Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Glenn?”
Even though I could feel the ball of fear in my chest, I answered, “I dunno.”
“You wanna guess?”
I could, and I really hoped it didn’t get me beat up. Mac had easily fifty pounds of muscle on me, all of him looking like roped steel. If he wanted to hurt me, I’d be in real trouble. But I couldn’t help myself. I had to know. So I cleared my throat and threw caution to the wind. “I thought you were straight,” I mumbled.
“Nope. I’m bi. I like both.”
My mouth went dry, and just for a second, I thought time had stopped and I would live forever in this moment of complete and utter disbelief where everything I thought I knew turned upside down and inside out.
“Pardon?”
“I suspect you heard me just fine.”
The hell did he say?
His chuckle was a little bit evil. “You should see your face.”
I couldn’t for the life of me remember how I was supposed to tell if I was dreaming or not. It would have been good to check, since I was really unsure I was awake.
Mac Gentry was bisexual? How the hell had I missed that all these years?
The shudder went through me fast, and then I got my bearings and met his gaze, holding it, not looking away. “How come you never mentioned that before?”
“You never asked.”
I coughed softly to give myself a moment.
Mac said, “Rand finally managed to get a call to go through and got a hold of Everett, and he agreed to drive up here and pick up you and your horse with the stupid-ass name.”
It took a second. “What?”
Immediately, he was scowling at me. “You heard.”
“Why am I being sent home?”
“’Cause you can’t ride when you’re all tore up. Don’t be an idiot.”
Of course. As usual, I was the idiot. Sitting up, I brushed his hands away when he tried to stop me and hold me down. “When is Everett coming?”
“He’ll be here around midday tomorrow, I reckon.”
“And you all just decided this.”
He huffed out a frustrated breath. “No, Glenn,” he said crossly. “The gash in your side decided this.”
I shook my head.
“You didn’t even want to be here,” he reminded me. “You hate the ranch and driving cattle and everything else. Now you don’t have to have nothin’ to do with any of it.”
But that wasn’t the deal I made. “I made a promise to Stef.”
“Rand said that you don’t make no promises to family. You shouldn’t have to.”
“Stef’s not my family.”
“The hell he ain’t. He’s married to your brother, you damn fool.”
It took everything in me not to yell. Idiot. Fool. All the different names he applied to me that basically all meant the same thing. Mac thought I was stupid, plain and simple. It could not be made any clearer.
“Why are you here?” I hoped my tone was as cold as I felt.
His glare was icy. Any tenderness he’d felt for me had evaporated like it was never there. “I have no idea.”
It felt different in the tent when he stormed out a moment later, like all the heat went with him, but I didn’t care. It had just been demonstrated to me again, for the billionth time, that I had no place in the world of the Red Diamond.
What did it matter if Mac was bi? He certainly wasn’t for me. He found me lacking, just like my family did, just like all the hands did, just like anyone attached to the ranch did. I was useless, they all thought so, and it had been made clear a hundred times. All the things Rand had said while I dozed, and Zach too, they only did so because they thought they had to or because they felt sorry for me. There was no real affection, no kinship, no love or respect or genuine feeling. And even though they’d thought I was asleep, and I could have assumed they were speaking from the heart, clearly they hadn’t been. Because my real worth came down to what kind of cowboy I was, and since I didn’t want to be one, I was of no use to any of them.
Except…I owed Stef. And having Everett get me was not the way I was leaving. I made my own decisions; they were never made for me. Not anymore. Not about anything.
Rand didn’t have a say, and neither did Mac. I needed to make that clear. I knew my own limits, and I would let them both know exactly what those were.
SIX
After getting something to eat, I used the sat phone Rand had given me and called Everett, who answered on the first ring.
“New baby,” were the first whispered words out of his mouth. “Only the boss gets to call me past—”
“It’s me. Glenn. And I’m calling to let you know you don’t have to come get me. It was a false alarm. I’m fine.”