Page 80 of When It Reins
I lift up, grabbing him again and getting us on our feet before I throw another punch and then shove him away. I glare at him, and he glares right back. “Don’t ever fucking talk about Juniper again.”
“Dude, you’re insane.” Covey spits and blood splatters on the ground. The other wranglers watch as we cool down, and I turn to leave.
I don’t need this shit. I don’t need any of this shit.
I just want her.
Fuck.
I enter the main part of the barn on my way to my bike, and unfortunately, run smack into my older brother. Logan looks at me, his brows raised in surprise, probably at what feels like a gash by my eye.
“What the hell happened to you?” His calm question seems to cool the anger inside of me. He goes to lean against a stall, and I stand there, tucking my hands into my pockets.
“Just teaching some respect.”
Logan chuckles and shakes his head. “Let me guess. Covey?”
“He’s an asshole,” I reply.
“Nah,” Logan says, shrugging his shoulders. “He’s young. Needs to figure out his boundaries. But he’s a hell of a farrier.”
I shrug, having nothing to say to that, and just want to go home.
No. I want to go to her.
I was already over our fight, already ready to go and make up with her, to hear her out and say my piece. I know she would listen. Juniper is a logical girl, and we both are in love with each other. I want to find a way to get through this disagreement.
“I, uh, heard what happened.” Logan grimaces when I look at him, my brows furrowed in question. “With Juniper. Thea filled me in. They went over there this morning to check on her.”
It is eating me alive not to ask, but that is one good thing about my brother. He didn’t need a sign to know I am burning to know how she is. “She’s okay. A little confused, I think, about what she’s feeling.”
Logan kicks his foot out, his boot hitting the ground with a tap. “I think she just didn’t know how to handle what she heard.”
I nod, looking out the barn door at the quiet ranch. I do love it here, when no one else is around. “I should have told her from the start.”
“Maybe so. I don’t believe in keeping secrets from your partner,” Logan says, lifting his brows. I know what he’s thinking back to, when Thea kept things from him that could have helped them avoid some dangerous shit. “But I know you, brother. I know you love her. You just have to convince her it’s bigger than all the rest of it.”
I hum and think about that, think about how she is my first thought every day and last thought at night, how I no longer sleep well when she isn’t right next to me. I think about how when I see her after not for a while, my heart pounds heavily in my chest. About how, when she asked me to go with her on her tour, I didn’t even stop to think about the things we were leaving behind, because all I knew was I was moving forward with her, and that is all that matters to me.
“So what are you going to do?”
I bite the inside of my cheeks, thinking through the options. There isn’t a ton, but that is okay because there is only one that matters.
“Probably head home for a shower,” I say, thinking that the amount of sweat that has poured from me in the last couple of hours is enough to warrant one.
Logan smirks and nods. “Heading home is a good idea.”
I frown for a moment before I realize what he’s saying and then step out of the barn, my brother’s chuckles following me as I race to my bike.
37
juniper
Nerves are rollingthrough my belly at the thought of seeing Mitch after yesterday. I’m not thrilled with how my emotions took control, but I was unable to help it. I was allowed to feel the way I did, and though I am here to work it out with him, it doesn’t stop me from twisting my hands nervously as I pace back and forth in his living room.
Maybe it was presumptuous to let myself in.
On his small front porch, over to the left under the third big rock behind one of the rocking chairs he bought for us, is a decoy key. Then, if you look at the house’s wood paneling, you can barely see where the false wood is. If you press the piece of false wood, it opens to reveal the real hide-a-key.
