Page 38 of When It Reins (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #5)

mitch

Throwing small bales into the hayloft is a good way to burn off some steam, and as the wranglers toss them up to me so I can stack them, I let my mind wander.

It’s been less than twenty-four hours since I saw Juniper’s face, since I watched her fold into herself, terrified that the love I had for her was false, and it fucking hurts.

Putting myself out there with her was not easy. It is something that does not come naturally to me as an introverted person, and to have that trust just stripped away makes my chest clench with pain.

I never knew that I could actually feel this hurt, this betrayed.

I do understand where she’s coming from. The timing I had wasn’t great. I could have made myself clearer in the beginning or told her why I was hanging around her the way I was at first.

I just never thought it mattered. Though we hadn’t dated, or I hadn’t allowed it, we were friends first. We were friends who progressed the more we spent time together, friends who confided in one another about our worries, our pasts, our dreams, and our fears.

A bale hits my calf when I miss and one of the wranglers, Covey, I think, apologizes. “Sorry, man. Thought you had that one.”

I don’t reply. I just send a glare at the bale and pick it up, stacking it with the rest. I watch Mason, Bonnie’s older brother, heave a bale off the flatbed with one arm, his other resting on a cane.

He came to work for the ranch last summer and started out confined to a wheelchair, then worked with Dani doing therapy until he was able to start using only a cane.

I watch in amazement for a moment, wondering what you had to do mentally to come that far, to go from being in a wheelchair, unable to get yourself on a horse without pain, to being a wrangler on a ranch and riding every day.

“So…” Maverick, the first wrangler CT hired to work here, catches my attention. “Everything good?”

I send my glare to him, wiping sweat from my forehead. “Fine.”

“Really? Because you never come out and help.”

“What is this fucker trying to do, getting into my business like this?” CT asked.

CT didn’t ask, but when I showed up at the ranch, looking for something to do to take my mind off of shit, something that would wear me out so that I could actually go home and sleep after not sleeping all night last night, he said they were unloading hay.

It is the perfect job to get your mind right, but being questioned by one of the wranglers is not something I am interested in.

“How is it working at the bar?” he asks, to initiate conversation again, despite my granite exterior. “I’m thinking of looking for some supplemental income.”

“They’re not hiring.”

“Who’s hiring?” Covey asks, getting involved in our conversation.

“I was asking if the bar was, to work some security or something,” Maverick answers, saving me from answering.

“Oh, are they? I’d love to work there. Get some face time with the boss over there.” Covey winks at me like I’m supposed to know what the hell he’s talking about.

“Hey, I wouldn’t go?—”

“That singer over there is hot as fuck. I’d let her boss?—”

Before he can finish his sentence, my fist lands in his face. Somehow, my body moves on autopilot down the stack of hay bales and into the face of the guy who was talking disrespectfully about Juniper.

He turns to me, anger all over his face, and adrenaline pushes through my veins. Excitement for a fight to come is all I can feel, and when he barrels into me, punching me in the gut, I’m all the more happy to retaliate.

The ground is slick in boots, but I find purchase and lift him up, taking him to the ground and landing another punch to his face.

I am much bigger than he is, and taking him down is easy enough.

He moves fast though and gets a leg wrapped around mine, flipping me over and landing a punch to my jaw.

“What the fuck!” Covey yells, blood spurting out of his mouth.

I lift up, grabbing him again and getting us on our feet before I throw another punch and then shove him away. I glare at him, and he glares right back. “Don’t ever fucking talk about Juniper again.”

“Dude, you’re insane.” Covey spits and blood splatters on the ground. The other wranglers watch as we cool down, and I turn to leave.

I don’t need this shit. I don’t need any of this shit.

I just want her.

Fuck.

I enter the main part of the barn on my way to my bike, and unfortunately, run smack into my older brother. Logan looks at me, his brows raised in surprise, probably at what feels like a gash by my eye.

“What the hell happened to you?” His calm question seems to cool the anger inside of me. He goes to lean against a stall, and I stand there, tucking my hands into my pockets.

“Just teaching some respect.”

Logan chuckles and shakes his head. “Let me guess. Covey?”

“He’s an asshole,” I reply.

“Nah,” Logan says, shrugging his shoulders. “He’s young. Needs to figure out his boundaries. But he’s a hell of a farrier.”

I shrug, having nothing to say to that, and just want to go home.

No. I want to go to her.

I was already over our fight, already ready to go and make up with her, to hear her out and say my piece. I know she would listen. Juniper is a logical girl, and we both are in love with each other. I want to find a way to get through this disagreement.

“I, uh, heard what happened.” Logan grimaces when I look at him, my brows furrowed in question. “With Juniper. Thea filled me in. They went over there this morning to check on her.”

It is eating me alive not to ask, but that is one good thing about my brother. He didn’t need a sign to know I am burning to know how she is. “She’s okay. A little confused, I think, about what she’s feeling.”

Logan kicks his foot out, his boot hitting the ground with a tap. “I think she just didn’t know how to handle what she heard.”

I nod, looking out the barn door at the quiet ranch. I do love it here, when no one else is around. “I should have told her from the start.”

“Maybe so. I don’t believe in keeping secrets from your partner,” Logan says, lifting his brows.

I know what he’s thinking back to, when Thea kept things from him that could have helped them avoid some dangerous shit.

“But I know you, brother. I know you love her. You just have to convince her it’s bigger than all the rest of it. ”

I hum and think about that, think about how she is my first thought every day and last thought at night, how I no longer sleep well when she isn’t right next to me.

I think about how when I see her after not for a while, my heart pounds heavily in my chest. About how, when she asked me to go with her on her tour, I didn’t even stop to think about the things we were leaving behind, because all I knew was I was moving forward with her, and that is all that matters to me.

“So what are you going to do?”

I bite the inside of my cheeks, thinking through the options. There isn’t a ton, but that is okay because there is only one that matters.

“Probably head home for a shower,” I say, thinking that the amount of sweat that has poured from me in the last couple of hours is enough to warrant one.

Logan smirks and nods. “Heading home is a good idea.”

I frown for a moment before I realize what he’s saying and then step out of the barn, my brother’s chuckles following me as I race to my bike.