Page 32 of Reckless
Summer bumps her shoulder against mine. “Thanks for coming.”
I bump her back. “You’re welcome.”
“Rhett and Beau have been working so hard on this event. I know they appreciate you being here too.” I just nod. “I think your suggestion of something that might give Beau a purpose was helpful. He seems more like himself all the time. Planning this rodeo has been fun for him.”
It’s true. I said that. Because I’ve seen it before. A veteran moves into a new phase of their life, and they feel monumentally lost, like everything that was important about them isn’t anymore.
I wrinkle my nose and look away. As much as I fight leaving Vivienne, there’s a little part of me that can relate. The ER was exciting. Something new happened every day. I worked damn hard to get there, to become the best doctor I could be. And now I’ve turned all that focus on being the best mom I can be.
I miss it.
I miss that part of myself.
“Oh.” Summer brightens and sits up tall beside me. “There they are.”
“They?”
“Rhett and Theo.”
Theo.
My heart comes to a screeching halt in my chest and my limbs turn to ice. At the same time, my stomach falls fast and hard, like coming straight down off the highest point of a roller coaster. Except the cart goes off the wheels and crashes straight into the pavement.
That’s how I feel right now.
“Theo?” My voice doesn’t betray me. It comes out perfectly smooth. Perfectly unaffected.
“Yeah. You know...Rhett’s protégé. I believe you and him got into a screaming match at the ranch a couple of Christmases ago.”
I scoff. “Screaming at someone is not my MO.”
“It’s not, but I could hear you from inside.”
My little sister is giving me her know-it-all look. The one I’ve come to know well over the last year and a half. I don’t know what kind of karma was working in my favor to make Summer put all the years of tension behind us so readily. And I still haven’t quite found the words to thank her for it.
She was there for me while I was pregnant and alone.
She was in the delivery room holding my hand.
She was at my house, filling my freezer with meals when I got home.
I’m not sure I deserve her, but I’m too selfish not to lap up what she’s giving me.
“You must have misheard.” I sniff, peering out over the crowd before glancing down at my nails. The ones I still haven’t gotten done, even though I swore that was one of the first things I was going to do when I went on maternity leave.
“Why is he here? I thought this was some Podunk rodeo, not the fancy bull riding circuit they do.”
Summer elbows me. “You live in this Podunk town now, remember?”
I do. And I love it. Same little house Sloane helped me move into.
“Anyway, he came to do a demo. Rhett thought if he brought in a big name, it might help draw the crowd a bit.”
I glance around and can’t deny that his plan worked. It’s packed. “I thought Theo wasn’t that good?” I lie. I’ve checked his stats.
Summer huffs out a laugh. “He’s always been good—a bit injury-prone, maybe. But in the past year he’s turned a corner. Changed his focus. Now he’s the best, following right in his dad’s footsteps. He’s already planning for the finals in Vegas. It feels like it’s his year, you know?”
My lips purse. What I want to say ishow convenient for him. I take maternity leave and he levels up his career because he washed his hands clean of any responsibility. Not that I expected him to do anything. But it still stings.
