They loaded me onto the stretcher and started rollin' me toward the ambulance at the far end of the arena. Calvin walked alongside—not touchin' me, not speakin', just keepin' pace with her arms crossed tight against her chest.
When we stopped at the back of the ambulance, I looked up at her. "You comin'?"
She opened her mouth. Closed it.
Rhett was already movin' toward his truck, hat in hand. "I'll meet y'all at the hospital," he called over his shoulder.
The paramedics slid me into the back. One climbed in after me. The other stood at the doors, waitin'.
Calvin hadn't moved.
She was standin' three feet from the open doors with her boots planted in the dirt and her arms locked around her middle like she was holdin' herself together at the seams. Her eyes were givin' me absolutely nothin'.
I knew that look. Knew what it cost her to be standin' here at all instead of in her truck, pointed toward Idaho. Knew that the woman who'd sobbed into the arena dirt and called me her home was currently losin' a fistfight with the one who'd spent sixteen years survivin' by not followin' anyone anywhere.
Rhett had stopped halfway outta the arena. He looked at Calvin. Looked at me bein' loaded up. Looked back at Calvin.
She didn't move.
Rhett changed course without a word. Three long strides back to the ambulance, one hand on the door frame, and he hoisted himself in and dropped onto the bench across from me.
The doors closed.
Through the small back window, I watched Calvin get smaller—a dark-haired figure standin' in the middle of the fairgrounds, Sassy already movin' toward her.
Rhett sat with his elbows on his knees, hat in his hands.
"Speed spooked," I said as the paramedics did their thing.
Rhett looked up. "I know."
"Speed don't spook."
"I know."
We held each other's stare. The ambulance hit a rut and my shoulder filed a formal complaint.
"Rhett."
"Yeah."
"Somebody was behind the box."
His jaw tightened. His fingers went still on the brim of his hat.
He didn't sayI knowagain.
He didn't have to.
I was fine.
Little bit of a concussion.
Wasn't my first, wouldn't be my last.
Fortunately, nothin' was broken—'cept my spirit.
She'd just stood there, frozen in place, and didn't get in the damn ambulance.
