Page 1 of Love Me Back
Chapter One
Grayson
The first glimpse of her standing on that mountain with her back to the view captivated me. It was her. The one I had been waiting a lifetime for. Her body trembled, her eyes fixed on the parking lot, completely ignorant of the breathtaking scenery. I approached her as I would an untamed horse.
Cautiously.
Carefully.
Casually.
My words were soft, subtle. If I spoke too loudly or startled her, she would bolt. So aside from a few words, I ignored her, speaking more to her friend. I knew I needed to take my time, let her get used to seeing me around, build trust and familiarity.
The problem with that approach was it took too damn long. I wanted her in my bed, in my house, in my life. Yet here, it was more than six months later, and she still wasn’t mine. I did my best to seek her out on the rare occasions I made it to town, but the ranch kept us holed up here most days.
That would explain her hostility when we ran into each other unexpectedly. She glared at me and cussed me out when I showed her the smallest amount of attention. Like a horse that nipped when you got too close. But with time and consistency, you could tame any horse. I just needed to be near her more.
It might appear I was playing games. Just some random guy on a mountain. And sure, that was a valid assumption. But it wasn’t the truth.
I wasn’t just a random guy; I was her guy.
All I needed was a way to prove it to her. In order to do that, I needed to get off this fucking horse for one goddamn day.
The winter had hit us hard. Growing up on a ranch in Nebraska, I knew what to expect from the winter, but this past year was worse than anything I had seen in my thirty-five years.
Between the snow and the shit, the fence lines and the ice, it didn’t leave much time to court the stubborn woman.
Then we had the foals.
Why they always decided to come in the dead of night was beyond me, but there were multiple sleepless nights, making sure they all made it through the bitter cold.
Some might wonder why a sane person would choose to live in the middle of nowhere, with animals at risk of being buried alive after one snowfall.
The simple answer? This was all I’d ever known, and I loved it. Training horses was my life. It was what I was good at.
Not all the Powell children took to ranching like I did. There were six of us altogether. My oldest brother, Carson, preferred to be in town helping Pops run the hardware store. Pops was eighty-three years old, but if you asked him, he was just as able as when he was seventy-three.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Seventy-three wasn’t the same as thirty-three, but that was Pops. He was our mother’s father, and when our parents passed away ten years ago, he took over raising us.
Yes, Carson was twenty-eight at the time, but our baby sister was only nine. So, we let Pops believe he was taking care of us, because it was important to him. And that’s what family did.
They showed up.
So now Carson took care of Pops. Only we didn’t tell him that.
My younger brothers, Hudson and Emerson, enjoyed working the ranch with me, but they also enjoyed having a social life. So, when Carson moved to town, neither complained about my being left in charge. They happily took orders from their older brother.
Okay, I don’t believe it either, but it was worth a shot.
In reality, they butted heads with me every chance they got, but we made it work.
Then there was Tyson. At twenty-six years old, he wanted to forge his own path. Years ago, when the motorcycle club started a chapter here, Tyson thought it was cool. To a twenty-year-old kid, motorcycles were cool, I guess.
Five years later, he was still there. He still helped out when he could, but he was happy, and that was important to Carson and me. We wanted our siblings to be happy.
Our baby sister Addison was only nineteen. She was studying to be a vet, which would come in handy at the ranch. But I worried she was only doing it because she felt like she had to, not because she wanted to.
She was another woman in my life who had slipped through the cracks because of the ranch. It wasn’t easy when you were the boss. Not only were you responsible for the animals but also for the bills, and the income, the workers, and everything that came along with running a business.
