But how to let him know I’d turned up on his property? Shouting at a man’s back seemed the wrong approach, but just watching him work didn’t sit quite right, either. He had no clue he starred in the free peep show I was getting just steps behind him. I could wait at the fence watching him all day before he ever realized it. The idea appealed a little too much for comfort.
Before I’d sorted out how to best get Ty’s attention, the horse noticed me. He jerked his head away from Ty’s hand, taking several steps backward.
Ty followed, keeping himself directly in front of the beast. “What’s the matter, Bullet?”
The time had come to announce myself, but I couldn’t do it. I kind of liked being so close to Ty without the cloud of awkwardness that usually hovered over us. The moment he saw me, that shadow would fall.
And fine, I liked watching a well-built man work. Sue me.
Ty must have caught on that Bullet wasn’t just being contrary, and he glanced over his shoulder. I swear the man did an actual double take. I didn’t even breathe. He was just so…Ty. Six-foot-one, a faded blue button-down stretched tight over his chest, his dark eyes blazing in the shade of his Stetson. He stared back at me, confusion and something like pleasure flashing across his face before it tugged down into a familiar scowl.
All those sweet, gooey feelings swirling through me curdled in my stomach at that look I knew too well. I almost wished I’d stumbled on the murder cabin.
Bullet jerked away as if he might rip the lead rope from Ty’s grip and run free. Ty tore his eyes from me, but before he could say or do anything, the horse spun in a circle, kicking his hind legs. Ty tried to lunge out of the way, but as quick as his namesake, the horse’s hooves lashed out and met Ty’s chest, sending him sprawling in the dust.
“Ty!”
My stomach lurched, overcome with a sick ooze as I ran to the pen gate. I fumbled with the latch, my fingers almost too shaky to manage it, but I finally pushed my way through. Halfway to Ty, I realized I’d just doubled Bullet’s potential targets, and kept one eye on the animal. He’d moved to the far side of the pen, standing still enough I figured it was probably safe to be so close to him.
Throwing myself down next to Ty, my knees dug my pretty floral skirt into the dirt as I looked him over. One of his hands hovered over his chest, the other locked in a fist against his thigh. His eyes had shut tight, his face a white sheet of pain. The Stetson had landed a few feet away from his head, spinning slightly in the breeze.
I put a hand on his forehead, unable to shake the thick fear that grabbed my stomach in its grip, threatening to drag me into the dust alongside him. “Oh, Ty, are you all right?”
He drew in a breath like taking in oxygen was a new, totally unknown experience, wincing until the creases around his eyes became stark pale lines beneath the dusting of dirt on his skin. A ragged moan rumbled out of his throat as if he couldn’t control it. When he finally opened his eyes, it took him a minute to focus on me. As recognition settled in, a grimace twisted his mouth.
“Hey, June,” he groaned.
TWO
ty
Pain.Everything was pain.
All of my nerve endings must have been tied to my chest, and every single one of them flickered with flame. Bursts of light danced in my vision until I thought I might pass out. I couldn’t even think straight, my brain just a tangle of the wordsOh hell!andIs that June?
That couldn’t be June Evans. She’d never been out to my place before—what was she doing here anyway? And why did she have to be here to witness the first time I’d ever been laid out by a horse?
“Ty, can you hear me?”
A thread of panic ran through her voice as she caressed my forehead. That soft touch had to be happening to someone else’s body—so at odds with the misery gripping the rest of me.
“You’re going to be okay,” she continued in that soothing tone.
Still to be determined.
Words failed me as white-hot fire scorched through my ribcage, turning my insides to ash. I could only grunt in response, and even that took it out of me. Holy hell, if I didn’t know that damned horse had kicked me, I would have thought I was having a heart attack.
Breath searing my lungs, I turned my head to see where the animal had gone. Bullet stood at the edge of the pen, calm as could be, watching over me with mild interest. When I’d muttered under my breath this morning that Bullet’s stubbornness would be the death of me, it hadn’t been a request.
“What can I do?”
One of June’s hands moved to the buttons on my shirt, her fingers brushing my chest. Each little touch came as a lick of fire on a body already engulfed in flames.
“Should I—? Something might be broken.”
I raised one finger to stop her touching me, unable to hold in the way I groaned on every exhale. No question something was broken. The crack still echoed through my skull like a gunshot. But knowing it and being able to do anything about it were two different things. I didn’t believe in out of body experiences, but I would have paid any amount of money to have one right now. I couldn’t escape the agony. Moving, lying still, it all amounted to the same thing—a nonstop explosion of pain.
“Okay.”
