Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88463 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“Sure you did. We all follow you, and you don’t post very much, but you announced the new guest ranch today, and we came right over.”
Aiden groans.
The front door of the house flies open, and Willow comes running at top speed.
“What the hell happened to my boy?”
“Don’t touch him,” I order as I pull my phone out of my pocket and call emergency services. “The horse threw him because these idiots scared Sunflower.”
“Don’t hurt Sunflower,” Aiden murmurs.
“Shh,” Willow says, brushing his hair off his forehead. “No one will hurt her. What hurts, baby?”
“Everything.”
“This is Ryker James at the Triple Creek Ranch,” I say when the phone is answered. “I believe you have deputies on the way, but I also need an ambulance.”
“That’s right, we have two men on the way out there. I’ll dispatch an ambulance now. What is the injury?”
“Thrown from a horse. His shoulder is either broken or dislocated. I don’t know what else is hurt.”
“ETA is ten minutes,” she says in my ear.
“Longest ten minutes of my fucking life,” I reply as I hang up and then call Dusty. Jesus, I’ve been on my phone more in the past forty-eight hours than I have been in the last year combined.
“Hey, boss.”
“I need you by the house to collect our horses. Aiden’s been hurt. We have unwanted visitors.”
“Two minutes” is his clipped reply before he hangs up.
“I want to cradle him,” Willow says, tears running down her cheeks.
“Until the ambulance gets here, I don’t want to move him,” I reply softly and reach out to rub my hand up and down her back. “Buddy, what hurts now?”
“Shoulder,” he says. “Doesn’t feel right. Head hurts. Foot got twisted.”
“Did it get caught in the stirrup?” I ask him.
“Think so.” He huffs a breath in and out, and I can see tears gathering in his eyes. “Scared me.”
“I know.” I pat his good shoulder as Willow brushes her fingers through his hair. “I know, kiddo. It’s scary as hell.”
“Listen, we didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” one of the guys says. “We really thought it was okay for us to be here.”
“I told them to go,” Aiden says.
Two sheriff cars roll up the driveway, and the men hurry over to us just as Dusty comes riding up to take care of the horses.
It’s chaos for several minutes, and all I can think about is getting my boy to the fucking hospital.
“I want them gone,” I say, pointing to the unwanted visitors. “They’re trespassing. An ambulance is on the way for my boy.”
“Can you give us a rundown on what happened?” deputy number one asks, and I stand to give him the information. His face is grim as he turns to the strangers. “Let’s go, folks. And for future reference, if someone tells you to leave, you leave.”
As they file away, an ambulance finally pulls in, and the EMTs rush toward us with a stretcher.
“I go with him,” Willow says, not leaving Aiden’s side. “He’s mine. I go with him.”
“That’s fine, ma’am,” one of the EMTs says and then turns to me. “We’ll be at Paradise General. You can follow us in.”
I turn to Dusty, who gestures with his chin. “Go. I have everything here handled.”
I jump into my truck and immediately call Gideon, and then the PR department for the Blizzard, and they assure me they’ll get my social media handled.
Fucking Andy.
I’d bet a year’s salary it was that asshole who put my address on social media.
He’s going to pay for all this.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Willow
My heart is going to burst out of my body. Jesus, I can’t calm down. My boy is on a gurney, moaning in pain, and there’s nothing they can do for him until we get to the hospital.
“His blood pressure is good,” the EMT named Sandy says. “Good heart rate too. And I don’t think he has a concussion, because his pupils are the same and not dilated.”
I know she’s trying to calm me down, but until a doctor tells me that I can take him home, nothing is going to calm me down. My kid is in pain, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.
Talk to him, Sandy mouths to me.
“Hey, kiddo, remember that time that we went to Disney World when you were ten?”
“You got sick after Space Mountain,” he says with a smirk.
“Are you seriously making fun of me for getting motion sick?”
“Duh.” He winces when we hit a bump. “It was cool that Gideon and Ryker met us there.”
They surprised us both the day after we got there, and the four of us had a whole week of rides, time at the pool, and all the park food in the world, and I’m pretty sure Ryker spent a mint on all the souvenirs that Aiden wanted. It was one of the few times over the past decade that I got to spend significant time with Ryker, and I soaked in every minute of it.