Rowan hit the ground hard, cushioning Huck’s fall with his own body as they rolled away from the terrified horse. Pain shot through Rowan’s shoulder, but he barely felt it.
He bounced to his feet and pulled Huck up, pushed him behind him. Then he put his hand out toward Jasper.
“Easy, boy, easy.” Rowan kept his voice calm and soothing as he slowly reached for his sidearm. The snake was still coiled, still rattling its warning.
The gunshot echoed off the ravine walls. The rattlesnake’s head disappeared in a spray of blood and rock fragments, its body writhing briefly before going still.
Jasper jerked and bolted, but Rowan grabbed its trailing rein a second before it could escape. The horse’s momentum pulled him along the dry creek, and again the horse reared.
Rowan stepped back, kept his hand up, let the horse land, shake it out. “You’re okay, buddy.”
Jasper snorted and he pawed, but his eyes found Rowan’s.
Rowan waited a moment, then took a step. “You’re okay.”
The old horse snorted again and shook his head.
Rowan holstered his Glock, then put a hand on Jasper’s soft nose.
The animal bowed his head and then stepped up to him, bumping him.
“Yeah. Sorry for the ruckus,” he said, moving his hand over the horse’s neck. He then turned and looked for Huck.
The kid was sitting on the creek bank with his knees drawn up to his chest.
“You hurt?”
“No.” The word came out small and shaky.
“It’s okay to be scared. Rattlesnakes are serious business.” Rowan settled beside Huck on the rocky ground, close enough to touch but not quite. “Jasper was just protecting you both. Smart horse.”
Huck ran a hand across his eyes, his snotty nose.
Yeah, him too. Maybe they just needed a minute.
“Can we talk about it?”
Huck looked away, his head in his folded arms.
“I love your mom.”
Huck sighed.
“And you.”
The kid didn’t move.
Okay, so maybe?—
“Are you really my dad?” His voice emerged soft, almost broken.
Rowan’s seemed to match it. “Yeah, buddy. I really am.”
More silence. Then, “Why didn’t you come back before? Didn’t you want me?”
And now he got it. Why Huck had insisted he was dead.
Because dead didn’t mean rejected. Dead didn’t mean his father had chosen not to come home. And maybe Huck was only ten and didn’t truly understand his snarled emotions.
