Page 10 of His Country

And Billy was the only person who had ever made him laugh so hard he’d cried. Billy was so bright he chased away the shadow of his mother’s indifference and his father’s despair. He was the only reason Aiden had survived that last year.

He was the reason he had to leave, then and now.

Swinging his bag onto his back, he made to step out of the bunkhouse when he caught sight of Sugar. She was sprawledout in front of the fireplace. Her paw twitched in her sleep, eyes fluttering as she dreamed under the residual heat from embers that hadn’t been fully doused. Sugar was happy here. At the other ranches he’d worked on, they’d wanted her to live outside. Claimed she was a working dog, and working dogs didn’t come inside. They saw her as a tool, something easily replaceable. He’d spent nights curled up with her in the barn or the cab of a truck, unwilling to let her sleep alone.

At Rolling J, she could run freely, dip into the bunkhouse or sleep in the office when it was too hot to chase Aiden around. She drank from clear streams and rolled in tall grass under a big sky.

Who knows what the next farm would look like? Or if he could even find work.

He let the bag drop to his feet with a soft whump.

Aiden could handle his past. He could handle watching Billy and Everett fall in love all over again. He could shove past the memories of hazy summer nights drinking warm soda in the parking lot of a 24-hour drive thru as Billy and Everett tried to include him in discussions of the future. He could deal with the agony of wrenching the scab off his wounds, letting it heal just enough to have something to pick off all over again.

What he couldn’t deal with was disappointing his damn dog.

Aiden kicked his duffle back towards his bunk and adjusted his hat. He needed some fresh air.

CHAPTER THREE

Aiden disappeared into the hills, checking the cattle for two days longer than necessary. He spent long days riding fence lines he knew were in good repair and making sure the water sources were clean and ready for the upcoming winter.

The pastures closer to the main farm had several thick stands of trees and a couple of barns the cows could retreat into if the weather grew too bad. They’d been lucky the last few years not to lose any, but that was more to Frank having smaller herds than anything else.

He kept waiting for the cold, clear air to chase away his demons. Freeze him from the outside in. Cauterize his wound with the creak of leather and the crunch of dead grass. But even after days in the hills, the buzzing under his skin wasn’t any better. He still expected to look over his shoulder and see Everett looking through him or Billy plaintively searching for the boy he used to know. There was no respite in sleep, either. His dreams were fractured, non-sensical loops of things he didn’t recognize. It didn’t matter that the moment he woke up he couldn’t remember them, the discomfort they brought lingered long past the sun rise.

It was only when his supplies dwindled and he was looking at starvation or hunting a squirrel for food, that he returned. In the cover of night, he rode Eagle into the barn with a weary sigh.

He didn’t turn on any of the lights. He didn’t need them, and he preferred the close press of the dark. With any luck it would be late enough, and Isaac would be fast asleep in his bunk, and he could avoid small talk.

“You did a good job on that colt’s leg.”

Aiden whirled, reaching for the whip at his belt. Someone was leaning against the back wall, fingers playing with something.

“Thought for sure I’d be cutting off proud flesh.”

“Who the fuck?—”

The guy stepped into the moonlight pooling through the barn doors and Aiden swore. Playing with a cheap plastic lighter, it was cigarette guy. Equally as tall and lanky, he had a small smile on his face.

Aiden released the grip on his whip. After years of moving cattle, he was pretty accurate with it. If he tried hard enough, he could probably snap that cigarette right from between his fingers.

“What are you doing here?”

“Complimenting you,” he said slyly, grin deepening. “Seems like there’s something you’re good at besides running.”

Aiden tried to resist the urge to let his whip loose on this asshole. He figured Frank was already pretty salty at him for his performance with Carol, so he held back. For the sake of his job.

Sugar came into the barn, ears perking when she saw the stranger. Her tongue lolled as she approached him, shamelessly rubbing on his legs for pets.

Traitor.

The man stooped and began petting her. Hands running along her flank and even checking in her ear.

“You seem to know who I am,” Aiden snapped.

“I do,” the man replied lazily.

He didn’t feel the need to elaborate, and Aiden wasn’t about to beg. Not when he didn’tcare.Locking Eagle’s stall, he whistled for Sugar and made his way out of the barn.