Page 59 of Braving the Storm
I might have a championship buckle, a prizewinner’s check to cash, but they look like a fucking excellent way to forget about the emptiness inside my chest.
“Keep them there if you can, Storm. We’ll work our way through the front of the herd.” Colt calls out to me, dragging my mind back to the here and now on Devil’s Peak Ranch.
Hell, I’ve been so lost in my own head, I’ve hardly been concentrating on what Ishouldbe doing. That’s flanking the heifers we’re moving, not getting lost in my shitty past, or wishing I’d made a different goddamn choice that night.
Pinching my brow, I cast my eyes over the mass of black bodies, their rough coats, tufted ears flicking as they bellow and rumble in front of me.
The last thing I need today is Colton Wilder finding a reason to lash me with that sharp tongue when he’s in a mood. The grumpy fucker hardly trusts anyone else to do anything around here on a good day.
Seated on their horses, he and Layla are over the far side of the paddock, guiding the cattle from the front. They needed help today with bringing the herd in for vaccinations, and I’ll always turn up when he needs a hand around this place.
However, it’s the younger Wilder man who has had my teeth on edge since arriving earlier.
Kayce is being the usual blond-haired, blue-eyed prick he is. All the memories of my younger years are reflected back at me when I look at him. Everything I used to be, before the tattoos and embracing the role of being the bad boy on the pro tour. I was the guy who played perfectly into the narrative sponsors, and the PR machine all fed off.
They fucking lovedStôrmand Lane, until they didn’t.
My bulletproof, charmed life right before I made the worst decision I could ever make one night on a whim while blind drunk and wasted out of my mind in Vegas.
A decision that flipped my world and my career on its head for good… leaving me chasing my own sanity while hidden away here on this mountain. Worst part in all that twisted fucking time in my life, is that she’s not even around to see the outfall of her actions.
At least today has been full, keeping me numbingly occupied and endlessly busy. The kind of daily ranching grind that doesn’t leave much time for sitting aroundthinking. Kayce has had Briar up in the saddle from the moment we got to the ranch, and I’vebeen helping Colt out with his head of cattle so he can check them over now that we’re into spring.
Steam rises off their black coats as the low, drawn-out calls, grinding groans, and snorts fill the air. We’re only rounding up a small group. Colt doesn’t run a large herd, but he’s been keen to vaccinate and keep a closer eye on them after being away traveling.
Much like Beau, he’s about the only other person on this goddamn planet I’d drop anything to help, and I know he’d do the same for me.
Christ, the man spent a night up a ladder in the pitch black and freezing rain helping me fix a hole in my roof once when a tree came down a few years back. Damn thing nearly took out half the cabin, and yet he was there for me within the hour of putting out a call on the radio. Colton Wilder is one of the good ones, and as I watch a hint of softness spread across his features when he looks over at the woman in the saddle beside him, with her copper hair in two long braids, I couldn’t be fucking happier to see him finally find his person in Layla.
Even if their circumstances of meeting weren’t exactly conventional, or an easy road to get to where they are now.
Reaching up, I readjust my hat and lean one arm down to pat my horse's neck. His weight shifts around beneath me, and his ears twitch; he’s clever, knowing exactly why we’re here and what is required. As I murmur a few words, telling him just how good a job he’s doing, we both keep one eye on the mob in case of any breakaways.
Across the other side of the herd, Kayce flanks to one side of Briar, both of them on their own horses. They’re not exactly here to help with the round-up—even though Kayce could easily get the fuck over here and lend more of a hand if he chose to—but at least he’s alongside Briar and helping her build more confidence riding out beyond the pens up by the barn.
I hate to admit it, but Kayce Wilder is good at this whole teaching bullshit. Much better and miles more patient than I could ever be. So I’m happy Briar could learn with someone she’scomfortable around, not to mention that during our time spent up here, Layla seems to have taken her under her wing.
They spent an awful lot of time together yesterday, and the insane part of me wonders if Briar mentioned anything about me. About us. Even though there can’t be anus, so it’s already a ludicrous thought and has no right to even be a question floating around my mind.
The darkest part of me that still wants to wrestle free half expects Wes to show up any minute to whisk her away on another date. That’s the part who wants to help him lose a few teeth and maybe break a few fingers, you know, for good measure. Fortunately for my sanity, she hasn’t said anything… other than last night when she more or less admitted she didn’t want him.
Or, at least I think she did.
In all honesty, I might have been too caught up on the cocky wave I was riding, knowing she’s been watching clips of my rodeo years, and could have willfully misinterpreted those four simple words.
I don’t want him.
Leaning my weight forward in the saddle, my eyes are drawn back to Briar yet again. Like she’s the source of all the damn daylight shining down on us, and I’m scraping for just one more ray, one tiny glimmer to shine in my direction. Only this time when I glance over, that smug fucker inside my chest beats a victory drum. A floaty, intoxicating feeling swells to a crescendo.
She’s already looking at me.
Goddamn, all those details I can catalog from here—her dark hair and soulful brown eyes and pouty lips—if it all doesn’t scream that she’s mine.
Even if she can’t ever be mine.
Even if no one can ever know that I’m thinking about myniecein a way that I’ve absolutely no right to.
The herd continues to slowly move forward, with snorts and rumbling noises, until they’re finally all in the holding pen where Layla wants them secured so she can start working on theirvaccinations. That brings my horse to draw level alongside Briar’s, and much to my frustration, Kayce is right there beaming at me.
