Coming home

chapter 4

Claire wasn’t exactly sure what had happened. All she knew was that she woke up on the wet cold ground with a terrible headache and pain shooting through her arm. Something must have spooked Chaos, she thought, as she tried to move, causing such intense pain that she passed back out again. The next moments were fuzzy for Claire as she was going in and out of consciousness, but she felt that she was being moved.

When James and Luke left the house to go look for Claire, they decided that they would split up to cover more ground. If they couldn’t find her within an hour, they would call for more help. The only reason they weren’t now was because Claire would throw a fit if she was found unharmed and neither of them wanted to deal with that. They reached the spot they were going to split up and confirmed the two-shot signal if she was found. They had already ruled out the area where the fence needed mending since James said she had already been there but left as soon as the hands had shown up to see how much material was needed. James had thought she would be back home when he returned, but Chaos hadn’t been put up in her stall.

James had planned on two different areas that he decided they needed to check out. Both areas were areas that needed tending to and made the most sense. James assigned one to Luke and took the other for himself. Luke had other ideals but didn’t mention them to James. It would just lead to more words and no actions, and Luke wanted to get a move on it. He would check it out himself and if she wasn’t there, then he would explain it to James later. Luke just had a gut feeling she would be there and there wasn’t going to be anything stopping him from checking there first.

Luke had about a 20-minute ride to the spot. He was hoping that he would find her alone the way, but if he didn’t, and she wasn’t there, then he wouldn’t have time to look anywhere else before they would call in more help. He wasn’t looking forward to explaining that to James. This wasn’t just any spot. It was their spot. It was where a big old oak tree stood. Their tree.

They would ride out there as teens and spend all day under the tree talking about what kind of hopes and dreams they had for the future. It was there that he found out she wanted to be a therapist. It was there that she first said “I love you.” It was there where all the problems were worked out. It was there that they were supposed to meet the night before she left, but she never showed up.

He had been late and thought she had already come and gone. He was sure he was going to pay for it the next morning. Only he hadn’t expected how much he was going to be paying for it. When he had gone the next morning to explain to her what had happened, her dad had told him she had left early that morning to go get set up in her dorm room.

This was a total shock to Luke. She wasn’t supposed to be leaving until next week. They had made plans to spend time together up until the second she was supposed to leave. He instantly tried to call her but got a recording that the number had been changed. He was sure she would contact him and give him her new number, but after a week it had never happened. It had taken him a while, but in the end, he had to just give up hope.

Now he found himself hoping he had found her and that nothing ws wrong with her. He cussed himself for this feeling of tightness in his chest at the prospect of her being hurt somewhere. He made his horse pick up the pace. The sooner he knew she was fine, the sooner he could put this behind him and get back to his normal nonchalant demeanor, although he hadn’t been making a very good impression of his nonchalant facade for the last couple of hours. Hell, he hadn’t been making a good impression of anything since he saw Claire. He had thought he had been preparing himself, but that just ended up being a lie he had told himself. He could have been giving a heads-up, but that didn’t happen.

He had thought that she would just come to her dad’s funeral, sale, and continue her life in the big city, but that didn’t happen either. Maybe he was right back then. Maybe he really didn’t know her at all. All he did know was that he needed to find her and then come up with a way to live with her so close. The next time Claire opened her eyes, she thought she had seen someone. She must be hallucinating or something. There was no way that she had seen what she thought she had seen. She recognized where she was at but didn’t quite remember even coming here. Did she actually ride to their tree? She couldn’t seem to remember.

She closed her eyes, trying to stop the pain that seemed to be clouding her thoughts and trying to find the will to at least sit up to see if Chaos was nearby. She hoped Chaos didn’t get far simply because she needed to get back and didn’t think she could walk all the way back home. That’s when she heard the sound of hoofs hitting the ground. She tried to sit up but a sudden pain in her shoulder stopped her.

Luke jumped off his horse and ran to her. She winced in pain, making him realize he was grabbing her too hard. “Can you sit up?” he asked, making sure he was more careful this time as he helped her into the sitting position. “What happened?” he whispered over the lump in his throat. Claire tried to search her memory, “I’m not sure. I had been riding the fence lines and then I’m not sure. Where’s Chaos?” she said in a panic.

“She’s back at the ranch,” Luke informed her. “When I pulled up, James said that she was running up and that he was going to look for you. Can you move?” he was already forming a plan to get her back to the ranch before James called in reinforcements.

“I’m not sure,” Claire said. My head hurts and I think I did something to my shoulder. It doesn’t want to cooperate with me and it’s hurting like all get out.” Luke went to his horse and grabbed the shotgun. “Sorry but prepare yourself. I gotta let James know I found you. Hopefully, he is close enough to hear and will come right away,” Luke said before he fired two shots into the air.

The sound rocketed through Claire’s head, causing her stomach to do its own little nauseated flip. She had tried her best to hold back the urge to throw up, but her muscles had already begun to contract, setting in motion the inevitable. Luke ran back to her side. He held her hair while she leaned against him for support.

He had heard the hoofs hitting the ground before he actually saw James. Luke locked eyes with James while they waited for Claire to finish her bout of sickness and then they sprung to action. Luke wasn’t sure if he should take his time getting back to the ranch or run his horse to its full capacity. This was decided for him when Claire said, “Just go. I’m going to be hurt either way.”

Once back at the barn, James hurried to get the truck while giving instructions to a nearby hand to put the horses up for the evening. Claire started having another bout of sickness, making Luke’s concern grow. By the time she was finished, James was back at their side. Luke handed Claire reluctantly off to James to climb down and imminently reclaimed possession. James knew there was going to be no reasoning with Luke, so he went to the truck and claimed the driver's seat while Luke climbed in back with Claire still in his arms. Claire took a deep breath and sunk into Luke’s chest.