Montana Hearts: Her Weekend Wrangler Read Free Page B

because he’d been nauseous.”
    “You could have told us,” Luke said.
    Behind their mother’s back, their spry eighty-­year-­old grandma furrowed her white bushy brows and nodded her head in agreement.
    “You were already on your way,” Ma said, her voice taking on that soothing tone she’d used when they were children.
    “I havea cell phone,” Luke retorted. “You could have called.”
    Bree nodded.
    “Would you still have come?” their mother asked, eyeing each of them.
    Luke didn’t answer. Instead, he shot a glance at their father, who glared right back.
    Bree didn’t say anything either.
    “What’s this you brought,” her father asked, nodding to the bouquet she’d dropped on his bed. “Flowers? Did you think youwere coming to a funeral? Just because a man hangs up his hat and takes off his boots for a nap doesn’t mean he’s dead.”
    No, he wasn’t dead. Far from it. In fact, a week from now she wouldn’t be surprised if he were back on his horse and chasing trespassers off the ranch with his trusty Winchester .30-­30.
    Her life, however, now that she’d made irreversible choices in order to get here,would never be the same.
    A FTER THEY’D VISIT ED with their father a bit longer, and learned he’d also broken his ankle and would need to wear a cast for the next six weeks, Bree followed her brother and sister outside.
    “Did you hear what he said as we left?” Luke demanded.
    “ ‘Don’t feel obligated to come back,’ ” Bree quoted, imitating her father’s low guttural tone. She kicked the dirtwith the toe of her boot. “Ma said he’s in pain. That’s why he’s so cranky.”
    Luke scowled. “He’s always cranky. Always complaining. Always telling us we aren’t good enough.”
    “You know, Luke, all you have to do is hop on a bus to the airport and fly back to Florida,” Delaney argued. “Some of us don’t have anything to go back to.”
    “Sorry,” Luke said, “I didn’t mean—­”
    “I can’t affordmy apartment in San Diego,” Delaney continued. “Whether Dad likes it or not, Meghan and I are here to stay. And then there’s Bree.”
    Bree stared at her. “Me? What about me?”
    “I called your shop in New York yesterday to confirm your arrival time,” Delaney said, her tone sympathetic. “And they said you didn’t work there anymore.”
    Luke cocked his head toward her. “Okay, sis. Spill. What’s your secret? Did you get fired?”
    Bree froze. She was the oldest, the one who was supposed to always have her act together, the sister who left town for a bright future in the big city, a place where she’d been sure she could make all her dreams come true.
    Luke’s teasing grin turned into a frown. “You know I was only joking, right? You didn’t get fired, did you, Bree?”
    Both Luke andDelaney looked at her with wide-­eyed concern.
    Her stomach twisted as she lowered her gaze to the tip of Luke’s cane. “Ma called me in a panic and said Dad fell off his horse, was lying in a coma, and she didn’t know if he was going to live. My position at the Manhattan store had reached a critical point as well, and the district boss gave me a choice. Either keep my job or come home.”
    Luke scowled. “But I thought you were up for a promotion.”
    Bree nodded. “I was.”
    “How could you walk out?” Luke demanded. “You’ve worked hard to climb that fashion retail ladder.”
    “You don’t know all the details,” Bree choked out.
    “And the man in the hospital is still our father,” Delaney added.
    Luke shook his head and let out a derisive grunt. “A man who doesn’t want us here.”
    “Doesn’t matter now,” Bree said, her heart breaking on both accounts. “I chose to come home.”

 
    Chapter Two
    R YAN EYED THE rocking trailer, listened to the thunderous kicks against the sidewalls, and knew in his gut that he was going to regret saying yes to his aunt’s “simple request.”
    The bay filly came with her mother, and the chestnut