AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Except this wasn’t his element. Honestly, he’d ruined my whole plan, and I wasn’t nearly mad enough about it.
Wyatt had him off to the side, giving him instructions I supposed, as Wyatt gestured and Grant nodded. He pointed toward one end of the herd, then the fence. Stay close to the fence, was the golden rule. Because it was breeding season, which meant there were bulls mixed in with the females, and there was never any anticipating what a teenaged bull would do.
They parted ways, and Wyatt trotted to the back of the herd, circling slow while Grant walked around the other, mimicking predators to catch the cattle’s attention and force them to bunch. I kept my eyes on the bull, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to either of them, but I noticed had shifted to the outside of the herd on Grant’s side. As he walked up, the warning jolt hit me in the chest, and everything happened in slow motion.
The turn of the bull’s head. The burst of bucking, head down, pointed straight at Grant. Grant stopped, saw him. Faced him. Shifted into a lateral sprint. The bull grazed him, the force knocking him into the dirt so hard, he didn’t get up. Wyatt whistling, calling the bull’s attention. My name. I heard my name.
I snapped into action, running toward the herd as Wyatt distracted the bull, chasing it in the direction of the chute so I could get Grant out of the way. As I approached, he came to, realizing where he was. Fast as he could, he scrambled to his feet, and I grabbed his arm, pointing toward the fence. And we ran like all hell, picking up our pace when Wyatt yelled Run! over the noise.
We hopped that fence like a couple of Olympic gold medalists, whipping around to find the bull bucking the fence hard enough to knock one of the posts loose.
And then I was staring at Grant’s filthy, naked back, one arm out to his side and the other guarding my flank.
“Run, Jo,” he ordered.
“Not without—”
“Run.”
The command shot me into action. I took off across another small field, getting over the fence to the other side, sure Grant wasn’t too far behind me. But he was still at the fence, keeping the bull’s attention while Wyatt got out the other side and sprinted to Grant. He’d picked up one of what I figured was many baseball bats, got in front of Grant, and started yelling at the bull, brandishing the bat like he was going to make ground chuck out of its face if it didn’t back off. And after a minute, it seemed to realize that they were out of his reach and stamped his hooves, head low before finally backing away.
The men relaxed and turned in my direction. I caught flashes of teeth. Wyatt clapped Grant on the back like he’d just hit a homer.
I rolled my eyes, partly because I wasn’t done being terrified and here they were, acting like dudes about it, all proud of themselves for not getting trampled to death.
With a jolt down my spine, the curse crossed my mind, the invasive vision of Grant being run down by a bull arresting my thoughts and my pulse. I wondered if it was possible that he could be hurt or worse just from proximity to me? Our track record was not promising, our luck too dark when it came to such things not to consider what might happen to him.
But it was silly. Not just the curse, which was its own level of stupid. Even if it were real, Grant wasn’t mine and never would be. Except my brain wanted to spit out all kinds of bullshit to the contrary every time said curse crossed my mind. I was too young when Daddy died—at nine, that curse was a truth that kept me up most nights. Believing something so deeply in those early years was a curse of its own, and deep down, my wiring was set up to be afraid of this.
Yet another reason to be a spinster cat lady with Mama.
I marched in their direction as they headed in mine. When they caught sight of me, I yelled, “Assholes!”
They looked at each other, confused.
“Why are you laughing? You almost got gored by a bull, for Christ’s sake.”
“But we didn’t,” Wyatt said.
“And you.” I pointed at Wyatt. “I wanted you to scare him, not get him killed.”
Grant elbowed Wyatt. “Told you she liked me.”
“Oh my god,” I said through my teeth.
Laughing, Wyatt said, “Would you look at that? She sure does.”
“Fuck y’all,” was my answer as I turned on my heel to march back toward the trucks, fully intending on leaving Grant here with his new buddy.
Until I heard footfalls behind me. But when I turned to the sound, it was too late.
