“I hope they do it,” she says. “I hope they sign up. It would be good for them. For the ranch.” She looks at me. “What about you? Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I say.
“Tripp is going to be there,” she says.
“I know.”
“Are you going to beat him?”
“I’m going to try.”
She laughs. It’s a light sound, and it eases the tightness in my chest.
“I’ll be rooting for you,” she says. “All of you.”
“I wish you would stay for the rodeo.”
“I know,” she says. “But I’ll be watching from New York. I’ll check the scores online.”
New York.
The word is a bucket of cold water.
She’s leaving. She’s going back to her life. A life that doesn’t include dusty boots and broken trucks and brothers who are so stupidly in love with her.
“I can’t believe you’re going back,” I say. The words slip out before I can stop them.
She freezes. Her smile fades.
“It’s where I live, Tex,” she says gently.
“I know,” I say. I look down at my boots. “I just thought… I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d stay this time.”
She’s quiet for a long moment.
“I can’t,” she whispers.
“Why not?”
“My life is back there.”
“You have a life here,” I argue. “You have a clinic. You have friends. You have…” I stop myself before I sayus.
She looks at me. Her eyes are full of something I can’t read.
“I have a lot of things here,” she admits. “But I have a lot of things there, too. And I worked hard for them. I can’t just throw them away because… because of a feeling.”
“A feeling?” I ask.
She looks away. “You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
She turns to me and puts her hand on my arm. Her touch is warm.
“Tex,” she says. “Please don’t make this harder than it is.”
I look at her hand. I cover it with my own.
