Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Too tired to yell at me?” I teased, waggling my eyebrows at him.
“Do you get that I never want to yell at you?”
“Just comes natural, does it?” I baited him.
After a moment of looking at my face, he put his hand on my shoulder. “I really needed you yesterday, so…you know.”
I snorted out a laugh.
“I’m fuckin’ trying,” he half yelled at me.
Nodding quickly, I reached out and gave him a gentle pat on the cheek. “You know, just droppin’ your name the other night saved my life.”
“Oh?” he asked, sounding interested. “When was this?”
So I told him about my girl Josie and her abusive, ignorant parents and piece-of-shit brother, and how I’d be dead on Mr. Barnes’s lawn if he didn’t have a healthy respect for Rand.
“Really,” he rasped, hand moving from my shoulder to the side of my neck. “You really think he would have shot you.”
“Oh hell yeah,” I assured him. “Dead man walkin’.”
He nodded. “Well, I’m happy you’re safe.”
“So I could drive the wagon, right?”
“That’s right,” he husked.
I couldn’t help smiling at him.
“There’s a nurse here, so let’s go drop in on her right quick and have her take a look at your side.”
“Sure,” I agreed, not wanting to fight with him about anything. I was enjoying the truce more than I thought I would. “I just have to wait for my girl.”
Rand smiled at me as Annalise rejoined us and reached for my hand.
I recoiled dramatically. “Did you wash your hands?” I asked her, squinting as I signed the words to her.
“Yes,” she signed back aggressively, defensively, moving her hands quickly. “Of course I did.”
I grinned at her, and she glowered at me.
“You see,” Rand commented, tipping his head at Annalise. “You annoy everybody, not just me.”
“Rand doesn’t ever wash his hands,” I signed to her. “He’s icky.”
Annalise thought that was pretty funny, while Rand shot me a deadpan expression.
“What?”
He just shook his head.
The nurse was very impressed with how good my side looked, and told Rand he’d done a great job of patching me up. It wasn’t infected, and it was healing nicely. When she asked me my pain level between one and ten, I assured her it was a three if anything. Giving me a shot of antibiotics had been excellent, but she wanted me to follow up with my regular doctor when I got home because someone would have to take out the stitches. Both Rand and I looked at her like she was nuts.
She groaned. “Really? Just pull those out yourselves, do you?”
“Yeah,” I assured her.
“Who goes to the doctor to pull out stitches?” Rand wanted to know.
“Just please, when you get home, go see your doctor.”
“If we get home,” I said.
When she looked at Rand to see what that was about, he only shrugged. At the moment, it felt like we were so very far away.
Poor Kate looked like a wrung-out mop when she and Eric walked out of the barn as Rand, Annalise, and I were on our way in.
Kate broke down again and cried all over me, hugging me tight, and Eric thanked Rand for leading us through the storm to safety. Eric got my email address so his daughter could write to me, and then we had to say goodbye. She went in and kissed and hugged Juju goodbye, then kissed and hugged me. She also told Rand—her mother translated—that she knew his horse was a good boy even if he looked super scary. Also, she added, it was mean to name him something spooky on purpose.
“What did you tell her I named him?” Rand barked at me as the family left us and headed toward the bunkhouse.
“What? Me? When?”
He shook his head like I was a big disappointment, but I just cackled evilly.
Once the Harrisons were safely inside, eating, preparing to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Long Pine, Rand stepped firmly into boss-man mode and started shouting orders at everyone—at his own men, at McNamara’s men, at the guests going with us. If you were on the cattle drive back to the Red, you were now living in Rand Holloway’s world, breathing his air. I was really glad he had no cause to turn his ire on me. But I’d taken good care of Beelzebub and stayed with him and hadn’t uttered a word of complaint even though, because I was hurt, I could have. I felt that the two of us had turned a corner. I really hoped so, as it would make my life so much easier if I could count on Rand instead of locking horns with him. Funny that even after all the years we’d known each other, not to mention being cousins, it had taken a cattle drive to actually let us see one another. I understood that it was important to Rand to do the best he could for everyone who depended on him, and he might have recognized the same in me. Both of us just wanted to take care of our families. And while his family stopped and started with his ranch, I felt the same about my restaurant. It would be nice if him seeing me clearly gave us a brand-new start.