Kidd says you got EATEN by a field
Kidd ALSO says a certain lumberjack ran across said field. Elaborate. Immediately.
Paige.
PAIGE.
A laugh gets loose in the dark. Serenity's ears flick back.
Six stitches. I'm fine. Tell Kidd he has a big mouth.
Gwen
He does. It's his best quality. Where are you rn
Northeast fork.
Gwen
That's nowhere near your cabin
PAIGE ADULSA
Goodnight Gwen.
Gwen
OH MY GOD
I lodged the phone into my pocket.
The left stirrup holds steady the whole ride home.
He almost kissed me. Almost. And then he remembered something that put him back behind that wall so fast I felt the air move.
But he fixed my stirrup.
A man who doesn't care doesn't notice your stirrup slips. A man who doesn't care damn sure doesn't fix it in the rain while pretending he isn't doing exactly that.
Serenity carries me through the meadow gate, and the whole valley smells like wet grass, and I've got a beard burn coming up under my jaw from where his knuckles brushed.
Mama's gonna have words.
I'm fresh out of reasons to listen.
Chapter Five
HARRISON
Four in the morning. Dark ceiling.
Same dream. Same table at the barbecue joint outside Nacogdoches, sitting across from a woman I was gonna marry, my grandmother's ring in my jacket pocket. My brother beside her, laughing at something she said, and his hand on her knee under the table where I wasn't looking because I was too damn happy to think I'd need to.
That's the part that wakes me up every time. Not the betrayal. The happiness right before it. How good it felt. How sure I was.
I roll over and stare at the woodstove. Coals gone gray. The cabin's cold. Outside, the creek keeps going without asking anybody's permission.
Three days since the rain.
