“Gray.” I pause at the way he says my name. “Thank you for doing this with me. This place wouldn’t feel like a home without you.”
Emotion chokes the words in my throat. Tate and I don’t communicate like this, but we’re trying. Both of us have put more effort into being intentional with our words and walking away when we can’t be.
“I want to tell you something.” I take a step into his office. He leans back in his chair, his matching eyes boring into mine. “River and I are engaged.” I assume River told Joy, but I should have been the one to pick up the phone and tell my brother the news. Not someone else. Certainly not his girlfriend through word of mouth.
He only snickers, shaking his head. “I know.”
“What? But I didn’t—” He knew I was going to propose. I’d told him the morning we met in town.
“No one told me, Gray. We may not get along, but you’re my brother. I know you. If she’d said no, you would have been stomping around here snarling at everyone for so much as breathing in your direction. But you’ve been pleasant. Happy.”
“I should have told you that day.” I drop my head, shame washing through me. Tate is the last family I have left, and it was easier to hold on to my grudge than share such important news with him.
“I get why you didn’t, but I’m happy for you. You deserve someone as amazing as River.”
“Thanks. And Joy?”
“We’ll get there.” He goes back to his paperwork, and I leave, my heart lighter knowing we’d made another bit of progress.
It’s a grind organizing every person who normally works on the ranch and those who also help with the rodeo side of things. They haven’t had formal leadership in some time, but not a single person contests me being their new boss.
In a way, I’d always led them naturally, but they chose to follow me then.
Surprisingly, they welcome me and Tate taking over. Insisting that the place needed younger blood that could give themselves over to the place. And there was no one better than the Garrison brothers. The two who grew up here. Spent their lives here. Sewed their hearts and souls into the dirt here.
This place is home as much as the one I share with River is.
Everything aches from the day. It was great to get back into the swing of things, but it was also a reminder of how I haven’t gone all out since the brain injury.
“Hey, Gray! You stickin’ around for amateur night?”
I hadn’t planned to. River took the day off, so she doesn’t need to be picked up, but I was eager to get home to her. To hold her and tell her how well the day went.
“Maybe a few rides,” I grin, following my buddy to the ring.
“You should get out there.”
My pulse races. Not out of fear, exactly. At least not the typical kind. I’ve been on practice bulls here and there since the injury, but wasn’t sure when I would get back in the ring. For once, it was no longer a priority. Making my woman happy was top of mind. Maintaining our home. Ensuring we had a future.
“Yeah, I should.” My voice trembles slightly, but he angles me toward the chute.
My hands shake, remembering what it was like to get on a bull last time. I debate calling River. I should tell her. If something happens…
No, I can’t think like that.
Strapping on some chaps, a vest, and a helmet, I settle onto the first bull primed for the night.
He bucks and slams into the wall with every movement. The crash of my heart into my rib cage so painful, I wonder if it will bust right through. My hands still shake, and my breaths escape in heavy pants. The urge to jump off almost stopping me from letting them open that chute door.
“It’s not just you anymore.”River’s words ring through my mind.
“You ready, Gray?” someone asks me.
Time slows. A ragged breath dragged in and then out before I nod.
That chute door pops open, and the bull charges out. Like so many I’ve ridden, he’s agile. He kicks and spins and even almost nosedives into the dirt, but I hang on.
Time slows as it always does, my heart racing toward a finish line I hope we’ll find. Where the crowd can make my mind go blank, tonight it whirs with possibilities. The good and the bad. But I hang onto her. I hang onto the image of River grinning up at me when I wake her in the morning, and my grip tightens.
