“Fine. But if it gets too bad… if your fever spikes past one-oh-four, or if you start convulsing… I’m telling Maggie. And Maggie can decide.”
“Deal.”
She squeezes my hand.
“You’re the most stubborn person I know,” she says.
“I learned from the best.” I manage a weak smile.
A wave of heat washes over me. It starts in my toes and rolls up my body. I gasp, arching slightly off the bed.
My skin prickles. My nipples tighten against the fabric of my shirt. The ache in my belly cramps into a tight knot.
It’s happening.
The heat is rising.
I close my eyes and breathe through it. In and out. I imagine I’m back in the ravine in my dream. The cool shadow. The safety of the dark.
But even in the dark, I can feel him. The ghost of his hand in mine. The promise he made in the dream.
Never.
I hold onto that. I have to protect him. Even if it kills me.
“I need more water,” I whisper.
Clara nods. She gets up to refill the glass.
I lie there, alone in the bed, the heat building like a storm inside my veins. I listen to the lowing of the cattle. The distant, muffled sounds of the CDC agents working.
And I wait.
For the meds. For the fever. For the inevitable crash.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tex
It’ssix in the evening. I’ve been sitting on the porch for an hour, throwing a tennis ball for Boone, watching the dust motes dance in the dying light.
I can’t take it anymore.
The waiting. The silence. The constant, low-grade buzz of anxiety vibrating under my skin.
I feel like a racehorse stuck in the starting gate, the doors locked shut.
If I sit here for one more minute, staring at the bunkhouse and wondering if Sedona is dying in there, I’m going to lose my mind.
I stand up. My joints pop. I stretch my arms over my head, feeling the muscles pull and snap.
“Seth,” I call out.
He’s at the picnic table, a ledger open in front of him, his brow furrowed as he tries to make sense of the inventory lists the CDC demanded.
He looks up, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Yeah?”
“I’m done lazing around,” I say. “I need to move. I want to get started on training for the rodeo.”
