Page 60 of The Maverick’s Legacy

He bit back bile. Why else would Carly’s sister be here other than to tell him that Carly’s injuries were worse than originally thought?

“She’s fine,” Amy assured him. “Well, as fine as can be expected. The doctor said she should be able to start driving tomorrow. She’s champing at the bit to do so. I know she’s got a lot of things to get in order before she leaves town again.” She walked over to the side of the house, admiring the boards. “Are you going to paint this? Because I have to tell you, it looks great natural.”

Jesse barely heard her over the ringing in his ears. “What the hell do you mean that she’s leaving town?”

“Oh!” Amy looked at him, surprise on her face. “Didn’t she tell you? I thought you two had grown close. When I stopped by to check in on her this morning—because that’s what people do when they love someone—she had mentioned something about calling her agent and accepting the European tour.”

Jesse dropped the hammer that he was still holding. It barely missed his foot. He didn’t even notice. He was too busy staring at Amy with horrified eyes.

“She can’t leave,” he whispered.

Amy shrugged. “What does she have in Tenacity worth staying for? Last week I would have said you. Just going by town gossip and what my sister has told me, I thought you’d end up like Josh and me. I’ve never seen Carly as happy as she’s been with you, but I’ve been over to her house every day since she was injured, and I haven’t seen you there, Jesse.”

“I… I had things I needed to do.”

“Well, I hope they were important.” Amy walked back to her car and opened the door. She nodded toward the house again. “It really is shaping into a nice home. I’m sure you and your son will be very happy here for years.”

Jesse didn’t miss the fact that Amy hadn’t included Carly in that statement.

He stood frozen as he watched her drive off until she was gone from view, then he slowly turned and went inside the house to grab his car keys and wallet.

Once he was in his truck, he pointed the vehicle toward the only direction he ever wanted to go again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“What are you doing here, Fletch?” Carly couldn’t believe her eyes as she gripped the door handle so hard it almost injured her good hand.

Her stomach twisted sickeningly at the sight of the man who’d once turned her life into tabloid fodder. The open door allowed a cool fall wind to surround her, and somehow that made the moment feel heavier, like a ghost from her past had suddenly shown up to run its fingers down her spine. She shivered in horror. It had been almost a year since she saw the man last. Frankly, she would have been fine never seeing him again.

“I missed you,” he replied. He took a step toward her as though he’d planned to kiss her.

She moved quickly away, turning to go deeper into the house. “You missed me? I haven’t seen or spoken to you once in months, but you missed me?”

She could still see as clear as day the time she walked into the stable that his dad owned. Fletch had asked her to stay on the circuit for another year, despite the homesickness she’d been experiencing since Elizabeth left Australia, and she’d sought him out to discuss it more. She hadn’t wanted to say yes, but he said that he could get them on the cover of Outback Sports Magazine—one of the biggest in the country. The sponsorship deals that came with doing a cover of such a prestigious magazine would have paid her double what she’d been making. And that had almost been enough to convince her to stay. Because in the back of her mind was a space full of childhood trauma—of things being taken away and smelly secondhand clothes being thrown at her and the uncertainty of whether she’d get to eat that day.

She’d convinced herself that staying was the right thing to do. She could move back to the States the next year after she got more money. But as she’d rounded the corner to tell Fletch, she’d found him naked, rolling around in a fresh hay bed with some groupie. She’d yelled at him, told him that they were through. She didn’t know why it had been that breaking point for her. It wasn’t like he was ever faithful to her, and she knew it. She guessed knowing and seeing it in the flesh were two different things.

A few days later, she was injured when her friend’s horse had startled, and Carly had found herself headed home shortly thereafter.

Fletch looked at her now, giving her an angelic look that did nothing for her. “You disappeared on me,” he said, “and blocked my number. How was I supposed to tell you how I felt?”

Carly crossed her arms, being as careful as possible not to aggravate her injuries. “You seriously can’t think that I would have wanted to speak to you after what I saw that day. Besides, you and I both know that you don’t feel anything for me. All I’ve ever been was a publicity tool for you and your daddy’s rodeo circuit.”

“We were good together.”

“No.” She eyed the man in front of her. He was tall and muscular with long blond hair that fell to his shoulders and eyes the color of the ocean. At one time she been taken in by his attractiveness. She knew better now that the blinders were off. What she once had thought was confidence she now knew was arrogance. He was the type of guy who knew how good looking he was. He used that and his father’s money to his every advantage.

He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean no?”

“I mean what I said. You and I weren’t good together, nor were we in love with one another. We had an incredible run that gave us enough publicity to help people know our names, but that was it.”

“Is this because of that guy you were seen dancing with?”

Carly stilled. “What are you talking about?”

Fletch grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image. It was grainy, but she recognized it right away. The picture was her and Jesse slow dancing at the Tenacity Social Club the night of the fundraiser. She had a vague memory of someone taking her picture, but she hadn’t thought too much about it because she’d been so intoxicated with Jesse.

She stared at it now, seeing that and several others of them were all over the tabloid’s website. Even now, in Tenacity, she couldn’t escape them. She felt violated. And worse, she’d brought Jesse into it. That was all they needed—for the press to descend when Oscar had just started to adjust to school. She could only hope that it would blow over. It wasn’t like she was Tom Brady or someone of that caliber. People in the States didn’t follow rodeo like other countries did.