Page 155 of Sunrise & Serenity

She studies me for a beat, then smiles slightly. “Have you got somebody back home?”

The question catches me off guard, making me laugh under my breath.

Home.

Wild Ember flashes through my head. My family. Sage. Not the arena, or this dive bar, or the motel I’m going back to as soon as I’ve finished this beer. Maybe the realization should feel good, but mostly it just hurts.

“Something like that,” I mutter.

She nods slowly like she understands more than I intended to share.

“Well,” she says, sliding off the stool, “whoever she is, she’s got you looking miserable.”

Before I can answer, she disappears into the crowd.

Across the room, Tyler laughs loudly over a pool game as other riders crowd around a table arguing about scores and stock draws. The scene is familiar, easy. It’s the kind of night I used to slip into without thinking.

Now all I want is quiet.

I drain the last of my beer and leave.

My motel’s close, so I head back on foot, letting the fresh air clear some of the noise from my head.

The room smells like stale air conditioning and industrial cleaner. My duffel bag sits unopened on the second bed.

I should shower, then look over tomorrow’s schedule before I crash. Instead, I sit on the edge of the mattress and stare at my phone. No messages from Sage.

Not that I expected one, but it still feels like a kick to the ribs.

Before I can think better of it, I open my photos.

I scroll to one I took a few weeks ago. She’s at the kitchen table, a pile of our old family photos in front of her, hair falling across one cheek as she laughs at whatever Taryn is telling her.

Memories loop endlessly, each one sharper than the last. Before I’m too raw, I lock the phone and toss it onto the bed beside me.

This is the right decision.

Sage deserves to follow her dreams. The ranch needs money more than it needs me, whether Sterling will admit it or not. And staying at Wild Ember, watching her leave, would’ve destroyed me worse than any bull ever did.

I drag a hand over my face and lean back against the headboard.

Tomorrow, I’ll get up and do the job.

Keep moving.

That’s always been the easy part.

CHAPTER 39

SAGE

The lodge still smells faintly of fresh-cut timber and paint. Sunlight spills through the tall windows and across the polished hardwood floors. I’m halfway up a ladder in front of one of the framed photographs when the front doors open.

For one stupid second, my pulse jumps.

Except it isn’t Holden. It’s one of the contractors carrying trim boards inside.

My stomach drops anyway.