Page 13 of Wild For You
Chapter Four – Andrew
The car jostled as it turned off the highway onto the road leading to Ashfield. I did my best to hold back my grunt, but still Nate quickly apologized.
The drive from Atlanta had taken an hour longer than the slated four hours it should have. Nate informed me he was given strict instructions from his wife to drive extra carefully. As I laid across the back seats of the oversized SUV, I noticed we were getting passed by tractor trailers. I wasn’t sure my sister meant to drivethatslowly. But I wasn’t going to complain.
“Thanks again for picking me up, man,” I said, and Nate glanced at me through the rearview mirror and sent me a warm smile. “And for getting my truck back home.”
“No sweat.”
Before Nate showed up at the hospital, he located my truck and paid for it to be towed back to Ashfield. I didn’t ask if my phone was inside the console, mainly because I was petrified of all the missed calls and messages.
Nate also wouldn’t allow me to pay a dime toward the towing fee. He was a billionaire with money to burn, but I’d figure out a way to pay him back regardless.
The only bright spot had been finding out that prior to my spectacular dismount at the rodeo, my bareback ride earned me a score of eighty-five. Enough to win. The team running the event was going to mail me a check with my winnings, and they were glad to hear I was okay.
None of that impressed Nate, who was adamant that I quit riding. Through the first hour of the ride home, he listedoff all the reasons I needed to stop. The danger, the fear for my family, my life. The same things I’d heard over and over again by past flings. Women that wanted more from me than I was willing to give. They liked the money it brought in, the status they held when they came to watch me ride, but the moment they decided they wanted something more serious with me, their first request was to stop the rodeos.
No one understood it was more than the money or the adrenaline. It was more than the crowd calling my name or the thrill of beating my best time. It was being on the back of the horse and feeling the freedom that came along with the ride. It was the anonymity of doing something no one was aware of. It was living part of my life without a purpose.
It was the opposite of everything I remembered growing up in the small town of Ashfield.
As we approached the crest of the hill, Nate slowed the car. The town was on full display at the bottom of the valley. I came to appreciate where I grew up more as I got older, but it still felt like a shackle. Something that kept me tethered. I’d had a chance to spread my wings, but never to the extent my sisters had. I could never be that far away from my mom. She was the most important person in my life.
“So, how much time will I have before they all arrive at the house?”
Nate chuckled for the first time since he saw me this morning. “They’re just waiting for my go-ahead. Alexandra asked me to message her when I reached this spot, to be honest.”
“Think you can hold off until I get to the house and change?”
“Come on, Andrew. You know your family better than that. They’ve probably been waiting at your house since I left this morning.”
“Fuck.”
Nate rolled his eyes and continued down the road toward town. Rory’s rental house was only a short drive past the city center, since she’d lived close to the school where she once taught. I’d only recently moved into the old house as I began plans to build a home on my family’s property. My stepfather had set aside large plots of land for each of the children. I hadn’t known until a couple of years ago that it included me as well. He’d never made me feel less his than my siblings, but in my mind, I was the ugly stepchild. The add-on that came with my mom.
“No way to sneak me in, is there?” I asked. Appearing in the hospital scrubs the staff gave me was not ideal, but I supposed it was better than the open-backed hospital gown.
“Would it help to know that your mom has been cooking meals for you all morning, and Alex, Eloise, and Molly have filled the kitchen counter with every baked good known to man?”
The corner of my lips tilted upward. If there was a benefit to being injured, it was all the food. My mom was the best cook, hands down, and Alex’s cakes were known around the world.
It was almost worth it to go through all the anger that was about to be unleashed on me.
Almost.
“What if you let me out on the corner, and I sneak around the back?” I asked as I tried to shift and look through the windshield. My back still ached, but I pushed through.
“And do what? Slither like a snake? You can’t walk, Andrew. The doctor said limited movement for the next few weeks, and then you can possibly move to crutchesifyour back is healing.”
“Fuck you,” I mumbled as the car pulled into the driveway. A handful of vehicles were parked along the street, and they all belonged to my family.
Nate shifted the SUV into park and turned around to face me. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
He exited and then came around the side to help me out. It was a slow process, and by the time I stood with my good foot on the ground, I was seeing stars and ready to pass out.
“Just a few steps and we can get you in bed.”
