Take the Reins (A Cowboy's Promise #2) - Megan Squires Page 0,56

and out,” Josie explained. “Like to the point that he posted up on the street corner to beg for money just to get by.”

“I can’t even imagine getting to that point.” Seth’s head was shaking. “That poor guy.”

“I know. It’s awful,” Josie agreed. “So one day he was outside the grocery store with his cardboard sign. No one had put anything in his jar. It was totally empty. And he looked awful, Seth. On death’s door physically and emotionally. I felt for him, you know? So I gave him the fifty-dollar bill that I’d just gotten from my client for shoeing her horse that afternoon. I told him to get something to eat. Something that would make him feel better.” Josie’s throat was thick with emotion. It was hard to speak around the ball that lodged squarely there. She swallowed. “He looked up from his slumped place on the concrete and said, ‘The only thing that’ll make me feel better is to use this to drown my sorrows.’ I laughed a little and said, ‘Hey man, we gotta do what we gotta do just to get by sometimes’.”

Seth had his elbows perched on his knees and his hands clasped under his chin, leaning close, giving Josie his rapt attention.

“My guess is he used every last dollar of it that day because when he hit me, he didn’t even really put two and two together that I was the same person he’d chatted with outside the store earlier in the day.”

“Oh, Josie.” Seth didn’t say anything more than that, but it was enough to break her. Tears, hot and insistent, streamed down the slope of her cheeks.

“I wasn’t about to get the police involved because the truth of the matter was, if I hadn’t given him that money, the accident never would’ve happened. I hold just as much blame.”

“You’re not responsible for someone else’s decisions or actions, Josie. You were just trying to help him out. You have to know that.”

“You know? Deep down I keep telling myself that, but I’ve yet to really believe it.” She sniffed. “Brian’s life was a living hell already. What good would it do to make sure it stayed that way?”

Seth reached out and placed his hand on Josie’s bare knee. His thumb rubbed over her skin, soothing and gentle. “You’re a really good woman, Josie. With a huge heart.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do.” He moved for her hand and pulled her from her seat and over to his. With more understanding, comfort, and compassion than Josie had experienced in years, Seth wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him as he slowly rocked in the chair.

Josie couldn’t keep from burying her head in his chest and letting the sobs rack her entire body, shuddering out in a release that felt like a dam breaking. Seth’s hand smoothed her hair that matted against her tear-slick cheeks and he just let her cry as he absorbed all of her pain, doubt, and misplaced blame she had let herself latch onto like a sickness.

How had he been the only one to see things this way? Even her sisters thought she had been a fool to let Brian off so easily. Josie began to wonder if she’d done the wrong thing, but Seth’s acceptance changed all of that.

Seth’s acceptance of Josie changed everything.

19

Seth

“They’re not gonna let us come out to the farm this week, sweetie. I’m so sorry.”

Gramm’s voice trembled in the receiver wedged between Seth’s shoulder and ear.

“What do you mean? I thought it was all lined up and we were good to go.” Seth balanced a large bottle of milk on his knee as he crouched down in the fresh bedding of straw in the old barn stall. The calf nudged at the bottle with his wet nose, smacking his lips while he searched to find the nipple to latch onto. The poor thing ended up rejected by its mother, an outcome no cattle rancher liked to encounter. Seth and Tanner now switched off feedings. It would take some teamwork, but they were determined to give the calf the best start in life possible.

Gramm sighed. “There’s been a flu outbreak and they don’t want any of us leaving.”

Seth’s hopes nosedived at that. Of course, he had wanted to have his grandmother and her friends out to the ranch, but their health was more important than an afternoon field trip. If only the people that ran that facility understood their mental health was