Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Unfortunately, that meant I had to devour the lemon-flavored cupcake instead of savoring it like I usually would.
“The girls with you still?” Trey asks, his voice sounding ominous. The food I just ate sits heavy in my stomach, threatening to come up.
“Yeah, Birdie and Tully are right here. Do you need one of them?” Anything could happen, literally anything, and my mind always goes to the worst-case scenario. Do I have enough supplies? Is it going to be something I can handle? Will I need to have an ambulance on standby?
“Nope, only you. Now, I need you to sit down.” My knees buckle. “You sittin’ down?” he reiterates.
“Yeah.” My chair is within reaching distance, and my hand goes to the back as I lower myself. I can feel my skin turning clammy. This must be bad, so bad. My mind goes down the laundry list of what-ifs. When Lawson and Trey left earlier, it was to look at fencing, something Lawson does a lot. Especially once he’s tired of working behind the computer. And today, I could tell the ants in his pants were getting to him. Ghost likes to be ridden daily, and he lets you know the minute you walk into the stall. He was out in the pasture yesterday, but only for a small amount of exercise, so he still had a lot of energy built up like his owner.
“Alright, as soon as I let you know what happened, collect what you need and hand the phone to Birdie or Tully. You are not to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. I should call an ambulance, but your stubborn mule of a man won’t allow it.”
“Oh god, Trey, tell me now. What happened?” There’s a tremble in my voice, and I can’t even prepare my supplies because what the hell do I pack when I don’t know what’s going on?
“Renegade clipped him in the side. He’s got a nice little gash on his ribs, and his head took a nice little hit to the ground.” Everyone knows to stay away from that bull when he’s in a mood, Lawson more than anyone, so something bad must have happened for him to get in the middle.
“Jesus, is he awake? Pupils dilated? How bad is his bleeding?” I shoot off a litany of questions.
“He’s awake. Don’t know about his eyes. We’ve got some towels pressed on his side to help the gash. Now, toss the phone to one of the girls, sweet pea, okay?” I’m nodding as if he can see me. Words are hard. My throat is being choked with emotions. I can’t believe he wouldn’t let Trey take him in an ambulance. He hit his head. Who knows what grade concussion he has? X-rays will only do so much, and that’s about the extent I have available here.
“Here, it’s Trey. Lawson’s hurt and being a damn fool.” I toss the phone to Birdie. “Tallulah, will you grab my bag? I’m going to the supply closet to get what I need.” I’m a woman on a mission. How I’m holding it together and not falling apart is a shock even to me. Which means later today, when the dust has settled, I’m going to crash hard. I’ll still need to beat some sense into Lawson if the hit to the head didn’t do it for him.
“Birdie, tell Trey he’ll still probably need to go to the hospital, no matter what.” I come back out with a bundle of essentials—Band-Aids, gauze, sutures, glue, and a bunch of other shit I probably won’t need but am bringing regardless.
“Good luck. Lawson is worse than Lane and Dean combined in the stubborn department,” Tallulah follows up.
“Great, and he wants to give me all kinds of hell for throwing up as much as I did. At least I wasn’t wrestling a damn bull.”
“Are you ready? They’re not far. Apparently, Renegade wanted Amos Ellison’s heifers. Sienna was going after the dog, Trey was going after Sienna, and Amos had the dog, which left Lawson as the bait when Renegade thought they were taking his heifer away. I know, I know. Trey really gave me the whole story so you wouldn’t have to hear it over and over again. He’s a good guy, that brother-in-law of mine,” Birdie says. While on the phone, she managed to clean up the mess, scoot the chairs back, and listen to what Trey had to say. God, I love this family.
“Trey went after Sienna? Interesting. I didn’t think she was home,” I say.
“Neither did I,” Birdie and Tully reply at the same time.
“Tallulah, can you drive? My supplies are probably overkill, but just in case Lawson is being a dummy, I can use a tranquilizer to put his stubborn ass in an ambulance, or we can drive him there ourselves.” Obviously, this is a joke. I have sedatives of my own, but it helps ease the heaviness that’s trying to pull me under.