I delved into the thoughts of the way he had treated people and the situations we had gotten ourselves into, the more I had to come to terms with the reality that we had hurt feelings. He blamed people for things they didn’t do. He embarrassed people.
But never had he been dangerous. He had never gotten to a point where he had risked anyone’s safety beyond the basic juvenile frat-boy-style pranks. When he started rambling on in the plane and then immediately jumped into trying to impress Sawyer and Colt, I didn’t think it would be any different.
I figured he would puff up his chest and do everything he could to be impressive. His fringe at the beginning was another whole level, but it pretty much encompassed what I thought of his approach to the ranch. He was a little bit of distant Montana wrapped up in a whole lot of California.
When his behavior started to get more unpredictable, it made me a little nervous. But I still didn’t actually believe he would be reckless. I didn’t think he would do anything overtly dangerous or put any of us or the animals in harm’s way.
But that was exactly what he did, and it absolutely infuriated me. Not just for myself, either. I was the least of my worries. Other than Rubin himself at that moment. I hated how much he upset the cattle Sawyer and Colt cared for with so much compassion and gentleness. I despised him for causing Sawyer to be hurt. And he was going to hear it from me.
This wasn’t the first time Rubin and I had clashed in our lives. We loved each other and grew up very close, but that didn’t mean we didn’t sometimes come up against each other. In fact, we might have fought more often than other cousins because of how close we were. But that meant he knew what the look on my face meant as I stalked toward him.
The smirk fell away and he held up his hands. “Look, don’t you start in on me. I didn’t do anything. I’m not the one who basically said it would be fine if I got my head trampled in by a horse. And I don’t see you getting all pissed off at his ass.”
He gestured toward Colt. The young cowboy was red in the face he was so angry, clearly struggling to hold it together.
“It’s your fault the cows got upset and Sawyer got knocked around,” he said through gritted teeth, the words short and measured like he wanted to make sure Rubin heard and understood each of them clearly but was really trying not to shout.
It didn’t do him any good. Uncle Lucien had been taking a breather from the conflict, but that set him off again. He launched forward, his hands flailing up in the air as he started shouting again, vacillating back to defending his son.
“Don’t you dare talk to my son that way. We didn’t come all the way out here from our beautiful, luxurious, civilized homes in California and pay for this experience to have you disrespect us like that. You are supposed to be the professionals. Both of you. But somehow, it’s my son’s fault that he can’t stay on the back of a horse and you can’t keep your own herd under control? I can tell you one thing, our herd never acted like that when my family was here.”
“You had a dairy farm,” Colt said. “Cows kept in pastures and brought in for milking. That’s not the same thing as having hundreds of head of cattle that freely roam around a ranch.”
“Now you’re going to belittle my family and the hard work we did here?” Uncle Lucien asked. He was seething, and I knew if I got any closer, I would see the spit flying out of his mouth.
“That’s enough, Uncle Lucien,” I said.
“Don’t you tell me what to do, Jane. You’re just a little girl who is totally out of your element, who got manipulated by a dirty cowboy. You need to stay out of this.”
I looked over at Cecilia, who stood to the side watching the entire exchange with wide, interested eyes. But it was Rubin who really caught my attention. He was back to having the smug, self-satisfied look on his face and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Enough of this shit,” I grumbled.
I walked up to the side of Rubin’s horse and grabbed him by the pant leg. Putting all my