That felt good. Right. Now I could go to bed. “Come on, girl.”
My phone buzzed. A text from Aiden. I sat back down, a wash of something comforting flowing over me despite the jagged edge I was riding.
Are you okay? ~ A
Yeah. Why aren’t you in bed? ~ F
Probably same reason you’re not. ~ A
That’s fair. ~ F
I love your brother but I’m not letting him dictate who I date. ~ A
Me either. Are we dating? ~ F
Are we not? ~ A
That one took me back. Staring at our little bubbles, I couldn’t quite settle on how to reply.
Ford? ~ A
Sorry. Tired brain. Can we talk later about everything? ~ F
Sure. We’ll set something up. I do like you. ~ A
I like you too. Goodnight. Dream of me. ~ F
I will rest assured. ~ A
Sleep didn’t come easily, but it did come. I didn’t dream of Aiden. I dreamt of running, being caught, and fighting for my life against various villains. One that looked a lot like Rip Leary and one that stayed in the shadows but had a long, long, long reach.
***
Tired from spending a fractured night battling demons, I was not in the mood for Baker.
Yet there he was, bright and early, washed but battered, like me. Granny was also awake, the slap-slap-slap of her slippers on the old linoleum. Her gaze met mine as I walked through the kitchen to the mudroom. Not one word was said. It made me feel bad, as I loved Granny, but I knew she would take Baker’s side. Everyone in the house would, I was sure. They’d all preach to me about seeing Aiden, what a man whore he was, how he was too old for me. The list was long, I knew. But they didn’t know how his arms eased me, or how his smile lifted me. All they saw was a man who jumped from bed to bed without a care. I was so mad I flung myself outside without hooking Lady to her check cord. She bounded out the door to find a place to squat then trotted about sniffing the cold, white grass.
“Hey,” Baker shouted as I exited the house. I kept walking, breath fogging in front of me, my eye swollen nearly shut. It hurt. My whole body ached. They never showed how miserable it felt to be in a fight in the movies. Action heroes never had to take aspirin after a row. They just got up, delivered the killing blow, and then walked off in super slow-mo as something massive exploded behind them. Not once had I ever seen Chuck Norris check his urine after a fight to see if he was pissing blood from a shot to the kidneys. “Hey, Ford.”
“Nope,” I growled, stalking to the goat barn as the sun was just starting to tint the sky a light pinkish-blue. A lone bird sang out from the tree beside the dress shop. Lady was over at the barn ahead of me, waiting, tail wagging. Without her cone. Where had she ditched it? Damn it. I’d have to find that later. Clever girl. Very clever. Guess I needed to get my head out of my ass.
“Ford, God damn it,” Baker snapped, stomping up to catch me. He grabbed my shoulder to spin me around. I shrugged it off. So the bullheaded ass pushed around me, face to face now, his jawunshaven, his eyes blazing. “You’re acting like Dahn. Someone has something to say that you don’t agree with and you stalk off to pout.”
“Fuck. You.” I went to step past him. He moved to the right to block me. “Baker, seriously, I don’t want to see you right now.”
“Tough shit. You’re going to look at me, and we’re going to get this settled right here and right now!”
His voice climbed at the end. I made a fist, wincing inside at the pull of scabbed skin and bruised knuckles, reminding me of last night. As if I could forget.
“You’ve got nothing to say to me that I want to hear.” I gave him a shove. Hard. Two hands to his chest. He stumbled back a step, which was less than I had hoped. I’d wanted to knock him on his ass, but he was too strong. He glared at me, tipped his hat up from where it had shifted down into his eyes, and took the one step needed to get his face into mine.
“Listen, kid, if you ever do that again, I’ll—”
“Enough!” Granny’s voice rang out. I glowered at my eldest brother. The back door slammed shut. “You two look at me right now before I come down there and crown you both with my cane!” My sight darted to the old woman on the back stoop. Fleece pants, slippers, a bright red OU sweatshirt, and her cane. Tiny and stooped, she was still formidable. I turned slowly to face her. Baker did as well. I yanked my hat off my head at the same time as my brother. A cow lowed in the steer pen. Frost coated the rails of the back porch. She looked us over and shook her head. “You two goats can butt heads later. One of them lady friends of Dodge’s mother’s just rung the house. Seems last night they heard screaming outside, sounded like a woman or something, they claimed. I told them it wasn’t nothing other than a coyote probably, but they’re city women, so they’re too scared to come outside unless someone checks the area. Sounds like a good thing for the two of you to look into.”
“Granny, I don’t mean to be disrespectful—” Baker started.
“Then don’t be. Take a couple of horses and go see what was prowling ’round the Double H cabin.”
