Chapter twenty-five
“Chasin’ You,” Morgan Wallen
“ I think Dean is in love.”
Apparently, the little package he was holding was a massive cinnamon roll from a bakery owned by a woman named Charlotte who inherited the bakery from her grandmother, who was a first-generation immigrant from Germany. I’d barely taken a bite before he led with that.
“Well yeah, have you seen him the past two weeks?”
“I thought he’d never get over Penny, but I guess he’s moving on to someone—”
“Eric, you can’t be that blind, right?” Eric looks up from the bite he’s taking with an endearing look of confusion on his face. Bless him. I elaborate to put him out of his misery. “He’s still in love with Penny, he’s just finally decided to do something about it.”
“Really?” The look of satisfaction on his face is two steps away from adorable. The icing on his chin crosses him over the border to being adorable, and I have to really rein it in to not wipe it off.
“Oh yeah, he’s got it bad. Have you seen him talk to any woman but me, Christine, or your mom since the fourth?”
“Well, no. But I also kind of thought that was because he could have a crush on you.”
The statement now puts me in the confused category, and slightly satisfied. Eric looks jealous. Jealous! Not like punch-someone-in-the-face-jealous , but more of an I’d-step-back-if-it-really-made-them-happy kind of jealous. He looks so vulnerable as he admits it that I can’t hold him to it.
“Eric. Are you…jealous?” Apparently, I can hold him to it.
“Of course I was.” When I don’t say anything, he continues. “He’s always been easier to get along with, I get that. And you guys always seem to be off huddled in a corner talking. I couldn’t get a read on it.”
“Well, basically every time we were talking in a corner, as you put it, we were strategizing ways for him to win Penny back. Among other things,” I quietly tag on. No need to elaborate that those other things involved Dean trying to get Eric to fall in love with me. “But Dean reminds me of my brother. Thought that from the first moment I met him.”
“You said your brother is in Idaho?”
“Well, yes. He used to live in California too, but he moved back a few years ago.”
“Does any of your family still live in California?”
Trying not to think too much of my sperm donor, I still manage to answer honestly. “My dad does.”
“You haven’t mentioned him much—”
“He’s not a part of my life any longer.” The answer is clinical. Rehearsed. It’s what I say anytime anyone asks about the man that removed any paternal interest from my life.
“Alright, we’ll save that one for another time.” Eric quickly pivots as he notices the shift in my mood. “What other things are you and Dean plotting in the corner, then?”
He just had to catch onto that. Couldn’t let it go. “Trying to get me to stay here longer…” The sparkle in Eric’s eye lets me know exactly what he thinks of that answer. I know he wants to dig in more, but instead of saying anything he packs up the remaining cinnamon roll and sticks it in my fridge.
“Alright, Red, let’s get to the main house a little early tonight. Momma’s makin’ enchiladas and I know she’ll want the help.”
Already knowing the answer, I ask, “Want to take my car?”
“I’m going to return that thing when you’re not around to stop me. That’s too small of a car for these roads, and I don’t like it.”
“It’s all they had on short notice! How many times do I have to tell you that I like driving big cars? No need to add insult to injury.”
“Want to drive my truck?” He has the keys dangled in front of me for all of two seconds before I snag them and run to the driver’s seat.
***
I blink and another week and a half goes by.
My mother is thrilled to hear the somberness of my voice when I talk about leaving here. We’ve talked on the phone at least once a week since she moved back to Idaho, no matter where I am, but she’s never really been as invested as she has been about my time in Colorado.
I get an update on my niece and nephew, and I listen to a solid forty-five-minute rant about how she thinks my sister-in-law is pregnant again, but they’re trying to keep it hush-hush. My brother and his wife went through fertility issues, so each kid was and always will be a blessing. After having more miscarriages than any couple ever should have, they’ve always kept pregnancies pretty quiet until she’s showing.
I listen diligently as my mother outlines exactly why she thinks a third kid is on the way, and I don’t miss that she takes every opportunity she can to subtly hint that I maybe should think about settling down since having kids is something that takes longer than expected.
I’ve always thought I wanted kids, and if I felt actually secure in the relationship, I’m sure I’d love to become a mom. I’m just not there yet.
There are a couple of kids that come around dinners at the ranch, and I don’t miss how sweet all of the grown-ups are to them as they’re running wild.
It took me three days to convince Penny to finally come to dinner, and I wish there was some way I could have secretly documented Dean’s facial expression when he saw her walk through the door. Pure love. That man has pure love for her, and she’s not going to last long resisting him.
She’s back for dinner tonight, and I can tell she’s letting her guard down inch by inch, and damn if it isn’t satisfying.
After a hearty King Casserole, everyone decides it’s time for another round of roping out in the arena. It’s become such a customary activity at this point, I fall right in step grabbing some beers and popsicles before heading out. Having Penny with me this time too is fun. I can pester her with a lot of questions live and in-person instead of waiting until the next day like I normally do. Penny, Christine, and I walk our way over with our goods in hand while the boys all get the horses ready.
“You ever still Barrel Race, Penny?” Christine asks as we’re setting up the cooler by the chairs.
“Not anymore. After I lost Sunny, I didn’t have it in me to train another horse.”
“You lost a horse?” I look over at her to see her face fall a smidgen.
“He broke his leg and there was nothing we could do to save him. He was my favorite.” And then she looks to my left. I follow her gaze and notice the Randall brothers are all making their way in our direction. “Eric actually trained him up for me, isn’t that right?”
Eric nods. “He was a damn good horse, broke my heart when we lost him.” Penny’s bittersweet face is just another example of the type of bond people develop with their horses around here. “Want to ride King tonight? He’s fresh, but I think he’s going to be fuckin’ fast.”
“Barrel?”
“Yep, I’m preppin’ him for Charlie’s daughter, so working on keeping him calm, but so far he’s got the hang of it. He could use another set of spurs.”
They take off toward the barn and come out a little later with a beautiful black-and-white paint horse that looks young, but sweet. Eric heads out to set up the barrels while Penny strokes King and gets to know him a bit before swinging her leg over to mount him in one fluid, graceful motion I would be lying if I didn’t admit I envied. To my right I hear Dean softly whistle, nothing but admiration in his eyes.
“What?” You’d think he’d be ashamed I caught him ogling, but he’s not trying to hide it in the least. “Just wait until you watch her ride, she’s a dream.”
“Dean, you’re drooling. Try not to be too obvious, alright? You’re going to scare her off.” Christine adds as Trevor comes up behind her, wrapping his arms protectively around her waist, kissing her right shoulder while subtly placing his hand over her stomach. I don’t miss the gesture, but everyone else does. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen her drink a beer in the last week. If I were a betting person, I’d say an announcement is on the way…and it makes me a little sad I’ll be gone by the time that usual eight-week mark hits.
I shake myself out of it while Penny takes King for a few laps around the arena, picking up pace here and there to see what his stride is like. King seems like a pretty chill horse, all in all. He listens without hesitation to what she wants, and he doesn’t show any signs of jitters. After settling in, she lines him up at the end of the arena and kicks him into gear. Literally.
It’s decided right then and there that I want to also be Penny when I grow up. The way she smoothly guides the horse around each barrel makes me so envious I don’t have the same skill, but the way she does it without any apparent effort almost tricks me into thinking I could have that much skill. She finishes the race against herself with so much speed, King looks like he’s having the time of his life.
“I love her. I do. I’d marry that woman tomorrow if she’d let me.” Dean lets out a puff of air with the sentiment, like he’d been holding that tight inside and finally let his admission go.
“Easy, Lenny, let her warm up to the idea first, alright?”
“Listen. I’ve tried avoiding. I’ve tried making her jealous—” He stares at Trevor while he says it “—and nothing has worked. I think it’s time I go DEFCON five, baby. I’m making her mine.”
All I can do is shake my head and laugh to myself as Penny rides up to the edge of the arena we’re watching from, barely missing Dean’s admission. “This one’s a winner,” Penny says, looking over to where Eric walked up. “You did a good job.”
“I thought so too. Charlie’s daughter is lucky with this one.”
“How old is he?”
“Three years.”
“Just a baby! How’d you get him so calm?”
“He has his moments, but he just has a good nature.”
Then looking over to me she asks, “Mia, want to try it out while the barrels are still here?”
“Hell yeah!” I say a little too excitedly as Eric says, “I’m not sure King’s ready for that…” But because I finished my sentence faster, I’m already up and climbing over the fence and onto King’s saddle.
“Red, he’s still pretty fresh, alright? I know you’ve gotten some reps, but maybe take it easy on him?” Eric also hopped over the fence to take a hold of King’s reins from Penny.
“We’re both new, we have that in common. Maybe we’ll bond over it.”
“Will you at least keep it to a walk first? He’s all riled up right now, if you get any speed on him, he’ll take off.” The look of worry in Eric’s eyes makes me almost hesitate, but I want to try. As silly as it sounds, I want to feel the wind in my hair and be just half as badass as Penny was two minutes ago. But I trust Eric, my friend. I don’t have the hubris to think that in my short time here I’d have more knowledge than he does on a subject he literally specializes in. It’s taken me a while to get back on a horse after the run-in with the snakes, and I don’t want to let that one experience ruin it all for me.
“Deal, I’ll just take him for a walk around the barrels and call it a night. Sound good?”
He hesitates marginally before handing me the reins, and I steer King over to where Penny started her run.
As we line up I start to notice the muscles jump in King’s shoulders, like the anticipation is just too much for him. Eric must notice the same thing, because he starts to walk over to where we are. But it’s too late.
King is a winner, and he’ll settle for nothing less than the fastest.
Before I can grab a tighter hold of the reins, King takes off in a dead sprint straight toward the back of the arena.
Completely losing grip of the reins, I’m barely holding on by the saddle horn as he makes his way to the gate that leads out to the pasture. He doesn’t waste a second before sprinting right through that opening. I hear shouting behind me, but my adrenaline is pumping so fast there’s a ringing in my ears that prevents me from doing anything but holding on for dear life. That saddle horn is all I have at this point. King’s reins are loosely hanging by his neck, and I have no way to get him to stop.
He continues at breakneck speed toward the back of the pasture, dodging in and out of trees. If I weren’t so scared, I’d recognize that he’s having the time of his life. A young horse going as fast as he possibly can has no malicious intent behind it, just pure, raw enjoyment of physical capabilities.
The trees start to get thicker, and I don’t have any idea how to take control of the situation. Branches are starting to hang lower and lower, and I’m actively ducking my head to avoid collision.
From my peripheral vision I see another horse and rider, and it takes me a second to recognize Eric and Roper keeping pace with King as he makes his wild trek of freedom.
Eric steers Roper closer to me, but trees keep maneuvering their way between us, and they have to bail at the last second to keep from colliding. My spiked panic seems like it can’t get any worse, but with each failed attempt to get closer to someone I know will keep me safe my hands start to shake, weakening my grip on the horn.
“Hold on, Red. I’m coming. Hold on!”
I quickly look over to where he’s riding one more time, and the decision costs me. I didn’t see the small, low-hanging branch before it made contact with my stomach. But honestly, even if I had seen it, there was nothing I could do.
At the last second, I hold my arm up to cover my mid-section. But it doesn’t do much good. The impact takes every breath out of my lungs as I launch back what feels like a hundred yards and fall to the ground. Pain like I’ve never felt before shoots up and down my body in sharp waves, and I can’t get a single breath of air in.
The first thing that registers is that after several attempts, I still can’t breathe. The second thing I register is that I have feeling in all of my limbs, which I would consider a blessing if that feeling didn’t include the feeling of a thousand pins being impaled in my body. The arm I used to shield myself with is on fire, and I can’t look at it for fear that there will be visible proof things aren’t how they should be. And the last thing I register is Eric’s panicked face hovering only a few feet above me, slinging together more colorful curse words than I’d ever heard before.
“Breathe, baby. Come on. You’ve got this.” I barely register hands feeling along my sides, looking for injuries. “I think you broke your arm, but I’m worried about your ribs. I need you to take a big breath in so I know your lungs aren’t punctured or collapsed, alright? One big breath, Red, is all I need. You can do it.”
A few hiccups later I finally manage to inhale, and the look of relief on Eric’s face makes me panic more. I’ve never dealt with internal injuries before, and my mind goes to all of the things that could be wrong with me.
Seeing the panic sink in, he smooths the hair away from my face and brings his forehead to mine. “You’re alright, Red. I won’t let anything happen to you. You’re going to be just fine, alright?”
Instead of answering him, I feel my eyelids droop. A shake to my shoulders makes them snap right back open, but I can feel myself dipping out.
“How bad?” I croak out. I don’t actually hear what I said, but Eric must have because he answers me.
“Your arm is definitely broken, but I think that’s it. Recovery is going to suck, and I can tell you’re going to be stubborn about it, but it’s not the end of the world. Alright, Red?”
I nod and then look around behind Eric. My breathing is starting to steady out, but speaking is still pretty damn near impossible, so I stick to one word. “King?”
“Dean went to get him. I came for you.”
That last sentence does more for steadying me than any attempted breathing did. I try to sit up, but the pain is so sharp in my arm I can’t help but look at it.
Wrong decision.
The break isn’t bad, but it’s bad enough to know it’s not right.
My stomach dips, and I try not to throw up.