Page 14 of A Cowboy's Claim
Declan’s anger remained, his jaw and shoulders tight with it, but he had to acknowledge Sydney was a fucking force of nature. He hadn’t seen a quarter of what had just happened coming before it played out.
Sydney waited for him, silently perched on the dropped tailgate of her truck. Feet kicking slowly, she stared over the land to the distant mountain range.
Gravel crunched underfoot as he made his way over to join her. He jumped up to sit at her side and settled in. “Well, that was a thing.”
“Fucking wet behind the ears, pretending to be adults, selfish idiots.”
He snorted. “Tell me what you really think, Syd.”
She snapped her head toward him. “And they had the gall to accusemeof elder abuse when the whole reason those pseudo-adult wannabes rushed their butts out to the house for the first time in fucking forever is because they don’t want Nora to move to a seniors home. They think she’ll end up spending their inheritance. Goddamn bottom-feeding leeches.”
“That’s kind of an insult to the bottom feeders of the world,” he pointed out. He pulled a hanky from his pocket and cupped her face in his hand. “Hold still.”
He pressed the clean cloth to the corner of her eye, and she hissed. “Shit, that hurts. Swelling’s started in the orbital rim. My vision is clear, so I can skip the ER, but I’ll need ice.”
“You’re supposed to duck faster,” Declan murmured, softly cleaning the dirt from her face,
“Usually I would. Nora was there, though. Having a frail bystander in the mix really messes with thinkingme first.”
“Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others,” Declan deadpanned.
Sydney pushed his hand away, ire in her eyes. “The next time I’m on a fucking plane and someone takes a swing at me, I’ll remember that.”
He leaned in, slipped his palm to the back of her head, and held her firmly in place. Then he curled himself around her, brushing his lips over hers in a first ghostly touch. He did it again, this time with a brief nip to her lower lip, easing his tongue over the little hurt. He kissed her slowly and softly until the tension eased out of her shoulders, and she leaned toward him, a sigh brushing past his cheek.
He kissed her one more time just because he wanted to, then he pulled back and gently leaned their foreheads together. “That was quite the visit. I’m glad you finally explained the truth to the kids, although calling people that oldkidssounds wrong.”
“Crybaby, pain-in-the-ass brainless twats takes too long to say,” Sydney muttered against his lips. “The part that frustrates me is, so what? It’s her money, and it’s her cabin. She’s lived there for over fifty years of her life, and if she’s ready to move somewhere else, and she wants to spend every penny that she’s scrimped and saved over the years, she should fucking do it.”
“It would take a long time to spend the money that she’ll get out of the sale of the land and cabin. She’d have to live to a hundred and twenty to run out of money.”
“If she did run out of money,” Sydney pointed out, “it’s not as if the facility will kick her out. Government paid room and board in a seniors’ lodge is pretty sweet. Which is something we could’ve told the kids at any time if they would’ve fuckingasked.I hate it when people don’t ask.”
Declan gently massaged the back of her neck. “How are you feeling? Other than the pissed off and infuriated part?”
Sydney closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. “Better once you got there,” she admitted quietly. She stilled before she cracked one eye open and examined him with suspicion. “Declan? Whywereyou there?”
“It never came up in our discussions, but Nora had phoned me to say she has animals that need to be rehomed before she moves.”
The wariness in Sydney’s eyes faded. “Sorry for suspecting you were stalking me there for a minute. I’m still in a fighting mood.”
“It’s okay. I totally plan on stalking you in the future,” Declan promised.
She laughed, curling against him.
It would’ve been nice to leave it at that, but he did have a tendency toward too much honesty. “I’m not kidding. The stalking part.”
“Have at ‘er,” Sydney said. “Petra’s probably got us all GPS tagged like wildlife, especially since what happened with Tansy and the trip to Crazytown with Jake’s ex.”
True. Which was something that gave Declan a terrible, wonderful idea. Something to be dealt with when he didn’t have Sydney right there with him within arm’s reach.
He picked her up, twisting her until her knees rested on either side of his hips, her torso tight to his. He lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. “You’re going to have a shiner,” he warned.
“Feels like it.” Sydney stroked her knuckles over the five o’clock shadow on his chin and cheeks. “Do you have anywhere to be right now? Since I noticed you don’t have any horses in the back of your truck.”
“I’m gonna go back and get them later, but as for my agenda? Right here and right now, I’m all yours.”
What he’d like to have done was toss a blanket into the back of her truck, strip them both down, and make her see stars.
