Eight-Second Ride (Willow Bay Stables Book 2)

by Anne Jolin

  I was too exhausted to think about much of anything for too long. Waking Ryley up three times in the night had disrupted any chance I had of a good nights sleep and on the rare occasions sleep did come, it only brought dreams of Owen and that made everything so much worse.

  Missing him was stealing my sanity from me and trying to un-love him was like a bad trick that wasn’t working. It was hard to watch myself pass through the days aching from the same wound.

  Sunday had come and almost gone without so much as either of us changing out of our pyjamas. With the pain medication they’d given Ryley for her wrist, she slept until well past ten o’clock in the morning and Nora had rescheduled any weekend call outs. It was just the two of us alone in this house trying to stay whole.

  We made root beer floats for breakfast and had pizza for lunch. We abandoned all grown up behaviour for the entire day and it seemed like we both needed it. I was healing old wounds left over from had happened to Todd and Ryley was healing new wounds left by the knowledge of him, as well as the physical wounds from her accident.

  To make the day even more necessary, we were mourning the absence of Owen in our lives. So, we took today and let it belong to us. My mom had always called them mental health days, and we were in dire need of a mental health day.

  Lifting my head from the armrest of the couch, I swiped the hair off Ryley’s face as she lay tucked into my front.

  “What do you want for dinner, honey?” I asked, watching her eyelids flutter.

  Somewhere during the movie she’d drifted back to sleep.

  “What time is it?” she murmured, not yet ready to open her eyes.

  I looked over the back of the couch and caught the time on the stove. “It’s quarter to seven.”

  “Hmm.” Her mouth turned up in a small smile. “Spaghetti?”

  It seemed we were both craving comfort food today, and I was pretty sure there was still some ground beef in the freezer.

  “Spaghetti sounds good.” I kissed her temple.

  She opened her eyes and looked up at me. “Can we make meatballs?”

  “Sure, honey.”

  I pulled the blanket back and let her crawl off the couch before climbing out behind her. Ryley was still wearing her purple onesie with little white hearts, which made her green cast stick out like a sore thumb, and I was no better. My legs were covered by my college sweatpants, and the shirt I was wearing belonged to Owen.

  It was a black one with the sleeves worn out and a rodeo logo on the front. He’d left it here and as much as I tried not too, I very rarely slept without it.

  We wandered into the kitchen, pulling out varies pots and pans when I paused at the sound of tires crunching in the snow. I stopped what I was doing and looked into the living room to see headlights shining through the window onto the wall.

  Ryley saw them too.

  Running to the window, she looked outside, and I watched her face break into a smile that would have warmed the ice on a glacier if she’d been close enough.

  “Mom.” Her eyes flicked to me and back to the window again. “It’s Owen!”

  My heart wreaked havoc inside my body, pounding with nerves yet beating wildly knowing he was so close. I fisted my hands together as they began to tremble. Sending him away at the hospital had been almost more than I could bear, I wasn’t sure I would have the strength to do it again.

  Especially not with Ryley watching us and looking like Christmas had come again in February.

  I walked toward her and peeked out the window over her head. Sure enough, coming down the driveway was his dirty red pickup truck that I loved so much.

  He pulled in next to my bug, and as he turned off the engine, the headlights shining on the snow faded away.

  “Is he here to shovel the snow again?” Ryley asked, the anticipation in her voice was palpable.

  I looked at her and back outside. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

  Before I could tell her not to, she yanked open the front door and ran out onto the porch.

  Closing my eyes, I sucked in three deep breaths and shook out my hands. I was guessing he’d come to say goodbye, seeing as he’d said he was heading out tonight. I just hoped he didn’t stay long. My heart was already drunk on him, and a house still separated us from seeing each other.

  I opened my eyes, rounded the still open door to our home and padded out onto the porch.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” Owen said, one of his boots landing on the bottom and only step to the porch.

  Ryley hurled her bruised body at him. “Owen!”

  She connected with his chest in a thud, but he caught her and lifted her up into his arms. “You doin’ all right little lady? Seems you took a helluva tumble?” he asked.

  Looking back at him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and shrugged. “I’m okay.”

  “Don’t go bein’ so wild like that, sweetheart,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “Or you’re gonna give this old man a heart attack some day.”

  I watched her curl into his embrace like she belonged there and it felt the same as having your heart placed in a warm bubble bath. It was simple and it was comforting.

  “You’re not that old.” She laughed at him.

  The kind of laugh that came straight from her belly and reminded me of Todd. For once it was in a way that didn’t make my memories shiver, it made them rejoice instead. Owen looked at me, his eyes had lost that tiresome look I’d seen at the hospital.

  “Mind if I go on and talk to your momma for a second, Ryley?” he asked her.

  She looked over her shoulder at me and then back to him. “Do I have to go inside?”

  The panic in her voice made my heart seize a little, she was worried if she went inside that he might leave.

  “No, sweetheart.” He smiled, the kind that reached his eyes. “You go on and stay right out here with us.”

  Pleased with his response, she allowed him to put her feet back down on the porch. She stepped beside him and waited patiently as he started to move toward me.

  “Evenin’ Rayne.” His voice drawled and I felt the butterflies in my stomach stir.

  I tugged at the end of his shirt, unsure of what to do with myself. “Owen.”

  He stopped in front me, and I felt his hand curl around the base of my neck. “Someone recently told me I was an idiot.” My eyes went wide and he chuckled. “And well, I guess I’m feelin’ so inclined to believe him.”

  “You’re not an idiot, Owen,” I scolded him.

  Meanwhile, I tried desperately to avoid the way his hand felt on my skin.

  “Nah, I am.” He shook his head, disagreeing with me. “You see. It’s been occurrin’ to me that I could spend the rest of my days lovin’ you.”

  His words made my insides do somersaults, and I felt hope clawing at my throat.

  “I haven’t changed my mind,” I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. “I’m sorry, I just—” His voice cut me off.

  “What I been tellin’ you ‘bout apologizin’ for things that ain’t needin’ apologzin’ for?” he asked, using the pad of his thumb to tilt my chin up, so I was looking at him. “Just because you ain’t changed your mind, darlin’, don’t mean I haven’t changed mine.”

  I heard Ryley gasp from somewhere behind him but I couldn’t see her, all I could see was him. Could he really mean that?

  “What about the rodeo?” I asked, my eyes searching his wildly. “I don’t want you to resent us.”

  My voice was an edge above hysteria, but his eyes just kept smiling at me like he was in on the punch line of a joke that I hadn’t been told.

  There wasn’t a chance my heart could take this break up twice.

  “How could I ever resent you, Rayne?” He shook his head. “Fallin’ in love with you has been the best ride of my life, darlin’. Ain’t eight seconds anywhere on this earth that compare to holdin’ you in my arms at night.”

  My knees buckled, but he caught me with an arm around my waist.

&
nbsp; “Owen, I…” I didn’t know what to say.

  I’d dreamed about this moment, what it would be like if things were different, and now that it was here, I couldn’t find the words to tell him how I felt.

  “It don’t matter what comes outta that pretty mouth of yours right now, darlin’. I know you love me. See it in your eyes even when you ain’t sayin’ it.” I started to cry now—big, fat and happy tears tumbling from my eyes. “Sure as the winter in Alberta is long as hell and freezin’ cold is my love for the two of you never endin’.”

  He took the hand from my face and held it out to Ryley who took it eagerly and wrapped herself around the both of us.

  “I ain’t promisin’ it’ll be easy lovin’ a man the likes of me, but I am promisin’ you me.” His voice was never steadier. “So, I guess what I’m askin’, darlin’, is would the two of you ladies be willin’ to let this cowboy love you for as long as you’ll have me?”

  I was crying so hard that I wasn’t forming words nearly as quickly as Ryley would have liked.

  “Mom!” She tugged on my shirt.

  Laughing, I threw my arms around his neck and he lifted me into his chest. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  My lips came down on his and I poured my love back into his heart. I didn’t care that my daughter was watching us make out. I didn’t care that it was well below zero and I was standing on my porch in my bare feet. I wouldn’t have cared if the world had gone up in smoke around us.

  I was in love with a cowboy and he loved me back.

  “Yessss!”

  I smiled against Owen’s lips as Ryley did a fist pump into the air.

  May 2015

  I THINK SOME PEOPLE ARE scared of love. They lose themselves to the fear of what could go wrong so much that they allow the opportunity of letting their hope become a reality fade away. Love is a lot like holding sand. It’s a delicate balancing act. If you let it scare you and hold it too loosely, it will slip through your fingers and if you are too desperate for it and hold it too tightly, it will vanish in your grasp. You have to cradle your love, sure yet gentle, like the sand. Love doesn’t always wait for you to find your bravery. So, if you allow yourself to get muddled in the uniquely terrifying prospect that is love for too long, you might just awaken one day to see that someone else has built themselves a castle in the sand you were too scared to play with.

  Lucky for me, the man that loved me back was brave enough for the both of us.

  “Are you ready to go darlin’?” Owen squeezed my hand.

  I looked down at the stone before me. Six days ago, I made the decision to take Todd off his life support and less than an hour after that, he passed.

  It felt weird to say goodbye to a man, which aside from his physical body, had been gone for over a decade. That was one of the things about life that would always be so hard, the unfairness of it all. It was unfair that Todd had died young. It was unfair that Ryley would never know her father, and it was unfair that I had lost him. But life had a way of giving back.

  I liked to think Owen was God’s way of giving back to us.

  Bending at the waist, I kissed the top of his tombstone. “Goodbye, Todd.”

  I hoped he found peace wherever he was now. I wanted that for him.

  As Owen and I walked hand in hand back to his truck, I remembered what he said to Todd that day at the hospital before we let him go.

  “I promise to love those girls enough for the both of us.”

  And so far, he had.

  “I love you,” I whispered to him, leaning my head on his shoulder as we walked.

  He tipped that cowboy hat low and kissed me softly on the lips. “Love you too, darlin’.”

  I guess, in a way, looking back on things, moving to Willow Bay was also God’s way of giving back to us.

  You see, forgiveness often comes hand in hand with letting go, and forgiveness is one of those things that, well, just takes a little time. I was in the business of learning that each time I looked into that black horse’s eyes. Safe to say it surprised me just how all right I was with that kind of hard work, and well, Hell’s Gate didn’t seem to mind all that much either.

  Ryley and I had found our peace here, and with a reckless kind of man, no less.

  Yah, life sure had a way of keeping a girl on her toes. That’s for damn sure.

  THE END.

  Thomas Rhett – Die a Happy Man

  Brantley Gilbert – Stone Cold Sober

  Kacey Musgraves – Late To the Party

  Chris Stapleton – Fire Away

  Garth Brooks – Rodeo

  Jake Own – Eight Second Ride

  Jason Aldean – Too Fast

  Easton Corbin – Damn Girl

  Eric Church – Guys Like Me

  Waylon Jennings – Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys

  Chase Rice – Whisper

  Brett Eldredge – Drunk On Your Love

  Dolly Parton – I Will Always Love You

  Cam – Country Ain’t Never Been Pretty

  Maren Morris – I Wish I Was

  Chris Young – I Know a Guy

  Jon Pardi – Head Over Boots

  Chris Janson – Holdin’ Her

  One More Girl – Drunk Heart

  The Rock Falls Series

  Chasing Rhodes (Book 1)

  Choosing Henley (Book 2)

  Breaking Bennett (Book 3)

  Keeping King (Book 4)

  Saving Steele (Book 5)

  Willow Bay Stables

  Change Rein (Book 1)

  Hell On Heels

  For Taylor Holbrook, thank you for reading Owen and Rayne’s story along the way and providing me with your invaluable feedback. You encouraged me and motivated me throughout the process of writing this book while never being afraid to tell me your honest opinion. I am truly grateful for your support.

  For Larni Phipps, Alycia Sanchioni and Elizabeth Thiele, thank you for beta reading this book. There is no better feeling than knowing I have each of you wonderful ladies in my corner.

  For Ashley Martinez, thank you for always being there to pull me off the ledge when I get a little crazy. You are an amazing friend, brilliant woman and invaluable colleague. I love you dearly.

  For Golden Czermak at Furious Fotog and Justin Keeton, thank you for the beautiful photo. It has been such a pleasure working with you both and I look forward to many more projects together in the future.

  For Sara Eirew, thank you for designing yet another brilliant cover. Your work speaks for itself and it’s always exiting to work with another Canadian girl.

  For Vanessa Bridges and Amanda Mettlach at PREMA Editing, thank you for always managing to take my words and make them shine brighter, it is such an honour working with you both.

  For Stacey Blake at Champagne Formats, you are my queen. Thank you for yet another fantastic formatting job. You are absolutely the sweetest and I couldn’t imagine what in the world I would do without you.

  For the newlywed, Lydia Harbaugh at HEA Book Tours & PR, thank you for everything. I am so thrilled we finally got a chance to meet this year because getting to hug you after nearly two years of working together was long overdue.

  For Nicole Blanchard at IndieSage PR, thank you for all the fabulous work you do in creating and managing both my website and my newsletter. I would be utterly lost without your expertise.

  For my angels, the best street team a girl could ask for, thank you for everything: the man candy posts, the pimping, the teasers, and all the love you’ve shown me.

  For all the readers, these books are for you, so thank you for reading. I love you all more than you could possibly know.

  To my friends and family, my life is richer and more beautiful because you’re in it. Thank you for everything.

  MAD LOVE. x

  I was born and raised in Ladner, a small farm town just outside Vancouver, Canada.

  I never expected to be an author. Writing was something that snuck up on me and rooted
itself into my life. It was beautiful to discover that love, and I’m truly grateful to say I’ve found my passion.

  If I could leave y’all with one thing, it’s that life’s far too short to not live it out loud. Drown in your passions, hold on tight to the things that inspire you, and chase your dreams relentlessly. I can promise you without a doubt that you won’t regret it. I know I don’t.

  Mad love,

  Anne Jolin

  Website: www.annejolin.com

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  Edmonton, Alberta - 2007

  A CAR DOOR SLAMMED SHUT followed by the eerie screech of tires.

  Resting an arm on the back of the couch, I parted the blinds with one of my fingers to reveal the street in the southeast corner that doubled as our front yard.

  I squinted into the dark. The single streetlight provided little clarity, even if it had been illuminated, which it wasn’t. Something moved along the curb.

  Something wicked snaked down my spine, and my eyes, still unadjusted, seemed frozen at the sight. I rose to my feet, stalking to the front door and nearly ripped it from its hinges.

  It was only one of many things that needed fixing in this rotting house.

  Stepping into the yard, on dirt where there should have been grass, the blurred heap moved again and the chill in my blood turned to ice.

  The moonlight caught the shine from her auburn hair as her head rolled to face me.

  The next forty-eight minutes, and thirty seven seconds would remain committed to memory and to every nightmare I would plead against for eternity.