Page 17 of Want You Back (Second Chance Ranch #1)
Chapter 17
Maverick
I could watch Colt Jennings on a horse all damn day. He was the hottest thing in a black cowboy hat I’d ever seen, that was for sure. Somehow, someway, I was supposed to survive sharing a tent with him tonight without dying of lust for that magnificent ass. Unfortunately, my vantage point meant that I was also on a horse, and by noon, my butt and thighs were sore, yet we weren’t at the campsite. To add to the appeal of the benefit trail ride for tourists and locals alike, two historic wagons followed the line of horses, carting the cooking and camping supplies. The organizers, which included some ranch employees, had ensured the campsite would have feed and water for the horses as well, but it would be on the participants to make camp once we finally arrived.
Assuming I could still walk at that point. The lunch break had been way too brief. However, Colt confidently mastering the horse that made me so nervous was an excellent distraction. Adzuki and I plodded along, having made peace with each other. I didn’t ask him to go faster, and he, in turn, was content to follow Firecracker along the scenic trail.
When I was younger, I’d hated everything to do with horses, but Adzuki’s placid ways, the rhythm of the ride, and the gorgeous scenery I’d taken for granted as a kid had me reconsidering. Wide sweeping vistas of red rocky canyons blanketed by the bluest of skies hit differently after years away. Most of my last twenty years had been in big cities, mainly the concrete jungle of LA. Out here felt a million miles away from that life, and surprisingly, I didn’t hate the distance.
When we finally reached camp, we were divided into teams to tackle a list of tasks. Fate saw fit to put Colt, Hannah, Willow, and me on the firepit team. No one appointed Colt leader, but he took over anyway, directing others on our team to fetch a water bucket and rocks while assigning himself and the rest of us to finding kindling.
“Easy there, cowboy,” he teased as I limped after the girls. “You look like you’ve been riding for days.”
“Feels like it.” I lightly slapped my ass to make him laugh. Tired from the ride, I was content to carry my water bottle and let the girls round up most of the kindling. “I should have signed up to ride in one of the supply wagons.”
“Those wooden seats are no joke either.” He shook a finger at me. “And you better not groan all night about your sore butt. I want to sleep.”
“How am I supposed to sleep with that image in my head?” I shot back as thoughts of all the more fun ways to get a sore butt from Colt flooded my brain.
“What image?” Colt wrinkled up his face before his eyes widened. “Oh. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I know.” I chuckled. “Which made it funnier.”
Before Colt could reply, a shout echoed from the girls ahead of us.
“Uncle Maverick!” Hannah shrieked, dropping her armful of kindling. She was several yards ahead of Willow. “There’s a snake!”
“Fuck.” There were plenty of nonvenomous snakes in Colorado, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. Snakes responded to vibrations, so I followed Colt’s lead in slowing my footsteps, inching toward the girls.
“Hannah. Don’t move,” Willow warned as a tell-tale rattle sounded. I didn’t have the best view of the snake, but as Colt and I crept closer, it certainly looked big and deadly.
“Willow’s right, Hannah.” Colt’s voice was as calm and soothing as I’d ever heard it, totally at odds with the efficient way he produced a pistol, cocked it. I hadn’t been aware he was carrying, but now I was beyond grateful to be out here with the sheriff. “Stay as still as you can.”
“I’m scared.” Tears rolled down Hannah’s face.
“No one move.” Colt’s voice turned hard right as the snake reared up. Bam. A single shot and the snake was a pile of goo.
“You killed it.” Hannah waved both hands in front of her face. “I’m gonna puke.”
She headed toward the nearest bush, where she proceeded to lose her lunch. I rubbed her back before offering my water bottle.
“Sorry.” She gazed up at me through watery eyes.
“It’s okay.” I patted her shoulder. “I kind of want to throw up too. You were very brave.”
“I don’t feel brave.” She gestured at her tear-streaked face and the nearby puddle.
“That’s how you know you were brave.” I led her away from the bush. “You were scared, but you listened to Colt anyway. That takes courage.”
“Thanks, Uncle Maverick.” She gave me a quick, tight hug that stole what little breath I had left after the rattlesnake encounter. It wasn’t the first time I’d met up with one, but I’d never had the urge to dash in front of someone else, take the danger for Hannah. Anything to keep her safe.
Humbled, I let Colt and the girls lead the way back to camp, where Colt demonstrated the art of fire building to a cluster of tweens. His familiar reminders helped my pulse rate return to somewhat normal. Later, as the cooking team took over the fire with Dutch ovens full of chili, Colt joined me on a nearby low rock.
“Doing okay?”
“Yeah. That was way too close a call,” I admitted. I’d never been so terrified in my life. “I don’t know how parents manage to have any hair or nerves left.”
“Exactly how you did it.” Colt gave an approving nod. “See to the kid first, freak out later. You’re a good uncle.”
“Thanks.” Looking down at my dusty boots, I kicked at some loose rocks. “I haven’t always been. I was busy in LA, didn’t visit enough.” Colt was the only one on Earth I could admit this to. “I didn’t know how bad things had become for Faith after this latest divorce.”
“You’re here now. That matters.” Colt flexed his hand like he wanted to touch me but thought better of the gesture. We were alone on the rock, but plenty of people were milling around the campsite, cooking, setting up tents, and talking. Someone had even brought along a guitar, and the mournful tune wove through the evening air. “If Faith is anything like Kane, she’d laugh if you suggested meetings or rehab, but it sounds like that’s what she needs.”
“Yeah.” I dragged the toe of my boot along the reddish dirt, scratching a straight line. “She won’t, but yeah. Gah. Faith with a sudden cash windfall scares me. At least right now, I’m able to help shield Hannah some.”
As much as I wanted to be back in LA, preferably with my career intact, I was enjoying the chance to be an uncle, and the more I witnessed Faith’s parenting, the more resolved I became to stay involved.
“The easiest way to ensure no cash in the bank is to become a rancher.” Colt offered a crooked grin and sympathetic eyes.
“I’m sure.” I gave a bitter chuckle. I wanted Hannah safe and happy above all else, but I wasn’t any more convinced I was rancher material. “I still need to sit and go through the latest numbers with Grayson and the trust folks, see what sort of margin we’re operating with. I’m a hospitality project manager, not a rancher, Colt.”
“I know.” Colt’s smile faded.
“Chow time!” Someone rang an old-fashioned dinner bell, all the kids came running, and that was the end of that conversation. The sourness in my stomach lingered though. I hated being the reason Colt’s smile dimmed.
Colt wandered away to eat near some dads he knew from town while I ate with Willow and Hannah, who quickly abandoned me in favor of checking on the horses. Hannah seemed to have rebounded well from the snake scare, and I was content to sit alone, listening to the guitar and enjoying the light breeze until Colt plopped down next to me and handed me a long metal skewer with four marshmallows on it.
“What’s this?”
“Kids are making s’mores before the ghost stories.” Colt gestured at the nearby fire circle where Hannah and Willow had joined the other tweens and teens in roasting marshmallows.
“Most of the ghost stories around here involve my ancestors.” I kept my voice dry as the Colorado dirt under our feet.
“All the more reason to get you some sugar.” Colt gave a mischievous grin. “You always did have a sweet tooth.”
“Still do.” And here was Colt trying to feed me again, twenty years gone in a blink. I twirled the skewer. “I do try to watch my weight for TV.”
“You look fit to me.” Colt gave me a once-over that, while not particularly suggestive, made my skin heat nevertheless. I both couldn’t wait for and dreaded bedtime when we’d retire to a tent together.
I escaped to roast my marshmallows, making two s’mores so I’d have an excuse to sit near Colt for the campfire singalong. And the ghost stories, which I hadn’t been kidding about. Lovelorns had been haunting this place for generations. Faith was right. For a successful family, we sure had the worst luck. The town founder and first mayor had fallen to his doom in one of the many canyons in Disappointment Valley. Various plagues, fires, and general bad luck had killed off others before their time. The older ranch hand sharing the stories managed to be both spooky and upbeat, like all worked out in the end.
At least scary stories like these usually had a moral to share and a clear endpoint. The things haunting me had no such purpose, nor did I have a way of slaying the past. No matter how much I redecorated at the ranch, memories lurked like so many spirits waiting to be appeased.
That depressing thought had me staring at the fire long after people started to turn in. Hannah and Willow summoned Colt to check their tent for snakes, and when he returned, I stood and stretched.
“Should we turn in too?” I tried not to sound as reluctant as I felt.
“In a minute.” Colt sat closer to the fire, a determined glint in his eyes. “Gotta let the fire die down.”
We were on the fire team, so his dedication was justified. However, I couldn’t resist prodding a little. “You nervous?”
“About sleeping with— next to you? Nah.” Colt’s dusky cheeks said otherwise.
“Liar.” I grinned as I sat next to him. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna zip the bags together.”
“ Maverick .”
And Goddamn, if the way he said my name, all exasperated and fond, didn’t make me want to do exactly that.