Smiling to myself I tossed my phone back in my bag and made my way down the two flights of stairs.
Sadly, things always seem to happen when you never wished they would.
Just as I put my hand on my car door handle, I felt it. That sting.
I quickly grabbed my epi-pen from my bag that I never left home without and as I was about to insert the pen into my thigh, I hit the paved covered parking lot while everything around me wentblack.
Chapter 7
Travis
I wanted to kick my own ass. When I had answered that call from Corrine, I hadn’t meant to sound relieved that she would be running behind.
No, I had sounded like that because I had burnt the freaking meal. I could train million-dollar horses. I could tell you where they came from just by their gait. I could tell you every single supplement that every single horse in my stables needed and had and on what schedule.
But I couldn’t cook worth a damn.
Cursing, I placed the burnt meat and the pan in the sink and turned on the cold water. The smoke that arose had me rearing back coughing. Damn.
After I cleaned up my mess, I took in the contents in my fridge. This was going to call for a dinner at a restaurant instead and I would have to replan this whole thing. I already had everything in the truck for the evening but the damned food.
I ran my hand through my hair and hightailed my butt into town.
Luckily, I had called in an order so that by the time I got there, it was bagged and ready. I tossed a few bills on the counter and sped out of the door. I hadn’t said a word to Martha the owner, but I had no doubt I would hear about it from her the next time I was there.
I sped all the way home. Luckily, the sheriff wasn’t around to witness the breaking of the law.
Just as I pulled my truck right in front of my house, my phone dinged with a text.
‘On my way.’ I had snapped a picture of Corrine the other day when she had been riding stormy for her contact photo. It lookedbadass if I do say so myself.
‘Be careful.’ I texted back. What did it say when a thirty-seven-year-old man texted a twenty-four-year-old female. We looked like fucking teenagers.
But did it stop us? Hell no.
I bounded out of the truck with a new step and carried what I bought inside.
I placed everything in containers so the food would hold. I placed the ones that needed to stay warm inside the microwave.
I ran back out to my truck to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything and then nodding to myself, I walked up on my front porch, kicked back in one of the rocking chairs while I looked to the road.
I ran how this was going to play out. I already knew that she was under my skin where no other woman other than my mother had ever been.
I knew that I could see her cooking dinners at the stove, and her red hair fanned all over the pillow in my bed.
I knew that if Champion got a hold of Stormy then those colts were going to be some of the best this world had ever seen.
Earlier, I had told most of the hands that they were off for the night. The older men had stayed to finish a few chores and then they were calling it a night.
A few of the older men had no other places to go and they hadn’t wanted to.
I knew the gist about most of my men, I understood their need to be out in the open with no strings. I didn’t blame them. Not one stinking bit.
I looked at my watch, frowning, I pulled out my cell phone to pull up the text she had sent me.
That had been over half an hour ago. It shouldn’t have taken her but fifteen minutes or so to get to my ranch.
Something in my gut told me that something was wrong. That gut feeling had never steered me wrong once.
