Page 1 of My Cowboy Boss
Chapter 1
Arizona
Only one man could make her body—ding!I snap out of the scene I’m writing as the timer goes off for the frozen pizza. I stand and my back protests from the strain of carrying my older sister Aspen’s boxes and furniture up the stairs to the apartment we share as of last night.
“I never liked that jerk she dated,” I say as I pass the sofa where my cat, Panda, lifts her head to blink sleepily at me. “And if I see him again…” I pump my hand into a fist.
Panda meows her approval. “Yeah, that’s right. You’ve got my back, don’t you, good kitty?”
I thread my way around a stack of boxes to grab the oven mitts shaped like sharks from the drawer and slide the pizza from the oven.
“Hot…hot…” I need to get new mitts. I’ll have to add that to the list of things I can’t afford right now. My goal is paying off my college debt and getting out of this crappy place.
“Things are going to get better, right?”
Panda stands, stretches and curls back up against one of the pillows. She watches me move about and I smile at my fur companion. I’ve had her since she was a kitten after finding her near a dumpster.
Music with a loud bass starts thumping on the wall behind the stove, rattling the window facing the back parking lot.Not again.I had hoped the neighbors weren’t going to have another party. It’s like that’s their full-time job.
Besides the noise, I don’t want them to keep my sister awake once she goes to bed tonight. After that nasty breakup, she needs her rest. She’s always watched out for me and now it’s my turn to take care of her.
I reach for a plate and my phone rings. I swipe the icon and tuck the phone against my shoulder as I search the refrigerator for something to drink. “Hello?”
Hospital.
Your sister.
Car accident.
I drop the plate, and the pizza slice skitters across the worn tile floor.
I’m standing in the kitchen one minute and the next I’m at the hospital rushing through the sliding doors. I don’t know how I got here. My brain feels like it’s stuffed with cotton. My heart is slamming against my ribcage.
Be okay, be okay,don’t leave me, please be okay,I pray to the fluorescent lights as I run down the hallway in the emergency room.This can’t be happening…our lives were upended after our parents died in a car accident when I was fourteen and she was eighteen.Not again…please…
A nurse speaks to me. Her lips move but I can’t comprehend her words.
The curtain is pulled back, and my sister lies there on the bed. On legs that feel like wet noodles I make my way to her side.
Her face is a map of bruises and dried blood. One eye is swollen half shut. I gasp, feeling light-headed.
She tries to smile but it comes out as a grimace. “I told them not to call you until I was cleaned up.” Her words are slowed by the swelling and come out partially garbled.
Even in this state, she’s still trying to protect me the way she’s always done. I remember after the funeral how I hid in the attic alone. Despite her fear of heights, she climbed up the ladder and put her arms around me. We spent the night in the dusty attic barely speaking a word. We were two sailors thrown into a sea of grief.
I pull myself together and paste on a smile. She was strong for me then. I’ll be strong for her now. “I’m fine. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Aspen bursts into tears, and my heart squeezes. I have to find a way to fix this for my sister.
I gingerly hug her, not wanting to hurt her bruised body, but I really want to hold on tightly and never let go. “What did the doctor say?”
“They’re getting me ready for surgery for my broken leg and arm,” she sobs.
“It’s okay. You’ll come through it.”She’s okay, she’s okay. That’s all that matters.
“I’m not worried about the surgery,” she says through the tears.
I pull back to reach into my purse for a tissue then gently pat it against her face. “You’ll get through this. I’ll take you to the bookstore,” I joke. It’s an inside joke between the two of us. Whenever I was upset in high school, Aspen always took me to the bookstore and bought me a new novel. Getting lost in fiction was how I survived the grief after losing our parents.
