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She lets out a gentle baaahhh that causes her to drop the pilfered glove.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” She leans into my offered hand, accepting the gentle head scratches. “You’re supposed to be at the ranch—” I shake my head as more tears stream down my cheeks. “I can’t take you back. I can’t go back there, Gertie.” She just stares at me, as though she can see into my soul with those slanted irises. “Of course I love him,” I tell the goat. “But that doesn’t change?—”
A blue Subaru jerks off the road onto the pullout, pointed in the opposite direction as my Jeep. A cloud of dust erupts as the vehicle skids to a stop. I grab the steering wheel, preparing to drive away. I’ve seen enough Dateline episodes to keep me cautious of situations like this. Considering we’re out in the middle of nowhere without any other signs of life, this could end badly if I’m not alert.
But it’s not an axe murderer who gets out of the Subaru.
It’s Nadia.
I lower the passenger window to leave Gertie a small crack of fresh air that she can’t hopefully use to escape. “Please don’t eat my leather seats.” I give her head a good rub before joining Nadia outside.
“I thought you were dead!” Nadia marches up to me, her eyes narrowed. She’s waving an envelope at me like it’s a weapon.
My stomach drops.
“Is that the letter?”
“Yes!” She yanks it away when I grab for it. “But you’re not getting it until you tell me why you haven’t answered any of my texts or calls in the last twenty-four hours.”
“Oh.” I realize now that my phone has likely been dead for hours. When I answered the call about Molly going into labor, my battery was in the red. I didn’t have time to grab a charger before I rushed to the ranch. I forgot that Nadia was the only one who wouldn’t be able to find me if she needed me. Except she did find me. “You drove all the way to Montana?”
“Well, duh.”
“I’m so sorry, Nadia. We had a mare go into premature labor. My phone died.”
“Is the baby all right? Oh no! Is that why you’re crying?”
“Molly’s baby is surprisingly healthy and doing just fine.” Another tear trails down my cheek without my permission. “I was just on my way home?—”
Another car races around the bend, skidding to a stop in the pullout behind my Jeep. Shit.
Everleigh throws open her door and pops out. Spitting mad, she doesn’t even bother to shut her door as she marches over. I feel her narrowed gaze incinerating my bones. As if I didn’t feel terrible enough. “You were going to leave without saying goodbye, Macy? What. The. Hell?”
“I’m sorry?—”
“Save it,” Everleigh says, dragging me into her arms for an air-stealing hug. “You can grovel later. You okay, hun?”
I burst into tears and feel Nadia make the embrace a group hug. My two besties hold me while I cry myself stupid on the side of a two-lane Montana highway, Gertie watching with concern from my passenger window.
It’s not until the goat lets out a high-pitched scream that we jump apart.
“Are we kidnapping goats now?” Nadia asks, and then her gaze narrows at Gertie. “OMG. Is this the goat? The little chaos demon?”
It feels good to let out a laugh. “Yeah. She snuck along.”
“She didn’t want you to leave,” Everleigh says. “None of us do.”
“Well, maybe not none,” Nadia says, waving the letter.
“Oh shit. Is that the letter?” Everleigh looks at me expectantly. “What does it say?”
“I haven’t opened it yet.”
Nadia hands it over, but before I can work my fingers beneath the envelope flap, a fourth vehicle joins us in the pullout. Good grief. It’s getting crowded on this strip of gravel. This one’s a big, black truck.
A rollercoaster of emotions slams through me in seconds: excitement, anger, happiness, sheer terror, and a shocking dose of love as Ryder Stone hops out of his truck and marches right up to me. He came after me.
“This is your cowboy?” Nadia gasps.
