by Jessie Evans
“So you’re not going to shoot me?” Grayson asked.
“Of course not. I’m crazy, but I’m not violent.” Reece shook her head, her gaze dropping to the floor before lifting to meet his once more. “Just leave me alone, okay?” she said softly. “You’ll be better off. I promise, I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
Grayson stood in the hospital room, watching Reece walk down the hallway toward the waiting room, wishing she’d given him a chance to prove he had a high tolerance for trouble. Especially when it came in the form of a woman who made his body ache to be closer to her and his heart long to prove to both of them that the world didn’t have to be such a lonely place.
CHAPTER FIVE
Reece
After hiding in the hospital cafeteria for nearly half an hour—peeking out the window every few minutes, until she saw Grayson get in his truck and drive away—Reece managed to get connected to the hospital’s Wi-Fi on her phone and find Cole Lawson’s number. Cole’s younger brother was one of Tulsi’s best friends, so Reece knew Cole still lived in town. And she and the middle Lawson brother had been rodeo buddies back in high school. Hopefully, he was still as relentlessly chill as he used to be and wouldn’t mind having his Christmas celebration interrupted by a blast from the past.
She leaned against the cool window as she dialed, ignoring the anxiety prickling along her nerve endings and the voice in her head insisting she’d cut off her nose to spite her face. Again.
Sure, it would have been easier to get a ride home with Grayson, but since when had she done anything the easy way? Besides, she didn’t need a controlling man in her life, even if it was only for a week and a half. Getting in any deeper with Grayson was a bad idea, even if she was desperate to get naked and horizontal with him and enjoyed his company more with every passing minute.
“Lawson here,” Cole answered, on the fourth ring, just as Reece was about to hang up to avoid leaving a voice message.
“Hey, Cole. It’s Reece Hearst,” she said brightly. “I’m in town and thought I’d give you a call. See how you were making out.”
“Reece!” Cole laughed. “Shit, girl. What’s up? What’s it been, ten years?”
“Almost twelve,” Reece said. “Not that I’ve been counting.”
“How long are you in town? We should get a beer, catch up.”
“I’d love to catch up, but I’m going to have to pass on the beer.” Reece briefly filled Cole in on her injury, glossing over the more serious implications of having a giant dent in her skull. “Long story long, I’m actually at the hospital now and sort of stuck for a ride. Tulsi and my parents are out of town.”
Cole grunted. “Gotcha. We’re finishing up dessert at my mom’s house right now. I rode up with John so I don’t have my truck, but as soon as we’re done, I’ll get him to drop me at my place and I’ll swing down to get you. Give me half an hour?”
“That would be great! Take your time, no rush,” Reece said. “And thanks so much, Cole. I appreciate it. It’s hard as hell to get around in this town when you can’t drive.”
“I hear you. Be there soon and I’ll bring pie with me.”
Reece thanked him again and hung up, determined to kill the next thirty minutes slashing fruit on her phone and not thinking about anything, especially Grayson Parker. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep from remembering the way his touch lit her up like the business end of a sparkler and how nice it had been to wake up and see him sitting by her hospital bed.
She didn’t need a babysitter or a bossy big brother figure who seemed to think anyone with breasts was in need of his manly protection, but her gut said that Grayson was a good guy, despite his alpha male bullshit. And her libido insisted that she’d made a serious, possibly tragic, mistake.
She had no doubt that she and Grayson would have had a lot of fun in bed together. Surely it would have been worth putting up with a little macho crap in order to enjoy all the delicious things that big, muscled body could do to her once they were naked and focused on more productive things than arguing. But instead of making nice, she’d threatened to get out the shotguns.
“You really are a whack job,” Reece muttered to her reflection in the cafeteria window, wondering if she’d ever start thinking before she acted.
The knee jerk reaction was her default setting, but it clearly wasn’t working out so great. Maybe Grayson was right and it was time to stop letting fear take control. But that would involve admitting all the things she was afraid of, and Reece liked that idea about as much as having her skull sawed open and doctors pawing through her brain wrinkles.
No matter how hard she tried, fruit slicing failed to capture her attention or derail her depressing thoughts, making Reece grateful when she spied Cole sliding out of an old Ford pickup and starting toward the entrance of the hospital. Reece stuffed her phone in her pocket and hurried through the cafeteria, down the wide hallway leading toward the front of the building, meeting Cole just as he started past the reception desk.
“Hey, stranger!” He trotted the last few steps, pulling her into a hard hug that made her smile. “You look great for a woman with a hole in her head.”
Reece laughed as he put her down. “It’s a dent, not a hole, but thank you. Looking pretty good yourself.” She let her gaze track up and down Cole’s long, lean body and clucked her tongue in appreciation. “You still breaking all the girls’ hearts?”
“Nah, I’m keeping my nose clean. Most of the time.” Cole grinned, his dimple popping in his right cheek and his green eyes glittering the way they did when he was up to no good.
Back in high school, that had been pretty much all of the time. Cole had been a year ahead of Reece, but they’d crossed paths in detention often enough that she knew he was cut from the same troublesome cloth that she was. Which was one of the main reasons they’d never been anything more than friends. Reece wasn’t a fan of knights in shining armor, but she knew better than to put two combustible forces together and expect anything but a messy explosion.
“You staying at your dad’s place?” Cole asked as they stepped through the sliding glass doors leading to the parking lot.
“Yeah, but just until the second, then I’m headed out.” Reece crossed her arms, huddling against the cold air.
“Back on the road?” Cole asked. “I catch your stats every now and then. You’re tearing it up.”
“Unfortunately, no.” Reece sighed. “Even if this head injury clears up fast, I’m benched until at least June. I was thinking about hanging out in Vegas until then. They’ve got short-term apartments for cheap and there’s always casino work to go around.”
Cole opened the passenger door for her but didn’t try to help her into the cab the way Grayson had. But then Cole knew better than to treat her like a girl. Very few men had been able to get away with coddling her the way Grayson had. She didn’t know why she’d allowed it, or why a stupid part of her wished Grayson’s hands were on her waist right now, lifting her into the truck.
“Why not stay here?” he asked when he was settled behind the wheel. “I bet your dad could use another pair of hands. And if not, John and I will need help in a few weeks. We’re going to start neutering the calves sooner this year.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I can stand Lonesome Point for more than a week at a time. Too much bad karma in this town for me.”
“Gotcha.” Cole nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway. He didn’t speak for a long moment, and Reece assumed the subject of staying in town had been dropped when he added in a softer voice, “You know Neil’s dead, right? Happened a few weeks ago. There was a fire in one of the old outbuildings on his property. A faulty gas line exploded or something.”
Reece’s throat tightened, but when she spoke her tone was light. “Yeah, I heard he’d passed.”
“Yeah, so…that’s not something you’d have to worry about.” Cole kept his gaze glued to the dark road in front of them, making her think
he was as uncomfortable with this conversation as she was. “You know, if you were.”
She and Cole had been close in school, but she’d left town not long after the attack. She’d never had a chance to talk through anything with Cole, but she assumed he believed what the rest of the town believed—that Neil was an innocent victim whose reputation had been tarnished by a troubled girl with a crush on her teacher. Cole had studied with Neil, too, after all, and idolized him every bit as much as Reece had.
“It’s cool,” she said breezily. “I haven’t worried about that in years.”
Cole glanced at her before turning back to the road. “Glad to hear it, but it’s still shitty. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I had no idea Neil was such a dick. I quit going over to the barn after I heard. Just couldn’t stomach being in the same room with him anymore.”
Reece swallowed hard. “Thanks.” She brushed her hair off her forehead but kept her gaze on her lap. “I wasn’t sure where you stood on that. A lot of people thought I was making it up.”
“It was a shock, no doubt. But I knew you, and I knew you looked up to him the way I did,” Cole said. “Like a second father, not anything else.”
“Yeah,” Reece said. “Hard to believe I was ever that naïve.”
“He got kicked off the rodeo board of directors after you left.” Cole turned down the county road leading to her house, taking the right fork when the road split. “It wasn’t what he deserved, but he didn’t walk away scot free.”
“Tulsi told me.” Reece shrugged. “But by then it didn’t matter, you know?” She shook her head, breath rushing out. “Whatever. It’s in the past. Better to stay in the here and now. You want to come in and have a beer when we get to the house? I can’t join you, but I’ll have a Coke and enjoy the company.”
“I’m going to have to take a rain check,” Cole said. “I’ve got to get up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow to drive Bubba and his fiancée to the airport. They couldn’t get a rental car on such short notice. But I’ll swing by in the next few days if you’re not busy. We can go shoot some pool or something?”
“Sounds good,” Reece said, digging in her back pocket for the keys to the house. “I’m anything but busy. Just sitting on my ass and hoping the swelling in my head goes down. I’ll probably help muck a few stalls to stay busy, but that’s about it.”
“Then you should come out on New Year’s Eve, too,” Cole said, guiding the truck along the pot-holed road with the ease of someone used to dodging craters in the asphalt. “Some buddies and me are hitting the Ticklish Iguana’s party. No women in the group, since we all managed to get dumped the past few months, but you’ve always been one of the guys.”
“Yep,” Reece agreed, but she hadn’t been feeling like one of the guys the past few days. She’d been feeling fragile, which was yet another reason to stay away from Grayson Parker. She didn’t engage with men when she was feeling fragile. She left that to women like her sister, who didn’t realize how dangerous it was to stand on anything except your own two feet.
“The Iguana sounds fun,” she added. “Count me in.”
“Good. I’ll call you when we get our plans hammered out.” Cole pulled into the drive, his headlights sweeping across the paddock fences before settling on the front door to the ranch house. “You want me to walk you in? Check the corners for bad guys?”
Reece snorted before punching his arm. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Cole laughed. “My ex-girlfriend always made me walk through her house before I left, check the closets and everything. Even though I can’t remember the last time anyone around here had a break-in.”
“Lonesome Point, the safest little town in Texas,” Reece said, the words emerging with more bitterness than she’d intended.
Cole’s smile fell away. “Yeah well… For what it’s worth, I wish I’d been there that day. When Neil stepped over the line. I would have helped you beat the shit out of him.”
“Like I said, it’s in the past.” Reece forced a smile. “But it’s nice to know not everyone in town thinks I’m some kind of Lolita.”
“Lolita was just a kid and so were you,” Cole said, surprising her. “I mean, you might not have been twelve, but a Humperdink is a Humperdink.”
Reece’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“Humperdink Humperdink,” Cole repeated, like she was the crazy person. “Wasn’t that the name of the old pervert in Lolita? The one who said she was Lo in the morning and four feet ten in one sock or whatever, but to him she would always be Lolita?”
Reece shook her head, grinning. “I have no idea. I didn’t know you read the classics. That’s cute.”
Coles sniffed. “I’m not just some dumb cowboy, woman. I read. I watch the home cooking network. I try to better myself.”
Reece patted his shoulder. “You’re the full package, Lawson. I can’t believe some lucky cowgirl hasn’t snapped you up yet.”
“A few have tried,” Cole said with a shrug. “But I’m not sure marriage is for me. John and his wife make it look easy, but half my married friends are miserable. What about you? No Mr. Reece on the scene?”
Reece shook her head. “Nah. I travel too much. I’ll settle down and raise horses someday, but I don’t see a Mr. in the picture. I’m too cranky to put up with anyone for that long.”
“I hear you,” Cole said with a thoughtful nod. “And I do enjoy watching home cooking shows and reading classics in my underwear. I wouldn’t want some woman around full time insisting I put on pants.”
“If she’s insisting you put on pants, then you’re doing something wrong, honey,” she teased with a wink as she reached for the door. “Catch you in a day or two?”
“I’ll give you a call, Trouble.” Cole grinned. “Don’t forget your pie.”
Reece grabbed the foil-covered plate Cole handed over before slamming the door and trotting toward the front of the house. She took the steps up to the worn wooden porch two at a time, grateful for the headlights Cole kept trained on the door until she got the key in the lock. The moon was out, but it was dark under the porch overhang and her headache was slowly creeping back up her neck, blurring her vision at the edges.
In the foyer, Reece shrugged off her coat in the light filtering in from the living room, then padded into the kitchen. She grabbed the milk from the fridge and gave it a sniff before pouring a glass. Meanwhile, the apple pie heated in the microwave, filling the air with the smell of cinnamon and buttery crust. The only sounds in the house were the faint screech of the oven’s wheels as they spun and the branches tapping on the upstairs windows as the winter wind rocked the trees closer to the house.
For the second time that day, a lonely, trapped feeling descended over her thoughts like a dark cloud. It was almost enough to make her wish she’d gone home with Grayson and faced all the ghosts that lived on the Parker ranch. As irritating as he could be at times, she felt happy and relaxed when he was around.
Or she sensed that she could feel happy if she gave herself permission to quit fighting him.
But that’s what she did. She fought and kept her fists up, even when the fight was over, just in case someone threw an unexpected punch. Especially in this town. But talking to Cole tonight had made her wonder what would have happened if she’d stuck around long enough for the dust to settle. Maybe some of her friends would have had her back, and maybe her little sister would have grown up knowing how to stand up for herself, instead of letting Daddy steamroll her at every turn.
Though if Reece were honest with herself, she wasn’t in any position to lecture Tulsi, not when all she’d done was run away and keep running for her entire adult life. Sending her father passive aggressive birthday cards and horses she knew his arthritis no longer allowed him to break didn’t prove she was strong. It only proved she was still angry and had a mean streak to match her daddy’s.
She wasn’t ready to reach out to Dale—she might never be—but maybe it would be okay to let Grayson in. Just a li
ttle, just enough to see if he could be trusted. She could use a real friend, one who knew how to listen, and Mr. Twenty Questions sure seemed willing to do that. As great as Cole was, he was a typical guy, the kind who didn’t look too deep beneath the surface.
Even a few weeks ago, superficial friends had been the only friends she wanted. But now, she wondered what it would be like to have someone she could really talk to. Grayson had obviously been through his own version of hell and knew a thing or two about coming out the other side. She didn’t want anyone telling her what to do, but advice from someone who had been where she was and found his way to a better place would be valuable.
It was ironic that the person she wanted to trust was the son of the man who had helped destroy her faith in people in the first place, but that was the way the world worked sometimes. Light and darkness went hand in hand and often good and evil were two sides of the same coin. It was hard to believe Grayson was as wonderful as he seemed—her experience was that there was always a bitter pill lurking in the spoonful of sugar—but even if he were half as good, he was more than good enough.
Now all she had to do was work up the courage to admit that she’d been wrong.
“Yeah,” she muttered around her final bite of pie. “Right after you negotiate world peace and fix the hole in the ozone layer.”
She finished her milk and went to bed, but sleep didn’t come for a long time. Not until her inner voice had convinced her that maybe admitting she was wrong might be slightly easier than achieving world peace, and certainly a hell of a lot more fun.
CHAPTER SIX
Grayson
Grayson spent the next morning going over the ranch’s books with his dad’s foreman, Hamm, brainstorming ways to make the property profitable again. But even if they replaced the old fashioned methods his father had preferred with more modern techniques—using four-wheelers to herd and implementing low-stress handling techniques to increase overall beef quality and value—he was still going to have to let people go.
