Page 21 of Love Me Back (Diamond Creek #2)

Grayson

“I don’t like this.”

“You’ve said that.”

“Well, I’m saying it again, Carl.”

I sat on the tailgate of the ranch pickup truck with Carl as I watched Jessie ride off on a horse with my brother Hudson. I wanted to be the man who took her for her first ride. Only I couldn’t fucking ride a horse because I couldn’t fucking walk.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped the truck, knowing there were a thousand ways this could go wrong. Jessie didn’t know how to ride a horse. Thunder could be an asshole when he felt like it. My brothers said he was too much like his owner, and maybe he was, but we understood each other.

We had no idea who had let him out or who had shot at me. Nav had cleared half my hands, Carl being one of them. And thank God, because aside from my siblings, Carl was who I trusted the most on this ranch.

Carl was young, only twenty-five, but he was a hard worker, and he was honest and loyal. He worked here because he loved the ranch and the animals. He wasn’t looking to get rich; he was simple, like us.

Most people wouldn’t call us simple, but we were. They saw the huge barns, the horses and cattle, and assumed we were tycoons. And on paper, we were. But part of that was because we lived a simple life.

Our extravagance was for our animals, not for us. We all lived in the ranch house my great-grandfather built. It was over a hundred years old. Sure, we’d made some changes, added some modern touches, but nothing that would have anyone who walked inside think we were showing off.

We might have grown up with money, but our parents taught us to work hard for what we wanted. Nothing was given to us.

Including this land.

I might run this ranch, but it wasn’t mine. It belonged to Pops. Had since his father passed away. It would have gone to my mother first, but my parents were gone. So, when Pops died, the ranch and the hardware store would be split among the six of us.

“What’s taking so long?” I asked out loud to no one in particular. Nobody who was in that field with me could answer the question because none of us could see inside the dense forest.

There weren’t many trees in Nebraska. Not like I’d seen in pictures of other areas. Most of the landscape was flat from centuries of farming. But we had these small parcels that often got overlooked.

“It’s only been a few minutes, boss.”

I scowled at Carl, but he wasn’t looking at me. When I followed his stare, I saw my foot moving. Like I was tapping the ground in impatience. If I’d been standing on the ground, that is.

“How long you been doin’ that?” Carl asked.

“Not long. My toes started to tingle a few days back.”

Now that my foot was moving, I couldn’t stop it. I looked around to see who else might have noticed, but everyone else hung back behind us.

“You tell anyone?”

“No. I have a doctor’s appointment this week. With Thunder disappearing and the impending arrival of our guests, I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. Figure I’ll wait and see what the doctor says.”

“I can’t imagine it will go away as you heal. Must be coming back if it’s movin’ without you thinkin’ about it.”

I watched my foot bounce, and I shrugged. “Maybe.” My family wasn’t the only ones I didn’t want getting their hopes up. I was trying to keep myself in check as well.

Scanning the area, I tried to forget about the feeling that was returning in my foot. It was only the one. The other foot was still useless. Having one working leg didn’t do me any good. I needed two legs to stand on. Two legs to carry Jessie to bed. And two legs to walk down the aisle with her.

Emerson and the men I’d sent with Jessie and Hudson rode out of the forest, and I glowered at them.

“What the fuck are you doing out here? Where’s Jessie?” I wanted to jump off the back of this truck and stomp my feet. I wanted to kick Emerson’s ass for leaving her in there alone.

She’s not alone.

No, she was with my fucking brother.

“Hudson told us to leave. Jessie said Thunder was acting nervous; thought us leaving might calm him down.”

Nothing would calm him down but seeing me.

Just like nothing would calm me down but running my hands over his back and making sure he was okay.

Then I wanted to do the same thing to Jessie.

I wanted to rub my hands over every inch of her, checking for any injuries and blemishes that might need attention.

“Your foot’s moving,” Emerson shouted, and I groaned.

“It’s just because it’s dangling over the edge.” I tried to distract him. He was easy to distract, and I sometimes used that to my advantage. I knew it was wrong, but he never knew when to keep his mouth shut. “Carl won’t sit still and keeps rocking the truck.”

“Sorry, boss. Guess I’m a bit nervous about Jessie gettin’ near that demon horse of yours.”

I twisted my head around to glare at Carl for the way he spoke about my horse, but he just grinned. He had my back, and I knew it.

Everyone was quiet as we waited, and I tried like hell to calm my nerves enough so I wouldn’t keep tapping my foot. Carl, who normally had the patience of a sniper, fidgeted next to me constantly to keep up the ruse.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“No thanks needed, boss.”

When Hudson appeared through the trees, alone, it took everything I had not to jump off that truck bed. It still wasn’t enough, but thankfully Carl was. He grabbed my arm and held tight.

“You’ll fall on your ass,” he whispered. “And mess up whatever progress your makin’.”

I huffed out a frustrated breath, but instead of yelling, I waited for Hudson to ride over.

“What the fuck—”

“Calm your ass down. She sent me out here.”

“And you fucking listened?” I shouted.

“Yes, she’s the only goddamn person other than you who can get near that thing. If she tells me to get the hell out ’cause I’m making the horse nervous, then I’m gonna fucking listen to make sure her life isn’t at risk.”

“Her life is at risk just being out there. What if she gets bitten by a rattlesnake and no one is there to help?”

“She has boots on.”

“And if they fall out of the fucking tree?” I bellowed.

“Don’t be an asshole. You know as well as I do that if they have plenty of hiding places on the ground, they aren’t likely to climb. Besides, she sent me out here to move everyone back. She thinks if she can get him out here, he’ll get spooked when he sees everyone just staring at him.”

“She’s right, and I should have thought of that.” Jessie was fucking smart. “Carl, drive us back a ways.”

“Might wanna scoot back so I can put the tailgate up.”

“Why?”

“So you don’t fall off the end of the truck, asshole,” Hudson hissed as he turned the horse away to go tell the others what Carl said.

“And with the tailgate up, less people might see your twitchin’.”

“Thanks, Carl.” My hands pushed against the truck bed as I lifted my ass and scooted back. I grabbed one leg to swing it back while the other one moved on its own.

I looked up at Carl. I imagined his eyes mirrored my own. “ Well, fuck me.” He grinned.

“Not a word, Carl.”

He brought his fingers to his lips, clasped together as if he held a key, and tossed them over his shoulder after pretending to lock his lips. It was a childish movement, but for some reason, every adult on the planet still used it.

I smiled as he shut the tailgate, staring at my foot as it moved from side to side. It was progress, and I only prayed it extended to the other leg eventually.

The truck bounced over the terrain as we moved back away from the forest that held my woman and my horse. I didn’t think I had ever felt as useless as I did right then.

Carl parked the truck and met me at the back. He grabbed the tailgate to lower it, but I stopped it.

“Leave it closed. I don’t want anyone to see my leg move.”

He nodded and leaned his back against the closed truck bed.

“I don’t like this.”

“You said that already.”

“I’m fucking saying it again, Carl.”

He didn’t answer, but his smile was all I needed to know he didn’t take my outburst to heart. There was no way to settle the nerves inside me. Not until Jessie and Thunder were both safe and back home.

“Trust your horse,” Carl said.

“What?”

“Trust him. He might be ornery and an asshole to everyone but you, but do you really think he’d hurt her?”

“I don’t know.”

“You know Addison has been the one feeding him.”

“What?” Carl always called my sister Addison. Never Addie like the rest of us. She hated it and told him so every time he did it.

“She’s the only one that can get in and out of the stall without him makin’ a fuss.”

“He lets Addie near him?”

“Now, I didn’t say that.” He chuckled. “But when he was in the paddock, if any of us tried to open his stall, he charged us. He didn’t do that with her. He stayed where he was until she was done. She’s been cleanin’ it too.”

“I’ll be damned. That fucker has a thing for women.”

“Can’t say I blame him with those two.”

Addie and Jessie were like night and day with their looks.

Jessie was short, five foot three at most. Whereas Addie was five foot eight.

Jessie’s hair was long and dark, almost black, and it hung to her waist. Addie had blonde hair, like our mother, and it stopped just below her shoulders when she left it down.

Usually, it was in some kind of knot on top of her head.

I’d long suspected Carl had a thing for my sister, but the two of them were like oil and water. I didn’t understand what her issue with him was, but anytime they shared the same space, she took every opportunity to take a shot at him. He’d just smile and walk away.

We were waiting for what felt like hours for Jessie to lead Thunder out to the clearing, when gunshots rang out.

“What the fuck was that?”

Once again, I was helpless as I sat in the bed of the truck and waited while the others raced toward the clearing. Carl jumped into the truck and had just started the engine when Thunder broke through at a run, with Jessie on his back.

My life flashed before my eyes as my horse raced by with Jessie desperately clinging to his neck.

“Follow them, Carl!” It was a useless command; Carl was already moving, as were the others. The men on horseback had no hope of catching up to Thunder, but in the truck, we might.

We followed behind as I tried fruitlessly to call out to my horse. I knew he couldn’t hear me over the sound of his hooves pounding on the flat land and the roar of the engine barreling behind him.

Thunder was smart, though. He ran straight back to the ranch, only stopping when he reached the yard. A group of men I didn’t recognize stood with Addie, watching as Thunder walked out his run, Jessie still clinging to his back.