Page 17 of Before You Can Blink (Rust Canyon #4)

She hadn’t meant it as a dig, but it cut deep just the same.

Even if I hadn’t told her of my plans to hang up my spurs and quit competing, I’d already made that decision.

But banged up as I was right now, no one was going to give me a job.

Regardless, I needed to figure something out and quick.

It didn’t sit right with me that she was pregnant and working while I sat at home licking my wounds—literally.

A man was supposed to provide for his family, and come morning, I was going to set to work figuring out exactly how I was going to make that possible.

“Thanks for coming to pick me up. Those four walls were starting to close in on me.”

Wade hummed from the driver’s seat. “Surprised it took you this long to call me up. Figured you would have gone stir crazy as soon as school started, and your hot nurse abandoned you to wrangle ankle-biters all day.”

Without conscious thought, I snapped, “Watch your mouth when you’re talking about my pregnant wife.”

The car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the empty country road, and my best friend turned to me, eyes wide, a look of pure shock etched across his face. “Did you say pregnant ?”

My good arm lifted, and I gripped the back of my neck. “Yeah.”

“Shit,” Wade muttered under his breath. “Didn’t think you ever wanted kids.”

“Used to not want a wife either, but look at me now.”

The man beside me visibly shuddered. “Better you than me.”

My head fell back against the seat of his truck. “Not gonna lie to you, man. It feels like life is happening to me these days. The illusion of having any control in it was shattered along with my collarbone when I fell off that horse.”

“I take it this wasn’t something you planned?”

Twisting my neck, I shot him a look that said, What do you think?

Filling my lungs with air, I exhaled slowly. “Still trying to wrap my mind around it. If she weren’t so sick, I’d have a hard time believing this was even happening. ”

Wade’s expression turned sympathetic. “She having a rough go of it?”

I lifted my good shoulder in a half shrug.

“She says it’s normal, but I don’t know.

I hate feeling helpless, knowing there’s nothing I can do to make it better.

Throw in watching her drag herself to work every morning after spending half the night hugging the toilet, and my self-loathing is at an all-time high.

It’s fucking backwards that she’s the one supporting me while pregnant.

If my pop were still alive, he’d be tearing into my ass for not taking care of my responsibilities the way I should have from the start. ”

“I’m guessin’ you don’t have enough stashed away that she can take the rest of the year off?”

A loud snort sounded. “If I did, do you think we’d still be living above the bar?”

Jesus, we couldn’t bring a baby home from the hospital to that shitty little apartment where the floorboards rattled from the loud music downstairs until two in the morning every night.

“Hell, if it hadn’t been for Daisy’s health insurance covering most of my hospital stay, that would have wiped out my entire bank account,” I tacked on to emphasize how broke I was.

Every time I thought about bringing an innocent life into our current situation, it only added to the list of reasons why we weren’t anywhere near ready to start a family. But like it or not, we were barreling full steam ahead toward parenthood.

“Okay . . .” Wade said slowly. “Suppose all you can really do is heal up and get back at it when the season starts up again in March.”

“Daisy’s due at the end of March.”

“Fine, you’ll get a late start, then. So long as you’re winning, it won’t make much difference.”

Shaking my head, I explained, “Nah, I’m done with all that.”

“ Done ?” His voice rose in disbelief. “What do you mean, you’re done? ”

I gestured to the sling positioned over my chest. “It’s a goddamn miracle I walked away alive.

That hoof comes down six inches higher, and I’m a dead man.

My wife would have been widowed at twenty-seven, and my kid would have grown up never knowing their father.

I’m not about to keep courting danger when I’ve got a family counting on me. ”

“All right, I get it. But what are you gonna do now?”

“Beats me,” I breathed out. “Riding broncs and rodeoing is all I know. And I don’t respond all that well to people telling me what to do, so I’m not sure how long I’d be able to hold onto any job I might manage to snag in town.”

“You’re right about that,” he agreed. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

I wished I shared his confidence. But with my back against the wall and the clock ticking, I was sweating bullets trying to figure out how I was going to take care of my family. Not just now but in the long run.

The truck resumed its forward motion, but we didn’t make it far before a large sign posted by the roadside caught my eye.

With my finger pointed toward it through the windshield, I asked Wade, “What’s that?”

He hummed. “Parcel of land in foreclosure. Old Man Livingston thought about buyin’ it up, but it’s too far out, there’s no way to connect it to his property.”

“How much land we talking?”

“Touch over two thousand acres.”

The wheels began to turn in my mind. I might not be able to compete anymore, but what if there was a way to keep my hand in the game? After all, you couldn’t have bronc riding without bucking horses, and quality ones at that.

I’d need help—and a boatload of money—to make this happen.

Not to mention patience. Ranching wasn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.

From what I’d heard from Murph, there were just as many lean years as there were profitable ones.

But the most attractive prospect about it was that I would get to do something I loved—work with horses—while providing a stable home for my family.

God might have closed the door on my rodeo career, but this ranch was His way of opening a window for my future.

The message was crystal clear: playtime was over. With a wife and baby counting on me, I had no choice but to grow up.

“What brings you in today, Jett?” Marshall Hewitt leaned back in his chair, eyes assessing me from across his desk.

Wiping a sweaty palm against the rough denim encasing my thigh, I put all my effort into keeping my voice confident and strong as I replied, “I’m here to get a mortgage for the foreclosed property set outside of town and for a business loan so I can turn it into a horse breeding ranch. Bucking horses, specifically.”

Marshall’s eyes dipped to the sling keeping my left arm tucked tight to my chest. “Was mighty sorry to hear about your injury.”

With a dip of my chin, I wordlessly accepted his sympathy.

Shuffling papers around on his desk, set in the middle of the open floor of the bank, he got down to business. “What do you have in terms of assets?”

“Just what I’ve got in my account here.”

A heavy sigh sounded. “Jett . . . ”

I’d done my research. I knew that without collateral, I was sunk before I even walked through the doors of the building. On paper, I was a bad bet, but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

My gaze caught on the framed photographs of his wife and three children displayed proudly on his desk, and I sat forward in my seat.

“I know what you see when you look at me: a banged-up wannabe rodeo champion who couldn’t hack it.

” I shook my head sadly. “And you might be right about that, so I’m going to plead to the family man in you.

I’ve got a baby on the way, and failure isn’t an option.

If you’re willing to take a chance on me, I’ll stop at nothing to prove that I’ve got what it takes to make this work. More than that, to make it succeed.”

Eyes softening, Marshall offered me a sad smile. “As much as I’d like to help you out here, Jett, my hands are tied. I might be able to get you that mortgage if you’ve got the downpayment in hand, seeing as Daisy’s got steady employment, but the business loan is another story.”

He had severely underestimated my determination. I would gladly take what he was offering and figure out the rest later. “I’ve got the down payment.” Never mind that it would take every penny in my bank account.

The man sitting opposite me shot me a look of pure disapproval. “Jett, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t caution you against this. The property has already fallen into foreclosure once . . .”

“Your warning is noted. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get the ball rolling on this mortgage so I can make it home before school lets out.”

There was some grumbling under his breath, but Marshall set to work, gathering the necessary paperwork that would make me a landowner.”

I wasn’t as na?ve as he thought I was. I knew this was only the first step and that I would be fighting an uphill battle for years to come, but nothing fueled me more than being an underdog .

Proving him—and everyone else—wrong would only be that much sweeter.

October

“Where are we going?” Daisy’s brow wrinkled in confusion as I pulled through the gates marking the boundary of the property that was officially ours as of two hours ago.

“It’s a surprise.” A grin teased at the corner of my lips even as nerves twisted my gut in knots.

There was a very real possibility that she would freak out when I painted the new picture of our future.

It was a sharp one-eighty from the one she’d agreed to when she married me.

I was hoping she could appreciate that the pivot from our fun and carefree life meant I was forever out of harm’s way, and she wouldn’t be too mad that I’d gone and bought a whole damn ranch behind her back.

“Hmm. Seems to be a theme lately.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her hand coming to rest on her belly, which now featured the tiniest swell—visible proof of our child growing inside her.

I reached across the bench seat to take her hand. “But we’re rolling with the punches, right?”

“Don’t see how we have much of a choice.”