Page 72 of Barbed Wire Hearts

Dakota hesitates, and I can tell he doesn’t agree, but instead of arguing, he closes his eyes.

“Good luck,” he offers.

And then we both finally get some sleep.

* * *

It had indeed been a fight to get Levi to agree for Wayne to check him over. In the end, it had been Kate who convinced him by coming forward and offering to get checked over with him. When he’d tried to say he didn’t need to be checked out, she’d shrugged and said if he didn’t get checked, then she didn’t. In the end, Levi’s protective nature won out and they both got checked out. Kate had winked at me when she’d won, and I smiled gratefully at her. We were all worried about Levi. Kate wasn’t here to watch him learn how to walk again, but she understands. She must. How else would she know how anxious we were about him getting checked out?

When he pulled his shirt up to reveal the great mottled bruise covering his back, we’d all done our best to hide our reaction, even Kate. Wayne, though, had whistled and shook his head.

“You should probably skip out on the rest of the cattle drive,” he warned.

“Not gonna happen,” Levi growled, and that was that.

Wayne had shaken his head and given him some stronger pills to help with any of the extreme pain and instructed him on how to stretch out the muscles which Levi already knew. He’s been through much worse than this before.

Now, we’ve been herding the cattle for a few hours and the day has grown warm. Levi refused to let Kate up on her horse this morning so she’s currently riding with Levi in the side-by-side. About half past noon, my guilt had eaten at me enough that I trotted up to her.

“How’re you feelin’?” I ask.

“Okay,” she says with a shrug. “Sore, but that’s to be expected.”

I nod. “It is. Would you like to ride with me for a bit?”

She glances at Levi. “You okay with that, big guy?”

“You don’t gotta ask me for permission,” he grumbles.

“And yet you told me I wasn’t allowed to ride a horse this morning,” she points out.

“For your own damn good,” he grumbles but he glances at her. “And I wanted your company.”

She beams and pats him gently on the shoulder. “I’ll be back in a bit.” Then she grabs the extra hat Naomi had brought her this morning and hops off the side-by-side before coming up to me. I reach down and lift her up in front of me so I can wrap my arms around her. She settles back against me, content to ride. Levi watches her carefully and then when he’s sure I’ve got her, he takes off to push the cattle in.

“I told you I was military, right?” I say after a few minutes of silence.

“You did.”

“Well, I think I should tell you a bit more about that,” I admit.

She glances at me over her shoulder. “You’re sure?”

I nod. “I am. I want you to know exactly what you’re gettin’ with me.”

She takes a deep breath as if preparing herself. “Okay. Tell me.”

“I joined straight out of high school,” I begin. “My grandpa raised me, and he was a proper asshole, not as bad as Levi’s daddy, mind you, but he didn’t give a fuck about me. Always thought my ma had lied and I wasn’t really his grandson.”

“He sounds like a real piece of work,” she murmurs.

“He was. I was kind of glad when he died my senior year, but that left me without somewhere to live. Dakota stepped in because his dad was rarely home and let me stay at his house for a few months before I enlisted.” I sigh. “Before I enlisted, we. . . the three of us got into some trouble and I needed to get out of town for a while. Levi did, too. Dakota stayed because. . . well, he couldn’t just leave the ranch, but the two of us took off.”

“What happened?” she asks, not daring to turn and look at me.

“I’ll leave that part for when we’re all together,” I say. “The important part is I left, and because of the time frame, I immediately got shipped out to Afghanistan.”

“During the war?”

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