The Guy in the Middle (The Underdogs 3)

“Leaving you again is not an option for me, sorry. Name something else.”

Commotion erupts behind her, and I freeze in awareness.

“Harper, get down.” I’m halfway to her when I see the bull stiffen and rear back.

“No! I’m not going anywhere, you ass! I know it’s going—”

“Harper, get off the fence!” I yell just a second before the bull charges.

“Lance!” she cries hoarsely just as I snatch her off the fence and hear the crash of the horns. She laughs hysterically in my embrace as she eyes the bull.

“Hey, man,” she calls out to the bull, “what did I ever do to you?”

Giggling in my arms, she turns back to me, cheeks pink from the cold, eyes filled with laughter and lips turned up in a serene smile. Her fingers brush along the growing stubble on my jaw. “My hero. You saved me from a raging bull.”

“It’s not funny!”

She jerks in my hold, eyes widening at my venom.

“If he would have nailed you, your career would be over!”

I drop her to her feet as she gapes at me.

“Why is everything a joke to you?”

“Hey. Hey!” She holds up a defensive hand. “That was close, I agree, and I’m thankful to you for saving my ass, believe me, but what in the hell is your problem?!”

“You, you’re my problem. You take nothing seriously. You make light of everything, and it’s ridiculous. You act like a child.”

“I’m just trying to snap you out of this funk, Lance.”

“It’s not a funk, Harper, this is my reality,” I hold my hands up. “This is inescapable, and I have to deal with it every day. So, while this may be a vacation for you, this is my future, and I’m here, day in day out, trying to hold onto it. I’m losing my father,” my voice cracks and it only angers me further, “to an illness I can’t afford to help him fight. My little brother has nothing, nothing, a guy his age should have. He’s still running on smiles and hand-me-downs, and even when he gets a job, he won’t have shit because we’re sticking every dime we have into a sinking ship. So no, Harper, I don’t want to go break free and have a few beers because it won’t help shit.”

I leave her there in the middle of the field and head toward the barn.

Harper

Sending off a FaceTime request for the third time, René finally picks up.

“Hey, Mami! How is Texas?”

Just as I open my mouth to speak, my face crumbles.

“Oh chit, Ricky told me it was home of da steers and queens, maybe I the one who chud of gone to Texas.”

Laughter bursts from me as I try and suck up some of my disappointment. “Not exactly the saying, but if only that were true, it’d be a much happier place. Can you come?”

“No can do. What’s wrong, sweetedheart?”

“I need a rainbow day, bad.”

“He’s still punishings ju?”

“Yeah,” I look across the pasture at Lance, who’s slinging rope with Tony. Today was substantially warm for mid-winter, and I’ve been roaming the grounds by myself since Lance has spent most of the day avoiding me. “I don’t know how to get through to him.”

“Come home. He came for ju once, maybe he do it again.”

“He’s talking to me less and less. I’ve tried everything. He keeps telling me I’m acting like a child and that I think this is some sort of vacation.”