Page 8 of Long Past Dawn
I nodded but still didn’t make eye contact. “I’ve gotten the vibe that you don’t want to live in the house at Bison Ridge.”
Beau chuckled his famousTexas get ‘emchuckle. What was aTexas get ‘emchuckle? It was the sound he made to get a woman to do whatever he wanted. Only this time, I suspected it was more of a nervous laugh covered by his signature sound to distract me. Either way, my stomach swooped at the sound. I wanted to lay my lips on his, which meant his chuckle got me every time.
“What gave you that vibe?”
I leaned back on the booth and eyed him. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you’ve been anywhere but there since Blaze and Heaven got engaged.” He didn’t answer, just stared out the window at the falling snow. I set my mug down and rested my hand on his wrist. “You’ve been part of Blaze’s life for as long as you can remember, Beau. Things change the moment he marries Heaven. Even more so than they did when he married Callie. I understand that. Heaven and Blaze understand that. You don’t have to pretend something different out of deference to them.”
His gaze flicked to mine for a breath, and the swirling anger and discontent I saw in his now dark tumultuous globes made my breath pause in my chest. He was in worse shape than I had suspected, and I didn’t know what to do about it anymore.
Beau shook my hand off his arm, stood, and walked out of the café, leaving me with tears in my eyes and regret in my heart.
Where in the hell does she get off acting like she knows what’s going on in my head? That’s rich coming from her. Obviously, she thought she knew something she didn’t. My foot hesitated on the gas before I pulled away from the café. Was I leaving her stranded? Nah, screw it. Dawn was a big girl. She knew where her truck was and could find her way back to it. I had better things to do. I pressed down on the accelerator, ready to get back to the ranch. Anger made the blood run hot through my veins and hurt dropped a cloudy haze over my vision.
I was angry at myself. I was mad as hell at Blaze. Now I was ticked off at Dawn.
Dawn didn’t do anything wrong, Beau, a quiet voice said.
I flicked it away with my hand and refused to listen to it. Everyone wanted to be in my business while trying to keep their own a secret. I wasn’t playing that game anymore. Ever since Blaze got engaged to Heaven, he’s been different. Not necessarily different bad, but different enough that I no longer felt welcome on the ranch.
I pounded my fist into the steering wheel and turned the truck down the gravel road toward Bison Ridge. Blaze was at the house doing paperwork, and I didn’t want to talk to him, so I’d unload the supplies from town and then head to the shop to finish up a few things before it was time to do chores again. When Bison Ridge came into view, my heart stuttered in my chest.
How many more times was I going to see this beautiful land stretch out before me?
How many more times was I going to get up in the morning and keep doing my job when no one cared either way if I did or not?
The answer used to be ‘until I took my last breath’ for both, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. If I took Dawn Lee up on her offer to move into the house on Heavenly Lane, I could still wake up and do my job every morning. Riding down the road every day to Bison Ridge wouldn’t be a big deal, but sleeping in the same house with Dawn and not being able to touch her would be a deal-breaker.
At the thought of Dawn, I swallowed hard and shook my head, shame filling me. I could still feel her hot, swollen hand in mine and could hear her sharp intake of breath at the pain. My groan filled the cab of the truck, and I pounded the steering wheel again. I should never have left her there alone. I knew she had her vehicle there, but I should have given her a ride back to it. My momma would not be happy with my decisions today.
I turned the truck into the driveway and noticed Heaven struggling to get off Grover’s back. I rolled my window down and yelled as I threw the truck into park. “Wait, and I’ll help you, Miss Heaven!”
I jumped out of the truck and jogged toward Grover as he patiently waited for his rider to dismount. Grover was probably thinking the same thing I was.Why was she so stubborn?Heaven was always trying to do things that were going to get her hurt or killed.
I held tight to her waist and lifted her tiny frame down off the horse. “Where’s Blaze, and why isn’t he helping you?” I asked as soon as she was firmly on the ground.
“I wanted to put Grover right into the barn, but Blaze was on the phone.”
I shook my head and grabbed the horse’s reins. “I picked up your dismounting stairs. They’re in the truck. Why don’t we put Grover in the barn, and you can tell me where you’d like the stairs set up?”
Heaven walked with me into the barn. “Bison Ridge has a better barn set up than Heavenly Lane does. If we put them right outside his stall, that would make it easiest,” she answered while I pulled the saddle off Grover, and she started brushing him out.
“Sure, that makes sense. The stairs will be out of the way there, too. Let me grab them.” I pulled the handcart to the truck and loaded them up. When I brought them back into the barn, Heaven was leaning on the stall waiting for me.
I unloaded them silently until they were set up and secured together again. “Will that work for you?” I motioned at them, and she nodded, but she never took her eyes off me. I was starting to feel exposed. I didn’t like it one bit. Hopefully, she went into the house soon so I could do my work without her eyes boring holes in my back.
“I just talked to Dawn. She’s on her way back to my ranch. She sounded upset. Can you saddle Grover again, so I can go check on her?”
I refused to stay in the barn and play, so I walked into the house and to Blaze’s office, where he was drinking coffee and doing paperwork. “Miss Heaven is in the barn. She needs a ride back to the—”
I got whiplash before the words were out of my mouth. When I finished the forced spin, I came face-to-face with Heaven, who was steaming mad. I could tell by the way her eyes were half squinted closed, and her breathing was heavy. She had the strength of ten men with only one working arm. She could kick my butt if she had two.
She backed me up against the office door and stuck her finger in my chest. “Did you leave Dawn sitting in a café in town a mile away from her truck, or did you not?”
“She wasn’t a mile away from her truck. It wasn’t more than four blocks.” I stared at the floor to hide the shame I felt being read the riot act by this tiny thing. An hour old red dog weighed more than this woman, but I was far more scared of her than I was of a red dog.
Blaze took his almost-wife’s finger out of my face and held her against his chest. I was thankful. At least I could breathe again. “Did you leave Dawn in town? Were you supposed to bring her home?”
I tossed up my arms and let them fall. “No. We ran into each other and went for ca—cof—fee at the café. Dawn had her truck.”
