Slumping onto the couch, it’s not long before she’s at my side, her fingertips brushing over my shoulder before she sinks down, straddling my lap. My t-shirt rises high enough to reveal her hot pink panties. A taunt.
It’s interesting she brought a whole suitcase of clothes but has only worn mine when we’re here at home. Her underwear is the sole exception, but still a rare sight when she prefers my boxer briefs.
“Take this how you will, but you’re better than this, Gray. That animal has nothing to do with your brother. They were your cows once, too.”
“I’m not helping him.”
“Why? Because of some stupid grudge you two hold against each other? The both of you can pretend you hate each other, but everyone can also see how much you love one another. It’s just you two left. Do you know what I would give to have my brother come find me before every surgery to make sure I was ready?”
She immediately looks down, playing with the buttons on my henley. River talks about her brothers a lot. It’s clear she misses them, but she never says it. Their relationship fizzled out a long time ago, and she’s accepted it for what it is. And suddenly, I want to give her that.
I wish I could.
Maybe I can’t get her brothers here, but for her, I can do this one thing for mine. Maybe.
Running my hands up her bare thighs, I stare up into those captivating green eyes. “River, Tate, and I are complicated.” She only snorts, but doesn’t interrupt me otherwise. “I’ve spent so many years angry at him. He treats me like a child. Like I’m his—” I can’t say the word.
My mother is dead. I never got to meet her. I amherson.
Dad is dead now, too, but I am stillhisson.
Tate has never been my parent and never will be.
“Grayson, look at this another way… Many people would kill to have someone care enough to want to look out for them. Whether Tate does that to your liking or not isn’t the point. Go look at the cow. It’s not like he’ll be there, anyway.”
“How do you know?”
“Joy said he’s competing out of town.”
My jaw clenches. He’d told me he was going to compete this weekend through a text the morning he left. I wasn’t aware he’d told his girlfriend, who apparently is now best friends with mine, and telling her things about my brother.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
River’s mouth presses to mine. There’s so much love and gratitude in the kiss that I can only melt into her. My arm looping around her back, holding her close to me. “Thank you,” she breathes.
“Just be here when I get home.”
Her head tilts to the side as if I just said the most puzzling statement she’s ever heard.
“Where else would I be?”
“Your home.”
Her nose scrunches before she kisses me again. Just as soft and loving as the last. “Eh, I think I’ll stay here for a while.”
Austin greets me as I pull down the dirt drive to the cow field. So much is exactly the same as when I grew up here. Sure, the fencing has been updated, and the barn door might be newer, but this is every bit my childhood ranch—a place I loved my whole life until Tate took off and Dad died.
“She’s over here.”
Lugging my medical bag out of the back of my truck, I follow him through the field. Austin was smart enough to isolate her. The gash along the side of her body and down her leg accompanied by numerous shallow puncture wounds, are concerning but not life threatening. If this cow died while Tate was gone and I’d looked at her, it would just be one more thing for him to bitch at me for.
“How long has she been like this?”
“Not sure. I found her this morning. Took me and a few of the other guys to get her untangled from the wire and then fix the fence. That’s when I called you.”
I only nod, getting to work.
The wounds are clear and relatively clean. It doesn’t take me long to bandage her up and inject her with some antibiotics and pain medication before finding Austin leaning against the fence.
