“See you around, Haven.”
I nearly put my hand to my chest when I felt a sharp pain, almost like a knife was pushed into my chest. It was just like at the barn. He was pushing me away for some reason.
I opened my car door once again. Before I slipped inside, I looked back at Nate. “Thank you again.”
He held up a hand and simply said, “Yep.”
Slipping into the car, I turned it on and backed up into the driveway pullout to turn around. I started to pull out and looked in my rearview mirror, only to find Nate watching me as I drove away.
Once on the road, I put my hand to my mouth and let out a soft, humorless laugh. I would probably never find out what Nate was going to say to me. And knowing that made my eyes fill with tears.
Chapter Five
NATHAN
It was the middle of November, and after yesterday’s storm, everyone was reminded of what was right around the corner.
Winter.
After the morning meeting with Blayze, Hunter, Josh, Beck, and Brock, it was decided that we needed to start our winter checklist. That meant ensuring we had plenty of hay, the winter pastures were ready to go, and none of the fences required repair. Our water troughs were functioning, and the generators were fired up and tested.
I loved the ranch in the winter. It was a much slower pace and less hectic. Once winter set in, however, there was still work to do. The cows still needed to be fed, water needed to be broken up if frozen, and the usual daily chores that came with ranch life still needed to be completed. Anyone who worked on a ranch would say they enjoyed winter because it allowed them to rest before the calving season. The fact that it hadn’t even snowed yet was a bit disheartening. We needed the snowpack in the mountains. The massive amount of rain we got was good, but we needed snow.
“You coming with us hunting this weekend?” Josh asked as he shut the barn doors that housed our winter hay. It would needto have some more hay brought in, which Josh and I would take care of this week.
“Who is us?” I asked.
“Me, Blayze, Hunter, Maverick, and Beck.”
“Elk?” I asked.
“I think Beck, Hunter, and Blayze are going for deer. Maverick and I are going for elk.”
“Um, I’ll let you know.”
We started back toward the main barn in one of the ranch trucks. I could feel Josh turning and looking at me every so often.
“Want to talk about it?”
I looked at him. “Talk about what?”
“Haven being at your house two nights ago and you not acting like yourself since.”
I laughed gruffly. “What do you mean not acting like myself?”
“Dude, half the time you are so lost in thought you don’t hear anything anyone says. Hunter asked you three times this morning if you could check the winter pastures and you never even looked at him. You were staring off at something on the floor.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was tuning you guys out.”
“Did something happen between you and Haven?”
“What?” I asked, snapping my head to look at my cousin. “No. Nothing happened. Besides breaking down into tears and crying so hard, she cried herself to sleep.”
Josh stopped the truck, put it in Park, and then turned his body to look at me. “What in the hell did you do?”
“Me?” I asked. “I didn’t do anything. She just broke down. I think she’s stressed about money. Her car needs four new tires—well, three now—and she mentioned all her savings was going into this new dog park.”
“Sophia said all the numbers for everything are starting to come in. They have some donors, me included, but they still have to put up some serious cash.”