Always Enough (Meet Me in Montana #2) - Kelly Elliott Page 0,3
just has a broken ankle. It’s sort of a sissified injury, if you think about it.”
My father wore a tight smile, not wanting to chuckle, but then he allowed the sadness to seep back into his eyes.
My chest ached for a moment, and I fought to push my own pain away. Pain and sadness over a life I no longer had. One I still missed but normally refused to think about.
Bull riding was once my entire life. The only dream I’d chased after. I didn’t want to settle down and have kids, didn’t want to work on the family ranch, at least not until I was in my midthirties. I loved my life. Bull riding, alcohol, and women. Not necessarily in that order, but more like those three things tied for first place in my own rankings. Those were the three things I lived for. I loved the ranch as well, but I thought I’d have a bit more time to follow my dreams before I helped run the ranch.
I didn’t get a say in any of that, though. Four long years ago, my dream was taken from me. Crushed in the blink of an eye. Doctors told me I most likely wouldn’t regain full use of my leg. I proved them wrong, but it came at a cost. The pain I endured while in physical therapy was what had me popping the pain pills left and right. Before I knew it, I was getting my hands on stronger pills and taking more than I should. I hid it from my family for a while until eventually I started changing. I got moody and mean, drank a lot.
My mother noticed first, and of course I lied for as long as I could. Told everyone I was fine. Until I wasn’t fine. My addiction and depression nearly cost me my life—not that I told anyone how bad it was. After my parents stepped in and intervened, I admitted myself to a rehab clinic and got my shit together.
The demons were still there, though, lurking deep inside me, and I knew if I didn’t keep my guard up, they’d reappear. It was a fear I lived with daily. An internal battle that sometimes kept me awake at night.
“Smoke’s getting blacker,” my father said.
With a mumbled curse, I pulled off my work gloves. “Let me call Brock, see if he can come help you with this fence.”
“It’s almost done. You go on and see what that girl is burning to turn the sky so black.”
“Lord only knows,” I said.
I cleaned up the tools I’d used and then headed over to my truck. My father had met me here in the ranch truck, so I was able to just hop in to go see what the little pain in the ass was doing now.
As I climbed into the driver’s seat, I called out, “Text me or call if you need any help, Dad.”
“Will do!” he said, lifting his hand and giving me a smile.
Turning on the truck, I said a quick prayer for God to give me patience when I got to Kaylee’s. It was something I found I lacked when it came to her. Never mind that she drove my body crazy just being near her, but that snarky little mouth of hers only made me want to kiss her to shut her up. And that wasn’t going to happen. Kaylee Holden was dangerous, and the last thing I could allow myself to do was give in to that temptation.
One addiction was bad enough to battle. I sure as shit didn’t need two.
Chapter Two
KAYLEE
I stood and watched the smoke from the burn pile turn to pitch black. It raced up into the air and covered the picture-perfect blue sky. I couldn’t even see the snow-covered mountains on the other side of the burn pile anymore. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Oh shit,” I whispered as I looked at the old tractor tire I had thrown into the fire. “That might not have been the best idea.”
The sound of a truck pulling up had me waving my hand in the air to clear out the smoke. Hopefully it wasn’t the fire department again. The last time they were here, I had set fire to a pan filled with grease in my sink. Who would have known how easily grease fires started?
Walking toward the gravel drive, I felt my heartbeat pick up. God help me. It was worse than the fire department . . . it