Wild Ride: BBW Western Romance (Under Open Skies Saga Book 2) (31 page)

“
Like a son
.”
Cody finished, his eyes cold. It was clear she had already lost that.

The middle aged woman ripped into the envelope and opened the letter, scanning it, only moments elapsing before tears started falling.

“
Shit. Shit. Shit
.”
Sarah sunk down in a chair and held her head in her hands
.“
I never wanted it to go this far. It was just a fucking idea. I did
n’
t mean to make it happen. Hell
.
”

“
What is your choice
?”
Hunter asked, speaking with complete authority.

“I’
ll do it.
I’
ll do whatever you want, just do
n’
t hurt him. Do
n’
t
.”
Sarah pleaded as she looked up, eyes wide, hair frayed.

“
We would
n’
t ever hurt him. Your resignation. On my desk. Monday. Along with any money you took. If it is
n’
t exact, you know what happens
.”
She turned and walked out the door, both men releasing Chad, and following her.

“
I ca
n’
t believe you pulled it off
.”
Hank was more amused than concerned.

“
Why? All it took was a quick discussion with the accountant about some errors in the forms and files, and the corrections to them, along with a nice pile of money
.”
Kat balanced her cellphone in one hand while leaving the small town accounting firm, the one that double checked and officially handled all of Brooks and Fields business.

“
Well, yeah, but everything else
.
”

“
Hank, I understand why you did
n’
t tell me about Cody, but it could have saved us a lot of time
.
”

“
I honestly never thought she would do that. She loved your father, pretty desperately, I mean, I would be lying to say he did
n’
t feel something for her too. They were off and on your entire life
.
”

It was crazy to think of her father as that kind of man, but it was a part of him, and it meant that she got to have a brother. One that she was starting to care about, deeply.

“
I do
n’
t know, selling the shares to Cody seemed like the right move, though. H
e’
s made a pretty good partner
.
”

“
Though he asked to remain silent
.
”

“
That is his decision, but it works well, as I am sure you are aware
.”
He had been watching everything like a hawk since it all went down, double and triple checking each piece of paper that went through the office.

“
You hear from your mom
?
”

“
Not since I sent her that letter from my dad. I do
n’
t know if
I’
ll hear from her any time soon, but I can live with that.
I’
m building my own family."

“
Look, kid. We got lucky this time. We always seem to get lucky
.
”

She climbed up into the rusty old pickup truck, the one where she first fell in love with Hunter Daniels, and looked over to see him staring at her, his eyes deep with emotion.

“
I know Hank. I guess he passed his luck on down to me
.
”

Kat sat down on the hotel bed and let out a sigh. Her feet were sore from standing after the rodeo, talking to all the young riders who were interested in talking to her, to Cody.

She finally felt like she was in charge, like everything was falling into place.

Kat looked down at her phone, a new text.

Talking with a young buck that you are going to want to meet. She has quite the talent. - C.

Cody. He had really taken who his work, and since then the facility had grown, and it was coming together nicely.

She shifted her attention on the sound of the shower in the bathroom of the hotel. He was dusty and dirty, and the pile of mud stained clothing on the floor. He had nothing left on in that bathroom, so she why she was
n’
t in there, she did
n’
t know

She set down her phone on the bed and walked over into the bathroom.

“
You clean yet
?
”

Hunter stood in the doorway of the shower with a towel wrapped around him, looking over at her.

“
I was waiti
n’
on you. You gonna get undressed, or do I have to rip it off you
.”
Hunter walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her
.“
I love you, Kat
.
”

“
You going to rip my clothes off now, or do I have to do it all myself
?
”

Interested in More? Check out this small sample of
Scarred
.

Prologue

Home.

It was a loaded term. Mackenzie leaned into her seat as she forced her hands to relax on the wheel. The closer she got, the more nervous she felt.

Mayville, New York was a completely unassuming little town, but to Mack it was just as scary as the big city. Aside from a few holidays, she had
n’
t been home in a long time. When she left she had burned a lot of bridges, hoping never to have to crawl back.

But now she did.

She fiddled with the visor on her car, searching through it for just the right CD, and popping it in. The gravelly voice of country rock was just the right thing to get her mind off New York City.

The world was
n’
t exactly as she imagined it five years ago. Fresh out of college, she was ready for anything back then. The city was her goal. Turns out, living in a shoe box, navigating a subway system, and barely having enough to survive wasn't as fun as they made it look in the TV shows.  Now... well, now she just wanted to go home.

Mack hit the forward button on her cd and blew into her hair, her chestnut bangs flying up everywhere.

Nana was right, and man was that woman the first to gloat on the phone when she explained her decision.

“
You can always come back
.”
It was what her Nana told her. Time and time again. At Christmas, on her birthday. Almost every week when she called.

Mack fought with herself for years. Mayville wasn't home. It was a prison, but after all that heart break it was her only choice. New York really was a concrete jungle, filled with culture shock and disappointment.

Cliche as it was, corporate life had chewed her up and spit her out. So when a job for a local financial analyst and reporter popped up one town over from her hometown, she snapped it up.

Big city experiences and failures, all in one package.

The start date was a little further out than she had expected, two weeks, but that would be long enough to give her time to adjust to small town living.

Country living.

No more midnight Chinese, no more barhopping or late night dinners. She was going back to the slow existence that threatened to stifle her when she was a teen. What once threatened to smother her was the only thing giving her breathing room.

Open, expansive skies called to her as soon as she left the smog and smoke of Brooklyn behind. A stagnant urban summer gave way to the gentle breeze the Appalachians brought as she crossed them. New York City to Western New York in a day, and it was like a whole different world.

Mackenzie stopped at one of two red lights in the entire town. The town wasn't much. Having boomed during the industrial area, the remnants of a small steel town were all that remained, but it was well kept. The buildings were old, probably over one hundred years, but far from rundown. She could still remember walking up and down those streets as a child, going into the pharmacy where they still had a malt shop, even though the rest of the country had shut them down. It was still there, going strong.

There was a reason people thought of these small towns as being the heart of America. Because they were.

Mackenzie hit the gas as soon as the light turned green and lit out of the town, going west, to the outskirts.

Mayville never sounded so good.

When they offered her a job at the local paper she was quick to accept. The cut in pay was substantial, but when you factor in the cost of living, it was actually a raise. A new start in an old place.

A familiar place.

Sure, it did
n’
t pay as much as the big city job, she was just doing the books for a small town paper, but it was something, and it gave her an out. It promised freedom.

Freedom that seemed so real... until she got within two miles of her tiny childhood home. There were a million reasons why she wanted to leave in the first place, and at the moment they were all flooding back to her. Overwhelming her. The trauma of high school, the exodus to the city for college. Thane.

Her nerves gripped her as she turned down the country road just outside of the city. Home was a dirt road, rolling hills, and a gentle breeze. Her Nan
a’
s home was just up the road, past the blueberry farm, and down the way from her biggest regret.

She pushed that to the back of her mind as she looked over the landscape. Farmer Johnson had added a new barn and a silo, the Parke
r’
s house was twice the size of when she left, just like the number of kids playing out in the yard.

Things changed very slowly in Mayville, but they did change. In the most predictable ways.

So she was
n’
t surprised when she followed the curve of the road to see Thane on the lawn mower in front of his parents trailer. It was a little broken down thing, nothing anyone would look twice at. But she did look twice, because of Thane.

Their last interaction clawed its way to the surface of her mind.

“
Mack,
I’
m not cut out for anywhere but here. I
t’
s the only place I can see having a future. The only place I want one. One with you
.
”

She hated this place, her entire life. The claustrophobic atmosphere pressing down on her, reminding her that she was
n’
t built for this place. She needed something bigger. Something more.

“I’
m not staying, Thane. I ca
n’
t.
I’
ve been offered a job, and I have to take it
.”
Even as she had said the words she felt the hollowness invade her. She was
n’
t going to cry over him. Not now. Not ever.

“
I respect that, Mack. I'll be right here, if you change your mind
.
”

It was the last thing he said before he turned around and walked away. Out of her life. Broke her heart. She should have known that he would when she started dating him. Hell, he was the bad boy everyone warned her about, but she dove right into a romance with him. One that left her bitter and broken.

Mackenzie bit her lip and gripped the steering wheel. The last thing she needed to do was dwell on the past. On the summer that should not have happened.

She pulled into her Nan
a’
s driveway just in time to see her Nana coming out of the front door with a pitcher of lemonade in her hand.

“
A little late, don't you think? I've been waiting for hours. You are lucky though, knew you would be. So the cookies should be about ready.  Made your favorite, mint lemonade
.
”

“
Thanks, Nana
,”
she said, taking a seat in her chair, rolling her eyes. Loretta was a feisty woman, the kind you either hated or loved. Lucky for her, she loved the cranky old lady.

“
Farm looks busy as ever
,”
Mack commented, looking over the space.

Nan
a’
s farm had been nothing short of a success over the past ten years, but you would never know it to look at it. A million little things needed done to the farm, the gutters needed to be cleaned, the home needed a some fixes here and there, but it did
n’
t matter.

This was her home. Peace.

“
It is, and we are short a hand or two. Need to hire someone, just keep forgetting to get around to it
,”
Loretta explained as she leaned against the white vinyl of the exterior wall.

“
Speaking of hands, don't hog all the damn cookies when I bring them out, you need to share. Thane should be up later in the day, save some lemonade for him
.”
She winked, the playful way the woman bantered may have been offensive to some, but Mack found it endearing.

The mention of Thane's name made her heart skip a beat.

“
Thane? Why
?
”

“
Oh, h
e’
s been helping me around the place since he came back home
.
”

“
Thought you said that boy was trouble
?”
She waggled her eyebrows at her grandmother, using her own playful banter against her. Thane was the last person she wanted to see, and five years ago Loretta hated him. She never had anything good to say about him. She tried not to sound too curious about Nana's sudden change in her demeanor.

“
That was years ago, Mack. He really stepped up around the community since then. I ca
n’
t help it, that kid really grew on me. Kind of like mold. Too bad you let him go
.”
That was
n’
t what she said all those summers ago.

It did
n’
t happen exactly like that, but she did
n’
t want to think about it.

“
Anyway, after the accident, he spent a lot of time recuperating, doing small jobs to help out. Like here, on the farm. So I hired him
.
”

“
Accident
?
”

“
Jesus. I forgot. He didn't want me to tell you. Well, you are going to live here so you might as well know
.”
Nana always had a way of doing the things that suited her, telling secrets. How and when she wanted
.“
After you left, he did
n’
t stay around. Got a job at a county firehouse, not one of the volunteer places, dear. But there was a malfunction in his suit, and he got burned. Pretty badly. His mom and dad had to take him back in. Never wanted to leave, not really, and no
w…
such a shame
.”
Her Nana shook her head
.“
I am glad you are back home. I could really use you.
I’
m not as good as I once was
.
”

“I
…
”
She did
n’
t know what to say. He left town, got burned? It was too much to digest.

“
Oh, there he is now
.”
Her grandmother stood and waved as Thane pulled into the driveway in his rusted pickup truck.

He had that black nightmare since they were in high school. Hell, the back of the bed had been the first place they made love. Just thinking about it made Mack blush.

Thane slid out of the cab, his boot crunching against the gravel driveway, his hulking body making his way towards the two of them. She knew it was him before she even saw his face. The way he walked, that thick, muscular frame. Even his shadow on the grass gave it away. He still looked so good after all this time.

Damn.

“
Afternoon, Ms. Loretta. Mack
.”
He said, tipping his hat towards the both of them
.“
Been a while
.
”

That voice was like rich butter, bringing back more than a few memories of words whispered into her ear. The curvy brunette smoothed her hair and looked him over. He was nothing but muscle, his frame bigger, more filled out than his high school days. He may not have been the star quarter back, but Thane was always really good looking. Something about a bad boy with an old pickup truck sent half the female population wild. But he chose her. More than once.

It made her wonder what he saw in her in the first place. Or the second place.

Like that summer after she graduated college.

If he endured burns, she did
n’
t see any sign of it on his face. It was just as handsome as ever, the only scar the one on his forehead, that he got when he fell through an old abandoned barn roof as a kid. She always thought that particular scar was sexy.

“
Lemonade is here. I am sure you are more than thirsty after working all morning. Let me go get the cookies
.”
Loretta smiled a soft smile as she snuck back into the house.

That conniving old woman.

“
Yeah. It has
,”
she said, trying hard to make her voice sound cool as she looked away from him and over the expansive countryside
.“
So, what brings you here today
?
”

“
Your field needs haying, just finished my folks' yard, thought it would be a good time to get it done. Is
n’
t supposed to rain for a day or two
.
”