“Thanks,” I said, smiling. I wasn’t sure if the smile was from nerves or gratitude.
“See you later.” He tipped his hat, climbed back in his truck, and drove off in a cloud of dust.
As the dirt settled around us, an awkward silence ballooned into an unbearable atmosphere. He crossed his arms over his broad chest, a small smile playing out on his lips. I couldn’t help my eyes following the defined lines of his biceps, remembering how it felt to touch them, kiss them...
“So,” he said. “You gonna talk or just stand there?”
I raised an eyebrow at his clipped tone. “Really? After everything, that’s how you speak to me?”
He threw me a scornful look. The angry heat radiating from him seared right through my soul. “After everything, you couldn’t even let me explain myself?”
“Well what was I supposed to think, Brady? Your wife suddenly appeared from thin air.”
“As did your fiancé.”
“Ex. You knew about him from day one.”
“Does that make it any better with what happened between us? What if you’d decided to go back to him? Would you have ever told him about us?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. What a stalemate. Perhaps I didn’t have as much of a moral high ground as I’d thought.
He snaked his tongue over his lips in a slow, deliberate movement. “You admit your wrong and I’ll admit I’m wrong too.”
“This isn’t a school playground, Brady. We’re not playing tit for tat.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Ball’s in your court.”
I gritted my teeth together just to keep from screaming in frustration. “There is no court—that would imply that both parties want to be there. Clearly, as you’ve gone back to being the pompous asshole I first met, I don’t want to be involved anymore. I’m done.”
I turned on my heels, biting back tears. Had I really just said that? Mentally kicking myself, I started the long walk back to the ranch. It was easily a couple of miles. I knew my leg wouldn’t stand up to it but I had a point to prove.
Sweat trickled down my face. I had no idea if it was from the dry heat or the deep ache coming from my leg. I suddenly wished I’d brought my crutches. Or not drank and thrown up all my medication. Or stayed conscious enough yesterday to continue my meds.
“Where are you going?”
Footsteps crunched along the sandy ground behind me. I ignored his question, pinpointing my vision on the horizon and focused on making it there.
“Sophie.”
I carried on, biting the inside of my cheek to stem the unbearable mix of physical and mental pain. He grasped my arm, whirling me around to meet his handsome face. His fingers dug into my flesh and his eyes suddenly held a depth of fear.
“Let me go,” I said, yanking my arm back.
His grip didn’t move an inch. “Where are you going?”
“What does it matter to you?”
He pursed his lips, let go, and stepped back. “Anna and I have been separated for eight years. The marriage, if you could call it that, barely lasted a year.”
My throat suddenly felt very dry. I didn’t know what to say.
“We haven’t divorced because of...technicalities with my family.”
I glanced down at the ground, focusing on a black beetle scurrying through the dirt. I didn’t know how much to pry at this point or even if I wanted to for that matter. He should have told me about this from the start.
“That’s all you had to say from the beginning, Brady. Wouldn’t have been too difficult, would it?”
“It’s not something I like to talk about.”
“And you think my situation was something I wanted to share?”
“I didn’t make you.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a deep breath. This was going to go nowhere with that irritating attitude of his. “I can’t do this. I hope life treats you well, Brady.”
For the second time, I turned my back on him and continued the aching walk back to the house. My heart was pounding against my ribs. Tears were trying to jump free as I struggled to hold everything in.
A couple of minutes passed by before I heard tyres crunching along the dirt behind me.
“Get in the truck, Sophie.”
“No.”
“You can’t walk all the way back to the house. You’re just going to hurt yourself even more.”
I stopped and turned to face him. My lips curled back at the venom pulsing through me. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“I’m not. I’m pointing out the obvious.”
I sighed and began protesting further.
Like a bolt of lightning, an excruciating cramp exploded in my leg. A piercing scream left me. I grabbed my leg but it was no use. I crumpled to the floor in an agonised heap. Streams of tears flowed down my face but I had no idea if they were for my leg, Brady, or a combination of everything that had gone on in my sorry life lately.
It was several seconds before I registered strong, familiar arms wrapped around me. “I’m taking you to the hospital.” Lifting me into his truck, he laid me across the back seat. “Just hold on, Sophie. I’ve got you.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and jumped back in the driver’s seat.
Blood sprang from my bottom lip as I bit back howls of pain. Hot pulses stabbed through my leg like it was stuck in a sewing machine. I shouted at myself in my head for not taking better care of myself. What was wrong with me?
Squeezing my eyes shut, I concentrated on calming my ragged breathing. It seemed like hours before the truck skidded to a halt. I was so hot that when Brady threw open the door, the desert heat seemed like a breath of fresh air. He curled his arms around me once more and carried me inside.
It was just my luck that Dr Tate was on duty. He ushered us straight inside an examination room, asking questions I had no energy to answer. Brady spoke for me as he ripped my jeans off.
The white dressing was smeared with crimson patches. It looked like I’d been trying to create a paint horse on it. Carefully picking away the surgical tape, Dr Tate removed the bandage and murmured a heart stopping, ‘Ah’.
“What’s wrong?” Brady asked, grasping hold of my hand.
“It’s infected,” the doctor replied. “She needs to stay in on an IV drip of antibiotics.”
“No,” I said. “Please. I don’t want to stay in again.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But you’ve left yourself no choice. If you’d followed the instructions I gave you then you wouldn’t be back here.” He glanced up at Brady. “I thought I’d left her in your capable hands?”
Anguish streaked across his tanned features. “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy dealing with other things. I didn’t realise she wasn’t taking her medication.”
The doctor shook his head. “Never mind. Life gets in the way for all of us. At least she’s here now.”
“Can’t I just have some tablets or something?” I asked, not wanting to spend another minute inside one of these damn places.
“They won’t work fast enough, I’m afraid. We need something in your system now before septicaemia starts to take hold.”
“I’m guessing there’s no chance of me flying home any time soon then?”
He smiled, his blue eyes shining with sympathy. “I could have let you fly home next week, but after this, I’m afraid you’re grounded until you’ve made a full recovery. If anything happens to you in the air, it’s on my head.”
I sighed and nodded. “I understand.”
He disappeared to fetch some nurses and set me up a bed. With the click of the door closing behind him, a crackling silence fell in the room.
Running his thumb over my knuckles, Brady said, “I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t need to do that. I’ll be fine.”
“I want to do it. I shouldn’t have left you in the first place.”
I glanced at him. His big brown eyes glistened with a film of water. Was he nearly crying?
Why?
“I...I’m sorry, Sophie,” he said, letting out a deep breath. “I’m so sorry for everything. I can’t believe I nearly lost someone else because of her.”
I frowned. My heart hammered against my ribs. What did he mean by that? I kept silent, not wanting to interrupt his train of thought. He lifted his head and gazed out of the window behind me.
“That’s how I lost my sister,” he said. His throat bobbed up and down twice before he continued with the killer sentence. “I was too busy arguing with Anna...when Kelsa rode out on her own...and was killed by a mountain lion.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I gasped. My throat ran dry. Words failed me. The emotional trauma an almost repeat situation must have done to him...if only I’d let him speak.
“I’m so sorry, Brady. If I’d known—”
“It’s ok,” he said. He looked back at me and smiled. “You weren’t to know, were you? I just...it didn’t even enter my head that it could happen again. My luck’s bad but even I didn’t think it could be that bad. I can’t believe I let you go out.” He removed his hand from mine, leaving a cold space. He balled his hands into fists at his sides. “It hurt so much when I lost Kelsa. If I’d lost another person that I love because of her...”
He walked towards the window, his back to me. Silence filled the room. The clock on the wall ticked time by with an agonising series of clicks. My heart ached for him. I wanted to envelope him in the same hugs he had me craving for. I wanted him to open his heart, tell me his woes, and let me heal him. Like he had done me.
“Anna and I met in Vegas. I was there with a group of mates, celebrating my twenty first birthday.” He turned and sighed. Tension seemed to leave him as he managed a smile. “Yes, it was a cliché drunken wedding in ‘The Little Chapel of Love’. Two of my friends also got hitched that night. Strangely, they’re still happily married.” A light chuckle left him. “My father is an oil tycoon. He and my mother hate each other with a passion, but they both believe in marriage is for life. As such, when they set up mine and Kelsa’s trust funds, it was written in that if we ever divorced, we would lose it. When Kelsa died, her trust fund was merged with mine.”
A dawning horror began to slowly piece things together in my head. “Lose it? Where?”
“The partner. Anna.” He shook his head and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I couldn’t care less about my part, I don’t need it. But I refused to let her have her grubby hands on Kelsa’s. She’s been serving me with divorce papers since we split, knowing damn well I won’t sign them. She enjoyed rubbing it in my face that we were either connected for life, or I could choose her over my sister. That’s how she saw it anyway. She hated how close we were.”
I was dumbfounded. I let the situation soak in for a few seconds. “And now you’ve signed the papers?”
He nodded and shrugged his shoulders. “No use having all the money in the world if you can’t be with someone because of a stupid technicality. Money doesn’t bring happiness. I know Kelsa would want me to be happy.” He came back to my side and took my hand in his. “But I’ve had no reason to give in until now. Until I met you.”
My heart burst. A comforting warmth seeped through my chest, slowly spreading to every part of my body. Happy tears threatened to spill and I couldn’t hold back my emotions any longer.
“I love you,” I whispered, squeezing his hand.
His eyes widened and he burst into a beaming smile. “Do you have any idea how happy you just made me?” He stood up and wrapped his arms around my neck. “I’m the happiest man in the world right now.” He pressed repetitive kisses against my hair. “I love you so much, Sophie. So damn much.”
I closed my eyes and returned his hug. This was all I needed. Sod the responsibilities I still had at home. I knew with this man by my side, anything was possible. How could I have ever doubted otherwise?
“Promise me something,” he said, pulling back just enough so our noses were touching. He cupped my cheek and stroked me with his thumb. “Don’t you ever put that horse before you again. Do you hear me?”
I nodded. The breathless plea in his tone of voice cracked my soul in two. “I promise.”
“Good.” He kissed the end of my nose. “You have no idea how scared I was that night. I can’t believe you did that to save him. Regardless of the sentimental ties I have with him, I could live without him.” He brushed a gentle kiss over my lips. “But you, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
Nodding, I titled my lips up to his, returning his previous gentle kiss with my own tender one. I ran my hands through his silky dark hair, remembering the last time I’d done this—in my bed.
The sound of someone clearing their throat jolted us both from our intimate moment.
Dr Tate stood grinning at us with a wheelchair in front of him. “Right, your bed is all set up. Shall we?”
Brady lifted me into the wheelchair and followed Dr Tate down the dozens of winding corridors. How anyone found their way around here amazed me.
Twenty minutes later, I was cushioned in a soft bed with a drip in my arm. The TV blared away in the background with some cheesy daytime show. Brady took a seat next to me. Even though he was only a matter of a few feet away, it felt like a million miles.
I shuffled over in my bed, pressing my back up against the metal railings. The coldness of them was more than welcomed at the moment. Patting the small space next to me, I motioned for him to join me.
“How skinny do you think I am?” he said, chuckling.
He kicked his boots off and climbed in next to me. Curling me against his side, I nuzzled into his chest, inhaling his scent like a drug. I kissed him, just over his heart, and settled against him.
“Brady,” I said, trailing my fingers just under the hem of his shirt, across his taut abs. “I want to know what real love is. And I want you to show me.”
He tightened his arm around me. With his index finger, he tilted my head back until I was looking into those captivating chocolate eyes of his. He brought his mouth down on mine with such a tender sweep, it stole all the breath from my body.
“Gladly,” he said.
Chapter Thirty-Five
So here we were, four weeks later, stood in front of my parents house in typical rainy England. Brady squeezed my hand and gave me a reassuring kiss.
“Come on, cowgirl, let’s get this over with.”
We’d arranged to come over for two reasons—one to finalise the split of all the assets with Ben, and two so my parents could meet Brady—although they didn’t know this yet. Walking through the front door, the one thing I hadn’t been expecting to see was my sister’s Jimmy Choo’s in the hallway.
As if I’d been smacked in the face with a shovel, I froze. Brady’s bulky mass bumped into me from behind. Bile rose in the back of my throat as a furious mix of nerves and anger boiled in my stomach. My parents knew what time I was arriving, why did they allow her here?
“You ok?” Brady asked, his hands stroking up and down my arms.
I took just a couple of seconds to regain my composure and nodded. She was not going to get the better of me.
He planted a lingering kiss on the back of my head and for just a moment, I closed my eyes and revelled in it. Then came the familiar creak of the living room door being opened. I blinked my eyes open to see Alyssa stood staring at me.
Her perfect, curvy, bikini body had now dissolved into a thin skeleton. Her porcelain skin was dotted with angry red spots, and her usual vibrant green eyes were flat and sunken into their sockets. She looked dreadful. I smiled.
“Hi,” she said, her eyes flickering to Brady behind me.
“Hands off, bitch,” I said. If I could have spat venom, she would have had a face full of it.
“I’m sorry, Soph,” she said, taking a step towards me. “I never meant for it to go that far.”
“Oh, but you meant for it to happen?”
“No, of course not. I just...it just—”
“Save
it,” I said, striding forwards. “You did me a favour anyway—as I’m sure you can see.”
I walked past her, knocking into her shoulder on purpose as I made my way through to greet my parents. After having seen her here, I wasn’t surprised to see Ben sat on Mum’s pristine cream leather sofa, smirking like the cat who’d got the cream.
“Howdy,” he said, easing back into the soft leather like he owned the place. “Knew you’d come back.”
“Like you know everything of course.”
His gaze fell on Brady and he clenched his jaw. “What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” I said.
“Enough,” Mum said, standing up from her beloved chair. The leather had more creases and wrinkles in it than a century old person but it was incredibly comfy. “We want this aired, dried, and put away once and for all. This isn’t just about you two. There are other people this affects too.”
“You know what?” I said, fixing a steely glare on her. “I actually couldn’t give two shits.”
“Sophie Louise—”
“Save it,” I said, putting my hands up in the air. “How many of you bothered to come out and see me after I nearly got eaten alive by a mountain lion, hmmm? And you,” I said, glaring at Ben. “Left me in the hospital to come back for her.”
“Sophie,” Mum said, walking towards me. “We had both daughters in hospital at the same time. We could only be in one place at once. John assured us you were in the best of care and kept us updated every day.”
I snorted. “Oh, well that’s alright then.”
Mum frowned. “Where’s this attitude come from? Stop it now.”
“I don’t have an attitude, Mum. I just grew a backbone, that’s all.”
“You’re being rude, Sophie. You’ve not even introduced us to your friend yet.”
“Quite frankly, with how you’ve all acted towards me, I’m not sure I want to.”
Cowboys & Horses Page 16
