Take the Reins (A Cowboy's Promise #2) - Megan Squires Page 0,71
and dropped his chin to his fist, leaning closer to Josie at her bedside. “I really wish you would’ve let me feed Hank, Josie. I know hindsight is twenty-twenty, but I just feel so awful that I forgot to tell you to shut off the barn heater before you left.”
“What?”
“Tanner said you took over the last feeding for him and accidently left the heater on. That’s one-hundred-percent my fault. I didn’t tell you that we don’t leave it on all night.”
Josie shook her head. “That’s not how—”
“We don’t have to talk about it right now, Josie. The doctor said you need to rest and I don’t want you to get worked up.”
A little too late for that. “That’s not how it happened, Seth.” She coughed. Adrenaline coursed through her, making her lungs vibrate as she sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t leave the heater on.”
“The fire chief said that was the probable cause.” Seth’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“I’m sure it was, but I wasn’t the one who left it on.”
“I’m not following.”
Josie inhaled again, readying to lay it all out as best she could remember, but her chest heaved and she barked out a string of guttural coughs that left her breathless and trembling.
The hospital room door flew open and Nurse Rachelle bounded into the room, an I told you so look impressed across her face.
“Alright, lovebirds. Looks like that’s enough excitement for one afternoon.” She swiveled the cart up to her and punched a couple buttons on the machine. “Josie, let’s take the rest of the day easy, okay?”
Seth took the hint and stood from the chair to make backward movements toward the door. He hung there a beat, his face holding the saddest version of goodbye Josie had ever seen, and then he was gone.
25
Seth
“Oh, dear, give me a hug!” Gramm stretched out shaking hands and grabbed onto Seth’s face to pull it close to hers. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you? The fire is all anyone has been talking about.”
Wasn’t that the truth?
It was stamped across the headlines on the newspaper that rested on their driveway that morning. Blogged about on all the local town gossip websites. Even the news station tried to come out to the ranch to film a segment, but Seth stopped that in its tracks.
He was not about to let them spin their story any way they liked while he stood by and watched.
Words like negligence, careless, and reckless became a sickening chorus in the song of their farm’s tragedy. And Josie was the one at the center of it all. It was an unbelievable irony that bad news really did spread faster than wildfire, or in their case, a ranch fire.
They drummed up all they could on her. She was a vagrant hired to tame rescued horses but decimated a generational business instead. An irresponsible woman who needed to be held accountable for the actions that very likely cost an entire family their livelihood. And in each article when they described her, she was a single, twenty-something who struggled to find work as a farrier.
That was the kicker. Single. That small fact didn’t slip past Seth’s mother when she read the articles aloud over the breakfast table that morning. The knowing look she gave Seth was enough to make him feel like a child being sent to his room. The ruse was over; the game played.
And boy, how he had lost. In everything.
“Seth?” Gramm still had her wrinkled hands on his face. “You okay, dear?”
He shook from his reverie and thrust out a hand that gripped onto a paper sack. “I brought cookies. Just sugar this time. Wasn’t feeling too creative.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Seth. Come. Let’s sit down.”
She slowly hobbled over to a tattered, plaid loveseat next to the baby grand piano in the senior living’s communal space. Seth drooped against the lumpy cushions and heaved a sigh.
“Tell me how you’re handling things, dear.” She put the cookies down. “You can talk to me.”
“That’s the thing, Gramm. I’m not handling any of it,” Seth spat. He speared his fingers through his hair and gripped the strands out of frustration. “The town is taking our tragedy and not only making it front page news, but they’re practically crucifying Josie in the process.”
“And you care about her.”
“Of course I care about her!” His voice rose on its own volition. “She’s my…” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence now.