Page 82 of Swift and Saddled

My dad grinned. “Actually,” he said, “I rescued those three senior horses, and there happened to be an older filly that needed a home too.” Whenever we had extra room in the stables, Dad liked to fill them. Usually he filled them with horses that needed a beautiful place to live out the rest of their days with a lot of love and sunshine.

Gus’s eyes narrowed. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that both you and Emmy”—he shot my sister a look—“have told me in the last week that Riley should have her own horse.”

“None at all,” my dad said, “but I couldn’t leave her there, and if Riley accepts my offer to start helping me take care of her, that’s her choice.”

“Both of you”—Gus motioned to my dad and my sister—“are ridiculous.” When Gus turned away, I saw my dad shoot Emmy a wink. I wondered what those two were up to.

“So,” Emmy said, changing the subject, “are we ready to go?” I looked down at my watch again. It was time.

“Ada’s not here yet,” I said.

“Are you sure she’s not meeting us down there?” Emmy asked.

“I’m sure.” And I was. I’d watched Ada put today in her calendar—time and location included—and she lived by that thing when it came to her job. I pulled out my phone to call her. I walked away from my family, and they continued to talk.

Her phone rang. And rang. And rang. It went to voicemail. I tried again and the same thing happened.

Try one more time before you freak out,I thought.

So I tried one more time. Again it went straight to voicemail. No rings, which meant she’d turned her phone off.

I felt my shoulders drop. Or maybe it was my heart—I couldn’t tell.

She ran.

“Did you get ahold of her?” Emmy asked. All I could do was shake my head. I took a breath before I turned around and faced my family.

As soon as Emmy saw my expression, her face fell. “Wes, I—” I shook my head before she could finish. I didn’t need her to say she felt sorry.

I needed to get out of here.

So that’s what I was going to do. Everyone but Emmy looked confused as I grabbed my hat off its hook and headed for the garage door.

“Are you going after her?” Emmy called.

“No,” I said. “I’m going to wait for her.” When I opened the door to the garage, I saw that my old truck was gone.

The one with the stick shift.

That’s my girl.

Chapter 30

Ada

It would’ve been a hell of a lot easier to drive this stupid old truck out of town if I didn’t hear Wes’s voice in my head say “Clutch, sweetheart” every time I had to shift or stop or do anything with the stupid fucking clutch.

It also would’ve been easier if I’d had the foresight to turn my phone off before Wes started calling me.

I thought about Wes, standing in the kitchen with his family and having to tell them I wasn’t there and that I wasn’t coming.

I was just about to pass theWelcome to Meadowlarksign, except now I saw the back of it. The sign informed me that I was now leaving Meadowlark.

My whole body reacted as I passed the border. It shuddered and went weak.

Even though I really didn’t want to, I thought about what Emmy had said—not to treat Wes like a final destination if I was going to leave anyway.

My heart lurched in my chest because that’s exactly what I’d done.

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