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“Nuthin’,” he muttered. “And exactly what you’re prolly thinkin’ right now.”
Drawing a deep, shaky breath, my teeth bit down into my bottom lip.
“Cattle are one thing, but a person?” I quickly asked, trying to rationalize the very idea that hadn’t crossed my mind until now. But now that he’d mentioned it… “He did try to ask me out several times while my daddy was alive,” I added quietly.
Cassidy closed his eyes and placed his hands on his legs. “And I’m assumin’ you and your pops told him in no uncertain terms ‘no’.”
I nodded, but kept my mouth shut. This wasn’t happening. The accident had been just that, an accident. Icy roads and a telephone pole in the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s what the police had said. Tears brimmed against the dam that had been holding them back for so long. No one else had been there on that road when my daddy had been—at least, not that they could find evidence of.
“The people that lived a mile down the street found his car thirty minutes after the accident happened,” I quietly mumbled, nausea building in my stomach. “Cassidy.”
His eyes shot up, and he pushed himself upright.
“Tell me you’re wrong. Please, I’m begging you,” I cried out, no longer able to contain the anguish that consumed me.
Cassidy hustled my way and placed a hand against my thigh. I stared down at him, gasping. “Breathe, Goldie. I’ve got you, okay?” His fingers slid up and down my leg, and he reached up, pressing a calloused palm against my cheek. I closed my eyes, leaning into his touch, which I shouldn’t be taking comfort in. But it warmed the very depths of my soul that had died with the question that I should’ve asked a while ago.
“If it’s his fault, both the cattle and your dad, or just one of them, we will find a way to make sure that he’s brought to justice. I promise,” he tenderly offered.
I nodded, each inhale grating into my lungs like sandpaper. “My dad… My dad, Cassidy.” Trembling, my fingers tightened around the reins, as his thumb swept away tear stains sticky upon my cheek. I opened my eyes and glanced down at him.
Cassidy’s brows stitched together, concern tightening the chiseled features on his perfect face. A face that I hated I was drawn to more than I hated almost anything else. But he didn’t say anything, didn’t accuse me of anything. Even though I could only imagine how much attitude he wanted to dish at me, something restrained him.
Maybe Rooney was right about him all along.
Chapter 12
CASSIDY
To tell Weston, or to not tell him. That was the question that lurked in the back of my mind. The finite details of the situation Briar breezed through could come later. Right now, what she’d given me confirmed my suspicions but also brought new ones boiling to the surface. One of which, seemed like there was no right or wrong answer to.
“Cassidy?” Briar’s voice trickled through my thoughts as I trudged along in front of my horse.
“Hmm?” I mumbled, scouring the ground for a sign that Bud had passed through here.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just thinkin’,” I answered.
“About my situation?”
“Yes.” My eyes caught sight of a twig, snapped in half as if something stomped on top of it. Just ahead of that branch was a shredded piece of leather. Yep, Bud had come this way.
“What about my situation, exactly?” she pressed.
“I thought you didn’t wanna talk.”
“About the kiss, dummy. This is different.”
“Mighty fine kiss, if I say so myself,” I mindlessly muttered, following the panicked path the horse had left. Though he seemed to be moving a bit more deliberately and a little less scattered now.
“Really?” she gasped behind me, and I nodded. “Even though I bet you’ve kissed a lot of girls before, it was still a nice kiss?”
“Why would it matter if I’ve kissed a lot of girls before?” I nonchalantly replied, running a hand over the back of my neck as my stomach growled. Food. Food was going to be an issue. Water, there were a couple of canteens packed on my horse, but there was only a bit of jerky left.
“Well, I…” she paused. “I want to know where I rank.”
“Rank with what?” I pushed through some branches Bud had broken off and subsequently squished the plants below.
