She laughed. “It’s okay. It was worth a shot.” Her expression softened. “But you’re always welcome, you know. I’ve had some of my best breakthroughs on the trail.”
“You haven’t had more issues at the ranch, have you?”
She shuddered. “Thank God, no. I’ve had enough with the arson and Grandpa’s death last winter. But that’s kind of my point. Going through stuff like that, we need time and places to heal. There’s something about the majesty of the mountains on horseback that quiets my spirit and helps me to think more clearly. It could be good for you.”
“I do appreciate it, Sierra.” But he had too many things on his plate as it was, and a nice horseback ride wasn’t going to solve a thing. Besides, he didn’t need a front-row ticket to all he was missing out on in life.
He snatched a fitting, not even looking at the exact measurement. “I’d better get back, though, and fix that shower. I’m on call tonight.”
“Don’t work too hard, Mike. It was nice to see you.”
He nodded and headed straight to the self-checkout line. He had plenty he needed to do and never enough time to do it. If dating Sierra showed him anything, it was that he didn’t have room in his life for anything else.
Alexandria, Virginia
Dani threw the handful of shirts from the top drawer into her suitcase. She had two weeks before she had to report to the Renegade office, but she might as well start packing. Her career was over before it had even begun.
She chucked a pile of underwear in next.
“Whoa.” Felicity, her roommate, walked into the room, munching on an apple. Her eyebrows shot up at the mountain of clean clothes rising from the open suitcase on Dani’s bed. “Bad day at the office?”
Dani didn’t trust herself to say anything. She gave her a what do you think? look and marched back to the open pajama drawer.
“Oh…it was assignment day, wasn’t it? You didn’t get New York or Miami?”
And here Dani thought she hadn’t been listening when the work assignments came up in discussion.
The last thing she needed right now, though, was to break down and cry. It had never changed anything before.
Diversion though? That was always effective.
Dani plastered on a sly smile. “You know what? Since this is my last week in town, we should go out tonight. Who knows when I’ll have a chance to get good sushi next?”
“Where are they sending you? To Iowa or something?”
Even worse, but that wasn’t the point.
Dani scooped up her phone from the charger. “Better yet, we can call Maurice and Leah and try that new microbrewery that opened up in Fells Point. I heard they have killer appetizers.”
Felicity plopped down on the bed, jiggling the suitcase pile. “Sure, but where are you moving to?”
Dani stepped over to her closet and stared at the different textures and colors of the clothing hanging in front of her. What outfit should she wear if they went ou?—
“Dani?”
Don’t cause another mess, Dani. Had enough of those for one day.
It took a few beats to steady her voice. “Or we could stay in. Order pizza.”
“Hey, you know you can talk to me, right? I mean, we’ve only been roomies for a little while, but I’m not stupid. I can tell things didn’t go down the way you hoped.”
Understatement of the century.
“So what happened. Where are they sending you?” Felicity took another bite of her apple and chewed.
Dani hung her head back a moment and closed her eyes. Okay, fine. Rip off the Band-Aid. She had to start facing reality eventually. She controlled the narrative at this point. She just had to play it off like a dramatic sitcom. Make Felicity laugh. Even if she had to make herself the butt of the joke.
Because anything was better than pity.
