Chapter Four
It was still dark when Cody’s alarm sounded. With a groan, he hit snooze. He’d learned over the last two weeks that he could hit snooze three times and still meet Teddy in the barn by five-thirty. He had to admit, he hated this part of ranching. It had been years - since he’d been a teenager, that he’d been forced to rise before the sun.
He missed his old life, the rush of adrenaline as he climbed into the chute, the smell of sweat, testosterone, and raging bull. The cheers and encouragement from his buddies, and the roar of the crowd that hit him in the chest when he hopped to his feet. The early morning silence seemed bigger, louder in its absence of those elements.
But what still punched him in the gut as he struggled to consciousness in the dark? The knowledge that righ
