Page 9 of Belong With Me

“Yeah, but not fast enough, why don’t I help you?” he offered.

“I can walk on my own,” I told him.

“Not very well, it seems.” His voice got closer and then he was in front of me. “Don’t hate me for this, darlin’.” He leaned forward, crouching down and put his shoulder against my stomach before wrapping an arm around my thighs. I started to speak, but he stood, and I yelped instead.

“Hey!” My hands landed on the small of his back.

“Deal with it. You need to get up there and I need to get the gun so I can sort out this deer. You broke him too. This gets everything done a heck of a lot quicker.” He swatted my ass as he started walking up the embankment. “Quit your wriggling. You’ll make me fall over. Then you’ll be face first in the dirt, or a cow pie if you’re unlucky. I wouldn’t test your luck today.”

The dogs barked excitedly from the bed of the truck as the cowboy deposited me on the other side of the fence, then climbed over it himself and went to pat them. I stared as they licked his hands before he looked back at me. “Wait for me in the truck, I’ll be back in a moment.” He opened the door, then released a latch that brought his seat toward the steering wheel and pulled out a serious-looking rifle.

“Are you sure you’re not a serial killer?” I muttered.

He laughed again. “Get in the truck. I can’t imagine this is something you want to see.”

His statement reminded me of the deer. I quickly did as he said, and sat in the cab, maneuvering around a cooler and what must be the spare shirt, then squeezed my handbag against my chest for some form of comfort.

As a loud shot echoed and rolled over the hills, one of the dogs jumped onto the driver’s seat. He whined a little, seeming uneasy at the noise. “Me too, pup, me too.” I offered him my hand to sniff, before giving him a comforting scratch on the neck, unsure who really needed it more in that moment.

The cowboy was silent as he returned to the truck, whistling the dog out and putting the gun in a bag behind his seat. “My stuff is still in the car,” I offered stupidly, just to fill the silence.

“I’ll get it for you when Logan comes to tow your car.”

“Will this Logan you mentioned give me a lift to town, you think?” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t have to organize an Uber. Was there even Uber out here?

“After an accident like that, the last thing you want is to be alone right now. You can spend the next few days in the hospital for observation or spend the night at the ranch with my family and me.” He waited for the dog to jump into the tray and then began to drive.

Once again, I tried to fill the silence before it got uncomfortable. “You know. I at least like to know the name of a guy before I go home with him.” Oh shit, that was the wrong thing to say. A man who looked like he did probably had a wife, maybe even a kid or two. The way he’d said ‘family’ had me wanting to backtrack like no tomorrow.

Continuing to look out the windscreen, he replied after a few moments. “You can call me Ryder.”

Assessing his profile, I realized the name suited him well. “Well, Ryder. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Sienna-Grace, but most people just call me Sienna.”

“Sienna.” My name rolled off his tongue in such a way that had me loving the way it sounded. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make my heart skip a couple of beats. “Yeah, it suits a city girl like you to have a fancy name like that.”

We crested the top of a hill just as the sky began to fade into a beautiful mix of pinks and oranges. I could see the sprawl of buildings below us, and the biggest stood lit up against the approaching night. I could see a set of stables and a smaller building that looked like a carriage house nearby. There was even a horse ring, and when I looked closer at the area, there was someone leading a horse into the stables. When we finally reached the buildings, the dogs jumped off the truck even before we stopped, running off to God knows where.

As we pulled up at the main house, a young woman opened the door and came down the stairs toward us, drying her hands on a towel that she then flicked over her shoulder. “Where the heck were you? It doesn’t take that long to fix the fences. I was about to send Colton or Wyatt out there looking for you!”

This had to be his wife. I knew it, I just knew it. I bet there were even a couple of gorgeous kids in the house too. Just look at the gene pool they had to come from. She was beautiful, roughly the same height as me with long blonde hair and stunning blue eyes that just set her face off beautifully. I didn’t tend to get jealous of other women, but her body was the kind that I’d kill to have, and those legs… they seemed to go on for days.

“Savannah,” he said as he exited the car. Even her name was beautiful, it suited her perfectly. “I had to play prince for a while.”

“Play prince? What game are you playing at, Ry? Do I need to get the doctor out here or…or something? Are you losing your mind?” She took a step closer to her husband. “Or is Aria hiding around here somewhere?” Taking another step closer, she reached out and touched the back of her hand to his forehead. “You don’t seem to be running a temperature.”

Deciding this was as good a time as any, I opened the car door and the woman named Savannah stopped mid questioning to gape at me. “Now you’ve brought home a stray? You’re lucky I cooked enough for dinner, brother, because you boys eat enough to feed a third-world country. You haven’t even introduced us yet.” She flicked him with the towel that was over her shoulder. “Now I know our Momma taught us better than that.” She didn’t even let him get a word in before her demeanor did a complete one-eighty, and she smiled at me. “I’m Savannah.”

“Sienna.” I offered. “Your brother—” I coughed to cover the smile breaking through my lips at the word. The relief I felt from learning she was his sister and not his wife warmed my heart for some reason. “Your brother was nice enough to help me out just now. I had a bit of an accident.”

“An accident?” Her shrewd gaze bored into me. I realized how it might look. Here I stood, wearing her brother’s shirt that covered my skirt. Wait, did she think that I was some random hook up? Good God. I couldn’t have that.

Quickly, I added, “I swerved to avoid a deer but hit it and a fence post.”

“One of our fence posts, actually,” he murmured before continuing, “We’re going to need to get Logan out here tonight. Her car’s pretty wrecked.”

Savannah straightened. “Right. Of course, yes, well I guess that’s probably the best option. So, Logan’s coming tonight? Like right now?”

“I haven’t managed to call him yet, but considering the time, I presume he’s going to want some dinner before we get moving with the accident. But you don’t mind, do you, Savannah?” I watched as he threw her a crooked grin. “After all, you do cook for an army.”

---