Montana Desire

Chapter 6

Grant

The treadmill miles disappeared under my feet, and it felt good. For the most part. It was easier than outdoor running for the consistency and the evenness it offered as far as terrain.

The last few days had been better, pain-wise. Not excellent, but better. And getting a workout, finally, made me feel like I wasn’t just sitting on my ass and being lazy.

I knew I wasn’t, and I knew I was doing the best I could. But I still couldn’t change the restlessness that prickled under my skin when I couldn’t do things. Or the feeling of guilt and uselessness.

All those things meant that I should probably schedule an appointment with Rayne sooner than later. That, or one of the guys was going to end up doing it for me.

It was part of the deal, being a part of Resting Warrior. You had to deal with your shit, or the rest of us would hold that person accountable to do what they needed to do to get better.

Of course, that was a far easier policy to live under when it wasn’t you who was about to have their balls busted. And it was a lot easier when you thought those things were actually helping. Right now, I wasn’t completely sure that they were.

Cori popped into my head. Again.

She hadn’t left it since the other night. I wanted to apologize whenever I had the opportunity, but I felt as if she was avoiding me. We’d lived next door to each other for years now, and I didn’t think I’d ever gone this long without at least seeing her in passing.

But the scene the other night still didn’t make sense in my head.

I wouldn’t claim that Cori and I were close in any way, but I knew her well enough to know that she was kind. Generous. Sweet and bubbly with a giant heart. None of those things that Joel had been hurling at her.

What I’d heard didn’t give me the complete picture of what had happened between them, but I’d heard enough to scratch my head. Even in my kinkiest, wildest dreams, I couldn’t imagine Cori doing or asking for anything that warranted that kind of response.

Scratch that. Nothing warranted that response. Ever.

What Joel had done wasn’t just fight. Fighting was one thing. It happened in relationships, and you dealt with it. Now that Evelyn and Lucas had been together for a few months, there had been a few knock-down drag-outs between them. But they worked it out and were in bed together no more than a day later.

God knew how often Grace and Harlan fought. But their fighting was half of the reason they loved each other. They matched each other in ways that made me jealous. But I’d never admit that to them.

That wasn’t what Joel had done. He’d torn her down and intentionally hit her where it hurt. I saw it in those tears and in her entire demeanor. It wasn’t a fight; it was an all-out assault. No matter what happened, that wasn’t something you did to someone you claimed to love.

Anger burned in my chest, reliving the memory of that small step he’d taken toward her. I didn’t know what he’d been planning on doing, but if there was even a sliver of a chance he was about to hit her?

I stopped the treadmill, catching my breath.

If there was even the smallest chance, then I wasn’t sorry for the interruption, no matter the embarrassment that I caused.

Moving to the stretching area, I pulled out one of the exercise balls. Might as well try to do some of the exercises assigned by the physical therapist, though they hadn’t done much for me. The reality was that stretching didn’t fix shrapnel.

I was draped inelegantly over that same ball when Noah came in and laughed, seeing me. “Having fun?”

“Not particularly.”

“Want to spar? It’s been a while.”

It had been a while, and given the path of my thoughts, I could use something to whale on a little bit. “Sure.”

We taped our hands and stepped onto the mat. This was familiar. All seven of us knew one another well enough that sparring was mostly an exercise in blocking the other’s favorite attacks. But it was still fun.

Noah came at me, and I dodged to the side, spinning to make sure that I was still facing him. I blocked the next punch with my arm, and the impact reverberated through my body, followed by a sharp blast of pain.

“Fuck,” I said, my voice echoing off the walls.

I turned away, trying to work through that burst of pain. Noah let me do it, and I was grateful for that.

“Guess that’s the end of that,” he said.

“I’m fine.”

Facing him, I caught the tail end of his eye roll. “You’re clearly not.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to the physical therapist. It doesn’t feel like it works.”

“Well, clearly it does something,” he said. “Because you’ve been a lot worse lately. And I don’t say that meaning that we’re tired of helping you or whatever kind of shit your brain is going to try to feed you.”

I smiled at that. He wasn’t wrong.

“I say that because we can see that you’re in pain. And it’s not fun for anyone.”

“No kidding.”

Noah swiped a hand over his face. “Don’t be a smartass about it.”

“I’m not trying to. I’m frustrated as hell, and being told to bend over and touch my toes doesn’t help the actual cause of the pain.”

“No,” Noah acknowledged. “But unless you got your medical degree since I last saw you, you’re not a doctor, and you don’t actually know how much it’s helping your body adjust to it.”

I hated that he was right. Because it brought up the frustration that buzzed under my skin almost constantly now. “Fine. I’ll go.”

“Look at that,” Noah said with a grin. “I didn’t even have to threaten to drag your ass to the appointments.”

He would do that, too.

Time to change the subject. The last thing that I wanted to talk about and dwell on was my fucking pain. “You find a date for the wedding?”

Noah laughed. “No. It’s a little late for that.”

The wedding was next week. But that was still enough time to ask someone and for them to say yes. “I don’t know, I’m sure you could find someone.”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “I’ve already accepted and said I’m going solo. I’ll just deal with it.”

“When was the last time you had a date?” I asked.

I was walking a fine line here, and I knew it. The things Noah and Jude dealt with were darker and less straightforward than pain. I hadn’t seen Noah with anyone or even attempt it in the time I’d known him.

“I’m fine,” he said. “And you’re one to talk. Do you have a date for the wedding?”

With a laugh, I pulled the tape off my hands. “I deserved that. No, I don’t right now. But I do have an idea.”

“Oh? Who?”

“Mind your own business,” I said.

“You know we’ll find out if she says yes.”

I grabbed my bag and looked back at him. “Yeah. And?”

He grinned. “I can’t wait.”

I shook my head and pushed out the door. The others were absolutely relentless the minute that one of the guys became involved. Which was fair; I was too. Different being on this side of it.

My main concern was that if Cori did say yes, I wanted to shield her from the questions that would come with that. It wasn’t a secret that she had been with Joel. And being on a date with me? People would know that something had happened. It was entirely possible that she wouldn’t be ready for that. But I was going to try anyway.

Ironically, despite that sharp blast of pain during the short-lived sparring match, my back actually felt a lot better. Later I needed to thank Noah for knocking it back into a good place.

It was earlier than I usually got home, and for once, the universe was smiling down on me. Cori was definitely avoiding me, because she was pulling into her driveway exactly at the same time as I was, clearly hoping to be inside and ensconced in her house before I got here.

She saw, and she blushed so hard that I saw it while she was still in her truck. That was fine—I wanted to show her that avoiding me was unnecessary, regardless of the wedding and what I wanted to ask.

“Cori,” I called, slipping out of my own truck and catching her before she made it to her stairs.

Freezing, she turned, but her eyes were fixed on the ground as she fiddled with her keys. “Hey, Grant.”

“I was hoping to catch you,” I said, making sure there wasn’t any sign of the other night in my voice.

“Oh? Why?” Cori’s eyes flickered over me, catching on my arms and down the length of me and back. I was in my workout gear. Shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Not what she usually saw me in.

If I were a bigger man, I would say that I didn’t notice the way she looked at me, and that it didn’t matter. But I did notice, and I liked the way she took me in. I would gladly let her look if that was what she wanted to do.

“I was hoping you could stop by the ranch tomorrow and check on one of the new arrival horses. If you have the time? He’s got something going on with his leg.”

“Oh,” she said again, and I saw the way her mind refocused into her professional space. This was work. It was familiar and not at all embarrassing. “Let me double-check my appointments.”

She pulled out her phone and flicked through her calendar. “Yeah, I can come by tomorrow afternoon. Around two. Is that okay?”

“That’s perfect,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

An awkward moment passed in which neither of us moved, as if there was more to say even though the conversation was over. Finally, she broke away, hesitating as if she might say something else and then changed her mind. I watched her make it into the house and waited until the door was closed behind her before I returned to my own side of the property line.

She wasn’t in danger, but my instincts wouldn’t let me do anything else.

This was a good icebreaker to get us back to what we were—friendly neighbors. If I’d asked her to the wedding tonight, I didn’t think she would have said yes. But I was going to see her tomorrow, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was actually looking forward to finding out what tomorrow would bring.