Free Chasing McCree by J.C. Isabella

I drove down from Montana
with him hitched up in a trailer on my truck.
    I had to admit, keeping a horse in this
area was strange, taking him out for a walk like he was a pet or
something. There was nowhere for him to really run. I’d regretted
bringing him with me the instant I saw where he’d be
living.
    Not bothering with a saddle, I swung up
onto him bare back and he galloped in a circle. Pounding his hooves
harder than usual. He was frustrated. Going from miles of open land
to a pen in a backyard wasn’t something either of us
liked.
    When it was getting close to the time I
would be late for school, I left Ash and went into the kitchen to
grab something to eat. My mom was at the breakfast table alone.
Todd and my sister had already left for preschool and
work.
    “ You’re up early.” She
said, smiling.
    Since when had I ever slept late? “I
get up at five every morning.”
    She laughed. “Still on ranch time after
a month and a half.”
    I didn’t consider it ranch time. It was
what I’d done my whole life. Everyone got up early to start the
day. We’d feed all the animals, and Aunt Millie would call us in
for breakfast.
    “ Mom, I want to talk to
you.” I said, not really hungry. I grabbed an apple and sat at the
table across from her. “There’s something I want to tell you, but I
don’t know how.”
    She took a sip of her coffee and eyed
me over the rim of the mug. “You won’t hurt my feelings, Chase. I
know what you’re going to say.”
    I sat back, “Really?
    “ Really.”
    “ It’s not that I don’t love
you, or that I don’t like Todd. He’s awesome,” I rolled the apple
between my hands on the table. “But I…I just don’t belong here. I
miss my ranch.”
    “ I can see you do.” She set
the mug down and laid her hands over mine. “I never thought you
would come to live with me and Todd. I feel like I forced you into
it.”
    “ I didn’t feel forced.” I
felt like I at least needed to spend some time with her. I just
wish it had been easier than picking up and moving across the
country. I hadn’t picked the right time, coming in at the end of a
school year. But it had been now or never, what with my future
coming down the pike at an alarming, and an exciting
rate.
    “ Honey, I’ve felt guilty”.
She shrugged. “I wanted us to be a family. You, Todd, Amy, and me.
I thought you deserved to experience something other than ranch
life. But if this is what you really want Chase, all that
responsibility…go for it. I know you can run that place just as
good, if not better than your father. You are so like him it’s
scary sometimes,” she blinked back tears. “Then I see bits of me
come out, you have my logical side that your father never had. He
was an action man. But you’ve got the best of both worlds. I know
you’ll do great.”
    I pushed out of my seat and hugged her.
“I love you, Mom. Thank you.”
    She squeezed me tight. “Oh, I love you
too. And I want you to know…I knew what I was doing when I left
you. I knew you were going to grow up a carbon copy of your father.
Deep down, I knew, but I never was able to admit I left you where
you were supposed to be.”
    “ Will you come visit? You,
Todd and Amy?”
    “ We’d love to.” She kissed
my cheek and wiped her eyes. “Now get to school.”
    I grinned, grabbing my backpack off the
couch by the door. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Chapter 8
     
    I stuck out like a chicken hawk in a
hen house. I pulled into the parking lot, everywhere I looked a
Mercedes or BMW shimmered in the morning sun. My truck was dented,
faded, and lacked power anything. But the engine was in pristine
condition, which was why I kept it.
    Briar liked my truck. She’d propped her
feet on the dash and lounged back in the seat, beaming. Her
acceptance shouldn’t have meant as much as it did, but out of every
person here, her opinion was the only one I cared about. And the
fact that she didn’t give a damn if I drove a sports car or a tin
can with