Dead of Winter (Battle of the Bulls #2) - T. S. Joyce Page 0,60

someday when we see each other again?”

Another nod. “It’s a promise.”

A promise from an honest man. “That’s good enough for me,” she whispered.

He leaned down and kissed her. It was one of those kisses that made the whole world fade away. It was his soft fingertips on her cheek, and her hugging his neck so tight. It was up on her tiptoes, their lips saying the words he’d promised her, body melting into body until there was only one of them. It was home.

When a tear fell to her cheek, she broke the kiss, eased down to earth again, and adjusted the strap of her backpack.

“You’re important to me, too,” she murmured thickly then walked away.

Raven couldn’t look back. She couldn’t. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to do this. She wouldn’t be strong enough to.

She knew he waited, though. When she made it to her family inside, she peeked out the window, and his truck was still there. She couldn’t see him through the dark tint of his windows, but he’d waited.

Her phone vibrated in her back pocket, so she pulled it out, read the text.

I miss you already.

When she looked up, Dead was driving away with her heart.

What had she been thinking, falling in love with a rodeo man? With a bucker. With a rambler, a traveler, at the mercy of his event schedule but her with roots grown so deep into her hometown.

This was how to rip a person in half. Her family, best friend, job, and home were in one place, and her heart would now be in another. It didn’t feel fair.

She was greedy and wanted it all, because how could happiness exist when she was torn in two?

Swallowing down her sadness, Raven sent him a text back.

It’s okay. I miss you too.

Chapter Twenty

Three weeks later

“You have three different deliveries in the office,” Mona said.

Raven set down the plastic containers of lunch from Sandbox Sandwiches. “Deliveries to take to the funeral home?” she asked, confused. That hadn’t been on the schedule this morning.

“No, someone sent you two deliveries.”

She grinned and, with a squeak, she ran for the office in the back of the small flower shop. Quick as a whip, she closed the door behind her and bounded over to the desk where there sat a card, a present, and…a bouquet of candies, arranged on sticks like they were flowers. All of her favorite candies were in it, and three packages of Skittles reassured her of who sent them.

She plucked the card off the present and ripped it open in a rush. The card said:

Hey Sexy Heifer,

Five more weeks and your butt cheeks will be in both my hands.

Love and blow jobs,

Dead

So romantic. Her face frozen in a grin, she reached for the other box, but the card beside it fell to the ground, and that definitely wasn’t from Dead. The handwriting wasn’t familiar. It was loopy and feminine. She knelt and plucked the envelope from the carpet, opened it, and unfolded the handwritten card. There was a black and white picture taped inside of a tall woman holding a baby, and five boys around her of different ages. They all looked somber. Somber and familiar. They all had black eyes. Black eyes just like she got when she was changed or close to a change.

Hagans.

In the background, a man stood stoically. He was tall, intimidating, and impossibly broad-shouldered. There were no smile lines on his face, as if he’d never smiled a day in his life. He was glaring at the woman. Raven looked at the woman’s face again, and she could just make out the tears in her eyes.

The letter read:

Dear Raven,

That’s what I heard they named you. I wasn’t allowed to give you a name. Only a brand, and even that got me in trouble. If they knew what I done with you, trouble wouldn’t begin to describe it. But you know what? I watched you the other night on TV. I known it was you. You look like your brothers. Same dark hair, same eyes, same stubborn set to your lips, and that animal inside you is pure Hagan. I watched you on the TV when everyone was away and I cried and cried.

It don’t matter what kind of trouble I get into for giving you away, I wanted you to live a better life. I wanted you to live any life. And look at you now. I never been so proud to be a momma as when I was