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Authors: J.C. Isabella

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BOOK: Praying for Daylight
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I didn’t want to interrupt, but I also didn’t want those men knowing I was here. Not that any of them were Death. I mean, that would be ridiculous. Part of me was certain Death didn’t know where I really was, and the more I stood in the snow thinking about it, the more I realized that it was smarter for me to be cooped up in a house, safe and bored, than being tormented by some insane person.

It was for the best.

I turned, warding off a chill, and shrugging back into my jacket. The sun would be going down soon, and I didn’t need to be wandering the wilderness in the dark.

I didn’t realize I was crying until I heard myself sniff.

Good Lord, I had to pull myself together. It was ridiculous that I was skulking around the woods, cold and alone, wishing that I could just be normal. I knew when I signed that recording contract that my life would never be normal again. I’d be famous, and my privacy would be lost.

Now with actual privacy; no paparazzi or fans accidently bumping into me in my day to day life, I was crying like a baby, wishing I could be back out in the world.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I stopped cold, cringing.

My wish had been answered.

I turned around, and not ten feet behind me, there was a massive black horse, with Dustin in the saddle, looking dumbstruck as ever.

“Uh, hi.” I smiled, but I was just as surprised. It was clear neither of us expected to run into anyone out here.

His dark eyes narrowed and a frown settled hard on his face. “Don’t
hi
me, Kate. Who…how? Damn it.”

“Is something wrong?” I asked, walking toward Colt. The big horse was intimidating in appearance, but very gentle and sweet in temper.

“Yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m seeing things.”

“Really?” was he okay?

“Yup, you can’t be out this far in the woods, so I must be talking to a hallucination.” He was glaring at me.

I backed up a step, “Well, I’m real. And it’s getting colder, so I need to get back.”

“Stop. Don’t you take a step,” he sounded pissed now. And part of me wasn’t quite sure what I’d done wrong.

“Why?” I asked, walking backwards with a smirk.

He didn’t seem entertained. More annoyed. And he urged Colt forward into a leisurely stroll after me. “Kaitlin, I’m not in the mood to play games.”

I rocked to a stop. When he said my full name like that, he really wasn’t playing around. He was truly upset. “Dustin, I don’t see why you’re so mad. Care to enlighten me?”

“I’m beyond mad Kate. I’m flat furious and damn confused!” He was shouting so loud I wondered if everyone back at the McCree Ranch could hear. “What the hell possessed you to walk this far out? Have you been city so long that you’ve forgotten how dangerous it is?”

I winced. “Come on, I kept to the trail. I’m fine.”

“What trail?” he blinked, looking around us. “I see snow and ice. I see a girl by herself, with no protection, walking around the wilderness. What if you came across a bear, or a wolf, or even a hunter? What if you fell or got hurt? You’d freeze to death before someone found you.
If
they ever found you
.
Did you tell anyone you were out here? No, don’t think so. You’re not stupid Kate, but you really weren’t thinking this time.”

I couldn’t look at him, and stared down at my feet, knowing he was right. “I just…I got so sick of being in that house…You’re right. I didn’t think.”

His voice eased up, was less angry. “Kate, do you know how far you’ve walked?”

I shrugged, shuffling the snow with my boot. “Not exactly.”

“Five miles, at least. If you veered off the trail, maybe six.” He heaved a sigh that I felt. It was one of relief. I was relived too. “Let me take you home?”

I nodded, and accepted his hand. I tried to swing up behind him, but he had other ideas and pulled my up in front. He unzipped his coat and wrapped me in it, then started Colt along the trail I hadn’t been following very well.

When we got to the creek I felt him stiffen behind me. “Kate, how did you get across?”

I pointed at a log that was lying across it. Chase and Dustin had put it there on purpose a few summers ago. “It was easy.”

His chin plopped on top of my head and I felt him snort. “I can’t believe you did that. I just… Jesus, Kate. Why can’t you chill out and not be so reckless?”

I laughed. “I didn’t think I was reckless, and I wasn’t trying to be. I got across without falling in.”

“I’m going to put a tracking device on you.”

“Ha, very funny.”

“Then next time, think before walking five miles into the woods. Okay?”

“Yes, sir.” I settled back, staying silent the rest of the way back to my house.

When my feet hit the ground, Dustin was right behind me. Following me up the porch and into the house.

“Uh, thanks for the ride, but I’m fine now.” I smiled, keeping the door open so he could leave.

He grinned, “Not leaving just yet, honey. First I’m going to find your bathroom, then we’re packing you a bag.”

I frowned. “And why is that?”

“Camping. You, me, Chase, and Briar.”

“What about Ellie?” normally she, and Josh, and Tuck would be with us.

“Well considering Josh doesn’t know you’re here, she’s not invited.”

“And we’re going tonight?” I started up for my room, hoping I had enough warm clothes for this excursion.

“Yep, so get your stuff and let’s get going.”

With another salute, I tromped down the upstairs hallway knowing he would hear my boots beating the floors above the small bathroom downstairs. I grabbed a backpack and shoved some necessities in it. Then I changed my clothes; thick tights under my jeans, a thick sweater over my long sleeve shirt, and after grabbing a heavier coat, I pulled on hiking boots.

With a once over in the mirror, I decided I was ready to go.

Dustin was in the living room, head bent over his phone, texting furiously. “Chase is going to meet us here with Briar. They’re bringing an extra horse for you to ride.”

“Great,” I dropped my backpack near the door and headed for the kitchen. Since I hadn’t had dinner and we were in for a long ride, I grabbed stuff for sandwiches out of the fridge. “Hungry?”

Dustin came into the kitchen with a nod, “Always.”

“Remember when you used to put potato chips on your sandwich?” I asked, handing him the bag.

He snorted, piling them on and crunching it together. “Still do.”

I added a few to mine, and proceeded to bite into it. “Very satisfying crunch.”

“Yep,” I could hear his crunching and tried not to choke on my food as I laughed.

“You know, I’m glad I came here. It’s good for us to be together again. Smooth things over and put to rest what happened.”

“Yeah, we should have talked a long time ago.”

“Part of me worried you’d hate me after I left.” I stared down at my plate, unable to meet his gaze. “You know, I never thought anything would be as hard as losing my mom. And leaving you was just as painful. I never realized how much I depended on you once I lost her. I was too young. Now when I think back, if it wasn’t for our friendship, I’m not sure how I would have gotten through it.”

“Kate, I could never hate you.” His hand settled over mine, warm and reassuring. “And you would have gotten through it fine without me…there is nothing to smooth over or put to rest. Stuff happens. It’s part of life. You learn from it. And I depended on you as much as you depended on me.”

“That makes me feel a lot better…” I smiled at him. “Sometimes I wish I could change how I handled things though. I’m grateful that I was given this opportunity, but I made myself accept something that I wasn’t sure was right for me. It was all about saving myself and Cheyenne from scraping by.”

“Hey, it’s okay. You did what you had to do.” He squeezed my hand.

“Dustin, that was a huge choice for me. Putting aside what I wanted for my family was a mature decision that I didn’t want to make. I just wanted to go to school and ride horses…but I sacrificed what I wanted for what we needed.”

He was out of his chair, rounding the counter and pulling me into a hug before I could protest. “You’re brave, and you can always come back and ride horses.”

I hugged him tightly. “I just wasn’t sure I’d be welcome, after the way I left. I’d barely spoken to Ellie, and she was still so nice to me when I felt I didn’t deserve it. How I treated everyone was wrong.”

“This is your home. You have every right to be here, and anyone who says otherwise can answer to me.” He sighed, “I dreamed about going to find you, or that one day you’d show up. And you’re back now, and it’s as if nothings changed.”

“Dustin,” I leaned back, searching his face. “I know what you want, but I’m just going to have to leave again.”

“Kate,” he rested his forehead against mine. “You want it too. Don’t try and deny it. It’s true we can’t just pick up where we left off, but I hope that we can start new. That we could try. We owe ourselves that. I’m afraid that if I lose you again, I’ll lose you for good.”

I blinked back tears, “We make sense. We do. And I don’t think I can leave again like last time. It would hurt too much. But what if I’m on the road? When I’m on tour? How can we make it work?”

“We just take one day at a time, and things will turn out how they’re meant to.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“No one says it has to be hard.”

CHAPTER TEN

Dustin

 

Kate paced the front porch, waiting for Chase and Briar to pull up. I sat on a creaky rocker, giving her some distance. She was thinking about everything I said in the kitchen, and as much as I wanted to know what was going on in her head, I let her be. I could give her space, but it wasn’t easy. There was too much history between us, and the part of me that was hardest to ignore was the part that wanted to let her know everything was going to be okay, no matter what happened.

Chase’s blue truck ambled up the drive- with the horse trailer hitched behind it. I helped Kate into the cab next to Briar, and got Colt loaded with the rest of the horses. I hopped into the truck bed and we headed for the trail to Amber Valley.

The wind was cold, but not cold enough to send me inside the truck. I watched the highway fly out behind us, the fields covered in thin white powder. The air felt refreshing with each breath. Spring was coming, with summer not far behind it.

Before too long, the truck began to slow, and Chase stopped in the middle of the deserted highway. I was going to get out to see what was going on, but the passenger door opened and closed. Kate hopped up into the bed and knocked on the roof of the cab.

“What are you doing?” I stared at her as she sat down across from me. The truck started forward. “You’ll freeze.”

She smirked, “Nah, I’m good. I thought you’d like some company.”

“Couldn’t stay away from me?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m like a moth to a flame.”

I leaned back against the cab window and wondered how long she’d last. We had twenty minutes left of the drive, and the wind was verging on bitter cold in the truck bed.

Kate stuck it out though. At the very end she started to shiver, but by then the truck was pulling to a stop near the trail, and she rubbed her hands together with a smile. “Didn’t think I could do it, did you?”

“I had my doubts.” I gave her a hand down, and we walked back to open the trailer and led out the horses.

“Who is this?” Kate asked Chase, as he helped her into the saddle of a chestnut mare.

“This is one of Millie’s favorites.” He smiled. “Cupcake.”

I frowned. “She looks nothing like a dessert.”

Briar laughed, “True, but she’s sweet like one.”

I mounted Colt. Chase took the lead on the trail, and I brought up the rear. Briar and Kate chattered the whole time until we found a nice area to camp at for the night. While the girls got settled, we rode back to the tuck to get the wood and supplies we brought.

Chase wasn’t much into gossip, but he really was curious about what was going on between me and Kate. She was like a sister to him so I couldn’t blame the guy, but I also wasn’t in the mood to tell him everything I was feeling.

“So…?” Chase asked while securing a pack to Ruby’s saddle.

I reached for another one in the truck bed. “So what?”

“So what’s going on between you and Kate?” He shook his head. “Come on, Briar was talking about you guys the whole way to the campgrounds after Kate got out of the truck to freeze with you in the back.”

“Please, you know she wasn’t that eager to be with me.”

“Yeah, that’s not what it looked like to Briar, or me.” He shrugged. “You know, her being back is nice, but she’s acting funny. I don’t want to see you go through a repeat of the last time she bolted. Heartbroken is not a good look on you.”

“Its not a good look on anyone, and I’m not in the mood for a repeat of that.”

He nodded, securing another pack to Ruby, and then a light one on the back of Briar’s horse, Ash. “I’m not sure I believe that her being here is because of a crazy fan.”

“Oh, I don’t believe it either, but I have no idea what else could drive her away from her family. It wasn’t like she came running to me to fix what happened between us.”

I mounted Colt, waiting for Chase to come up beside me, riding Ruby.

“This just doesn’t feel right,” Chase continued. “I mean, you notice how funny she acts.”

“Yeah, she’s not herself, and then suddenly she’s back to normal Kate.” I deliberately kept Colt to a slow walk so Chase and I had enough time to talk. “Is she wearing a wig?”

Chase coughed, “I’m sorry?”

“Come on man, just tell me. What is Kate doing with a red wig? I saw it in her room.”

“She’s disguising herself when she goes into town so no one recognizes her. Let me tell you, its damn good. I didn’t recognize her. Ellie called her a vamp wannabe.”

“But why? No one in town would out her to the press. Ever since she left, people have always said if she came back they would make sure it would be to a place where she could have privacy.”

“Dustin, I’m just as confused as you are. Ellie was sure Kate would tell you everything.”

BOOK: Praying for Daylight
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