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“Your son? Well, damn. We got it from here, and I promise we’ll take the best care of him we can. But you need to go down there and wait so we don’t have two victims on our hands, okay?”

“Can I ride with you?”

“I’m afraid not. But we’re taking him to Round Rock if you want to follow us. I’ll let them know you’re right behind.”

Jax nodded, but he was paralyzed.

“Jax, come on down. I’ll drive us there.” Jill’s voice broke through the numbing fear that he’d lost everything. She was still here, and she’d drive him to see Ren.

He made his way down the steep path he’d somehow made it up without slipping and waded back across a shallower bend in the creek.

When he got to Jill, she wrapped him up in her arms and, like every time before, he felt safe, like everything really would be okay. He sobbed against her shoulder, and she rubbed his back. The EMTs were still up on the ridge with Ren, but his son was talking, and that had to be a good sign.

It just had to be.

“He’ll be okay. They know what they’re doing, and he was chatting up a storm; I could hear him from here.”

“I should’ve been there,” Jax whispered.

Jill’s hands froze for a brief moment, then resumed their concentric circles on his back.

“You can’t be all places all the time. It’s just not possible.”

“But I could’ve been there. I was a hundred yards away, and this was supposed to be about him and I spending the day together.”

“And you did that. You didn’t do anything wrong letting him explore a little.”

“Sure. Maybe not, but I ignored him so I could make out with you. What kind of parent am I if I put my kid second so I can get laid?”

She winced, and he sighed, running a hand through his wet hair.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s good to know what we are. It got a little confusing there for a second, and I was actually wondering. Thanks for explaining it in terms that are pretty damn clear.”

“Jill—”

Her phone rang again. “I should get this. It’s Maggie again. Should I tell her about Ren?”

Jax shook his head, spraying water. “Not until we know more.”

The two EMTs shuffled down the embankment with Ren posted up on a red backboard. Jill shivered, and a memory surfaced in Jax’s head. Her boyfriend—though Jax only knew him as the great Liam Walker back then—had been taken out of the arena on a stretcher like that. It was the last time he’d ridden a bull, the last time he’d walked into a stadium or any other place. This had to be hard for her, but with his son at risk, he couldn’t worry about consoling her, too.

“Fine, okay.” She walked away, and a different kind of guilt set in.

It was getting a little crowded in Jax’s head.

It wasn’t like he set out to be a jerk, but he had set priorities and he’d let sex—damn good sex with a woman he cared about, but still—get in the way.

And his son had paid the price.

Even still, he couldn’t keep his eyes off Jill as she walked toward the copse of trees where the horses were tied up. Columns of sunlit dust surrounded her, as did the jade and evergreen of the spring grasses, the bone-white bark of the birch, the crimson walls of the canyon.

All that natural beauty and he still couldn’t keep his gaze from her. She spoke with wild hands, then her chin fell to her chest. Her curls sprung in all directions making him wonder if it was too late to help her tame them.

But wasn’t that the point? His child was being loaded into an ambulance, and he was enamored with a woman who would leave as soon as their presentation was over.

Ren was all that mattered. He was all that could matter. But Jax wavered when Jill returned, her eyes watering and her chin trembling.