Page 38 of Saving the Rain (Crimson Ridge #4)
“ M r. Rainer?”
“Just call me Raine.” I pull my face away from my hands, muttering my reply.
The nurse who called my name peers at me over thick-rimmed glasses.
Tonight has dragged on for what feels like forever.
I’m itching to get the fuck away from the glare of these fluorescent lights and cloying scent of disinfectant.
All it does is remind me. Digs up too much dirt from my past.
She beckons me to the desk with a wave of a file clutched in her hand. Hopefully, it’s Kayce’s goddamn discharge paperwork. His fractured wrist is currently being set in plaster while I wait out here amongst the rows of plastic chairs.
When I reach the counter and hover, keeping my hands shoved in my pockets, she taps away on her computer, then lifts one eyebrow at me. How the woman can type so fast without looking at those letters on the keyboard, I have no idea.
“Do you need me to sign something for Kayce?” I ask. Hoping to hell she’s not gonna push those Coke bottle glasses up her nose and tell me there’s some extra horrific surcharge we have to pay. More dollars heaped on top of how much this is already gonna cost.
“Are you his next of kin?” She stops typing and glances at the computer screen for a moment, before turning back my way .
“No.” My head aches. I’m fucking starved. Let us just get the hell outta here, please, and thank you.
She narrows an unreadable gaze on me, clicking a couple of things with her mouse, while a phone rings in the background.
I’m not quite sure what this is about, but she clicks again and then turns to fully face me.
This time, she takes her glasses off and gives them a quick polish with the hem of her scrubs.
“The home address listed on Kayce’s file...” She pops the frames back on her face and studies me through the lenses. “There has been a history of similar injuries—of a young man sustaining repeated broken bones while living at the same address.” Her voice is soft to match her brown eyes.
My jaw tightens, and inside my pocket, I let my fingertips run over the ridged metal of my keys for a moment. I push the pad of my index finger down against the pointed end.
What she’s insinuating might be uttered in hushed tones in a bustling hospital emergency room, but it might as well be a foghorn sounding right beside my face with enough impact to burst my eardrum. The message is delivered loud and goddamn clear.
I shake my head and clear my throat. “The kid does rodeo. He fell off a horse.”
The nurse adjusts her weight, continuing to assess me with a long look and I stare right back.
I don’t recognize her, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know my face either.
But my name is on that computer. My files are there.
All my patient history from the times it was bad enough to demand medical attention.
Eventually, she exhales and reaches for the paperwork that had been waved my way before.
Pushing it across the counter toward me, she picks up a pen and uses it to tap a location on the page.
It’s a full A4 sheet. A chaotic cluster of fine print.
Kayce’s details, and endless jargon. The sort of form I always struggle to fill out because the letters all jump around and jumble themselves out of order in front of my eyes.
“He doesn’t have a valid emergency contact. The phone number listed goes dead.” She tilts her head to one side, flicking her gaze up to my hair that hangs in front of my eyes and down to my faded t-shirt.
“Fine. Put mine down.” I fist the ballpoint and write my cell number .
Filling in the tiny, blank box his mom has abandoned responsibility for with my details instead.
“Raine?” Tessa’s voice jerks me out of the memory I’d been lost in. The sound of her calling out makes my head fly up, focusing away from the point on the saddle in front of me. A spot that I’d let my eyes drift to while my mind wandered to another place and time so many years ago.
Mist knows the way back to the barn and hardly needs any guidance to know where to go around this ranch.
When I saddled him up earlier, he looked at me with equal parts distaste that he’s been cooped up, unable to get out as often as he’d like during the time I’ve been away, and sheer joy to be heading out for a proper ride at last.
I swing out of the saddle and lead him over to where Tessa waits outside her office. She’s all wide grins and a rounded belly that seems to have grown rapidly since I last saw her.
“We missed your bright smile.”
That earns her a scowl, and my eyebrows furrow together.
“Yep, that’s the one, right there.” She props her hands against the middle of her back and stretches a little. “You’re looking radiant as always, my favorite grump. Staying atop a mountain with your brother has obviously done you a world of good.”
“ Stepbrother ,” I mutter. An immediate prickling feeling races up the back of my neck. A flutter of worry makes itself known. Does she know something? Have suspicions? Small towns are magnets for gossip and rumor, the kind that spread like wildfire.
As Mist’s hooves clop in rhythm at my side, I have to fucking shake myself internally. There’s no possible way she could know shit, so what the hell am I even concerned about?
“How is Kayce? I miss seeing his pretty blue eyes.” Tessa coos at the horse and strokes his nose when we stop in front of her.
“As good as can be expected.” Goddamn. I really, really do not want to be talking about Kayce Wilder or his eyes right now. I unwrap the reins from my fist and then wrap them again. “He bounced back well enough that he’s able to work again. So here I am.”
Jesus, even just saying the words out loud brings on a rush of memories from the past few days.
Everything pops up, so vivid and fresh, sitting right there, ready to remind me of the most reckless thing we could possibly have done.
We should never have crashed across those lines.
Yet, all I can think of is how soft his lips were and the desperation in his little noises.
.. the way he responded to everything in just the way I like.
And I can’t keep fucking dwelling on that fact.
“Anytime you need to go help him, just shout.” Tessa’s fingers glide along Mist’s neck, and I’m struggling to stop from shifting uncomfortably. Fighting an inner battle not to give her any indication that I know what it looks like when my stepbrother climaxes from simply grazing his prostate.
“Won’t be necessary.” My words are like chalk in my mouth.
“Well, our sweet city girl, Briar, had her bottom lip dragging along the floor yesterday when she realized you were due back. She and Storm would return tomorrow if you asked.”
“I can’t keep walking off the job, Tessa.”
She gives a little tinkling laugh. “Look... I know you’ve been doing your lone wolf routine forever and a day, but here’s the thing about Beau; my brother is all about taking care of what needs to be taken care of.
” Her inquisitive eyes drift over me while I study the patch of dirt my boot heel is grinding down on.
“He’s gonna be the first one to tell you to get your ass back up the top of that mountain if Kayce so much as develops a sniffle. ”
Why that makes my chest tighten—why the prospect of going back up there and seeing him again leaves me with a strange swirling in my gut—I don’t want to examine.
This is madness, and what we did was obviously the result of being out of our minds.
Wherever all those heightened emotions and pure, carnal need to experience something on Kayce’s end came from. .. I can’t pause to examine.
It’s too dangerous to let that particular spark catch light.
“That’s very generous of him, but what about the guests... the trail rides.” This conversation needs to be over, and I just need to get my ass back to the barn so I don’t have to continue talking about anything.
“Chaos is all over it.” She stifles a yawn and gives the horse a final pat. “That man could charm angels into handing over their wings. Probably their little angelic panties, too.”
“Right, well... I’m gonna go figure out what needs to be done since I’m sure Prince Charming hasn’t been doing my damn bookwork for me, has he?” With a grunt and dip of my chin, I leave Tessa chuckling, confirming my exact suspicions as she makes her way back inside.
The rest of the day goes past in a blur.
A kind of rhythm and routine that I’ve come to feel in my bones.
And the entire time, my mind keeps straying back to the top of that goddamn mountain.
Physically, I might be here, handling saddles, filling water buckets, and checking on the new horses to see how they’re acclimatizing to the stables. Mentally, I’m somewhere else entirely.
Devil’s Peak Ranch .
My teeth grind at the unpleasant realization that Kayce has managed to embed himself in my awareness once again.
It took me years to fully shake off thoughts of him after leaving.
No matter how far I traveled, or the remoteness of the wilderness I found myself on horseback rounding up cattle in.
.. he followed me around. In those early years, he’d managed to worm his way into my thoughts unbidden.
Eventually, I was able to move the fuck on with my life and stop having any shred of care or concern for Kayce Wilder .
So this unexpected collision course we’ve found ourselves on... yeah, that shit is done. I can dust my palms off and move on. I’m leaving Crimson Ridge soon. This was only ever a temporary gig, and I certainly don’t need to hold his hand while he figures his life out.
That look in his eyes was so adamant—the utter terror when he stammered and gasped, pink-cheeked and flushed-lipped—it left no doubt he believed what we were doing was something to be ashamed of.
He got the message across loud and clear that night. We should never talk about it. No one can ever know.
Ain’t that the fucking truth.
I’ve had to protect Kayce for too long. I’ve had to physically put myself in the way and take punches that my father would have dealt to him, or his mom, if I hadn’t stepped in his path first. If I didn’t purposely start shit to keep his focus off them, then who knows what damage he might have caused.
I’d been there and seen it all. He couldn’t hurt me any worse than he’d already done when I was growing up. All alone in that house with just a sick bastard who couldn’t handle the fact my mom had been ripped away in a car accident.
Life doesn’t treat you kind, and the fact they walked into our lives that day—the fact Kayce’s mom unknowingly married a sadistic prick—meant that I had to carry the weight of saving them from their own stupid decision.
They should have stayed away.
At least now, Kayce is back on his feet. He’s capable and certainly goddamn big enough to look after himself. Even though it feels like I always have to be there to take the hits, wear the black eyes, and suffer the body blows to shield him from the worst of the worst... that time is over.
He’s gotta figure out things, and clearly nothing we did meant anything.
It’s just a moment in time.
One that I’m moving the fuck on from.