Page 34 of Bronco
“I’m just so happy!” I put my hands on his face and pull him close, giving him a kiss. I mean for it to be a quick peck since we have an audience, but he doesn’t care. Bronco takes control of the kiss, turning it into a passionate display of just how much he wants me.
“You promised me a good time later, cowboy,” I remind him quietly when I can finally breathe and think again. After a kiss like that, I’m not even sure I have the strength to walk into the house.
“And I will deliver that good time every time,” he says as he kisses me again. His tongue plunders my mouth and makes me slick between my thighs. His kiss has me so distracted that I never hear the truck door being slammed nearby or the crunch of gravel under boots.
But I do hear a voice, one I thought I’d never hear again, yell, “What the actual fuck, Bronco?”
Chapter 12
Lauren
“What the actual fuck?” A familiar voice yells. A shiver goes down my spine as I realize who that voice is. It couldn’t be. It can’t be.
Even as I tell myself that my brother is long gone, and that I’m never going to see him again, I still turn my head to look toward the sound. To my amazement, I find myself overwhelmed to see Vale standing in front of me. He’s fifty pounds lighter than when he left, all lean muscle and scraggly beard with a haunted look in his eyes.
He’s here. My brother is here.
I scramble out of Bronco’s lap and race toward Vale, terrified that he’s going to disappear like a mirage in the desert.
I’m running toward him in the space of a heartbeat. I have to touch him to know he’s real. Have to feel my arms around him so I can trust what I’m seeing. He catches me when I throw myself at him, just like he would when I was little. He was a lanky teenager back then, never too cool to hug his little sister. He was my biggest protector and my best friend.
When he wraps his arms around me, it’s like the pain of the last three years is suddenly gushing out of my eyes as I sob into his chest. I tell him how I thought I’d never see him again. How I’ve missed him and thought of him every day that he’s been gone. How I never forgot him and prayed every night for his safe return.
He holds me close and rubs my back in a soft, soothing circle until I’ve cried out all of my tears. When I lift my head, I see the tear tracks on his face. I can’t imagine what he’s been through, and I have a million questions. But there’s only one I can think of right this moment.
“Does Aunt Elaine know? Has she seen you?”
“I told Ridge to bring me to you first.” He pauses then glares at Bronco. “This is not what I meant when I made you promise to look out for her.”
His words hit me square in the chest with unexpected force. Beneath my ribcage, my heart cracks open. Bronco promised to look out for me. I was dumped on him the same way I was dumped on Aunt Elaine’s doorstep.
None of this is real. He hasn’t really wanted me. I’ve only been a responsibility to him. And I’ve been too desperate and lonely and lovesick to see that. Shame coils deep in my gut. How could this be? How did I not see it? Was I really that foolish?
I glance at Bronco. My eyes tear up, but I refuse to let them fall. “You promised him years ago to look after me, didn’t you?”
“If you think for one second that what we have is about some pact I made with your brother?—”
I turn to Vale. “Let’s go find Aunt Elaine.” I’m proud that my voice doesn’t shake or give away the amount of pain I’m in.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Bronco insists.
I shake my head and walk toward the truck I saw Vale get out of. Ridge is leaning against it, watching the whole scene unfold.
Vale stays behind for a minute. I’m not sure what he and Bronco say to each other. There’s no grand shouting. There’s no punches thrown. There’s only the quiet disintegration of a friendship that’s been around for years.
“I thought this would be a happier reunion,” Ridge says.
I give him a tight smile. “It’s complicated.”
He nods like he understands, but I know he doesn’t. Instead, he just gets in the front seat and says, “Where to?”
When we arrive at the retirement community, I wake up Aunt Elaine. Her hands shake when she sees Vale. Then she flaps her arms the way she does when a big spider has scared her. She keeps hugging him and murmuring how this can’t be true and how it’s the best day of her life. Then I’m hugging my brother again and crying some more. I can’t believe Vale is finally home.
He sleeps in my apartment that night. I tried to get him to take the bed or even the couch, but he insisted on sleeping on the floor. He didn’t tell me what he’s been through or what he’s seen. He only told me that beds feel weird now as he curled up on the floor with a rolled-up blanket under his head. He’s snoring within minutes, while I’m left staring down at his sleeping form and wondering what the future holds for us now.
I listen to his even breaths, but I can’t find sleep for myself. My heart feels too broken and too sad. Bronco keeps calling my phone, but he hasn’t left a single message. It’s just as well. I don’t think I could listen to them without breaking down.
But Bronco is here the next morning when I open my apartment door. Vale is already gone, having left me alone.
