. What did you mean by ‘my Sophia’?”
She sighs with a whimper, running the heel of her hand over her eye.
“John,” she blurts. “A few years ago he said he found a Sophia at the fair. I heard him laughing to Eli about how her tack was just hanging there in her stall so he took a ‘little liberty’ with the girth strap.” Her head shakes and she looks everywhere but at me.
“I didn’t know she was a McCullough. I just thought it was someone who had snubbed him.
But when you said her name and that she was in a rodeo, it all made sense. ”
Fuck. Sophia’s broken leg was just an afterthought in a conversation I had with Pete.
My hands shake as I lean backwards against the trunk of one of the pines. “John sabotaged her?”
Her lip rolls. The first sign that she’s starting to spiral again. Grabbing her, I bring her close.
“Just a yes or no, Ros. Don’t dwell. This isn’t your fault.”