Page 8 of Reuniting with the Rancher

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BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY

GREYSON

Whatever he’d bracedfor Logan to say, it sure as fuck wasn’t that and it took him way too long to process it.

He couldn’t remember anything from the moment Logan uttered the sentence that rocked his world until now. It was like he didn’t connect with anything other than pain until his eyes settled on her sleeping face. She grimaced as she adjusted on the air mattress that seemed as expensive and fancy as a proper bed.

“Don’t say that…Mari! Don’t say goodbye…PLEASE! SOMEBODY! HELP US, God help us…Ivy…”

It took everything in him not to go to Lily’s side. When she called for their daughter… the reality of the situation crashed down on him again, threatening to break his back in two. Greyson just sat in the chair across from her bed and kept watch over her.

A small knock on the door brought her out of her nightmare.

“I’m ok Boogie,” she called hoarsely.

“You sure?”

“I promise kiddo.”

Caleb hovered for a few moments longer, listening for his aunt.Such a good kid.

Eventually, Caleb shuffled back to his room and Lily let out a slow breath, her hand on her chest. If she saw him now, she’d scream and frighten Caleb. His body wasn’t what it used to be, but he was happy he could still move through darkness like a shadow. He had his hand over her mouth before she could react. It was overdramatic, but he felt like sanity had left him hours ago.

“It’s me, Grey. I’m not here to hurt you. I have something important to tell you, and I didn’t want you to scare Caleb. Okay? Nod twice if you understand.”

She dropped her head, and he relaxed his hand. Then the crazy woman head butted him with the back of her head. He saw stars shooting around the dark room and felt the gush of warm, wet fluid that followed.

“You broke my nose Lily!” He whispered yelled. Holding his nose between his hands, he adjusted it back in place with a muffled grunt. While he fixed his nose, she rolled across the air mattress like a pissed off armadillo and hopped, limped across the room.

“Ok, I had that coming,” he sighed, digging into his pocket for a kerchief and holding his face over the side of the bed so he wouldn’t drip on it. “And I deserve so much more.” He got up and headed toward the bathroom. “Don’t go anywhere, ok? It’s about Ivy.”

LILY

“Don’t go anywhere, ok? It’s about Ivy.”

Well, that froze her right where she stood.

Lily’s heart thrummed in her head, making her lightheaded. She had gone from a nightmare, soothing Caleb, to having the strange feeling of being watched, to the horror of discovering someone in her room, and finally, the anger of realizing it was Greyson.

Boy, I miss having a security team.

She thought she’d taken a calculated risk in leaving them to escort her body double, but these two nighttime encounters with very big cowboys (and not in a good way) had her thinking otherwise.

She flipped on the light, breathed in the warm mist of her humidifier, and sucked on a honey drop while she waited for the water in the bathroom to turn off. When he reemerged, she almost felt bad for him. She’d definitely broken his nose. The swelling and bruising bloomed across his face, his light chambray shirt dotted with a good amount of blood.

“You have two minutes.”

“This is bigger than two minutes Lily,” Grey said as he sat his heavy, muscular self on her bed.

Her mouth pressed in tight - outside clothes on the bed. She hated it. Now wherever Greyson had sat, his ass on all day was in her bed. Horses, public chairs…

God, I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.

He took off his cowboy hat and stared at it. “Where do you think Ivy is now?”

The question had her spinning her ring again, but the look on his face? The pain on his face brought back all the guilt.

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