Page 53 of Toxic

I didn’t say it out loud. It would just make Gramps angry. “I won’t be here alone.”

He nodded, a smile forming on his face. “That’s the only reason I’m going,” he warned me. “That biker out there isn’t about to let anything happen to you.”

We finished packing him up. “You have your wallet?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“Your meds?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” I said with a smile.

In unison we finished Dad’s old spiel, “Anything else can be bought when we get there.”

Gramps’s eyes softened. “Your dad loved you so damn much. I hope you know that.”

The pain was an old familiar ache inside me now. It wasn’t sharp and blinding anymore. Just something in the background that never really went away, but didn’t get in the way of day to day life anymore. “I do,” I replied. “Just like he knew we loved him.” I wondered what he’d have thought of me now. I hoped he’d be proud of the woman I’d become. Of the rancher I was because of him teaching me everything he knew.

Gramps grabbed his suitcase. “My Uber should be here any minute,” he said as we walked out into the main part of the house.

I stopped in my tracks frowning at him. “Uber? Why would you use an Uber? I’m going to take you to the airport.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Toxic in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee, watching us.

“And lose an entire day to driving back and forth?” Gramps scoffed. “No, this works fine. We’ll say goodbye here and in a couple months you can pick me up from the airport.”

I shook my head. “Cancel it. I’ll take you. One day doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.”

A horn honked outside and I crossed the room to look out the back door. There was a car sitting in our drive and a young guy was out front looking around with his jaw dropped open. You’d think he’d never seen animals before.

As a group, my flock of chickens, ducks, and geese rushed out, the turkeys were a few waddles behind. The damn mail delivery drivers had gotten them used to being fed and they were swarming the poor Uber driver looking for treats.

“Ah!” he practically dove back into the safety of his car as my fowl mobbed him.

Gramps had me in a hug before I knew what was happening. “You be careful, Billie Girl.”

I squeezed him back, trying not to sigh. This needed to happen. If I showed any sign that I didn’t want him to go, he wouldn’t. “I will. Let me know when you get there.”

“Take care of our girl.” Gramps gave Toxic a narrow-eyed stare.

“Will do. Safe flight,” Toxic told him. He was still leaning back against the counter as though he had not a care in the world. The warning of violence in Gramps’s tone certainly didn’t worry him.

I didn’t bother to correct Gramps on the whole ‘our girl’ thing, because he was already headed down the porch steps. I hurried after him, struggling to let him go now that the time was here. “You have your cellphone with you, right?” I asked.

“In my pocket,” Grandpa said as he put his own suitcase in the trunk of the car. The kid was locked firmly in the car and showed no signs of reemerging.

I rolled my eyes when he jumped about a foot off his seat as a chicken fluttered up onto the hood of his car. He started waving at the windshield. And though the windows were up and I couldn’t hear him, I just knew he was saying, “Shoo, shoo.” City people.

Gramps stopped and gave me one more hug. “Be good.” Then he got into the car—pausing a second to toss a chicken out of the back seat—and they drove away. I stood there, the early morning sun shining down on me, and watched the plume of dust follow them down the road.

When I couldn’t see any sign of him anymore, I turned and went back inside the house. The door shut behind me and I froze as Toxic shot me a sinfully handsome smile.

“Alone at last.”

I blinked at him. We weren’t. Butcher was outside somewhere, doing whatever Butcher did. Toxic had mentioned the other men would be here later. They were going to help usdrive the cattle to the next field today. We were so behind on doing that. With everything going on, I’d just left them in place, but now it was time to get them onto a new field.

“What?”

“It’s a joke, Lightning, relax,” he said with a chuckle.

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