Page 54 of Snowed In with the Rancher

“I bet. Listen, I’m sorry it ended that way, I really am.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“But on another note, I think I might have figured out why Mercy reacts to you the way he does. Do you remember when we first got him, there was a loud noise in the barn, one of the ranch hands dropped something. You reacted like an asshole and tore a strip off Donald like you’re prone to do when triggered by a loud noise. We’d only had Mercy a few hours at that point.”

Asher’s mouth dropped open. The exact same thing happened when Triss knocked over the bucket. He overreacted, triggered by the noise and then the noise and Asher’s overreaction sent Mercy into a tailspin.

Was that why Mercy was so antsy around him?

“I went back and watched the barn feed from when we first got Mercy, that’s where I got that idea,” Nate said, cutting through the cannoning thoughts in Asher’s head and drawing him back to the present. “I mean, it makes sense, right?”

Yeah, it made a fuck-ton of sense.

Asher grunted.

“Anyway, bro, we can talk more about it when I’m home, come up with a solution. I mean if Mercy is just a pain in the ass it might be easier to cut our losses and sell him.” He made a regretful noise in his throat. “As much as I’d rather not. Was hoping to have him sire foals with a couple of our mares at least. Would like to sell his spunk, too.”

“Yeah, I know …” Asher murmured. “We’ll figure something out. Not ready to give up on him yet.”

“That’s the spirt.”

Honk! Honk! Honk!

“Would you knock that off?” Nate barked at their niece who was obviously growing impatient in the truck and making it known in a loud and obnoxious way. “I’ll see you when we get home. Don’t do anything stupid until I get there, okay?”

“Can’t make that promise. You know me better than that.”

“Yeah,” Nate said reluctantly. “I do.”

They said their goodbyes and Asher stowed his phone in his back pocket.

He should chase after her.

Drive to the airport and make her follow him back to the ranch. Drag her if he had to, just so he could throw her into the bed and spend all night apologizing.

But she didn’t deserve a man as hot and cold as he was. As easily triggered and broken. Because something else would trigger him eventually and he’d lose his shit all over again. It was inevitable. And a person as sweet and pure as Triss didn’t need to be tangled up with a shadow of a man like Asher.

She was better off in every way. But she’d said a lot of things that made sense and as much as she said he wasn’t broken, or that even broken he wasn’t useless, he was having a hard time believing it.

What’d she call him? A Kintsugi bowl?

Yeah, he didn’t believe that. He was broken and there was no fixing him, no filling in the cracks with lacquer and gold dust. And it sure as hell wasn’t her job to try and piece him back together. He didn’t want to lay that responsibility on anybody, not even himself, which was why at forty-two he was still a fucking mess of a human being who only got along with horses.

Glancing out the window, he watched the fat fluffy flakes fall.

He hadn’t ridden the fence since that first day with Triss, he needed to do it. Those hillbilly assholes had probably torn through his fence again and done donuts with their snowmobiles. Motherfuckers.

Nate wanted to electrify the fence, and up until now Asher had been reluctant to do it, now he was thinking it wasn’t such a bad idea and they might need to factor that into the coming year’s budget.

He headed out to the barn, saddled up Dare, then the two of them took off. It was closing in on three o’clock, so he’d have to be quick, otherwise, they might get caught in the dark and he definitely didn’t want to be riding in the snow and freezing cold in the dark.

The wind picked up a quarter of the way into their ride, hitting them hard in the face. Asher had to pull the buff he wore around his neck up over his nose and mouth, so just his eyes peeked out, otherwise, he’d be sure to get frostbite before he reached the barn.

Dare was slow-moving as the snow was now up to the horse’s knees, but he was a good horse and powered forward. Asher leaned down and patted his neck. “Doing good, buddy. I’m sorry about this. I’ll give you extra treats and a warm blanket when we get back.”

Even though it was snowing, the divots and snowmobile tracks up ahead were visible. As was the cut fence.

Motherfuckers!

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