Page 30 of Unforgettable Cowboy
“Did she feed you yet?”It was almost one o’clock.
“Left a sandwich on the side table while I was asleep.”
“Actually asleep?”
“I conked out at some point.”
“And there you were.Defenseless.”
Wade gave him the stink eye and Hayes fought to keep from smiling.“I’m heading to town with Bailey.Will you be okay here for an hour or so?”
It was a rhetorical question.
“I managed to get out of the chair when I had to, the walker’s right there, so yeah.I’m okay.”
Hayes eyed his uncle, who again, was looking visibly older.Accidents did that to people.“Estelle is not going to leave until I get back.”
Wade gave a small snort.“Hurry home.”
*
“What happened toyour red truck?”She and Hayes had traveled a good part of Montana in his early eighties Dodge Power Wagon the summer they’d been together, bouncing from rodeo to rodeo when Wade didn’t have them working on some ranch project.
“What didn’t?”Hayes asked and she couldn’t help but smile.
“Ultimately what happened?”
“I think it was Trev who tried to drive it across the river.But Jordan was there.I never did get the straight story.Anyway, there was a deep spot, and a hot engine hitting cold water caused some insurmountable problems and we sold him for scrap.”
“That’s too bad.”
He smiled reminiscently.“I had some good times in that truck.”
So had she.“If someone had told me six months ago that I would be riding in another truck with you, I would have thought they were nuts.”
“Because you never wanted to see me again?”
“The reverse—I figured that you never wanted to see me.”He shot her a look and she explained the obvious.“Because of the way we parted.”She twisted the simple silver ring she wore.“I overreacted.I was too afraid of my own feelings to see that you weren’t that into me.”
His chin lifted a fraction of an inch, but he kept his gaze directed at the road in front of him.“I didn’t say I wasn’t into you.I said I wasn’t a danger to you.”
Her lips parted as she regarded his profile.“Meaning?”
“Meaning I wasn’t your stepdad looking to manipulate you into doing something you didn’t want to do.You were going to college.I was heading to the rodeo circuit.I wasn’t going to change course, and neither were you.”He gave her a quick look before bringing his eyes back to the road.“I was totally into you.It just wasn’t the time.”His mouth flattened.“An honest conversation would have cleared things up.”
“No doubt,” she said, tearing her gaze away from his profile.She was surprised when he kept talking.
“Even a clue about what you were going to do would have helped.Things were great and then you were gone.I couldn’t imagine what I’d done to make you dump me like that.”
“You didn’t do anything.”She let another mile pass before she asked, “How do you think things would have gone had we had that conversation?”He understoodnowthat they hadn’t been ready for long term, but had he truly understood back then, without the benefit of hindsight?
“Good question,” he said before slowing to turn into Edna’s Dog Rescue.“It wouldn’t have been a feel-good situation,” he admitted.“But it would have cleared up some of the mystery.”
“Maybe.I don’t know that I could have articulated.”
“It would have been better than a note,” he said as he parked.“Mind if I go in with you?”
And with that the subject was done.
