Saddle up

Chapter Seven

We rode home in silence. Cole pulled the pickup into my driveway and turned to me. I ignored eye contact until he spoke.

"Can I ask you something"?

"First you're going to tell me what you were doing at the ranch today."

"You weren't answering my calls or texts, and I wanted to talk to you."

"So you thought it was a good idea to show up at my place of work to talk to me? You know where I live. By the way, I wasn't ignoring you. I dropped my phone in a bucket of water the other day while trying to reply to you."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bug you while you were at work, I just really miss you, and want to talk to you."

"What exactly do we even have to talk about", I nearly shouted at him. "You wanted to break up with ME, you cheated on ME. Do you have any idea what that did to me?! I haven't been able to sleep for months, I nearly failed out of nursing school last semester because I couldn't concentrate, and now just when I start picking up the pieces and getting my life back together, you show up and start acting like everything can just go back to the way it was before. It can't. I can't trust that you won't just go back to school in the fall and do it again!" Before he could even reply to what I said, I jumped out of his truck, ignoring the shooting pain in my leg and bottom. Cole jumped out, too.

"Wait, let me help you!"

"I don't need your help, I'll be just fine!", I said as I stormed into my house, leaving Cole in my driveway once again.

I slammed the door behind me and fell into it, letting the tears fall that I was trying so hard to hold back in front of Cole. I slid down to the floor now sobbing. I sat there for a few more minutes until I heard my mothers car pull into the drive. I raced to my room to avoid any unwanted questions. I just wanted to sleep.

Once in my bedroom, I stripped down to my bra and undies and went straight for my bed.

I awoke to a bright sunbeam peaking through my blinds. I rolled over to check my clock. It read 7:58.

"Shit! I'm late!" I nearly shrieked as I went to climb out of bed. Just then the pain hit me once more and immediately reminded me of the ordeal the day before. I winced at the soreness and relaxed a little, knowing that Brant wouldn't be expecting me anyway. I was still wide awake at this point so I pulled myself the rest of the way out of bed and came to a stand. I felt much better than yesterday, but the pain was still very powerful. I hobbled down the hall to my bathroom and turned the hot water on in the tub. I sighed in relief as I immersed myself in the bath. Shortly after I heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Come in"

My mom opened the door a crack and peeked inside. "Aren't you late for work?"

"I don't think I'm going in today, I took a nasty tumble off a horse yesterday"

"Are you ok? Why didn't you say anything to me yesterday?!"

"I'm fine, mom. My butts just pretty sore, nothing major."

"Alright, you better be careful, and you better be wearing a helmet if you're going to be riding again."

"Yes mother", I rolled my eyes.

"By the way, I picked up your phone yesterday. It's down on the counter. You just need to turn it on to activate it. I gotta run, coffee is made!", she closed the door before I could reply. I completely forgot that I didn't even have a phone the past few days. I actually enjoyed it, too. It was peaceful being outside at the ranch on a beautiful day, admiring the magnificent creatures I was tending to all day instead of having my face buried in my phone.