Page 59 of For Him

“This is the highest-rated dude ranch in Billings. Plus, my family supplies the cattle they raise here.”

I sighed in relief and immediately stepped back into his body. Wrapping my arms around his waist, he stiffened for a moment, surprised, and then held me back.

“Let me go get my coat,” I said against his torso, not quite ready to let go. He buried his face into my hair and just held me. Not as friends, but as something more, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t deny how much I found comfort in his embrace, in his smell, and in his warmth.

Chapter 24

**WESTON**

She came bounding down the steps two at a time, a smile wide on her face that broke my heart. I pressed end on the phone call with Cassidy, knowing that the conversation she and I needed to have, was once again going to have to wait.

“Tenley,” I said and her grin immediately fell from her face.

“What’s wrong?” she quietly asked, seeing the distress in me. “I saw you hang up the phone, did you get some news?”

I clenched my jaw, frustrated that this was happening now and torn between the worry for my home and for Tenley and me. She’d said we were only friends so many times before, but the way she’d hugged me had felt different. Like she’d realized how much I cared for her and shared those feelings in return, yet now would not be the time I’d get an answer.

“Eugene was found down, his grain coated in something he shouldn’t have eaten. Cassidy called Doc who’s on his way out to try and get Eugene to the clinic, but they don’t know if he will make it,” I stated, masking my emotions because I didn’t want her to worry more than she needed.

Her jaw fell open, her eyes wide in shock. “Poisoned?” I nodded stiffly. “You should go,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “You need to find out what it was they put on the grain, who did it, and make sure your other—”

“Tenley. Darling,” I cut her off, placing my palm against her cheek and brushing some hair away from her fallen gaze. “Cassidy can—”

“Cassidy doesn’t own the ranch. Go.” She suddenly lifted her head to meet my eyes. “I can come and help.”

As much as that was something I wanted, I didn’t feel like she should leave her best friend’s party for this. Not for something that I could handle on my own with Doc’s help, no matter how badly I wanted it to be Tenley.

“You need to stay for Trixie,” I tenderly replied.

She leaned against my palm and nodded her head, but I could see the disappointment and sadness. We shared one more private moment, one that hurt me more than I thought it would, before the doors down the hallway opened and out stumbled a few party goers that giggled and waved at Tenley. She sighed and gave them a tight smile as I let my hand fall from her face and slipped out into the cold and lonely night without another word.

I drove like a madman, angry that I had to leave Tenley, angry that whoever had been targeting my ranch escalated to actual poison that might have just killed my prized breeding bull. I didn’t care about the possible insurance payout; I wanted Eugene to stay alive. It seemed like I couldn’t catch a break. Just as I thought that maybe Tenley felt the same as I did, just as I was hopefully going to get confirmation that she cared for me as much as I cared for her, it was ripped away.

But I had to focus on the one thing that was in my control—taking care of my cattle. Specifically Eugene and any of the others that might have come in contact with the tainted grain. What had been used, I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t make me any less upset as I swerved off the main road and sped up the driveway.

Doc’s vet truck was parked by my parents’ home, Cassidy’s truck and trailer were waiting, while everything else seemed eerily silent. No cattle were bawling, no horses were neighing, there was nothing. The tension in the air was palpable.

I cut the engine and the diesel whine dissipated upon the wind. The moment my boots hit the snowy ground, one of my hands came running my way.

“Give me an update,” I gruffly stated, tucking the collar around my ears while heading straight for a Razor.

“Only Eugene got into the grain. It seems that we caught the others soon enough,” he replied, attempting to keep up with my quick pace.

“Where else was this grain?” I didn’t understand how this was possible. Before I left, everything had been fine. Two hours, that’s all it had taken for this perpetrator to deal some damage. But how did he know I was gone?

“With the first-time pregnant heifers and the second year cows,” he answered as I pulled myself into the driver’s seat of the Razor.

I grumbled a few curses under my breath, a habit I wished to break, and nodded to the hand. “I want permanent watch over every herd. Figure out some rotation,” I commanded, and he tipped his head in acknowledgment before scurrying off.

Revving the engine, I roared off down the road and up the side of the mountain towards Eugene’s pasture to see how things were going.

His pasture came into view underneath the star-filled sky. The evening moon cast a silvery glow across the typically bright scenery. A small livestock trailer was hitched to one of my old farm trucks, pulled far into the field, parked in front of a crowd surrounding the prone figure of Eugene.

Jogging through the field, I stopped at the edge of the crowd as they stumbled up the trailer gate and inside. Every hand was attempting to carry and push this massive beast into the trailer as Doc ran lines of fluids and everything possible to him.

Cassidy approached me as the trailer swayed. “I don’t get it, Weston. Everything was fine when you left.”

I nodded, clenching my jaw for a moment as Eugene was finally laid down inside the trailer. Then I turned to Cassidy and gave him some instruction. “I’ll take him down to the clinic with Doc and see what we can sort out. Give me some of the grain, and I’ll get tests going with Doc down there. You work on making sure watch rounds are running efficiently, as well as finding any other possible evidence. Call the livestock agent and have him and the sheriff meet me at the clinic.”

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