Page 62 of Snowed In with the Rancher

Footsteps echoed, crunching through the snow and she glanced up to see Nate with the gun in his hand and regret on his face. His eyes were full of unshed tears and he swallowed hard. “I don’t like this any more than you do,” he said. “I probably hate it more because we’ve had Dare since we opened the ranch. He’s a member of our family.”

She nodded and choked as she tried to swallow past the razor blades in her throat. “I’m sorry you have to do this.”

“It’s part of being a rancher.”

“Part of being a rancher,” she repeated.

She kissed Dare again, whispered another apology, and stood up, turning her back to the horse, but jumping when a moment later the gunshot rang out through the eerily quiet night.

Her body shook and the tears continued to fall.

They fell for Dare, for Asher, for all of them.

How was Asher going to be when he realized his horse was dead? Was he going to blame himself? Was this going to be another trigger for him?

“I don’t really want to leave a dead horse out in the snow,” Nate said, approaching her. “But I can’t do anything about it right now. I’ve got a tarp in the back of my truck, help me lay it over his body?”

Nodding, she stood stock-still until he returned with the big blue tarp, then robotically, she helped Nate drape the tarp over Dare’s body, covering the edges of the tarp with snow to keep it down so the wind didn’t lift it off.

Once all that could be done was done, Nate climbed into his truck and backed out onto the road. Triss didn’t realize until then that he still had a small horse trailer hitched to the back. She climbed into Asher’s truck and followed Nate to the farmhouse.

Together, they helped Asher, who was more conscious than earlier, into the house. She suggested the hot tub, but Nate said Asher needed to warm up slowly, otherwise he could go into shock if he went from freezing to boiling, so they’d have to wait before they brought him to the hot tub.

They checked him over, bandaged up some of his scrapes and scratches from the fence, double-checked he didn’t break any bones, then got him into bed and covered him with blankets, an electric blanket, and hot water bottles. They also helped a cast-wearing Hannah into the house, where she took up roost on the couch and called the vet to make arrangements for tomorrow.

Triss felt like she’d aged ten years in a little over two hours.

Her eyes hurt when she tried to keep them open and her muscles ached. But it was her heart that felt tortured the most. Like someone had taken a railway spike and hammered it over and over again into the center of her ribcage.

“Go crawl into bed with Asher,” Nate said, coming up to Triss where she stood in the kitchen, cradling her now cold mug of tea. She had no idea how long she’d been standing in front of the sink staring aimlessly out into the blackness of the backyard.

Nodding, but not saying anything, she took off up the stairs, peeled out of her wet clothes, and slid into the bed beside Asher, beneath all his blankets.

Gently, she placed her fingers to his neck to check his pulse. Steady and solid.

“I’m still alive,” he croaked, peeling open one eye and rolling over to his side to face her, albeit with a fair bit of effort involved.

“How do you feel?”

“Alive,” he repeated. “And like a horse fell on me. Just glad my legs and back aren’t broken.”

She smiled, though, it was a sad smile. “About Dare …”

“I know,” he said solemnly. “I knew pretty much the moment it happened.”

“I’m so sorry.” As if she hadn’t cried enough already, fat tears blurred her vision and she had to bite her lip to keep it from trembling.

“I’m the sorry one. I never should have gone out in that. I know better. Dare deserved better.” He swallowed and his eyes started to water. “I’m going to regret that for the rest of my life. Letting my anger and pain make me do a stupid, reckless stunt like that. I’m not fit to be a rancher. Not fit to be responsible for any life.”

“Shhh,” she cooed, snuggling up to him under the covers. “Those are the idiot thoughts talking.”

“Huh?”

She wiped the tears from his cheeks and gazed up at him. “Well, you’re not on drugs, so the only explanation is that you’re an idiot and thinking stupid things.”

He snorted and wrapped his arm around her, pulling him into his body. “Is that so?”

“Well, yeah, because only an idiot would tell me to leave.”

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