Page 8 of Lost and Lassoed

I opened my mouth to respond, tell her it was okay, that I hoped her dinner went well, that I loved being my dad and Aggie’s third wheel, but nothing came out.

“I’ll call you later, though?” Emmy said after a few beats of silence.

“For sure,” I choked out. “Love you.”

“Love you,” Emmy said, and hung up.

Don’t cry, Teddy. It’s going to be okay.

Chapter 4

Gus

“Everything’s fine, Cam,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. “Seriously. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Are you sure?” she said on the other end of the phone. I know the mother of my child well, and her tone was laced with concern.

“Totally,” I said. Everything was completely fine. I didn’t accidentally shrink all of my and Riley’s clothes by washing them on hot, serve cereal for dinner three nights in a row, or get a brush stuck in Riley’s curly hair.

None of that happened.

“You sound”—Cam paused for a second—“stressed.” That was an understatement if I’d ever heard one.

Cam was in Jackson Hole for the summer, shadowing at a law firm there and doing an immersive bar prep course. I was happy for her. She’d had a difficult time last year after she failed the bar exam the first time. She hadn’t told me or anyone else in our family, and she’d put a lot of distance between us all in those few months. She wouldn’t respond to my textsor calls unless they had to do with Riley, which would’ve been fine, but our co-parenting relationship was built on a pretty solid friendship foundation, so it worried me.

My brother’s girlfriend, Ada, was able to get it out of her a few months after it happened. She said she felt like a failure, even though she was the furthest thing from it. Ever since I’d known her, Cam had wanted to be a lawyer, and I was glad she decided to take the bar again. Her fiancé, Greg, is some big deal investment banker, so he jumped at the chance to go to Jackson to be closer to a lot of his Richie Rich clients for a few months.

From what I know, he’s not the biggest fan of Meadowlark.

So I encouraged Cam to take the opportunity in Jackson, which meant I had our six-year-old daughter all to myself. Over the past six years, Cam and I had perfected our custody arrangement, and I was able to structure all my responsibilities at Rebel Blue around it. Plus, we had my family to help out, and Cam and I could always lean in when the other needed it.

I was a single dad, but I’d never had to be a single parent.

Until now.

It had been a week and a half since Cam left—she left two Wednesdays ago. It was Friday now, and she was right. I was stressed.

Summers at Rebel Blue were always a busy time of year, but this year was also the first time we had a fully operational guest ranch added to the mix. So not only did I have nearly fifty ranch employees to keep track of, but in a couple of weeks, I would also have city folks running around my ranch.

And city folks were fucking idiots.

“Gus?” Cam’s voice came through the phone again, pulling me out of my thoughts. “You there?”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m good. We’re all good.” I fucking loved my kid. I just had to get used to our new routine.

“Are you sure?” Cam asked.

“Yes, and Riley’s great. She’s doing riding lessons with Emmy right now.” My little sister was my daughter’s favorite person. She was mine too.

“Don’t forget she has soccer this afternoon.”

“I know,” I said. “She and Emmy hang out after lessons, so Emmy will get her ready and take her to soccer, and I’ll pick her up after I finish up for the day.”

“Okay…you’ll let me know if you need me?”

“Yes.”No.

“Okay. I’ll let you know if I can call for bedtime.” I hoped she could. Riley was starting to miss her mom.

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