Page 7 of Blazing Hot Nights
The way she put her hand on her hip told me I was about to get sass. Dawn Lee was ninety-five percent sass. The other five percent was all sweetheart. When she started working at Heavenly Lane Ranch four years ago, we became fast friends. It was great to have another female on the ranch to back me up when the men thought they knew it all, which was all the time.
“You’re not ‘fine’,” she said, using air quotes. “Beau said your truck is upside down in the creek! I rode back here as fast as I could. I wondered why you hadn’t answered my texts!”
I held my palm up to her. “Quiet, please. My head hurts.”
Dawn shook hers and walked to the freezer, pulling out an ice pack and sitting down next to me. “I’m sorry. I was worried sick.” She held out the ice pack and grimaced again. “I don’t even know where you should put this.”
“That bad?” I asked. “I haven’t even looked in a mirror, but the way my head hurts tells me it’s probably not good.”
Dawn shook her head at the ceiling in exasperation. “Probably not good. Well, that begins to cover it. How about two black eyes, a black and blue nose, and a goose egg on your left temple to make any farmer proud.”
I took the ice pack and gingerly held it to the goose egg. “That explains the ache in my temple,” I joked, but she wasn’t laughing.
“What about your shoulder?”
“It hurts, but it will be fine in the morning.” She lowered a brow at me, and I remembered not to roll my eyes and risk not being able to stop. “I’m serious, Dawn. Trust me, I know when I’ve hurt it for real.”
She snickered as though she didn’t believe me before she stood up and walked to the other side of the kitchen. “What happened? Beau said the bridge is missing a plank?” she asked over her shoulder as she washed up at the sink.
“You talked to Beau?”
Her hands paused under the water. “I just told you I talked to Beau. He told me you probably have a concussion, which considering this conversation, I’d have to agree.”
“I was just knocked senseless. I’ll be fine in a few hours.”
Dawn’s laughter was louder than the water running into the sink. “If you say so, Heaven. Regardless, when I couldn’t raise you on the walkie-talkie or your phone, I knew something was wrong. Chewing Blaze a new one about his bison never takes you that long.”
Did she know me, or what?
“So, I took Black Beauty down to the bridge and found Beau tying off the trailer to a tree. Again, I ask, what happened?”
I sat up straight and worked to focus my thoughts on the conversation instead of the pounding in my head. “All I remember is slowing for the bridge like I usually do and noticing something wasn’t right. The next thing I know, I’m waking up on a strange couch with Blaze leaning over me like a hawk. He told me the truck was in the creek and he had saved me from drowning.”
Dawn dried her hands and threw the towel on the counter. “You were damn lucky he found you.”
“He also pointed that out.”
“What happened at the auction?” she asked as she slid into a chair next to me.
I groaned and dropped my head back to my arm. “I’m such a failure, Dawn. I should just pack up my toys from this merciless sandbox and go home.”
Her warm hand rested on my bad shoulder then. I knew what she was doing, and I let her do it without complaining. She wouldn’t rest until she was satisfied that I hadn’t hurt it worse than it already was. I wasn’t convinced hurting it worse was even possible. “Honey, you are home, and you’re not a failure!” she exclaimed to distract me from her prodding. “You couldn’t have known the board on the bridge was ready to go. Beau said if it hadn’t been you, it would have been one of them. You wouldn’t have seen it before it was too late.”
“That’s the thing, Dawn. It’s always me. It’s never one of them. It’s like all the bad crap bounces off Blaze and Bison Ridge Ranch and lands on me.”
“Well, notallthe bad crap …”
We were silent for a moment in remembrance of this day and the friend I had lost. “I know, Dawn. I meant in business. I can’t even keep my head above water, and he’s doing laps around me.”
“You always forget that Blaze has Daddy Warbucks back home in the Lone Star State bailing him out whenever he needs it. You don’t have a Daddy Warbucks. You never have.”
I shifted the ice pack to my nose and grimaced. “Let’s face it. Blaze doesn’t need Ash to bail him out. He knows how to run a ranch. He knows how to make money raising and selling those beasts.”
“You know how to make money raising and selling your cattle, too, Heaven. You’re behind because you had to take care of your daddy, and everyone understands that. We’ll get there. We won’t let you lose the ranch to the bank, bad weather, or Blaze Friggin’ McAwley!” Dawn slapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I forgot about your head. How about something to drink?”
“Cold and sweet would be good,” I agreed. “I have to finish riding the fence to make sure those beasts didn’t put more holes in it.”
Her head shook as she set a glass of cold iced tea in front of me. “You aren’t riding anywhere. Do you actually believe you can ride out there in the sunshine with that head of yours?”
