When we agreed to enter this thing, this fake marriage to get the Montgomerys off his back, we said we’d be honest.
He let me believe that the rodeo and the marriage was for the Montgomerys, to keep Sadie.
With Big Bertha’s medicine under my arm, I leave the office, coming out to find Landry on the lawn, spreading theblanket out. From Tate’s property comes Tate, Love, Petunia, Alice, and Sadie, with baby Lola in Tate’s arms.
That would be me and Landry.
Could it? He didn’t share the debt with me or the reason why he went into debt. We’ve been spending all this time together, long nights in the barn, days in the sun, my camera in his face in pain, in celebration, in frustration.
Yet this huge piece of his story was something he kept to himself. I don’t understand. How can you want a future with someone and not tell them something so big.
Love comes inside, and rests her hand on my arm. I must’ve been in a daze because she says, “Honey, are you all right?”
I nod and ask her to send Landry inside.
CHAPTER 27
SHE’S TOO SWEET FOR ME
I dustmy hands on my thighs, sore and achy, but eager to celebrate one of my last true practice rides before the big day. I didn’t want to come back, or make a “comeback”, but the truth is, it’s been bringing me back to life. Things feel like they’re coming together.
I pinch the top of my hat and lower it to the counter as I make my way to the sink. “Love said to come wash my hands,” I tell Quinn, who is already at the sink, water running.
She turns to me. “Actually, I wanted a word with you.”
“Ah.” I smile. “So you all are in it together.”
She nods, partially smiling, a passive smile, one that doesn’t reach her eyes or give off even an ounce of genuineness. She shuts off the water, and suddenly I’maware this isn’t about washing my hands, or telling me how good I looked out there today.
Occupying her nervous hands with an old dish towel, she finally looks up at me with so much emotion in her face that concern curls in my gut. “Can I ask you something?”
I nod. “Anything.”
The pause she takes, the breath she sucks in—all of it has my stomach knotting. “Why is the ranch in trouble?”
Scrubbing my hand down my face, I let free a deep sigh. I’ve not exactly gone out of my way to hide the piles of unpaid bills, but she’s right. I’ve held tight to just how bad it is, how it got that way, how I couldn’t pull the ranch out of the depths I got it in. I’ve been so ashamed of myself, so embarrassed.
I look down at the simple gold band on my finger, forged by Love, who is my best friend’s wife, but she was Amelia’s best friend, too. It’s time for the full truth. She follows my lead when I take a seat at the table, and we settle in.
“Everyone loved Amelia,” I tell her, eyes already burning—to hell with the preamble. Her attention holds mine so intently, I’m not sure if she’s even breathing. “Love was Amelia’s best friend in the whole world. I told you we all grew up together, me, Tate, and Love. I told you that, right?”
She nods, patient and understanding. “You did.”
My head bobs easily, maybe because I feel a little detached from myself at the moment. I loved Amelia, but I don’t relish discussing this wicked, awful, tyrant season of my life. Smoothing my hands down my spread thighs, I pray to get through this as easily as I can. For Quinn’s sake, I owe it to her.
“When Amelia got sick, my sole focus was saving her.”
She listens.
“Everyone loved her, and we’d just had a baby.” Sheknows this, but I find telling the story sequentially makes it easier for me. “I wanted to change places with her, but I couldn’t, so I tried everything I could to save her, no matter the cost.” Quinn has never been married, but I believe she understands the depths of this love, and her gentle focus, paired with the way she takes my hands and kneads them for comfort, makes it easy to continue.
“I wanted to save her so badly, so… selfishly,” I say, remembering the fear echoing in my veins at the thought of losing my wife. “There were times I didn’t even think of Sadie losing her mom because I was struggling so much with who I knew I was going to lose,” I admit, my voice unexpectedly broken. “But…” I shake my head. “Everyone loved her.”
“She sounds like she was truly special, Landry.” She continues gentle passes of her thumbs over my knuckles. I hold her eyes, shining emeralds, beacons of love and hope. “She was. And at first, I couldn’t even wrap my mind around her sickness being real. How could that happen, to a new mother, to a generous, loving person, you know?”
She nods. “I know.” Quinn is so calm.
I glance out the window near the door and spot the pickup, and a memory flashes through my mind. Driving Amelia to Dallas, Love Collier in the back seat, tending to Sadie because Amelia was too weak from the radiation. She didn’t want to be without Sadie. It was like… she knew their time together was cruelly short and terminally limited, so she had asked Love to come. I hold a special place in my heart for my best friend and his wife, because in my darkest hours they were there for me. For Sadie, too.
