Page 4 of Rancher's Heart

Would it kill the kid to use punctuation or a capital letter? Parker was ten going on twenty. He was the light of my life and the one person I’d protect at all costs. Born with severe hearing loss, it had progressively gotten worse until he could only hear low-pitch noises. My heart ached at the memory of the months he couldn’t hear me tell him I loved him or the difficulty communicating that led to frustrated outbursts.

Thankfully, his cochlear implants were successful, and we could get back to some normalcy. But it had put a strain on my marriage when I’d stopped going on the road with Troy. His family hadn’t made life easy for us when they insisted it was my fault and I should have taken better care of myself during pregnancy and not worked so much. Troy fought them for a while, but he was on the road so much that it left me to fight the battles with them, and when Troy was home, his time was so divided I took the back seat.

My family had been genetically predisposed to hearing loss as infants. There were four people in my family, including my brother, so while it was just a bump in the road for me, it was a mountain to Troy’s family. No matter how I tried to help or offer support and information, they wanted none of it.

So, most of the time, it was just Parker and I. In the summer, he’d spend time with Troy when he wasn’t on the circuit which was the other destroyer of our marriage. But I was happy living in Montana, and it meant that Parker could see his dad more often, so it worked out.

The waiting room cleared out. Mr. Belligerent turned into a puppy dog and even tried to flirt with Sarah on his way out. Thankfully, security escorted him to his car.

“I’m going home.” I sighed as I grabbed my purse from my locker after I gave report. Grabbing a coffee from the staffroom, I waved at everyone still in the report room and headed for my truck.

Climbing into my truck, I cranked the AC. It wasn’t overly warm, but I needed icicles to form on my nose if I was going to get home without falling asleep.

Letting out a sigh, I closed my eyes and let my head flop back on the headrest. A tap on the window made me almost jump through the roof.

The window motor whirred as I lowered it and I smiled at Jake.

“Sorry for scaring you. I just wanted to thank you for a good shift. I’ll let you know when I’m on next and if you’re working, we can drive together. No sense us both driving when I go right past your place.” He smiled.

“Yeah, that would be great. And thanks for not giving me shit about that girl. It won’t happen again.” I looked down at the pavement for a moment before I looked back at him.

“Your assessment skills are second to none. I trust your judgment.” He smiled again as he tapped on the door before turning and walking to his truck.My thoughts turned back to that night so many years ago when my best friend Samantha drank too much and suffered severe consequences from her strict parents, which also included staying away from me for months. Even the months we couldn’t be friends, we still managed to remain close until I’d moved to Montana, and we just drifted apart. Shaking thoughts of the past out of my head, I looked in the rearview mirror as I backed my truck out of my parking spot.

I couldn’t leave the city without making a few stops and grabbing another coffee, but soon it was just me and the open roads heading back to my ranch.

Dots littered the horizon, and I blinked as I watched them move. They were moving toward me. Slamming on the brakes, I pulled into the ditch and watched the horses move past me. There had to be twenty of them.

I didn’t have that many and none of them were mine, so I breathed a sigh of relief. Getting out of the truck, I wandered over to one, but it ran as soon as I got close. They all gathered around one beautiful blue roan. What I wouldn’t give for her.

Looking in the truck, it must be the first time I didn’t have anything to catch these horses. Reaching behind me, I popped open the clasp of my bra and shimmied out of it.

Slowly, I got out of the truck and moved as quietly as I could. “I won’t hurt you, but you have to get off this road. People won’t be paying attention, and you’re going to get spooked.” I rambled on to the horses, and a few got jumpy and moved away from me.

Except the blue roan, she stood there in her majestic glory, and I slipped my bra around its neck. “There we go,” I said as I rubbed her neck. “Where did you come from?” I looked around and noticed a road.

“Did you come from over there? Will you walk with me?” I looked in the horse’s eyes and I swore it nodded.

As I walked, the other horses fell into line and I planned what I was going to say to this horse owner, who obviously didn’t care about their animals. Good fences make good neighbors, and it also kept animals from becoming injured on the road.

CHAPTER 3

GRIFF

Standing on the porch with my cup of coffee, I took a deep breath and stared out over the lake to the green pastures and up the mountains. The peaks weren’t visible since the cloud cover was so low today, but I knew what they looked like. I could close my eyes and picture them soaring up to the sky, snow hanging on the peaks taunting us that no matter how beautiful it was down here, winter was always on the horizon.

My arm was stiff this morning, but my fingers had full feeling, so I counted this morning as a win. From experience, by noon, things would start to go downhill, but I can't worry about that until that time comes. Lifting my cup, I let the hot liquid flow down my throat, and I relished my peaceful morning.

“Hey.” A woman’s voice shouted from down the road, shattering the peace that surrounded me. “Are these nightmares yours?” I watched her walk beside one horse, who in fact was a nightmare, and I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my lips.

“They look like mine.” Setting my coffee cup on the railing, I walked off the porch and closer to the woman. I’d seen her around but couldn’t remember where.

“Well, they were all over the highway and by the time I caught them, we weren’t far from here, so I took a chance.” She put her hand on her hip, staring at me.

Her blonde hair was piled on her head in a messy bun. Messy was probably an understatement. There were pieces falling down her face, some sticking straight out of the knot, and I wanted to run my fingers through it all. This woman was tall; she was probably only six inches shorter than I was and at six foot five; I wasn’t short. She looked familiar but I couldn’t place her.

Finally, I took notice of the black scrubs. Of course, she was a nurse at the hospital. She’d been on the day I’d busted up my shoulder. I’d remembered those green eyes, and all that blonde hair now. “Follow me. Let’s get them back in the pasture.” I walked beside her and trying not to look at her breasts bouncing. What the hell was this woman doing? Surely she didn’t normally work without a bra on.

Opening the gate, I took the halter from the gorgeous woman beside me. It was at that moment I realized it wasn’t a halter at all. It was her bra. Oh my god, she’d caught my wild horses with a bra. I looked up from the bright red lace accessory back to her, but my eyes got stuck on her tits.

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