“What’s wrong with that song?”
“That’s the one I wrote about my parents.”
“I take it they’re not part of your life anymore?”
“They’re six feet under. The best place for them.”
I winced and wanted to ask more, but I let the subject go. Whatever her parents had put her through, it seemed they were the root of her problems.
Chapter Three
Montana
For the past three days, I’d been strong and had cut down on the amount of time I’d spent scrolling through my phone. My electronic addiction was nowhere near as bad as my alcohol-based one. If I could control that, I could control anything.
The limited access I’d allowed myself hadn’t given me enough time to do a thorough search on Dylan, but I had found out a few things. Like how much of a big deal he was in his world.
There were countless photos of him beside big boobed women who wore spangly outfits. Photos of him on ginormous bulls and photos of him face down in the dirt. There were also videos of the times he’d been bucked off and the times he’d won. I needed to get back to my cabin so I could cyberstalk him on my laptop until I discovered everything there was to know.
No matter what he said about me staying at the main house, I was going to my cabin tonight and barricading myself in. Before he came on the scene, I was content with my little routine of waking up and spending the majority of my time alone and online.
He walked up to the porch where I sat, looking every inch a modern-day cowboy in his T-shirt and backwards baseball hat. Sweat misted his skin, and dirt covered his Wranglers. If I weren’t so irritated and antsy, I would have pounced on him and licked him from head to toe.
“How’s the new horse doing?” I asked, genuinely interested.
“Sampson’s doing fine. It’s a case of monkey see monkey do with him. He likes to have other horses around. Likes watching what they do, then following their lead. He’s skittish, but he’s starting to trust me. Much like someone else I know.”
I ignored his teasing. “I guess you really are the horse whisperer.”
“I guess I am.”
He leaned against the railing, his gaze meandering all over my body. “Now that you can put some weight on your ankle, you want to go up to the waterfall?”
My ankle had improved enough that I no longer needed crutches, and the cuts on my hands and forehead were healing, but I didn’t want to do anything outdoorsy or something that required being around people.
“I thought I’d go back to my cabin.”
“Why? So you can vanish into cyberspace for hours on end?”
I clucked my tongue. “It makes me happy being in my own bubble.”
“It makes you a coward is what it makes you.”
I shot out of my seat and smacked my hands against my hips. “Oh no, you did not just go there. Have you ever gotten up on a stage in front of fifty thousand people and sang your heart out for two hours?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Well, until you do, don’t call me a coward.”
He tilted his head. “Were you sober when you got up on stage and sang in front of those fifty thousand people?”
Asking that question had put his toe well and truly over the line, and I wouldn’t be held responsible for my actions if he went any further.
“What the fuck did you say?” I jabbed my finger in his face. “You do not get to say anything like that to me ever again. You have no right.”
He grabbed my finger and lowered it. We were so close our lips were within inches of meeting. “You’re getting in the truck. We’re going to go to the waterfall, and you’re going to have a good time. After that, I’ll take you back to your hiding hole where you can punish yourself all you want.”
“I don’t like you,” I spat.
“Sure you don’t.”
I liked him very much. Too much. Over the past few days, I’d grown to like him even more. And for the first time since I’d moved to the ranch, song lyrics looped through my head. My fingers itched to write down the words and get them out of my brain before they drove me mad.
I couldn’t quite grasp all the words yet, but they had to do with Dylan and the secrets we keep even from ourselves, and how it sometimes takes someone we don’t know to help us see the truth.
“Promise you’ll take me back to the cabin tonight if I go with you.”
“Deal.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
****
On our drive up the twisty-turny roads, we didn’t pass another soul. It was as if no one else in the entire world existed. As if we had the entire planet to ourselves.
I turned to Dylan and brushed my windswept hair out of my face. “Do you think we’d be safe staying here when the zombie apocalypse happens?”
He glanced over at me like I’d lost my mind. “Where did that come from?”
“I’m serious,” I said with a smile. “No one would find us up here. We’d go hunting and fishing. We could be self-sufficient.”
“The zombies would get us before we had a chance.” He pulled up a narrow dirt road, and when he stopped, we both got out. He grabbed a backpack, and I grabbed blankets from the back seat.
“The zombies would have been killed by a nuclear explosion,” I explained, “which is the only way to kill the undead.”
“Obviously,” he said and grinned. “How would we survive the nuclear explosion?”
“Duh! Because we’d be
