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“Uh, I fell asleep,” I grumbled, ignoring his amused look. “Can I ask you something?” Our boots squished as we continued around to the far side of the house, my eyes scanning the area.
“Uh, depends.”
“Well, it’s just... Cheyenne is leaving.”
“Dude, I have no skills when it comes to women. I can charm them, but can’t ever convince them to stay for the long haul—but no, I don’t think Cheyenne wants you for your money.”
“That’s not what it’s about,” I said with a sigh, wiping some of the rain off my face as the wind whipped around us. “It’s just—what do I do after she leaves? Assuming that she doesn’thateme over this whole lost dog thing, is it okay to call her? Is that weird?”
Blake stopped me, pulling me under the back patio and out of the rain for a moment. “Wade, I don’t know exactly what’s going on between you and Cheyenne, but Idoknow that this is the first time you’ve ever asked me for relationship advice.”
“It’s not relationship advice—not like that. I just don’t know what happens after she leaves… you know what I mean?”
“I guess maybe the best answer to that is that the two of you should talk about it?” Blake shrugged his shoulders, his eyes squinting out across the fields.
“Do you see something?” I whipped my head around.
“Yeah,water.”
My eyes landed on the rising waters at the exact same time the word left his mouth, and my heart dropped. The flood zone was more than breached, the waters of the river rising higher than I’d ever seen it before.
It’s run out of places to go.
“Surely, the dog didn’t end up out there,” Blake’s voice was low and barely audible above the rain.
Surely,Cheyennedidn’t go out there.
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I considered our options. “We can either keep heading down that way,” I gestured in the direction we had been traveling, which was in the opposite direction from the barn. “Or we can head back to the barn and toward the water. I don’t see any other option.”
“Well, maybe we should try to call Cheyenne?” Blake looked equally as puzzled. “Because at this point, I think we’re just like dogs chasing their tails.”
I shook my head. “Her phone was in her room.” My mind flashed back to the phone sitting on the nightstand. “She doesn’t have it—I don’t think she ever has it, actually.”
“Great,” Blake grimaced, running his hand over his face. “Why don’t we just split up then? I’ll head around the house, and you go back down in the direction of the barn. One of us is bound to see something, though at this point, I don’t know whether it’s more important to find Cheyenne or the dog.”
Both.
“I’ll call you if I find something,” I said, spinning on my heel and heading back the other way. “Just keep your eyes peeled.” A snap of thunder rumbled overhead, and I shuddered at the sound. Thunderstorms had once been a comfort to me...
But not anymore.
“Good luck,” Blake called after me as I headed back out into the downpour. It hammered the brim of my hat and shoulders, making it impossible to hear anything at all.
“Cheyenne!” I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth. “Where the hell are you?” My boots sank further into the mud as I trudged toward the barn, realizing that the drainage for the water was backing up...
There was just nowhere for it to go anymore.
A sharp exhale escaped my mouth as I made it to the barn, noticing that the door was slid open. I knew that Ryder would’ve shut it once he was done, and so as I slid inside the dark building, I knew that Cheyenne more than likely had been there—orwasthere.
“Cheyenne!” I called out, wiping my muck boots on the utility mat just inside the door. “Cheyenne!” I took a few steps forward, grabbing the tack room door and opening it. No one was there—and other than the nickers and noises of the horses, there wasn’t any other noise.
Where the hell are you, Chey?
Panic was shifting to pure fear as I made my way down the barn aisle, heading to the back door. It led out to the pastures—the ones that were flooding. However, I justcouldn’tfathom Cheyenne or Takoda wandering out into the pastures in the middle of a rainstorm. It made no sense at all.
Unless Takoda went out there before it started raining...
Guilt weighed heavy on my shoulders as I continued down the barn aisle, shaking my head as I went. Tiny droplets of water dripped from my body, making dark spots on the concrete, and I tried to focus on them, versus the fact that Cheyenne was more than likely going to be pissed at me—and that if something happened to Takoda...
