Page 108 of The Only Heart that Matters

Unsure what the hell I’m supposed to say to that, I shrug.

“Angus, you are—” Callen stops short when the distant sound of a car horn blaring interrupts us. “You hear that?”

“It’s coming from my place. What the fuck?”

Without another word, we’re both on our feet and in a split second, jumping into Cal’s truck. He points it in the direction of my house worry extinguishing my rage as we bounce along the dirt round leading to Mia and Sawyer.

Shaking from the inside out, my body doesn’t know if it’s coming or going with the swing of emotions it’s been through in the last what? Thirty minutes? If it’s even been that long. I have no idea what to feel, but I know I need to get to her. Put eyes on them both and make sure they're okay.

The moment the house comes into view, Cal bursts out into a fit of laughter. “God, I love that damn cow.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter at the sight of Bernadette’s back end in the front doorway. Mia has her car door open and is honking her horn and yelling to get her attention. She’s out of luck, though. Bernie doesn’t work that way. Bernie does what Bernie wants.

Relieved the two of them are likely fine, I wish I was anywhere but here. As much as I may love her, I can’t look at her. Not now. Not yet. But here we are.

Cal parks the truck next to Mia’s car, getting her attention. The mist of rain that started a few minutes ago plasters her hair to her face, her eyes filled with frustration until she sees me. My favorite bright blue eyes have lost their sparkle. They darken with shame as she lowers her head.

In the seconds I’ve studied her face, Cal has gotten out of the truck. I follow suit just in time for him to say, “Well, you’ve got yourself in a pretty little pickle, don’t ya?”

Focusing on my brother, she speaks only to him. “I don’t know where she came from.”

Cal, chuckles. “You missed a thousand-pound cow? She’s pretty hard to miss, Mia.”

Twirling her granny’s ring around her finger, she tells the truth. “I wasn’t in the right headspace to notice much of anything.”

Cal lifts an eyebrow, his eyes flicking to me for the briefest of moments. “What had you so rattled?”

She moves her ring from one hand to the other and back again before she answers. “I needed to talk to Angus, but by the time I made it outside, he’d already left. I needed a moment to collect myself, so I stayed outside to take in the fresh air. When I snapped out of it and went back to the house, there she was. Half in. Half out.”

“And honking a car horn was what you thought would move her?” The smile on Cal’s face says he’s loving every second of this.

“Well, I went through the back door to get into the house and try to push her out, but she wouldn’t budge.”

“You left the back door unlocked?”

My question earns me a glance over her shoulder, but it’s fleeting. Her attention returns to the grinning asshole in front of her.

“Well, it looks like Bernie did you a solid. You needed to talk to Angus, and here he is.”

There is no way we are having a conversation with Callen here. No way in hell. “I’ll go get her.”

Stomping along the side of the house, it’s only a second before I hear another set of boots marching over the soggy ground behind me. I speed up, but Cal catches up to me at the back door.

“You know she only told me she came after you so you would hear her, right? She wanted you to know that whatever led to you bloodying your knuckles on the tack room door, she wasn’t done.”

“Stay out of it, Cal. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I spit at him as I push through the back door.

“Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

Siblings are so fucking annoying.

Even though I saw her in the doorway out front, seeing an adorable, albeit huge, highland cow in my house brings a smile to my face and a shake of my head. Bernadette is a beauty and a pain in the ass simultaneously. Always has been. She’s the perfect McKinnon family mascot.

Callen laughs. “Dude, there’s a cow in your house.”

“Why wouldn’t there be? My life can’t get much more fucked up.”

We each take her by a horn, gently guiding her all the way inside. I push the couch out of the way and Cal walks her in a circle around my great room and out the front door.

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