Page 11 of Bred

Shoes on, hair up, my favorite lilac-colored workout set on, I headed down the front door. My music was blaring, the fall weather was quickly turning, but today seemed surprisingly warm, and I savored the moisture in the air as I ran around the perimeter of the ranch house and then moved to the pasture by the main road. This one was just gravel and rock, and I grimaced as I ran along the edge a bit awkwardly.

But still, I was determined. This was something I loved; I wasn’t going to change that too. I’d been running for about twenty minutes, soaking up both the picturesque views of the South Dakota landscape, but also the pounding drive of my favorite music in my ears, when I stepped oddly off a large smooth rock and landed wrong on my foot.

The twinge of pain was sharp and immediate, and with a squeak of surprise, I pulled up, moving towards the wooden fence so I could throw an arm over and stare down at my ankle. I was tempted to take the shoe off, but the number-one rule with ankles was to never let them swell until you were sure you could put it up or relieve that pressure again.

I popped my earbud out and looked around me. The main house was a tiny gray dot against the golden landscape, and immediately I sighed. That was a long freaking way to walk, even more so now that every foot fall made me cringe.

It wasn’t broken, but it hurt. And I wasn’t about to risk additional injury. Grabbing my phone, I scrolled through a large number of missed texts, mostly from the few friends I’d managed to keep in touch with since high school. And then my cousin Lanie. But there was another, directly at the top of the screen, an unknown number. I swiped and was surprised that it was not just Loren’s cell phone number, but a link to my phone’s tracking application that allowed me to share my location with him.

I wanted to brush it off as creepy and be irritated, but seeing as I desperately needed that right now, I ignored that. Swallowing my pride and propping my ankle up on the edge of fence, I waited until I could see Loren’s location get fixed on my little drone map of the ranch.

My heart leapt in my throat. He was close, his bright-blue dot only a few pastures away from my default-colored gray dot. Taking another breath, I exited out and hit the call button by his name.

He answered in an instant. “Wren?”

“Hi.” I swallowed, my throat sticky and nervous for some reason. “I tripped on my run. I saw you were nearby; do you think you could come pick me up?”

Silence.

“I’m so sorry to be a hassle,” I started, but his deep voice cut me off.

“I’m coming. Stay there.”

“Okay, thank you,” I said into the phone, unsure if he even bothered to listen before the line went dead. Tucking my phone back into the pocket on my leggings, I hopped up onto the railing to wait.

I didn’t have to wait long. A few minutes later, I heard the thunder of approaching hooves, and I turned towards the noise, expecting to finally meet some of the four-legged residents of my new home. And I did. But that wasn’t all.

It was Loren and Erik, each aboard a dark brown–colored horse. A bay, I remembered from my horse-crazy days. The horses loped along, long legs eating up the space between the two men and me.

Erik slowed first, his bearded face hidden and locked down as Loren continued on, stopping only when he was feet from me. His blaze-faced mount huffed softly, jangling the bit in its mouth as Loren swung down and marched towards me in a pair of fitted, soft-looking jeans and a navy plaid pearl-snap shirt.

My ankle hurt, sure, but even now my body vibrated with the awareness of this man. He drew me to him like a magnet. And the way he’d swung off that horse, his handsome face serious, made my belly clench with want once more.

I was a goner.

“What happened?”

“It’s my bad foot. It’s more sensitive, and I tripped while looking at the scenery.”

Loren climbed the fence easily and dropped in front of me to look at my foot as well.

For as stern as his face was, his fingers were so very careful as they prodded around the ankle bone.

“I didn’t want to run home on it, you know?”

His head jerked up to mine, and his deep-blue eyes narrowed. “Home? No, that’s way too far. I’ll take you back on Bosco.”

Erik had walked up now and leaned on the horn of his saddle as he observed with me complete indifference. “Boss, we’ve got to check that calf.”

“Then take Danny off the fencing gig and get him to come over.” There was a growl under Loren’s words that made me feel a bit awkward.

Erik looked away, obviously not used to being the victim of Loren’s harsh tone.

Loren rose to stand beside me then looped an arm around my waist, taking my weight as he guided me towards a gate a small way down the fence row. “Please, Erik. I need to take my wife home.”

I dared to glance over my shoulder in time to see Erik give a jerky nod and reach off his own horse to snag Bosco’s reins. Together, he guided both horses to meet us.

The nod Loren gave him was as much an apology as I imagined either of these men capable of.