Page 37 of Ash on the Range
I resisted tugging at it. Her eyes closed in her sleep, her face soft beneath the smoke.
No, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no fuck no.
The thought filled my mind, racing around as I stroked her hair covered in ash and pine needles. Then her eyes fluttered and my heart stalled in my chest.
"Will." Her face was covered in dirt and streaks, and half her body lay beneath the vee of two branches that come down together on top of each other. I cupped my hands around her face, leaning down far enough to kiss her and nearly overbalanced, bashing our faces gently together
"Found you," I murmured
“Fucking help," Gage groused.
I looked up to find him gripping one end of a log and grasped the other. We rolled it off her together as I held onto her body, checking for damage but there was nothing visible thankfully.
I couldn't tell if she was bruised or just battered but she didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere, thank God. The next log came off just as easily though she groaned as the branch came up and I found her. “At least I'm not the only one with a busted shoulder now,” I croaked.
Then Gage was there, lifting her. “I got her.” Blonde hair brushed my face as they disappeared into the haze. I sat in a divot of pine mulch and ash, and waited as the fire warmed my filthy, scratched and burned back.
“Nah, you ain’t dying here, fucker.” Austin gripped my chest then the world levitated.
“Put me down. I can run.”
“No, you can’t.”
Then the forest moved, taking us both with it. My body bumped along over his shoulders while my eyes streamed and drool dripped from my mouth that my arms were too tired to wipe away. Embers singed my back as we both hissed with the pain, and he cursed more than I did. Finally, the air cleared enough for us both to hack oxygen into our lungs that attempted to work again. He crawled the last few paces while I fell face first into the mud, and blessedly sank my face into it at Cassie’s feet. She stoked my burn back with wet cloths with her good hand while I tried not to scream and held her toe with my pinkie, fucking glad we were alive.
And who knew? Austin turned out to be a hero. Stranger things had happened.
Maybe I could stay on a bull after all.
EPILOGUE
WILL
I didn’t get another chance to stay on a bull at Red Hart but there were plenty of chances to ride again with the next rodeo circuit coming up. Before I did any of that, first I had to keep a promise to a pretty girl I'd fallen in love with beneath a mountain that watched us all, even if that wasn’t where we’d be staying.
“I’m gonna take you home," I told Cassie one day well after the first snows of winter set in coating Red Hart in the same blanket of white I’d seen it in that first Christmas when I fell inlove with that piece of land. It reverberated with something deep within me that this was also where I’d fallen in love with the girl of my dreams. And now, I had something else on my mind too. “I know it’s real late in the season for you to head back, but I figured they might take you with your good grades and all.”
I wrapped my arms around her, nuzzling her neck as she sipped tea on the veranda, watching the early season snowflakes fall. Cassie reached out to catch a tiny flake on her fingertip. Its perfectly formed shape was unique, just like her. I savored the moment we stole alone, memorizing the shape of her pressed to me. Everyone else was either inside the big house, or out working. It was cold but not too cold, not yet, though I figured it was about to be.
“You’re breaking up with me on a cross state road trip?”
I sensed her smile to soften her words as I studied her fingertip, the snowflake I swore she caught a moment before already gone.
“Melted already?’ I asked with sympathy. “I promise there will be plenty more soon."I’m not breaking up with you.
“Only if we stay.”Are you making me leave?
“Only if we stay.”I’ll never force you to do anything, beautiful girl.
“You can’t hide here forever.”
But I want to, just to stay with you.
“Maybe one day we could find somewhere to call home. Like this.”
“Says the boy who doesn’t know how to put roots down."
Ouch. That one almost stung. “You’re in a mood. What’s going on?” I asked her gently, stroking my fingers along her jaw as I tipped her head back and stole her ability to talk as I kissed her gently.
