Page 78 of Wild and Wrangled

“I’m serious.” He nodded. “And I can tell you from experience that the most precious thing we have is time. There’s never going to be enough of it.”

“Are you going to tell me to carpe diem or some shit?”

“Yes,” Amos said. “I am. You have time, Cam. Don’t waste it. Stop letting your past hold you back.” I understood what Amos was saying, I really did. But Dusty and I had history that informed who we were now—even if we didn’t want it to. I had pushed it so far down, so I wouldn’t have to remember it, or how so much of what went wrong was my fault. I had never talked about it with anyone. But with everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, in the past weeks and months, if I was being honest, I could feel it rising to the surface, churning the soil and threatening to burst through to the light.

“Amos—” I said, but the door opened, and I heard Riley’s feet running across the hardwood floors, and within a few seconds, I felt her arms around one of mine.

“Hi, Sunshine,” I said and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. She gave my arm another squeeze before jumping into Amos’s lap. Next to her grandpa, I was chopped liver, and I didn’t mind at all.

“Hey,” Ada said as she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing a long black wool coat over black jeans and black Doc Martens. She always looked so cool.

“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for watching her last night.”

“No problem,” Ada said. “Can’t wait to hear all about it.” She raised one of her dark brows suggestively at me, and I rolled my eyes, but I was trying not to smile. I’d never really had this—someone to talk to the morning after, to debrief and giggle.

“Mom, look at my shoes,” Riley said. I turned back to her on Amos’s lap and looked at her feet, which had little Doc Martens on them.

“Oh my god,” I said, looking back at Ada. “I love them.”

Ada grinned. “Aren’t they perfect? I’ve decided I’m going to have to get her a pair every time her feet grow.”

“Did you say thank you, Sunshine?”

Riley nodded. “A lot of times,” she said matter-of-factly.

“What are y’all up to today?” Amos asked.

“Well,” Ada said, “Riley thinks that Cam’s plates are boring, and I’ve got nothing to do, so I was thinking we could hit the antique store?” She looked over at me.

“First of all,” I said lifting a finger, “my plates are not boring. Second of all: What do you think, Sunshine? Does that sound fun?”

Riley nodded eagerly.

“All right, let’s do it.”

—

The antiques store in Meadowlark was surprisingly well stocked for a small town—probably because it was the only one in the county; the next closest one was nearly two hours away in Sweetwater Peak.

Being in the glassware section did make me a little nervous. Riley was tornado-esque, so I kept a close eye on her as we perused and made sure that she didn’t pick things up without help from Ada or me.

“So how did things go last night?” Ada asked as she pushed a small cart next to me.

“Good,” I said, trying to play it cool.

“How good?”

“There is a child present, Ada Hart.”

Ada giggled. “That good, huh?”

I blew out a puff of air. “Yeah. That good.”

“I knew it,” Ada muttered. “You don’t have a neck tattoo and a nose piercing and not be good. And don’t even get me started on his little cropped T-shirts.”

“Oh my god,” I said. “You and Emmy need a spray bottle. You’re both feral cats.”

“Because we have eyes,” Ada said. “He’s a beautiful man—not as beautiful as Wes, obviously, but beautiful. That’s just a fact. His face is like perfectly proportioned and almost too symmetrical. I’m an interior designer—I notice those things.”

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