Those words had haunted him for months. He accused her of watching too many episodes ofDallaswhere everyone was rich, and he reminded her that life didn't revolve around money. Not the kind of life he wanted anyhow. She had finally showed her haughty side when she flipped her hair and levelled her gaze at him.
"Obviously."
Once she left the ranch, she never looked back. Through the grapevine he'd heard that she had hooked up with a rancher near Denver, many years her senior. Even now, he hoped that she was happy.
But between that fiasco of a relationship, and his father not getting the life that he deserved, Drake had gone on autopilot and tried to find answers. Somewhere along the line, he blamed himself. He always had felt responsible for Jeremiah's death even though he couldn't explain it, and Mandy had just reiterated that he was damaged.
He laid back on the dock and stared at the stars. And he had never figured out why.
Chapter Three: Friends
Josephine “Joey” Preston
Two Months Later…
Chaos had broken out in the barn by the time Joey heard the horse scream, both in pain and in anger. She stopped what she was doing and ran around to the front just in time to see a whip land across the mare's back.
The horse whinnied again in pain and reared up, her front legs pawing the air. Her owner, a petite girl named Ginny, frantically tried to diffuse the situation.
The man wound up to take another strike. Joey couldn't remember his name - Oscar or Eddie, something like that. She rushed forward.
"Stop it! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
The man lashed out with the leather whip. The end of it caught Joey across the cheek and laid the soft skin wide open. Her hand flew to her face as the pain created sparks behind her eyes. She gasped as her fingers came away sticky with blood.
Everything went into slow motion. The horse broke free and ran down the barn, her owner hot on her tail. The man, Oscar or Eddie, she couldn't remember which, sneered as he stepped toward her while winding the whip like a lasso.
Without thinking, she swung the shovel that she still held from where she'd been shovelling2 feed into buckets when the horse cried out. She barely registered the look of shock on the man's face before his features were covered by the shovel. She felt the bonk against his face as she made a connection, and without a sound, he dropped to the floor. She stared down at him, but he was out cold.
"Good swing, Joey."
Two of the cowboys who did bull riding, Clinton and Warren, walked up. "He had that coming."
She dropped the shovel and felt blood running down her face. "It was a reaction."
"It's about damned time, is what it is," came another voice from behind her. "He needed that a long time ago."
Joey swiped at her cheek with her arm, and her T-shirt sleeve came back covered in blood. She sighed knowing she had just ruined her shirt. "Deserve it or not, now I have to pay the price." She glanced at the small crowd forming, thankful that it was all performers, most of whom she had been protecting for the last many weeks. "Does anyone have a roll of paper towels?"
Her closest friend, Scarlet, pulled off her T-shirt and pressed it to Joey's cheek. "Here. This is pretty much clean."
"You just ruined your shirt."
"It was just a scruff around. Besides, I'm the only one that has a tank top on."
Joey sighed. "I probably just caused a bunch of shit by knocking that idiot out."
Clinton motioned to another. "We got this. Don't worry about this asshole, Joey. You've done enough for us; it's time we did something for you."
Before she could protest, they dragged the guy off while another covered the drag lines in the dirt. She wanted to ask what they were doing, but the throbbing in her cheek made her not care.
Scarlet grabbed her arm, and she and several others led Joey out of the barn. Back at the trailers, Joey hissed as Scarlet cleaned the wound. "You're going to need stitches for this."
"No. Hell no. I am not going to the hospital. I'm here to earn money, not spend it on something like that."
The others understood, and one woman ran out and returned with a package of butterfly stitches. "I knew these were going to come in handy one of these days. I just hate that it's you."
Joey held up her hand. "I appreciate you guys, every one of you. But no one owes me anything. I haven't done anything special."
