Free Heartbreak Ranch by Anastasia Ryan Page A

seemed to reassure her mom. Her family needed to believe she was no longer sick. She needed to see Colt tomorrow.
    Trying to drift off to sleep was impossible. Harper was still up, sitting on her own bed, brushing her hair and chatting away. “Harper, do you mind? I’m trying to get some rest,” Graysen said groggily. The quicker she forced herself into unconsciousness, the quicker tomorrow would come.
    “Sorry Gray … I should seriously let you get some sleep. I’m dead tired too,” Harper apologized as she climbed under the quilt. “Oh my god … I almost forgot to tell you—I saw that hot guy tonight at the lodge.”
    Graysen’s ears perked up, and suddenly she was hanging onto her sister’s every word. As far as she knew there was only one cowboy at this ranch Harper found handsome. “What hot guy?” Graysen asked her, trying to sound tired and slightly perturbed, as though she didn’t care.
    “That sexy ranch hand we saw on the trail the other day. Colt, right? He came in while we were dancing. He was really pissed off.”
    Graysen wondered what it was that had made him angry. “And? What’s the big deal?”
    “He went up to the bar to get a drink, and some other guy came in and sat next to him. I didn’t watch the whole time. I was talking to Kylie. She’s my age, and we were making fun of all of the people attempting to line dance and then ...”
    “Harper ... What does this have to do with Colt?” Sometimes Graysen wanted to strangle her sister.
    “Oh right! When I looked back over, Colt had some guy by the collar and slammed him up against the bar. He looked as though he was going to knock the snot out of him. He would have hurt that other guy if the ranch owner hadn’t broken it up when he did. Colt stormed out of the lodge right after Mr. Edmiston came over.”
    “Colt must have been pretty angry,” Graysen observed.
    “You should have seen him! He looked as though he was a bull seeing red and ready to charge. It reminded me of how Carson was right after Jenna broke up with him.”
    The memory of their brother’s bitter grief floated into Graysen’s mind. When Jenna broke off their engagement suddenly last summer break, Carson was overwrought. He was unapproachable for weeks on end. He was lashing out at everyone for just speaking to him. She wondered if Colt could be upset about how things fell apart in the barn last night.
    Harper chatted a bit more before falling asleep. Graysen didn’t hear anything she said as she lay there, feeling as though she had been hit by a truck. Soon, she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to rest ... She needed to see Colt, she ached to be near him. When the room filled with Harper’s soft snores, Graysen thought up a plan.
    It was dangerous, but she didn’t care. She looked at the travel clock on her nightstand. It was about 10:30. She didn’t know if the rest of her family were asleep yet or not. She didn’t even know if Colt would be at his cabin. Harper said he seemed enraged, maybe he went to drink the head and shoulders off a bottle somewhere else.
    One thing Graysen knew was that she had to do something. She couldn’t lie in bed any longer, but it was difficult to quiet her churning nerves. It wasn’t her family she was worried about, it was facing Colt. They both felt the agony of yesterday. Graysen dealt with it by wallowing in bed all day in a self-imposed solitary confinement. Colt wrestled with it by channeling his inner John Wayne. She knew he must be going through the same hell she was, especially after the way he watched her run out of the stables yesterday. In the end, her desperate need to see him won out over her fear of what would happen when she had to leave the ranch.Harper’s breathing was heavy with sleep as Graysen tiptoed around the room, slipping a lilac sundress on. In the quiet of the empty living room, she gently brushed through her hair and then checked her appearance in the mirror .
    I must be crazy , she