Page 16 of Reckless Hearts

She rolls her eyes. “You two aren’t exactly high-maintenance. I think I’ll survive.”

He huffs out a laugh, but it’s tight. “Not what I meant.”

She pauses then, just a flicker of something in her eyes. “I’m not here to be careful,” she says. “I came to make this count.”

The way she says it shuts both of us up.

She glances between us. “Unless you’re saying I can’t tag along?”

“Hell no,” I say.

Maverick echoes, softer, “Not a chance.”

She nods, like that settles it, but there’s still that flutter of nerves in her posture like she’s waiting for someone to tell her she doesn’t belong.

She doesn’t know we’ve spent eight years hoping she’d come back.

“You can ride with me,” we both blurt out, but I’m faster.

Maverick glares. I wink.

“I’m a better driver. She’s safer with me,” he says.

“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” I fire back.

We’re already arguing, and I’m gearing up to make my case when Callie cuts in.

“We can’t all ride together?”

“Hell no. You’re funny.” I bark out a laugh.

Her brow knits. “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised after yesterday, but I was hoping it was some kind of ego-driven bull rider thing?”

“We haven’t been friends in a long time,” Maverick says evenly. “Whatever you thought we were… we’re not that anymore.”

There’s pain in her reddened eyes, and she hides it by looking at her feet. She doesn’t say anything for several seconds, and neither do we.

We tried to tell her yesterday; she needs to face it today.

Her hands open and clench at her sides, over and over.

Fuck, I want to take them in mine and uncurl each of her fingers.

It’s not how it was supposed to be.

But there’s no changing it.

She stares at her feet, silent. It’s brutal. Worse than any bull ride I’ve ever taken.

We’ve been this way for years, and I have no plans to change. Callie’s just not used to it, she hasn’t been around.

It would help if I explained it to her. Everything that went down, how winning got in the way. How she was the only thing that ever held us together, and once she left, whatever friendship we had cracked, revealing just how fragile it really was.

They say bull riders only care about one thing, and that’s winning.

We’re proof of that.

There’s only one way to win this thing, and that’s by beating the other.

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