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Instantly, fury flared through me. My jaw dropped as he stomped past me, toed off his boots, then entered the house.
“What. The. Fuck?”
At my words, he froze part way through the door and turned back to me. Before he could utter a word, I continued, “Whiskey is the name of one of your dad’s horses. You know? Those beautiful creatures that live down in the barn that you haven’t bothered to even look at in a couple of months? Not since you banned me from doing the work. Neglect is animal abuse, Royce. Those horses are starved, and Whiskey hurt herself breaking out to come to me for help. Where’s your dad? There’s no way he’d let this happen!”
By the time I finished speaking, my voice was loud enough to make my own ears ring a little.
So much for not yelling.
Royce’s shoulders dropped and he hung his head. He was being so unlike his usual self, I had no idea what to do with him. I’d expected him to get defensive, to tell me I still couldn’t look after them. That he had it all handled because he was a man, while I wasn’t. This silence was not the Royce Emerson I knew. Not at all.
“Got any answers for me, Royce? Because you can’t continue to ignore them. If your father doesn’t want them anymore, sell them. Don’t torture them with neglect. It’s not fair to them.”
With a huff, he looked me in the eye. “My folks are both sick enough I’m having to do all the work around here. It’s calving season and I’m busy as fuck dealing with that. Honestly? I forgot all about the damn horses since I don’t ride.”
Didn’t that just say it all? Damn man didn’t ride. Grew up on a ranch and was playing rancher now, but he didn’t know how to ride a damn horse. I couldn’t remember a single time when John had been too ill to take care of the ranch.
“Where are your folks? Are they in the hospital? What’s wrong with them?”
He cleared his throat and looked away. “They’re still here. It’s just the flu or something. They’ll be fine soon, I’m sure.”
Those horses hadn’t been fed in months. It couldn’t be any simple illness. It also hadn’t escaped my notice he was yet to invite me inside. The longer I stayed, the more questions I had. My phone alarm sounded, and I grabbed it out of my pocket to turn off and text Boone to say I was okay.
“If you got somewhere to be, don’t let me hold you up.”
I took a deep breath as I fought the urge to throw my phone at him. I had to pick my battles. Clearly, he wasn’t going to tell me anything more about his folks, but I could help the horses.
“I’m going to be looking after those horses from now on. If you try to stop me, I’ll call in the authorities. So, you better call the feed store and let them know I’m allowed to put in orders on your behalf. And if I don’t see either of your parents in the next week, I’ll be calling in a welfare check on them. If they’re that sick, they need to be in the hospital. Bed rest clearly isn’t going to be enough for them to recover, Royce.”
With that, I had nothing else to say, and didn’t want to listen to any more of his bullshit, so I spun on my heel and headed back toward home. As I started walking, I couldn’t help but wish I had an ATV right now myself. I was worn the hell out and after the trek home, I still needed to shower before going into work for a few hours.
