Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Anything I can do to help?” Callie asks.
“Yes, just stop worrying. We’ll take care of this. All of this. I promise you.”
Callie nods, and she and I leave Donny’s office.
“Walk out with me, will you?” I say to Callie.
“Sure.”
We leave the second floor, walk down the stairs, pass reception, and end up outside on the sidewalk in front of the building.
“The Steels are so strong,” I say.
“They are,” Callie agrees. “Every single one of them.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help. Not just for Brock but for the whole family.”
“I think the best way you can help is to be there for him.”
“But I don’t know what’s going on, Cal. Brock said there’s some shit going down with his family.”
“There is. Some big shit.”
“I feel so selfish. They’re taking this away from us, bearing our burden for us, Callie. All the while, something huge is going on that I don’t even know about.”
“Brock will tell you when he’s ready.”
“I’m not so sure about that. I’m not so sure that Brock and I…”
“You heard Donny. Brock found his soft spot.”
“I know. But last night… He and I… Well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.”
“What happened?”
“You know what happened. I might be pregnant. And I swear to God, I did not neglect to tell him about the condom on purpose.”
“I believe you, Ror. I know you didn’t.”
“But then he got drunk, and I went over. I took care of him. But before that…”
“What?”
I close my eyes, for some reason thinking it won’t be as bad if I can’t see my sister when I say it. “Before that, I almost left with Dragon.”
“Rory…”
I open my eyes. Callie’s own eyes are wide, her jaw dropped.
“I said almost, Cal. I didn’t do it. But I was so upset, and if Brock hadn’t called me…”
“Thank God he did.”
“Yeah, but then this morning, I got a phone call from the counselor I talked to at the family-planning place in Grand Junction.”
“Oh? Surely you’re not still thinking about—”
“No. I mean, I might be pregnant, so I’m not shopping for sperm. She called to apologize because we kind of left things on a sour note. But it was my fault, not hers, so I apologized to her. And then…she asked me out.”
“Okay…”
“I considered it, Callie. I even told her I was interested, except that I was seeing someone else and had to talk to him first.”
“And…are you interested?”
I sigh. “No. I mean she’s perfectly lovely, and I am attracted to her. And believe it or not, I’m also attracted to Dragon.”
“Really? Dragon?”
“You don’t think he has something? That darkness?”
“Oh, yeah, he’s good-looking. Totally. But there’s just something not quite right there.”
“Well… I wasn’t really looking past his handsomeness last night…”
“I see.”
“And this woman from the sperm bank, she’s also gorgeous. And bisexual, which is a good thing. She would understand me.”
“But you just said you’re not really interested.”
“I’m not, Callie. And damn it, I should be.”
“Don’t tell me you’re really falling for Brock.”
“I don’t know. I think…” Crap. Do I really need to say the words out loud? “I think…that I am.”
CHAPTER FOUR
BROCK
Dad and I reach the first set of coordinates—rather, as close as the roads get us. He pulls the pickup over to the side and fiddles with his phone.
“Is this our property?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Dad says, his forehead wrinkling.
“Okay… What’s wrong, then?”
“This particular tract of land is rented.”
“To whom?”
“Dr. Mark Sheraton.”
“The vet?”
“Yeah. He owns a tract adjacent to this tract. He had a house built, and he does business there.”
“I suppose he doesn’t make much as a small-town vet.”
“Well…he could make a lot more than he does.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“About ten years ago, Uncle Bryce and I made the decision to bring all our veterinary care in-house. We probably should’ve done it decades ago, but our family has always tried to support our local community as much as possible.”
“I guess I knew that. I just never thought anything about it.”
“Yeah. We have one full-time and one part-time veterinarian on our staff and payroll. We take good care of our livestock, but with the sheer number of animals we have on our property, it just didn’t make sense to have the town veterinarian coming out so often.”
“And financially?”
“Financially it benefits us, yes. But that wasn’t the main consideration for taking the business away from Doc Sheraton.”
“What was the main consideration?”
“As I said, we’ve always liked to support our local community. But we’re not the only ranch close to Snow Creek. We’re the biggest, by far, but we felt Doc Sheraton was spreading himself a little too thin. We paid him a lot of money every year to take care of our livestock, but he couldn’t always get out there as quickly as we needed him to.”
“Did you offer him the job?”
“As our veterinarian on payroll? No, we didn’t.”