Chapter Nineteen
The trees became a blur as Gracie and I dashed after the runaway horse. The wind was whipping through my hair, branches scratching my arm as we cut off the path.
I rose out of the saddle, hovering in the stirrups with my weight dropped deep into my heels. I leaned forward, my chest close to her mane, squeezing with my lower legs to stay locked in rhythm with the thundering beat of her hooves.
“Ellie!”
Marty was fast, but Gracie was an excellent listener.
Ellie was barely hanging on. She had a good grip on the saddlehorn, but her poor little body was getting tossed around like a rag doll.
Marty was weaving around the trees, barely missing trunks and roots.
Gracie and I were close. I kicked her a little harder, and we were neck and neck with Marty. Ellie was screaming. I tugged Gracie as close as I could get her to Marty.
I didn’t hesitate, I couldn’t. I leaned as far off the saddle as I could and wrapped my arms around Ellie’s waist. She ditched Marty’s reins, throwing herself toward me. We collided.
I pulled her off the horse and onto my saddle, making sure she was secure.
She screamed again just as her little hands wrapped around the saddlehorn.
I looked up just in time to see Gracie sliding to a stop in front of a massive pine tree. The momentum was too much, and gravity threw me from Gracie’s back toward the tree.
Closing my eyes in fear, I could feel the base of the trunk take the brunt of my weight before I was dropped to the dirt.
I lay in the dirt, my eyes still closed, for an extra few seconds. I needed to make sure nothing was broken before I tried to stand.
My toes were mashed against the front of my ankle boots, but I could wiggle them without pain.
My legs were tingling, but I was sure that was from squeezing them so tight on the ride.
My hips were fine. My stomach was spinning, but that was the adrenaline.
My heart was racing so hard, my chest felt achy, but not physically hurt.
When I got to my left shoulder, I winced hard. There was definitely pain, a lot of it, but the more I felt it with my right hand and tried to rotate it, the more the pain subsided. It was okay. I was going to be sore, but I would be okay.
“Ally, please don’t be dead!” A little voice was crying.
I finally opened my eyes. Poor Ellie was sitting on Gracie, tears streaming down her freckled cheeks. I sat up and held up my hands. “Oh no, Ellie! I promise, I’m not dead!”
She looked up at the sky and let out a long breath. “Oh, thank the heavens above, a miracle.”
I stood, confirming my theory that my legs were fine, despite how badly they were shaking. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
She was trembling, unable to stop crying. “I’m okay! I’m okay. I’m okay.” She buried her head in her hands. “Ally, I don’t want to lie to you. That was really scary.”
I reached up, my shoulder aching as I did. “Come on, let me get you down.”
Ellie didn’t wait a second. She put her arms around my neck and dropped off the saddle.
My arm screamed at me, demanding I drop her weight, but I held strong until I was able to set her on the ground.
She didn’t let me go when her feet touched the dirt.
She pressed her quivering body against mine and cried.
“I thought I was gonna die!” She wailed.
I knelt beside her, rubbing my fingernails up and down her back and quietly whispering, “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
She lay her head on my left shoulder and rubbed my cheek. “You’re an angel, Ally.”
We slid to a sitting position, my back against the tree that just tried to break me in half, and shook together.
I don’t know how long we sat on the floor of the woods for, but after a while, we both stopped shaking.
In the distance, the clouds continued to rumble and gather, threatening to storm at any second.
“Oh- Thank the Lord, I found them!” Colton’s prayer rang out across the forest. “Yeah, just follow my location.”
I looked up from Ellie’s hair to see Hunter, Colton, and Cash riding their horse at a fast trot through the trees.
Colton was tucking his phone back into his pocket, his face white.
He jumped off the horse, carefully lifting both the boys off.
He handed the reins and Hunter’s hand to Cash and sprinted to us. “Stay here for a second, boys.”
Ellie finally looked up. “Uncle Colt, took you long enough.”
Colton was looking back and forth between us.
“I was tryin’ to hurry, Ellie, I swear.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
He didn’t even stop to think before he touched the back of my head and kissed the top of it for a long beat.
He pulled away, hesitant to tear his touch away from my head. “Are you both okay?”
Ellie wiped her nose with her sleeve. “I want my daddy.”
“Your daddy is comin’. I just called him to help me find Marty,” he said, glancing back to check on the boys. “Are you hurt?”
Upon hearing her dad was coming to rescue her, Ellie was filled with a newfound energy. She stood and brushed dirt from her pants. “Well, if this city job doesn’t work out, I think Ally has a future in being a pick-up rodeo man, well, woman.”
“Yeah?” Colton asked as he examined his niece for any injuries. He looked around her at me, an eyebrow raised in question. “What’d she do?”
Ellie told the story as dramatically as possible, throwing her hands up and making sound effects with her mouth.
“Then, she got a millimeter away from Marty and yanked me from his saddle! When I got on her saddle, Gracie forgot to look where she was going and stopped two inches away from a tree. She stopped really hard and threw Ally into the tree!”
When he heard this, Colton’s full attention turned to me. “She did what?”
“Daddy!” Ellie ditched Colton and sprinted toward Jimmy, who was running through the woods. “I could’ve died!”
Colton didn’t turn to acknowledge his brother. He inched his way closer to me, his eyes locked on mine. “Ally. Are you hurt?”
My mouth was dry. “I’m okay,” I promised.
He stood and held out his hands. I placed my palms that were coated in dirt in his calloused fingers and let him help me up.
We were standing now, but neither of us let go. The trees turned into a blurry, dreamlike vision. The wind stopped. It was as if the world around us disappeared.
“Ally…” He moved his hand to my cheek and brushed the mud from it.
“Oh my goodness, Allegra,” Jimmy’s voice called out.
Colton’s hand fell from my cheek, and I dropped my arm. I turned to face him.
Jimmy was wearing an old t-shirt and sweats, no doubt having dropped everything when Colton called. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did for my little girl,” he said, throwing his arms around me.
I winced a little from his tight squeeze, but hugged him back. “It was really nothin’. Is she okay? Poor little thing was shakin’ for a while,” I said, my Texas accent slipping out as smooth as butter.
Jimmy released me and shot a glance at his three kids. Ellie was telling the story to Cash and Hunter all over again. “I think she’ll revel in the attention she’ll get for this one. She’s fine, thanks to you.” He sighed. “Are you alright?”
“I am. That could’ve ended a lot worse if she weren’t such a good rider.”
Colton’s palm was suddenly pressed against the small of my back. “It would’ve been a heck of a lot worse if Ally hadn’t been the best rider this side of the Mississippi.”
“Ellie says you’re the best pick-up rider she’s ever seen,” he said, nudging my shoulder. “I gotta get these kids home. But later, you’re tellin’ all of us where you learned to ride. Deal?”
I prayed he’d forget to ask. “Deal.”
“Erin is already parkin’,” Jimmy said to Colton, glancing at his hand placement. “She’ll grab Marty. I’ve got Nova. You two go home, take Gracie, we’ve got this.”
“Thanks, Jim.”
He nodded and walked back to his kids.
I watched in wonder, amazed by the support this family had for each other. Jimmy was loading Hunter and Cash back on the horse, took Ellie by the hand, and started walking the horse back to the main path.
“You’re a liar,” Colton said, making me jump.
“I am?” I asked, a little surprised.
“You got hurt.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. Really, it’s nothing-”
“Let’s get you back to the house,” Colton said. “We’ll see if it’s actually nothin’ or not.”
Gracie, the amazing horse she was, had stayed close, despite not being held or tied up. She simply stood waiting for us.
I got on first, grabbing the saddlehorn. Colton’s hands found my waist and gave me a small boost onto the saddle. I smiled down at him in thanks. He was blushing as he pulled himself onto the horse.
I sat behind him, my arms around his waist unapologetically.
~~~
I followed Colton down the hall. “I promise I’m fine.”
“You can tell yourself whatever you want, but at least let me help you get some of the dirt off your face,” he said, walking into the bathroom.
“It’s quiet here,” I observed, looking around the empty house.
“Dean is probably around here somewhere, but Mamma and Dad are in town for the day.”
I stopped short when I saw my reflection in the mirror.
I was disgusting. My bright blonde hair had turned into an ashy gray.
The left side of my face was coated in dirt, and all my makeup was gone.
My shirt was ripped on one side, probably from the branches while I was riding, and there was blood on the edges.
“Have a seat,” Colton invited me with a teasing grin. He took off his cowboy hat and rested it on one of the towel racks.
His hair was a mess, loose curls clinging to his forehead, sweat making it stick to his neck.
I saluted him, immediately regretting it, and sat on the edge of the bathtub. “Yes, Dr. Nash.” My gosh, could I be any more of a nerd?
Colton turned the water on, letting it run for a while to heat up. He grabbed a homemade rag and held it under the water. “Let me know if this is too hot,” he whispered as he knelt in front of me.
It was.
Colton was an inch away from my face, breathing quietly. I could smell his sweat and see little dots of perspiration on his forehead. He dabbed the rag on my cheek and started wiping. “Is that okay?”
“Yes,” I whispered back.
He wiped my face off so gently, going back to rinse the rag off once. It felt like heaven.
It was time to see if there were actually any physical injuries from the tree. I lifted the sleeve of my shirt, just enough to reveal my skin getting more purple by the minute.
“Oh, Ally,” Colton said in surprise. “That’s-”
“It’s not that bad,” I argued. “I bruise like a Georgia peach. You saw my eye.” I was definitely lying, and he definitely knew that. It hurt so bad.
“You don’t have to be tough with me, Ally.” He was kneeling in front of me again, his hand on my knee. “Please, trust me?”
He phrased it like an invitation, rather than a demand. I ignored the pitter-patter of my heart and let my guard drop. He had done so much to earn my trust; I didn’t doubt that he wouldn’t honor it.
I took my shirt off, wincing, feeling incredibly exposed in my tank top. I lifted it higher to see what had caused the rip and blood. A long scrape, no doubt from one of the tree branches, was slicing across my skin.
Colton swallowed, hanging on tight to my ripped blouse. He lifted the strap of my tank top off my shoulder and placed it tenderly on my arm, careful not to touch the bruise. “That’s gonna be sore for a while.”
“Yeah,” I said back, lamely, not able to come up with anything more clever. I stood in front of the mirror, wanting to see how bad it actually was.
The purple spots wrapped around my shoulder and stretched into my back. He was right, it would be sore, but that was all.
I was incredibly lucky I didn’t do more damage.
He stood behind me in the mirror. His white shirt was as dirty as my face was. I wanted him to take it off. I wanted him to feel as vulnerable as I did in my thin tank top.
Colton’s hand was on my waist. I took a breath, steadying myself. He pressed his chin against my temple. His eyes were closed. He was breathing hard.
In an instant, he pushed my waist, forcing me to spin. His thumb tucked itself under my chin, forcing me to look up. We stared at each other for only a second before our lips crashed into each other.
He moved his hands to my cheeks, and mine found his waistline.
He opened his mouth, inviting my tongue inside. I complied.
He kissed like a cowboy, tough and gentle, all at once.
My heart was pounding. I was light as air. Nothing felt as right as kissing Colton Nash did.
“Oh, hey guys! How was the ri-”
Colton and I pulled ourselves away from each other to see Dean standing in the doorway.
We were in the middle of the bathroom, Colton holding my shirt in his hand, making out like teenagers.
Dean put his hands up and slowly backed away.
Colton and I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.