Page 36 of Unbroken

“Will I get all of the ones I pick out?” he asked, bouncing on the couch.

“Maybe.” I peered at the catalog. “Hold on, it looks like you circled every single thing in it, greedy boy!”

He giggled and I reached over to tickle him.

“Okay, I’ve got a few things to take care of before bath time,” I said, righting myself as Patrick crawled back across the couch to the catalog. “Once you finished circling everything in the catalog, please go back and find things you’re sure you want, okay, bud?”

“But Daddy, what if Idowant everything?” The sassy look he was giving reminded me of Fiona right before she started some trouble.

I pretended to think it over before answering. “Okay, how about this? Why don’t you prioritize which ones you want? Do you know what that means?” Patrick shook his head and I grinned at him. “It means figuring out which toys you want the most and those you’re only a little bit interested in. Make sense?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

I pulled out my phone and shot a sideways glance at my son who was now sitting with a thoughtful look on his face, complete with the tip of his tongue popping out of the corner of his mouth as he made new scribbles in the catalog.

It was a ridiculous thought, but I couldn’t help wondering. How would the two of us do in Denver instead of Half Moon?

I knew the answer before I even asked the question of myself. Denver was crowded and busy, and the city had no use for ranch hands. Out of curiosity, I looked for ranching positions and couldn’t find anyeven close to the city, then I looked up apartments and condos and felt a little sick over the prices. And not just that … thespace. Or lack thereof. My life was the great wide open, in a place where I could walk outside at night and see every single star in the blue-black sky. The Carters werenotcity folk. I wanted my son to grow up with an appreciation of nature and horses and honest folks who worked hard on the open land.

I stopped myself. Fiona definitely worked hard in her city job, but it was a different kind of work, the type I wasn’t suited for. And seeing how happy she was as she pulled her weight at the ranch, I had to wonder if she was still suited for city life—especially when she seemed to thrive here at home.

Fiona. Damn, I needed to stop thinking about her and what our lives might be like if we both stuck around.

She was making decisions for her future based on what was best for her, just like I had to do the same for myself and Patrick. Fiona wasn’t thinking about me at all. The kiss we’d shared had been nothing more than a blip on her radar screen and already forgotten.

I wished I could say the same for me. Every time it crossed my mind, I felt a shock roll through me. I’d kissed my old nemesis andlikedit. Really liked it. Ever since then, I found it hard to concentrate when Fiona was around, but she seemed oblivious to what I was feeling, so I did my best to stomp out the embers like an old campfire.

This corner of Colorado held too many unhappy memories for me. I needed to get the hell out of Poplar Springs and start over in Half Moon for my sake and Patrick’s. Sure, it was going to be tough in the beginning, but we’d get through it together.

I nodded to myself and scrolled to the job portal where I’d sent the application Fiona had helped me fill out. Still nothing, but the application and resume had been received and processed, whatever thatmeant. I had a good feeling about it, aware that I was more than qualified and had stellar recommendations.

So why was there a tiny part of me that hoped I wouldn’t get it?

The answer to that question was obvious. While my brain was screaming at me to get a fresh start somewhere else, my heart kept asking, why couldn’t we stay here and start over?

TWENTY-FIVE

ELI

It was the exact scenario I hated: what felt like the entire town crowded together on a sunny Friday afternoon, with the beer flowing and the gossip popping.

We were at a fundraiser to raise money to help rebuild the community center and playground that’d burned down a few months ago. The town had received some funding from the state along with a portion of the insurance money to rebuild the elementary school, but the rest of the money to rebuild a central gathering place for the people of Poplar Springs and an outdoor play area for kids would have to come from other sources. It was a good cause, so I felt like I had no choice but to go and support the event, but I hated that every head turned when Patrick and I showed up. So many busybodies around.

Fiona had said she would meet us there, but as usual, she was running late and there was still no sign of her even after Patrick and I had already been there for twenty minutes. I scanned the crowd, easily looking over the tops of everyone’s heads so I didn’t make eye contact with anyone. My father was there, speaking with the mayor, Bob Lumley, who was looking a bit green around the gills. I’d heard hehadn’t been feeling well but that was weeks ago—shouldn’t he be better by now? Talking to them were the other two Bobs—McCall and Jackson—who sat on our volunteer town council. It’d been a running joke for years that your name needed to be “Bob” in order to be mayor or sit on the council.

To the mayor’s left, his assistant, Amy Thorne, was talking with Zoe Wilson, Josh’s fiancée, and they were looking at something on Amy’s phone. Finally the buzz of a motor caught my attention and I looked up to see the town’s drone flying around. They must be taking photos of the area and the people present as part of their fundraising efforts. Zoe had used the drone awhile back to capture some amazing photos of Lost Valley that were used on the ranch’s social media accounts.

“Daddy, can I go play in the bounce house?” Patrick asked, jumping up and down in anticipation.

I peered at the giant blowup that looked like an old castle on the far side of the lot. Clean up crews had cleared out all the debris after the fires. What remained wasn’t welcoming in its current state, just a swath of pavement with weeds popping up through the cracks, but the rebuild committee had brightened it up tremendously for the day with a bounce house, games like cornhole and ring toss, and a mini carousel. There was cotton candy and caramel apples, the evidence of both already visible on the front of Patrick’s shirt.

“Yup, but you’ll need a ticket.” I reached into my pocket and handed one of the tickets we’d bought at the entrance to Patrick. “I’ll be right behind you. Be careful.”

Patrick took it and sped off for the bounce house, leaving me to scan the crowd one last time.

Twenty-five minutes late. Typical Fiona.

I headed after Patrick and was nearly knocked off my feet when someone crashed into me from behind.

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