West of Forever (Heartstone Ranch #1)(72)

Fallon doesn’t seem to know how to react. She opens and closes her mouth two or three times before she finally speaks. “You’re sorry?”

“I am. I know I wasn’t the one who committed the crime, but I’m still sorry that someone in my family caused you that hurt.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want or need your apology. I need you to stay away from my family so that I don’t have to lose another person I love. If you’re so sorry, find your fucking brother and make him face the consequences. Until then, just fuck off.”

Fallon leaves the aisle, and I stare after her as a single tear rolls down my cheek.









Chapter 29





Tristan




“Do you know where Dad is?” Harper asks as I’m cleaning my horse’s hoof.

“It wasn’t my turn to watch him.”

“Are you busy?” The annoyance in her voice causes me to look up.

I stare at her for a second. “No, not busy, I’m just…sitting around, hanging out, thinking of starting a book club.”

“Oh, good, then you can help look for Dad.”

Letting go of the horse’s leg, I stand and sigh. “Harper, you’re the one who wanted the job of running the front office so that you could keep an eye on him.”

“Yes, well, as the front office manager and babysitter of the old man who refuses to be an old man, I’m trying. He said he was going out to the coop since Sadie is gone. That was two hours ago.”

“Two hours?” I ask on a groan. “He could be doing anything.”

She raises her brows and throws her hands out. “That’s what I’m saying.”

“Well, we’d better go fucking find him and pray he hasn’t destroyed something or killed anyone.”

The two of us split up, figuring we can call the other if we find him. We have hundreds of acres, and he could be anywhere. I go into the barn, calling his name, but he’s not there. Next I check the training area. Maybe he’s with Roni or Fallon.

And a big fat nope on that.

My phone pings, and I pray it’s my sister who found him.

Harper





Any luck?





Nope.





Harper





Great. Okay, I’m going to get the four-wheeler and go out farther.





I’ll get the side-by-side.





Time to expand the search area.

Once in the vehicle, I go to the coop again—it really would be the more likely spot—with no luck. Then I tell my other sisters to check the house and buildings around it, just in case.

With the entire ranch now searching, surely he’ll turn up.

I get a little farther into one of the fields where the horses graze, and then I see it.

The damn tractor moving.

I grab my phone and text Harper.

I found him. He’s on the tractor in the pasture. I might kill him.





Harper





We have plenty of land to bury the body. Godspeed.





I take a few deep breaths and then drive out there. When I get alongside him, he turns his head the other way, as though he doesn’t see me.

“Dad!” I yell, knowing he probably can’t hear me over the noise of the tractor and the music he’s blaring because he’s half deaf.

He keeps going, as John Denver sings about being a country boy.

Ugh. I slow down, going behind and coming up on the other side, where, again, he pretends he doesn’t see me.

That’s it. I’m going to jail today for a crime I actually will commit.

The only option is to get in the tractor’s damn cab. I pull the side-by-side off along the fence a bit in front of him and wait. He’s got the bushhog going, so he has to at least mow in a certain direction.

Or so I thought.

Right when I’m close enough to jump up, he makes a hard right.

“Fucking hell, Dad!”

Abandoning the side-by-side, I take off running as he serpentines around the field, completely fucking up the damn pasture, and I see his shit-eating grin. Finally, I’m able to get close enough where I won’t cut my damn foot off as I race around the tractor and up to the door.

As soon as I’m there, he pushes the lock down.

“Dad! Open the door.”

He bobs his head to the music and smiles as though this is the perfect day.

I swear, there’s a reason I haven’t put him in a home—I just can’t seem to remember it.

I slap the glass with one hand while holding on to the handlebar with the other so I don’t fall off. “Do you want me to put you in the senior center? I’ll do it.”

That gets him. He turns the music down and cracks the window. “Tristan? Is that you?”

I grit my teeth. “You know it’s me. You may be a lot of things, but you’re not stupid. Stop the tractor.”

“Can’t do that, son. I got work to do.”

“Dad, this is the wrong pasture to mow.”

“Huh?”

“Open the door.”