Page 2 of Broken Player

“Okay,” I quickly agreed. I felt safe with Maddox. If it meant freedom from Tyler and Jacob, I’d gladly follow him around all day. A flush crept up my neck again when he reached for my hand, tugging me toward the bus. I’d never be able to thank him enough for what he did for me today.

The boy next door was a mystery, one I suddenly wanted to discover more than anything.

Present Day…

A beadof sweat rolled down the side of my neck, tickling my skin. I reached up and swiped it away, adjusting the wide-brimmed hat on top of my head. It was my only protection against the blistering heat of a mid-day Texas sun.

Storm, the horse I currently rode, was impatient and stomped his hoof, causing dust to kick up around us. I bent down and patted his neck. "What do you say we take a break?" I murmured near his ear, and he tossed his head back, his mane brushing against my sticky skin. I gripped the reins and dug my heels into his sides, gently nudging him toward the pond across the pasture.

My body swayed side to side as Storm trotted slowly across the grass. I squinted my eyes, my gaze searching the horizon for Quinn, my best friend and fellow ranch hand. Instead, in the distance, I could barely make out a weathered farmhouse, and my breath caught as the memories washed over me. I tried years ago to shut them off, shove them down to some deep place inside my brain where they were locked away so I could move on.

But it never worked. It never worked because of that house, sitting on the edge of my family's ranch, at the edge of my consciousness, always lingering just out of reach just like theboy who grew up there. Even after twelve years, Maddox still consumed me.

I had just four short years with him before he left one night when I was fourteen and never looked back. He went from my best friend, protector, and first love to nothing all in the span of one night that I hadn't seen coming.

I'd been crushed. Devastated. The kind of inconsolable pain that I didn't think my teenage heart would ever recover from. And I'd been partially right. Time had dulled the ache where Maddox had carved out his place on my soul, but the scars were still there.

I refused to think of myself as pathetic, though. So many aspects of my life had been shaped by those four years. Yet, here I sat, desperately trying to keep my family's ranch going, on top of this horse in the middle of my daily chores. Was this what I had planned for my life? Hell no. But it was where I'd ended up, and I wouldn't be resentful.

I climbed down off of Storm, my boots scraping along the dry ground as I walked to the shaded spot by the waterline. I pulled my hat off my head and adjusted my ponytail, sweeping the escaped tendrils behind my ears and sitting down on the soft grass, leaning back against a tree trunk.

I heard the pounding hooves before I saw him, and a slow smile spread across my face as I looked to my left and watched as Quinn came into view on the back of his horse, Daisy. He rode right up next to me, pulling back on the reins so Daisy would stop.

He hopped off of her back, his boots making a loud thud on the dirt before he patted her haunches and sent her over to the water. Watching him close the distance between us, his sculpted frame, messy dark hair, and hazel eyes framed by long, dark lashes were every girl's fantasy. Too bad for all of us he wasn'tinterested. That didn't mean I couldn't enjoy looking at him, though.

Quinn flashed me a cocky smile. "My eyes are up here, sweetheart."

I laughed. "Damn, you caught me. If you didn't want me to stare, maybe you should try putting on some weight, maybe around the middle."

He dropped down beside me, leaning against the tree so our shoulders touched. "Not a chance. I don't exactly have a lot of prospects out here in this podunk town, so I'm not about to let myself go and miss out on the random app hookups in the city. I've got to pull them in somehow, and a picture's all I've got to work with."

Biting my lip to keep from smiling, I eyed him up and down. "You do you, boo. Just don't mind me ogling you from time to time. Checking you out is the most action I've had… ever."

Quinn sighed, wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulled me into his body, and kissed the top of my head. "When are you going to let go of the boy next door, Mr. Manwhore Rockstar himself, and finally move on?"

Resting my head on his shoulder, I closed my eyes, and dark, haunted eyes with gold flecks flashed in my mind. "I don't know if I can."

Working the ranch was so far from the life I'd dreamed it was almost laughable. If I'd told my ten-year-old self where I was at now, she'd be so disappointed—the little girl I used to be had dreams of no longer needing to be saved. No, I wanted to be the one to do the saving.

As soon as I'd graduated high school, I'd gotten the hell out of here. All I'd ever wanted was to be a cop. To put on the uniform, to be able to protect people the way Maddox had protected me. The way the police went to his house over and over when he was a kid, and I'd watched from my window as the red and bluelights lit up the open fields between our houses, helpless to do anything but observe.

I was still so hung up on Maddox that I enrolled in college in California, naively hoping that in a state with thirty-nine million people, I'd run into him at least once in four years. But, it never happened, and I was too scared of rejection to reach out. Besides, what would I have said?

"Hey, it's Ryan. You know, your childhood best friend and neighbor who you abandoned after giving her a life-altering first kiss?" Yeah, right.

Instead, I kept my head down and studied my ass off. I took every self-defense and fighting class I could find from kickboxing to jiu-jitsu, and when I graduated, I got picked up by the LAPD. Thinking back on those days, a wistful smile pulls at my lips. I was so close to achieving my dream that I could taste it.

However, my life wasn't destined to be so easy, and a few months into the academy, I got the phone call that dragged me back to this tiny town and the ranch I grew up on. My dad, the tall and invincible cowboy I always thought he was, had been in an accident. There wasn't anyone else to step into my father's shoes and take care of things around here. So, I came home, and this was where I'd been ever since.

The past four years felt like at least ten. But, I never complained. My parents needed me. While my sisters were out in the world living their lives, I was here, sitting in the shade by the pond, sweating my ass off in jeans and boots before I'd climb back up on Storm and go fix an endless stretch of fence.

Quinn didn't say much else after that, and his breathing evened out. That boy could fall asleep anywhere, and it made me a little jealous. Once I'd cooled down a little and Storm had drunk his fill, I nudged Quinn with my elbow and he startled. "Wake up, hot stuff. We've got a fence to fix."

I pushed myself up and dusted off my jeans. I grabbed my hat off the grass and pushed it back onto my head before holding out my hand and helping Quinn up off the grass. He looked off into the distance, shielding his eyes with his hand. "Do you think we have enough time to tackle the fence before dinner?"

Sighing, I moved toward my dark gray stallion and ran my hand down his velvety nose. He nudged my cheek, and I chuckled. "If we haul ass, we can get it done."

Quinn saluted me before grabbing Daisey's reins and hauling himself up into her saddle. "Aye, aye captain."

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