Page 100 of Reins

She leaps under me, used to this game of chase by now. Except this time, the stakes feel real.

Rosalyn is hunched over her saddle horn, hugging the neck of her horse as I gain.

“Ros, stop!” I yell over the galloping hooves.

When she glances at me over her shoulder, her red-rimmed eyes lock with mine. The pain marring her features is a knife into my heart.

Whatever it is, it has her running as if the banshees of hell are on her heels.

Twisting through the trees, Petunia falters on a hard cut to the right. That old injury getting the best of her and giving me the only advantage I have.

“Ros!” I manage to gain a few yards but am quickly seeing that this isn’t going to end until she wants it to. “Please?” I call to her, hoping she can hear in my voice that I need her.

She slows, letting me ride abreast, wiping her cheeks with her wrist.

“I can’t,” she stammers.

“Can’t what, baby? Can we talk?” Both of our mounts are heaving in the heat. “Let’s find a spot and sit.”

Her lower lip juts but she nods, falling into step behind me as I take over the lead.

I pull up at different clearing and dismount, hurrying to grab the reins of her ride before she changes her mind.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffles, sliding down into my arms.

As soon as she buries into my chest the sobs start.

“Ros, you gotta tell me what’s going on. I’m not making any decisions without your input.” Wrapping her to me, I tuck her under my chin to hold her as she cries.

“I don’t know.” Each word is punctuated with a hiccup. “I don’t want to go but I don’t want to stay. I don’t want you to blame me if you stay here and something happens there. It isn’t fair. I never knew it was your Sophia. I didn’t know it was her.” She runs everything together through her whimpers until none of it makes sense.

Knotting my hand in her hair, I tip her head and seal her mouth with mine.

It takes a moment, a sharp inhale and her fingers to tighten in my shirt. Then she gives, softening her kiss and relaxing in my grasp.

When I pull away, she takes a ragged breath.

“Better, baby?” I brush her forehead with my lips again before I loosen my hold. “Remember always I love you, okay? Start over. What did you mean by ‘my Sophia’?”

She sighs with a whimper, running the heel of her hand over her eye. “John,” she blurts. “A few years ago he said he found a Sophia at the fair. I heard him laughing to Eli about how her tack was just hanging there in her stall so he took a ‘little liberty’ with the girth strap.” Her head shakes and she looks everywhere but at me. “I didn’t know she was a McCullough. I just thought it was someone who had snubbed him. But when you said her name and that she was in a rodeo, it all made sense.”

Fuck. Sophia’s broken leg was just an afterthought in a conversation I had with Pete.

My hands shake as I lean backwards against the trunk of one of the pines. “John sabotaged her?”

Her lip rolls. The first sign that she’s starting to spiral again. Grabbing her, I bring her close.

“Just a yes or no, Ros. Don’t dwell. This isn’t your fault.”

“Yes. Just like everything. Like Eli messing with you. Like everything they’ve done. They’re chicken shits.” Her fists ball, digging into her temples. “I hate them. I hate being part of their family. I never want to see them again.”

Sunlight seeps through the rose colored glass on her wrist, kissing along her cheek where my mouth was just a moment ago.

“Maybe we need to change your family?” I whisper, taking her hands and pressing them to my chest.

Her light brows knit as she looks up at me. “I wish I could.”

“Marry me, Ros. Walk away from being a Bailey forever.” My heart leaps, surprising even myself with the proposal.