Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
I grunted.
He grabbed saline and iodine to clean the scrape—gouge—and he was really taking his time and being careful, which surprised me.
“You can do it faster. You ain’t gonna hurt me.”
“Just shut up.”
I finally closed my eyes and put my head down, and I must have dozed off until I heard Zach mutter, “Oh shit.” I hadn’t realized he was even there. It would have jolted me, but I was really very sleepy, and I had to wonder what exactly was in that first shot Rand gave me. I was a little more drugged up than I should have been.
Maybe.
Possibly.
The fact that I didn’t care should have been a concern. But I could not force myself to bark at either of them.
“That’s worse than I thought,” Zach said from what sounded like a distance but couldn’t have been.
“Yeah, he did a good fuckin’ job,” Rand griped.
“He’s gonna be all right, yeah?” Zach asked Rand, and I was surprised at the fear I heard in his voice.
“He’ll be fine once I get this cleaned and closed.”
I felt a warm hand on my bicep, holding gently but firmly, not letting go, and then another between my shoulder blades, rubbing circles like my mother used to do. “God, I don’t worry about no one like I worry about Glenn.”
“Don’t I know it,” Rand admitted, his voice thick. “I wish he’d just move onto the ranch so I could keep an eye on him.”
He did?
Zach sighed deeply. “I’d love that.”
He would?
“So would Stef.”
Stef too?
“But he won’t.”
“No. He’s a stubborn piece of crap.”
I was most definitely that.
Rand said, “I wish he’d stop mixin’ up what he thinks we want him to do—or be—with what we actually give a damn about.”
“He’s always had that problem,” Zach explained. “And while it was true with Daddy, it weren’t with nobody else.”
Rand grunted.
Zach added, “There’s no pleasing Rayland Holloway exceptin’ if we was you.”
“Rayland Holloway is not my father.”
“Your blood says different.”
“You know what I mean,” Rand muttered irritably. “James raised me. He’s my father. You and Glenn can keep Rayland.”
“Awful gracious of you, thank you,” Zach replied snidely.
It hit me then that because my father wasn’t there, I was taking all my ire out on Mac and Rand. The two of them were filling in for Rayland Holloway, and that wasn’t fair to either of them. Neither of them was my father and shouldn’t have been receiving my simmering anger.
Zach, I was nursing a wound over. He hadn’t helped me with my restaurant like he’d promised. He hadn’t been present. And while I didn’t expect him to be there during the building and hiring, I had expected him to be in my life. To come by and visit and just have him be a brother. I was hurt that he’d abandoned me, and I had to figure out how to let that go.
After a moment, Rand exhaled sharply. “If I could, I’d move my mother back into the house and have her bring Tate. I’d build Charlotte and Ben a house on the ranch, as well as one for Glenn, and we could all be there together.”
“What about Tyler, since you’re dreamin’ and all?”
“Tyler’s happy living with his daughter and her family for six months a year, and with his son and his family for the other half of the year. He don’t never get bored, he says, and he gets to spend time with all his grandchildren. I would never mess that up by invitin’ him back to the Red, especially after all the work Stef did to bring that family back together.”
“Sure.”
“But Tyler knows he’s always got a place with me and Stef.”
“Yeah.”
“And you. You know that.”
“I do.”
“I don’t know Cyrus or his lot well, and Brandon punched Stef that weekend Char got married,” Rand said tightly. “I don’t reckon I’ve ever forgiven him for that.”
“I ain’t heard that story.”
“Have Stef tell you. The part where later on Stef had to carry Brandon up out of a ravine is funny when he tells it. I don’t find it quite so amusing.”
“I’ll have to remember to ask. That sounds like quite the story.”
Rand grunted again. “If I could get Glenn on the ranch, though, that’d be good.”
“It ain’t like he couldn’t be, and he could keep that fool horse of his there too.”
Rand growled. “Why in the hell that horse ain’t on the Red is beyond me.”
“He’s proud, you know that.”
“I do. It’s how we were all raised. To not ask no one for nothin’.”
“Yep,” Zach said quietly.
“You’d think family wouldn’t count, though.”
Zach scoffed. “You surely weren’t raised by Rayland Holloway.”
“Thankfully not.” Rand sounded somber as he said it.
“Hey!” Mac yelled, but he sounded far away too, like Zach, so I let the sound wash over me without any fuss.
“Why’re you shoutin’?”
“I just—you’ve got a lot of blood on you.”