Page 44 of Take a Chance (Blue Creek Ranch #1)

Malachi

J aina was happy to go wherever I directed her, so we warmed up with a little walk and then trot, before I nudged her into a nice lope.

I had the reins around the pommel and sat in the saddle like it was a chair.

She didn’t need my input, but I was sure I was steering her unconsciously with my weight anyway.

I’d kind of told Crew we were okay. And yeah, we were. But my mind wasn’t. I couldn’t explain why my brain refused to let go of the negative.

So I straightened a little, making Jaina slow down to a walk. Then I patted her and did the thing I probably should’ve a while ago. I dug out my phone and called my mom.

We weren’t in the dark spot yet, so I’d have connection until we got closer to the creek, and I could always let Jaina graze a little while I talked.

My mom answered after a few seconds.

“Well, hello,” she said, sounding happy. I hated that I was about to ruin that for her.

“Hey, Mom.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Payton is fine.” That was the first thing she’d think anyway. “It’s… ugh….” I grimaced, feeling frustrated as fuck.

She made an understanding sound. “Take your time, honey.”

I blew out a breath and then blurted out, “Did you ever forgive Dad for what he did?”

There was silence for several seconds, then I heard her sigh. “No, honey. I didn’t.”

“It’s fucking me up still. Like…. Like I think his fuck ups rubbed off on me and I feel so fucking ashamed—”

“Okay, that’s three fucks in one sentence; maybe dial that back a bit, Malachi.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Sorry, Mom.”

“Go on.”

“I feel ashamed. Someone in town hinted at me getting my position because I slept with a Harrington or hell, maybe she was saying I’m with Crew only because I work here or maybe it’s some weird combination of both and….” I let go of a frustrated little yell that made Jaina snort. “Sorry, girl.”

“Give Jaina some pats from me,” Mom said in her gentlest tone. Then she hummed in the way I knew meant she was thinking hard.

I slowed us to a stop and gave Jaina the rein to eat if she wanted to. She began to munch on the tastiest leaves of grass she could find, and I smiled at her pickiness.

“First of all,” Mom started. “You’re away from the farm now. The town. Nobody over there knows your history. That has nothing to do with why some shitty woman is being a bitch.”

My eyes widened. My mom had fire in her, but it came out pretty rarely. This was scorching, though.

“Okay…?”

“So I feel like it’s very unfair to yourself to hold the past over your head just because someone is being an asshole, Malachi. None of your father’s mistakes were yours. If there had been any possibility for us to keep the farm, we would’ve. You know this in your heart of hearts, son.”

I sighed.

She wasn’t done. “Secondly, don’t you have enough to think about already?

Enough on your plate to let some petty, potentially homophobic stranger ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to you?

You have a son you adore, a job you love to bits.

You have your heart horse back, and hell, you even have a man you’re in love with despite the fact that you haven’t even let your mama meet him. ”

Ouch. I chuckled. “I’ve told you to head on over when you can, Mom. I’m not keeping anyone or anything from you.”

She snorted. “Excuses!” It wasn’t an excuse and we both know it, but she was trying to do the mom thing of being supportive while laying down some truths.

“Who said I’m in love?” I asked, because I was stupid like that.

“Your tone whenever you say his name, Malachi.”

Well, shit. I grinned and rubbed the back of my head, feeling sheepish despite being alone. “He told me he was falling in love with me today.”

The happy noise she made had my heart jump in my chest. “That’s excellent news, honey!”

We talked for a few more minutes, and she reiterated that I shouldn’t let the past ruin the future I had made for myself and Payton.

After I put my phone away, I nudged Jaina forward again. She took off in a happy little trot, and we were at the creek in no time.

I let her drink and contemplated on going to check some fence while I was there, but then the radio on my hip crackled with Ennis’s panicked voice.

I had Jaina turned around before I realized what was happening.

She felt the urgency and began to gallop toward the barns, her huge strides eating the distance.

Everything was calm by the time we made it back. Well, everything but me, obviously.

I put Jaina back with her friends and grabbed her stuff, then walked back toward the stock barn

I saw Bodhi first. He looked upset as he went to lean on the fence and looked at the mares and foals in the distance. He hadn’t noticed me yet, somehow, which meant he was really not paying attention to things. That was alarming, given that he was a Marine and always alert.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked as I approached him.

His gaze snapped to me, and he grimaced. “Rowdy got to the mares and foals. Imelda’s baby got hurt.”

“Oh my God, what happened?”

“It’s just a scratch on her face, but Matigan is on his way to put in some stitches. She’ll be fine.”

But how did Rowdy get—it hit me. The gate. I almost dropped the saddle I was carrying.

I walked on blindly, making my way to the stock barn to put the tack away. My ears were buzzing and by the time I put Jaina’s saddle on its spot and hung the bridle on the hook, my arms were feeling a bit numb.

Without really paying attention, I put the two-way back into the charger and started the walk to the broodmare barn.

The physical numbness was one thing, but feeling a blanket of dread fall over my emotions was horrible. I needed to see the foal, Angela Lansbury, with my own eyes.

Oh God, Bodhi’s heart horse’s foal was hurt because of me. I felt like I needed to puke all of a sudden. I stopped walking and leaned over, hands on my knees as my system tried to figure out what was going to happen.

“Son?”

I heaved in a breath and glanced over at Mike who was driving Bluey.

“Where’s—”

“Inside with Jenn. What’s wrong?” he asked, peering at me worriedly.

I couldn’t talk. I just pushed the back of my hand against my mouth and tried to breathe through my nose enough not to puke or pass out.

“Okay, you’re starting to worry me, Mal,” Mike said firmly and got out of the cart.

He came to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

I let out this weird sound, kind of like a sob but not really.

“Come on, Mal. Talk to me. Is it your mom?”

I shook my head. “N-No. The f-foal. I let Rowdy in.”

He frowned. “Crew said you forgot to attach the chain—”

My choked up, horrified gasp made him grasp my forearms. He was quick to try to soothe me. “Hey now. That could’ve happened to anyone . It’s not your fault.”

I shook my head again, more vigorously this time. “It is! If I’d—”

“No.” The dad tone was unmistakable. The sternness in his gaze, his eyes so similar to Crew’s, made me quake on the inside. “I won’t allow you to blame yourself. Nobody will blame you for that.”

“But Angela—”

“No. Let’s go. Dr. Matigan should be here soon. We’re going to go together to check up on the foal and then we’ll go back to the house for dinner.” He pushed me toward Bluey and I obeyed.

I zoned out a little, then startled when Mike parked the cart near the doors.

“Come on,” he said in that same tone that brooked no argument.

I followed him like a robot, somehow managing to move my stiff limbs and not give into the urge to run away instead. There was a small crowd hanging around Imelda Staunton’s stall. Crew stood by, looking in with Russ. I could hear Ennis’s voice from inside the stall.

“What’s the situation?” Mike asked as we got closer.

Russ glanced over. “Near the eye, needs a few stitches, but she’ll be fine.”

Crew noticed me and smiled widely. “Hey, I didn’t realize you were back.”

I stopped in my tracks, torn between the running away feeling and the need to be in his arms for comfort.

“Mal here thinks he’s to blame,” Mike said bluntly.

Crew’s expression fell at the same time Russ scoffed.

“Why in the hell you thinkin’ that for?” Russ asked me. “If we all were considered at fault for every honest mistake we make, this ranch wouldn’t run a day. Everyone would just be sitting around, feeling sorry for themselves.”

Mike snorted and went to peer into the stall.

Crew approached me in that same way he’d done before. Like I was a nervous animal.

“Baby, you know accidents happen. Even if you hadn’t been upset, you could’ve forgotten it. There’s countless times someone has forgotten to close a stall door or a paddock gate. Shit happens.”

“I know, but Bodhi looked so upset—”

“He’s upset because I told him to walk,” Russ cut me off. “That boy is a mother hen when it comes to Imelda Staunton, and he was making her nervous. I told him to go cool off and only come back when he wasn’t lost in his head.”

Crew pulled me to his side and then practically dragged me to the stall.

I choked up when I saw the foal. The mare was fine, eating hay, but the foal was still bloody from where she’d somehow ended up injured.

“It looks worse than it is,” Ennis said quietly as he leaned to the wall near the foal. “You know how it is with anything around the head, whether human or animal. Lots of blood vessels.” He grinned a little. “She’ll just have a kickass scar for a while.”

Crew cleared his throat. “Dad? What’s the biggest thing you’ve messed up here?”

Mike hummed. “Probably when I left the water hose on for the day back when you were little. Do you remember that? Your mom asked me to water her vegetable garden while she took one of you to the doctor’s.

When she came back some… I don’t know, five hours later?

The well we had was pretty much dry and her vegetables were floating. ”

Everyone but me chuckled.

“I drove Mike’s new truck into the ditch,” Ennis said.