AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Myasswasnumb,and my thighs chafed from a day spent in the saddle. I didn’t care. Not for a single second. An obsession had me in its grip. It had been a long time since thoughts of what was possible had outweighed the thoughts of what was profitable.
The only thing I could equate it to was the excitement of working in the lab and knowing you were on the cusp of a breakthrough. You kept pushing until the end. The end for us today was sunset, when the lack of light would drive me, Atley, and Cameron back to the Blue Star barn to put up the horses. But the sunset would not be the end of my obsession.
I didn’t have words to describe this place. A home. A business. A challenge and an escape.
Every hill we crested offered a new and more beautiful vista, revealing another facet of this ranch. The idea of owning land as far as the eye could see was intoxicating. I was drunk on the thought of producing food for my community and keeping alive a way of life in Texas that had been part of this state’s heritage longer than it had been a state.
I never knew I wanted this, but I did. Desperately.
The extended tour that Atley led Cameron and me on had started after Kate, Tracie, and the crew departed. Filming for the show culminated with lunch in a large, covered picnic pavilion that overlooked the ranch’s grapevines. The meal had showcased many of the products that Blue Star produced, from wine and Kobe beef burgers to desserts sweetened with Blue Star honey.
The delicious spread had only whetted my appetite to learn more about the opportunity to buy the ranch. This was insanity, and I loved every moment.
I gently pulled Flower’s reins to bring her to a stop and turned in my saddle to ask Atley a question about the different breeds of cattle on the ranch. The loud crinkle of a plastic water bottle that a frowning Atley pulled from his saddlebag and thrust at Cameron interrupted my query.
The expression on Cameron’s face was pure exhaustion and something almost like pain. She looked awful. My obsession with Blue Star faded into the background as I studied her. She hunched in the saddle, and her head hung low. She looked small, almost frail, like she could barely hold herself upright. Nothing like a woman with a lifetime of experience in the saddle.
“Are you okay?” I nudged Flower with my heel, and the horse obediently pivoted closer to Cameron.
At my question, she straightened in the saddle, tipped her chin up almost defiantly, and pasted on a smile bigger and brighter than the lights on Hollywood Boulevard and just as fake. If I hadn’t seen her stooped and wretched a moment ago, I might have believed it.
“I’m fine. Great, even.” She licked her lips and tugged her hat down, looking at a spot somewhere over my shoulder.
“We should have at least another hour until we would need to head back.” She sounded unnaturally cheery, all sparkles and sunshine, ready to ride.
A completely self-centered asshole might have accepted her answer and chalked up what I’d seen to momentary discomfort from hours spent in the saddle. My ass felt none too great at this point. But...
I moved my attention to Atley when he cleared his throat. His frown deepened into a full scowl. He shook his head; he wasn’t buying her bullshit either.
I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth to encourage Flower to shuffle right up next to Cameron’s horse. The horses stood parallel to each other, facing opposite directions, my knee almost brushing Cameron’s.
Son of a bitch.
This close, I could see it wasn’t fatigue or saddle sores that had brought Cameron low. It was fucking sunburn.
The mild spring temperatures and the cloudless sky didn’t offer any protection from the relentless Texas sun. She had roasted. Her skin had turned almost the same red as the short-sleeved checked blouse she wore.
I reached for her wrist that rested on the saddle horn and pulled it toward me. Her forearm glowed like a banked fire. I pressed two fingers to her hot skin and watched it flash from white to angry red when I removed them.
A searing pain lanced through me at the awful sight.
I lived in California long enough to know that sunburn was no laughing matter. And decades in the beauty business had shown me the damage a catastrophic burn like hers could cause. Sun was the second biggest enemy to the skin, only supplanted by time. A burn like this could cause real and lasting damage.
Not to mention, since we were out here all damn day, she flirted with sun poisoning, and that was unacceptable. The hot poker of frustration, or fury, or whatever the hell it was twisted painfully in my belly.
I loathed the fact that I hadn’t seen what was going on right in front of me. I had no excuse for my blindness. None.
“What were you thinking? Not telling me or Atley about this. We should have stopped and gotten you sunscreen or something.” Regrets fueled my harsh tone. I let go of her wrist, and it fell limply to her thigh.
She was lucky the reprimand was only verbal. An irrational part of me would have liked nothing better than to yank her off the horse and tan her ass until it glowed the same red as her chest and arms.
I needed her to be careful with herself. When my temper cooled, I would examine that need, but for now, I accepted it as gospel.
“It is fine. A bit of sun is good. Vitamin D, right?” Her bright smile verged on the edge of delirious, and her head seemed too heavy for her to hold up properly. The brim of the hat hid her expression from me. I wanted to rip it off her head so we could have a proper conversation, but it was the only shade she had.
“No, not good. Not acceptable. At all.” I had to fix this. Fix her. She put my stupid house hunt ahead of her well-being. “Atley, what is the fastest way to the barns?”
“That way,” he said, jutting his rock-hard jaw back the way we’d come.
