“We gotta finish this fence or else we run the risk of losin’ the herd…but I need to get back to her… Fuck.” I fisted my hands at my sides—well, tried—and instantly regretted it. Pain speared through my right hand. I glared down at the stupid soft cast. I’d shattered most of my hand from my fight against the four by four, and had been scheduled for surgery a week later. It’d only been about three weeks since then.
Ryder chewed his bottom lip, like he was mulling something over in his mind. “You go back,” he finally said.
“This ain’t a one-man job though.” I hated the idea of leaving him, but the thought of Cheyenne home alone, in this weather, and in labor… My heart raced in my chest, fear gripping it like a vice.
“You gotta get back to her. Take my truck, get ahold of Cash, and send him back to pick me up. I can fix this up enough so that no cows go through it ‘til we can do somethin’ more permanent. You be there for your girl.”
“You sure?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Now go, before this weather gets any shittier.” He tossed me the keys and I made my way for the truck. Excitement mingled with the fear and unease in my heart.
This was it. She was coming and after today, nothing would be the same. I’d be a father. The thought still rocked me to my very core.
I’m comin’, Chey.
…except I couldn’t. Not as I put the truck in gear and the tires started spinning. Fuck. I tried to put it in reverse, but same thing. I slammed the car in park and opened my door to find Ryder tripping over himself trying to come over and help.
“It’s this mud. Everythin’s so slick. Here, let’s see if we can drag somethin’ over for the tires to catch on,” he offered.
It’s like everything we did was doomed to fail—each idea going more poorly than the last. My nerves were frayed, my patience shot to shit. I’d ripped off my cast in my frustration. It was soaked and caked in mud anyway, and I had no doubt after all the work I’d been doing, the way I couldn’t stop flexing and fisting my fingers, I’d done serious damage. Doctor was gonna be pissed... But the pain was but a whisper compared to the panic pumping through my veins. The only thought driving me forward was getting to Cheyenne. Of making it back there.
Was the storm as bad where she was as it was out here? Was she okay? How was the pain? Had she gotten to the hospital? Fear spiked in me.Howhad she gotten to the hospital?
“Fuck it,” I said, damn near throwing my phone when I glanced at the time. We’d spent close to another two hours trying to get out of this mess and still weren’t any closer to getting out of there. “I’m walkin’.”
Ryder nodded. “I’m coming with you.”
“What about the fence?”
Ryder waved it off dismissively as he came to my side. “Fuck it. I ain’t lettin’ you walk back in this alone. We’ll find whatever cows get out later. This is more important. Your daughter is more important.”
Hope and worry warred in my heart. But with a determined nod of my head, I aimed in the direction of home.
Chapter fifty-eight
Growin’ Up Raisin’ You
Cheyenne
I’d been wrong. Sodamn wrong. I’d been foolish enough to think this would be a breeze… After all, the rest of my pregnancy was. I’d dealt with pain. I’d broken bones. Torn ligaments. But this…
Holy shit, this was on a whole new level.
The contractions were so frequent sometimes I didn’t know when one started and the other ended. I’d taken a bath, I’d paced the house, Cash had even convinced me to line dance at one point.
But now… Well, now it was all I could do to catch my fucking breath.
Bad and Cash made a surprisingly good support team, though. Bad seemed to have hands meant for gripping tight. They were firm and calloused and rough as leather, but they didn’t budge or falter as I held his hand through some of the nastier waves.
I sat in the arm chair in mine and Mav’s room, perched on the edge, while gripping Bad’s hand like my life depended on it.
Maverick still wasn’t here. Not that it seemed likely for him to be with this storm. It was just as bad out, if not worse. The wind whipped around the house, rain and hail pelting against the roofand windows. But the idea of him not being here… No. I couldn’t think of that. I had to hold out hope. He’d be here.
He’ll be here.
A groan of pain fell from my lips, tears welling in my eyes as I rode through another contraction. But this one was different. I can’t even properly explain it, aside from just…pressure. So much pressure that I thought I might drown in it if it didn’t go away.
“Um…Somethin’s happenin’. It feels different…” My voice was little more than a squeak as I tried to speak through the pain. “What’s happenin’?”
