Chasing McCree (12 page)

“
You take good care of my
baby,” Grandma said, hugging me tight.

Chase gave her a nod and winked, “I
will.”

We said goodbye, and I turned in my
seat to watch Grandma’s frail figure fade from view as we drove
down the drive. I really was going to miss her, but I’d see her in
a few months. I’d talk to her as often as I could.

We headed for Chase’s house. But when
it was time for Ash to get in the trailer, he was restless. He
wanted to play. He ran up to Chase, rubbing his face on him,
licking his cheeks and chin.

“
Well,” Chase looked back
at me. “Want to go for a ride?”

I frowned. “Aren’t we supposed to be
leaving?”

“
He’s got different ideas
and wants to go for his morning run.”

Ten minutes later we had trotted down
the street and neared the school. It was early Saturday morning,
and the biggest piece of empty land around.

“
Are you sure we won’t get
caught?” I asked, holding tight to Chase as Ash galloped into the
football stadium.

Chase laughed. “I doubt anyone will
notice us.”

I looked around the dark stadium and
felt almost bad. I mean, we had a horse on school property. What
kind of punishment would we be given if we were caught?

But, I decided after a few minutes,
that I just didn’t care anymore.

It was time to have some
fun.

Chase brought Ash to a stop and helped
me to the ground. I sat on the bottom row of the bleachers and
watched in awe as he trotted Ash into the grassy center. Then they
were off, flying down the field. I was on the edge of my seat. I’d
never seen them move so fast together. On the far side of the field
was a low chain length fence. I held my breath. Ash cleared it
gracefully, running farther out into the practice field on the side
of the stadium. He came back over it just as easily.

I clapped, whistling, and stood on my
seat, watching as they circled the football field.

“
Fancy seeing you
here.”

I jumped clear out of my skin and off
the bleachers onto the track. Behind me, coming out of the tunnel
under the stadium, were Nathan and Alex.

“
What are you doing
here?”

“
Oh, just came to throw the
football around.” Nathan grinned, tossing it to Alex. His nose was
purple and red, bandaged up. He looked like he was recovering from
two black eyes as well. “Guess we lucked out. I’ve been hoping we’d
run into each other.”

I gulped and looked at Alex. He wasn’t
going to be any help. In fact, he was going to side with Nathan on
this one, I could tell by his sly grin.

Shit.

“
So, what, are you going to
do break my nose as payback?” I asked.

Nathan shrugged. “Sounds like a good
start.”

Horse hooves thundered behind me. The
ground trembled under my feet. I glanced back to see Chase racing
across the field for us.

“
Looks like we’ve pissed
off the hick.” Alex laughed.

I turned back just in time to face
Nathan. He grabbed for me, but the thing about being a boxing
legend’s granddaughter was…I kind of knew how to fight.

I punched his already busted nose and
boxed his ears. He went down on the ground wailing.

I rounded on Alex. He lunged for me,
his clenched fist heading for my face.

Lightning went off in my ear. The crack
so loud I flinched and turned away.

“
Fuck,” Alex screamed. His
legs flew out from under him and he landed on his ass with a
thump.

Where had Chase gotten a
whip?

I looked at Alex’s foot and grimaced.
The leather was wrapped around his ankle.

“
Sucks to be you,” I
accepted Chase’s outstretched hand. He pulled me up behind him on
Ash and retrieved the whip with ease, not even getting down from
the horse. Then we were off like a shot, over the fence, and
barreling back to his house.

This time Ash went right into the
trailer, seeming satisfied with the morning’s excitement. We were
loaded up and ready to go, so we went inside and said goodbye to
Chase’s mother.

“
You leaving?” She asked,
standing from the breakfast table.

Chase nodded. “Yeah,”

She sighed and smiled. “I can’t talk
you into staying, can I?”

Chase hugged her. His decision was
harder than I originally thought. His mom wanted him to be happy,
but it also upset her to see him go. “I wish I could, but I just
can’t.”

“
You tried.” She nodded and
let him go. “Your father would be proud of you. He knew what he
wanted when the rest of us had no clue.”

I smiled at Mrs. Carter as we headed
for the stairs. Chase wanted to check his room a final time to make
sure he didn’t forget something. I wanted to ask about his father.
I’d never heard anyone mention him before today.

In his room, Chase grabbed a backpack
and large duffle bag. “Ready?”

I blocked his way back out the door.
“Are you okay?”

“
I will be when I get
home.”

“
You know, I don’t know
what it’s like to feel so incomplete that I can’t
breathe.”

“
Yeah,” he hugged me to his
side and rested his chin on top of my head. “It will feel good to
breathe again…and where the hell did you get a right hook like
that? I’m impressed.”

“
Grandpa was a boxer,
remember?” I led the way outside to the truck, and tried not to cry
as his mother hugged him again. Todd shook hands with Chase. His
little sister watched shyly from behind him.

I was getting into the truck, when Mrs.
Carter stopped me. “You’re not going with him, are you?”

I smiled. “I am.”

Surprise spread over her face, and she
glanced at Chase, then back at me. “I hope you know what you’re
doing.”

Chase opened the door wider so I could
get in. I held back. “Why?”

She shook her head, a far off look in
her eyes. “Oh, about eighteen years ago I got in a truck much like
this one, excited, not knowing what to expect. I was in love with a
fairytale and soon found out that kind of life wasn’t for
me.”

“
I don’t put a lot of stock
in fairytales, Mrs. Carter, but thank you for your concern.” I
climbed into the truck, not looking back. Chase followed, and we
didn’t say anything as he pulled out of the driveway.

I wasn’t thinking about fairytales. I
was thinking about adventure, and doing things I’d never done
before. Something told me that McCree Ranch was going to be more
than I ever imagined and even better for me than it was for Mrs.
Carter.

Chapter 11

Chase

“
Is Ash doing okay?” Briar
asked, twisting in the seat to look out the window. It was night,
and she probably couldn’t see much.

I nodded, glancing in the rearview
mirror. “He’ll get a chance to stretch his legs in a
bit.”

She turned back and sank into the seat,
propping her feet on the dash. She was wearing black hiking boots,
ones with pink laces and glitter on the logo. They weren’t like
anything I’d ever seen, but they would be comfortable and sturdy,
and she looked damn cute in them. “How long till we get
there?”

I eyed the upcoming road signs,
“Why?”

She shrugged, “Just
wondering.”

I glanced at her, “Are you
bored?”

“
Not really…” she laughed,
shoving at my arm when I rolled my eyes. “It’s been three hours
since the last rest stop. I just want to get out and walk
around.”

I checked the GPS. We were already in
Tennessee. Around eleven hours on the road. “It says we’ve got
another three hours till we reach the inn.”

“
I can wait.”

“
Yup.” I smirked, watching
her dig through her purse. She pulled out a bag of peppermints and
offered me one. She’d bought them at a gas station along with a
cherry cola. The cola was gone. Now three mints and half a magazine
later she was looking for something else to do.

When it was nearing the end of the
first leg of our trip, I slowed, pulling off onto the shoulder of
the road. Briar almost leapt from the truck to stretch her legs,
she bounced on her toes next to me, while I leaned against the open
truck door trying not to laugh.

“
Want to drive the rest of
the way?”

She glanced at the massive truck, and
back to the trailer. “You’re kidding.”

“
Nah, you can’t hurt it,
and we’re on a back road. Thirty minutes from the inn.”

She smiled, “I don’t know…”

“
Come on, I’ll be right
next to you the whole way.”

“
Okay, if you insist.” I
didn’t insist, but a break would be nice. I got in the truck and
she climbed in next to me. Behind the wheel her feet barely reached
the pedals and she squealed half the way.

But Briar handled it like a pro. She
wasn’t ready for the highway, though she would get
there.

“
You got it.” I said,
putting my hand on the wheel as she turned a short time later down
the long dirt drive of the inn. “Give it a little gas.”

She clapped. “This is fun.”

“
Hands on the wheel,
darlin’,” I grinned. “If you think this is fun, wait till I get you
in a tractor.”

She took her eyes off the road for a
second to stare at me. “You have a tractor?”

I stared at her. “I have a ranch. A
tractor is common for that kind of atmosphere.”

“
Is it big?”

“
Depends on the one you
pick.” I motioned back to the road and helped her steer it up the
drive in front of a large two-story house. She parked it, with only
a little jerk, next to another truck with a trailer hitched to the
back.

We went up to the front door and rang
the bell. A tall, older man with a white handlebar mustache
answered. He was my kinda people. Just a good ol’ country boy. He
showed us up to the second floor to the room we could stay in, and
then took us out to the stables. I had Ash settled for the night,
with Briar keen on helping whenever she could.

We finally crashed in the upstairs
room. I didn’t even bother changing. I kicked off my boots and fell
right into the squeaky twin bed, only to be awoken shortly after by
a phone ringing.

“
Hello?” I glanced at the
clock, bleary eyed. It was seven in the morning. Shit. Time flew
by.

“
Just lettin’ ya’ll know we
got breakfast downstairs if you want to eat.”

I thanked the woman on the phone and
hung up. “Briar?”

“
Hmm?”

“
Time to get going,” I
pushed up on my elbows and looked her over. She’d fallen asleep on
top of the covers, and like me, hadn’t bothered to change out of
her clothes from yesterday. I smiled. “Breakfast is ready if you’re
hungry.”

She pushed her curls out of her eyes
and squinted at me. “I’m not human enough to be hungry until I
shower.”

I laughed, sliding out of the bed and
heading for the bathroom. “Better hurry up then.”

I threw on a clean shirt and pulled on
my boots. Briar took a little longer, but she emerged from the
bathroom her usual cheery self, ready to get on the road. The
couple who owned the inn fed us, and even gave us sandwiches for
the road.

I hooked up the GPS and Briar’s eyes
nearly bugged out of her head. “We have twenty five hours left of
the drive to your ranch?”

I laughed, “Yeah, we’ll do fifteen
today.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath.
“We’ll be in the truck until eleven.”

“
I warned you.”

“
Hey, I’m not complaining.”
She smiled. “In fact, after you fell asleep, I stayed up most of
the night playing games on my phone.”

“
Why?”

“
So I can do this…” she
pulled the hood of her jacket up to cover her face.
“Goodnight.”

I shrugged, “Whatever
works.”

Chapter 12

Briar

I only slept for a few hours. Turns out
I wasn’t the kind of person capable of snoozing in bright daylight
with other cars zooming past us on the highway. By lunchtime I was
wide awake, and climbing into the backseat of the truck to grab a
couple sodas and the sandwiches. Chase was content behind the wheel
most of the time, but he got a little fidgety as the day wore on.
We talked, I’d pretend to sleep, and he would make fun of me for
trying. A few times we stopped at rest stops to use the bathrooms
and to stretch. Ash was an old pro at riding in a trailer, and
didn’t seem to care what we did. He just grazed on the little bit
of hay Chase had provided.

I checked in with Grandma via text
throughout the day. My parents were clueless, thinking I’d gone to
Boston with her for the summer. Maybe it should have irritated me
that my parents were self-absorbed snobs, but I’d been around them
my whole life, and could only roll my eyes and hope one day they
came to their senses. If not, at least I had them as an example of
what not to be like as I got older.