“What in Sam Hill is going on out here?”
“He started it.” Tanner slapped the dirt from his pants and jammed a finger toward Seth.
“Oh, come on!” Seth hawked.
“I don’t care who started it. You two need to start acting like adults. We are all dealing with a lot right now and I sure as hell don’t have time to waste breaking up juvenile fights. You’re both grown men, for God’s sake!”
“He’s just all bent out of shape that his wife—girlfriend—whatever she is, just left.”
“What?” Seth aimed his eyes at his brother.
“She left. She’s gone. Borrowed someone’s truck and hitched up her trailer over an hour ago.”
Seth threaded his fingers together behind his neck and angled his head skyward and shouted. “How could you just let her go?”
“She’s made a pretty bad reputation for herself around these parts, son.” Mitch clamped a hand on his son’s shoulder. Seth spun out from under it. “I can see why she would want to leave.”
“No. The only bad reputation belongs to you all and you earned that by lying your way into the ownership of this ranch.”
“Careful what you’re insinuating there, son. You don’t want to start something that you’re not going to be able to finish.”
Seth clenched his lips together, his head twitching in a compulsive shake that made his vision blur. “You’re right, Dad. This fight isn’t one worth having. I’m saving my energy to fight for something—for someone—that truly matters.”
26
Josie
Josie’s first real impression of Darrel, her future stepfather-in-law was a good one. He’d loaned her his truck, after all. And more than that, he was going to let her park her fifth wheel on a little plot of land he owned just outside of Riverburn. There wasn’t a hookup for her like at the Ford property, but with a borrowed generator, she’d be okay for the time being. It was the little bit of grace and kindness she so desperately needed in a moment when those two things were hard to come by.
She’d been painted in a terrible light, not that it was any surprise. Good things don’t happen for you, Josie. She knew that. She had even tried to convince Seth of that. But did it really matter? In the end, no one else had to live that reality but herself. And Cowboy. She did feel a little bad about that. The poor cat had just settled in at the ranch and now here he was, swooped up again to make a new, temporary home somewhere else.
“It’s just you and me.” Josie gave the feline a sidelong glance across the truck. “When will we learn that we just don’t play well with others?”
The cat snarled, a fitting, well-timed response.
She set her eyes ahead at the two-lane road that stretched before her. The asphalt met the horizon in a fuzzy mirage, making her wonder if it truly led anywhere at all. The fact was, she didn’t feel like she was heading anywhere but into a futureless void anyway. No plan. No strategy. Just a long, desolate road to nowhere.
Twisting the knob on the radio dial, Josie tracked through the stations, one by one. Each played a song of love lost and she just couldn’t stomach that. It wasn’t love with Seth. It was something, but it couldn’t have been love. She pressed her finger on the button and silenced the depressing music.
Glancing down at the map Darrel had scribbled on a napkin, Josie noted she needed to stay on the highway for five more miles before the turn off. When her eyes lifted, she glimpsed something encroaching in her periphery.
“What in the world…?”
A truck lined up with hers in the oncoming lane, but they were headed in the same direction.
“Oh, this guy thinks he’s going to pass me, huh?” Josie gritted her teeth. “Not going fast enough for you, buddy?”
She jammed her foot to the pedal and lurched forward, but the weight of the trailer made the effort for naught and they lagged behind. The truck accelerated so their bumpers where lined up.
“Seriously?” Josie threw her hands in the air. When the tinted passenger window of the truck rolled down, she nearly swerved off the road. “Seth?”
“Pull over, Josie.” He flapped his hand to wave her to the shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she yelled over the road noise. Wind whipped through the open window and swirled around her face creating a tumbleweed of hair.
“Josie, pull over!” he bellowed again.
Taking her foot off the gas, Josie let the truck and trailer veer to the right, slowing to a stop in a plume of dust. Seth pulled off in front of her and shut off his truck.
“What is he doing here?” Josie asked Cowboy, but the cat was fast asleep, curled in a little ball on the passenger seat.
Clicking open her seat belt, Josie grab the keys from the ignition and stepped down from the vehicle.
Seth had already gotten out of his and jogged toward her, but rather than slow up as he got closer, his movements shifted into an all out run. He crashed into her, cocooning her body against his massive chest. “Josie!”
“What are you doing, Seth?” She wrenched free from his grip and fought to regain the wind he had just knocked out of her. “How did you find me?”
“Why would you just leave like that?” He was out of breath, hands in the air. “Just leave the ranch without saying goodbye?”
“It’s all over, Seth. Everyone knows none of it was real. And now I’m seen as some lying arsonist and I don’t know”—she gave a mocking shrug—“it’s not really a label I wanted to wait around and let stick.”
“No one believes those things.”
“Yes, they do. And all of that is beside the point, really. The horses you hired me to break are gone. There’s nothing left for me at the ranch, Seth.”
A sedan whizzed by on the road, the rush of wind it created flapping the fabric of Josie’s coat. She zipped up the jacket and crammed her hands in the pockets.
“Do you understand how much it hurts me to hear that?” He leveled an injured look at her.
“That the horses are gone?”
“That there’s nothing left for you at the ranch. I’m at the ranch, Josie. Is that not enough?”
She clenched her fists inside her pockets. “What do you want me to say, Seth?”
“That you love me. That it doesn’t matter what my family thinks, or what the town thinks. I want you to say that you love me and that we’re worth fighting for.”
“What if I don’t have any fight to give, Seth? Have you ever thought of that? Maybe I’m all out of fight.”
“Josie, you have more fight in you than anyone I’ve ever met. More than those mustangs, even. And remember what happened to them? Just when we thought they didn’t have anything left, they proved us all wrong.”
“But I don’t have anything left, Seth. And I don’t have anything left to give you.” She spun around on her heel, but Seth jumped in front of her.
“The only thing I want from you is your heart, Josie.”
“Oh, is that all?” she snipped.
“I want you, Josie. Just you. As you are.”
She dropped her head back and shut her eyes. “Why are you making this so difficult?”