Her knees give out beneath her, and she sags, but I’m there to catch her, keeping her from falling.
“I’ve got you,” I promise.
She clings to me in this moment of vulnerability, sheclings, her hands curled into fists in my shirt, her head buried in that soft spot at my shoulder. It softens something in my chest, makes my hands move to cradle her, and has my heart thumping a little harder in my chest.
“I need more time,” She sniffles against me.
“I know.” Her hair is like silk under my hands, running through my fingers like the softest sand.
She shudders and pulls away, my hand remaining at the base of her skull. “Thank you.”
“I won’t let them anywhere near you,” I vow.
A soft smile touches her pouty lips. “I appreciate that.”
I make quick work of finishing the fence, it’s a temporary fix, and then move back toward Honey, packing my tools into the saddlebag. I’ll have to come out to replace this section, put in new pillars and nails to hold it, but for now this is fine.
Elena lingers, looking toward the trees, her arms wrapped around herself.
“Come on,” I beckon her.
She comes without argument, stopping at my side with that same defeated look on her face. I don’t fucking like it.
Reaching for her, I slot my hand under her arms, trying real fucking hard not to hurt her already hurting ribs. She allows it, and I hoist her up onto Honey, positioning her exactly how I did on the ride over here. The stretch it would put on her thighs to split them over the back of a horse would be too much on the delicate and still-healing skin. I climb on up behind her, taking the reins into my hands as I steer the mare around, pointing her in the direction of home.
Elena settles into me, using my body as a cocoon. She curls right in, resting her head in the soft spot between my shoulder and neck, her legs thrown over one of my thighs. She remains silent the entire ride back, but she purposely keeps her body pressed to mine. The sun has dipped behind the mountains, allowing us some reprieve from the brutal heat though it’s still warm, the humidity making the clothes on my body stick to my skin.
The ride consists of nothing but the sound of Honey’s hooves, and when we return to the ranch, I hop off to help Elena down, and she immediately goes for the house, those arms banded around herself.
It’s an attempt to keep all her pieces together, I realize.
She’s a woman who has it all mapped out, organized, and today wasn’t on the itinerary.
Just like her attempted murder.
Just like her stumbling onto my ranch, searching for a safe place to land.
I leave her, it’s what she needs — that time to think, to build those walls back up and go about returning Honey to the stables. She follows with ease and returns to her stall in the stables without argument.
I reach for a peppermint I keep in my pocket and offer it to her, her mouth immediately reaching down to take it. The rounds will be shortly, and her feed will be replenished, so after a quick stroke, I leave her and head toward the house.
Chase shouts something to the hands, the chickens cluck and shout while Ralph continues to make that horrendous bellowing noise in the paddock, but it feels like home tonight. Busy. Loud. Chaotic.
Stepping through the door, my ears home in on the sound of water running from the bathroom at the back of the house. Elena’s boots are placed neatly beside my second pair of boots, her hat hanging on the hook next to where I would usually leave mine.
Once I’ve dropped everything off, I head back out, toward the mess house where I can already smell the food cooking even though I’m barely halfway there.
A ruckus begins the moment I step through the doors, a cheer I don’t get when I have no idea what we’ve just won.
“They think you finally found a woman to settle down with,” Chase explains.
Not what I need at all.
“It’s not like that.”
Chase shrugs, “Don’t tell ‘em that. They’re thinking you’re finally gonna turn soft.”
I huff my laugh. “Not likely.”
