Page 14 of Live for Me

She looked over to me. “That kid is going to rule the world one day.”

“Or run a prison gang,” I added.

Valerie threw her head back, and a rich, pretty laugh came from her. My chest warmed. It was always nice to see Valerie laugh, after everything she’d been through. “What’s going on with the sink?”

“There’s a leaky pipe,” she told me, standing aside and gesturing for me to enter the house. “I told Denver it could wait. I’m sorry he sent you out here in the middle of a work day.”

I chuckled. “Val, I would much rather be working on a sink than dealing with that damn warden, I assure you,” I said, stepping into the house and veering left through the foyer and into the big, green kitchen. I pulled my hat off and hung it on one of the hooks on the wall, the floorboards creaking underneath my weight, my spurs clicking with each step.

This house was nearly one hundred years old, and my favorite part about it was this kitchen. A few years back, Denver replaced the old counter with a thick slab of butcher block and painted the cabinets a shade of green that reminded me of the forest. I rounded the island and got down to inspect the damage underthe sink. Valerie had already emptied the cabinet and placed a bowl under the leaking pipe to catch the water.

I twisted my neck, sliding my head under it to see the damage, and silently cursed.

The metal was eroded, leaving a small crack in the pipe.

I got out of the cabinet and sat up, pulling out my phone and shooting a quick text to Denver, explaining the situation.

“It’s bad, huh?” Valerie guessed from behind me, but I could hear the smile in her voice.

I looked at her over my shoulder, shooting her a knowing look. “When Denver remodeled this kitchen, he didn’t replace the piping, and now he’s paying for it.”

She smiled at the mention of her husband. “You saying he should have?”

“I told him to do it,” I said, sighing. “He didn’t listen to me.”

“He’s a stubborn man.”

I rose to my feet with a grunt, my lower back aching. “Yeah, but you love him,” I said, moving around the island. “Y’all still keep his tool bag in the laundry room?” I was already making my way down the hall as she told me yes. Once I entered the small room, I couldn’t help but smile at all the tiny pink and purple clothes filling the basket on top of the dryer.

Once, this house was filled with nothing but pain, a lonely man and a little boy. Now, it was filled with warmth and love. Whether Valerie knew it or not, the Hallow Ranch cowboys were forever in her debt. She brought this ranch back to life, and Harmony, Mason’s wife, brought the family back together. We owed a lot to those women, and we’d be damned if we let anything happen to them.

I opened the cabinets above the washer and grabbed the old, leather tool bag. As I brought it down, a piece of paper fluttered from the shelf, falling slowly before landing on top of the washer,face down. With a furrowed brow, I set the bag on the floor by my boots, the tools clanking inside of it, and picked up the paper.

It wasn’t paper.

It was a photograph.

One that contained a beautiful memory…

My eyes studied the two people in the photo: a younger me, bright eyed and ready to take on the world with the girl standing beside me. She was cheesing hard, her ponytail lopsided, her cheeks red from the summer heat. Behind us was the stream where we’d just taken a swim, and on the ground beside us was a picnic I’d gotten together for the both of us. I’d taken the photo on a shitty disposable camera with a self-timer on it from the Hayden drug store.

I’d picked her up from her mother’s old trailer in my father’s truck. Fuck, I could practically hear the low rumbling of the engine and the squeak of the passenger door as I opened it for her. My eyes dropped down to the soaked dress she was wearing, the ends of it clinging to her thighs in a way that drove me mad.

I proposed to her the day after I’d taken this photo, ready to give her the goddamn world, and she destroyed mine with a single word.

No.

Chapter Four

Beau

As the Wildlife truck drove away, gravel flying behind it, I approached Denver and Mags, who were both looking morepissed off than usual. The work day was done and after a trip into town, I’d fixed Denver’s sink.

“I take it that didn’t go well,” I mused, the photo I’d found hours earlier burning in my hand.

“The ranger they sent is a fuck a fucking idiot,” Mags rumbled darkly, shooting me a glare. “All of them are.”

“That’s been established, Mags. Four years ago, in fact,” I said as Denver turned to face me. I looked at my boss. “Is the grizzly taken care of?”

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