Page 52 of Blazing Hot Nights
I stood and brushed off my jeans.
“I’m going to head out to find Blaze. Have fun, and I’ll see you later.”
I waved and started my way up the ridge, deciding against taking Grover and risking an injury to his leg. I had my pistol, but nothing was going to bother me with the bison grazing in the pastures along the fences. I could see the glow of Blaze’s fire, so I knew he was there waiting for me. I climbed the hill carefully, the steep grade challenging when one arm didn’t move. I had to put my knee down and take a break for a moment before I finished the walk. That was when I heard talking from the ridge.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir,” Blaze said. There was silence before he spoke again, “I thought it was going belly up, too, but she was able to pay off her debts. I had plans with the bank to buy it when it went into default, but there was no way I could know she would make enough on that herd to pay up her debts.”
What the hell? I waited to see if he would say anything more. He didn’t disappoint.
“Listen, for right now, we’ll have to be happy with the lower pasture. It allows us to expand our herd without the extra overhead of Heavenly Lane. It’s a win-win for us. We don’t need more than that right now. Eventually, maybe I’ll get the rest of her land, but now is not the right time.”
I lowered myself to my butt and slid down the hill until I reached the bottom. I was biting back a sob as I hurried behind the house to avoid my three friends still sitting around the campfire. I didn’t want them to hear me before I could get Grover saddled and out of the barn. Once I was in the saddle, I rode Grover behind the barn slowly until his hooves were in the grass. It was then that I gave him a good pat, and we took off with the wind in my hair and tears in my eyes.
***
I pulled Rapunzel to a halt at the driveway and dismounted, running up to the three people sitting around the fire, laughing like fools.
Dawn turned at the sound of my boots and cocked her head. “Blaze?”
“Hey, have you seen Heaven? She was supposed to meet me up on the ridge, but she never showed. I can’t raise her on her phone.”
Three heads turned to face each other and then back to me. “Heaven walked right up the ridge about an hour ago,” Beau said. “She never showed up?”
My heart started to beat too fast in my chest. “Would I be here looking for her if she had? I didn’t pass her on the way down either. Dammit!” My hand went to my hair and my eyes to the ridge.
All three of them stood up, and Dawn ran around the house to the barn. We all followed, and when she threw the door open, all three of their mouths dropped open.
“Grover is gone,” Dawn said, pointing to the empty stall.
“Why would she come back down the ridge and get the horse?” Beau asked.
I swallowed hard, suddenly sure I knew why. Heaven heard the conversation I was having on the phone. Dammit! If she only heard one side of it, that would lead her to believe things that weren’t true. “We have to find her. It’s dark out, there are wolves, and she doesn’t sit well in that saddle anymore. Dawn, see if you can raise her on the walkie.”
Dawn pointed at the black device on a bale of hay next to Grover’s stall.
“Son of a motherless goat!” I said, kicking the bale of hay. “Her phone. Try her phone.”
Dawn pulled her phone out and called, finally shaking her head. “It went straight to voicemail. Not surprising. A lot of this property doesn’t have coverage. That’s why we have walkies.”
I rubbed my forehead, and that same self-hatred I thought had disappeared when I made love to her the first time came roaring back through my veins. “Dawn and Tex, if she was upset, where would she go?”
They looked at each other and back to me. It was Dawn who spoke up. “Heaven and Duane used to have an old cabin down by the lower pasture. It fell about a year ago, and she left it laying there. The grass grew over it, but that’s where she dumped her daddy’s ashes.”
“The lower pasture?” I asked Dawn, and she nodded. I sank onto a haybale and rested my hat on my knee in shame. “It just hit me that she’s selling me the pasture where she laid her father to rest.”
Dawn sighed with exasperation. “Maybe you finally see why it’s such a big deal that she’s selling you that land.”
Beau patted my back once. “I just told her tonight that you two agreeing on the land sale was huge. Now she could keep the ranch, and your daddy is finally deeding you yours.”
I groaned and leaned forward, digging the heels of my palms into my eyes. “God almighty, Beau. I hadn’t told her about that yet.”
“Damn, son. You’ve been pounding that nail for weeks and you didn’t tell her that her selling you that land was the final stipulation to you owning your ranch?”
“Pounding that nail for weeks?” Dawn asked, glancing between us. I lifted my head and looked at her until her eyes went wide. “You’re so screwed.”
“Or not screwed, in this case,” Tex said, his hee-haw laughter irritating me to no end.
“I was going to tell her tonight. I had to be sure the deal was going to go through on my father’s end before I told her!” I fisted my hair in my hands. “Dammit, I need to get to her now.”
