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“I know. But he’s been fighting for a long time now. I’m just not sure how much fight he’s got left.” Regan glanced at her watch. “I have to make rounds.” She paused and cleared her throat. “Is…is Wyatt coming back?”
Hudson shook his head. “I’m not sure when he can make it.”
Her mouth tightened and her eyes flashed—which Hudson might have wondered about if he’d been paying attention, which he wasn’t. And then she was all professional again.
“Okay. Well. If you have any questions about your dad, don’t hesitate to ask.” She smiled. “It’s good that you’re here. He needs you.”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
She took a step back and paused. “You planning on going to the barn dance at the fairgrounds?”
Surprised, his eyebrows shot up. “They still have that thing?”
“Damn right they do. We’re all about tradition here. Saturday night of fair weekend.” She glanced at her watch once more and began to back away. “You should come. A lot of the old crowd will be there. Adam and his wife will probably go, and I hear Ethan Burke is back in town too.” She chuckled. “Everyone who leaves seems to come back at some point.”
He thought of Rebecca and her little boy. He thought of the man they belonged to and gave himself a hard mental shake. He needed to shut that shit down.
“You should go. Give Adam a call. It might be fun.”
Hudson smiled but said nothing as he turned and headed back to his father’s room. Adam and the guys, Rebecca—they belonged to a past he’d lost touch with a long time ago, and there was no point in dredging it up now. He pushed open the door, eyes falling to the slight form on the bed. The nurse held his father’s hand, her words so soft and low Hudson couldn’t make them out. His father smiled at whatever she said, and for a second, Hudson caught a glimmer of the man he’d been.
But the sickly sweet smell that permeated the air couldn’t be ignored. This was his reality now.
Chapter 4
Saturday night rolled around much too quickly. Rebecca spent the day helping her mother can tomatoes and rushed home to get Liam fed, so she could drop him off at his friend Michael’s house for a sleepover. She made it back in record time, had a quick shower and change. She pulled on jeans, boots, and a clingy black top that was probably too low-cut for the barn dance, but she didn’t care. She’d just applied her lipstick when the doorbell sounded, followed by footsteps on the worn wooden floors and then the stairs. She grabbed her purse from the bed and reached for her jean jacket just as her girlfriend Violet waltzed into the bedroom like she owned it.
“Holy. Cowz.” Violet Thorne whistled and leaned against the doorframe as she looked Rebecca up and down. Her vibrant red hair spiked in all directions and her warm brown eyes glittered. A generous mouth painted the deepest red imaginable slowly curved into a smile. “Becca, you look hot as hell. Like, if I swung that way, I’d totally da
te you.”
“I think Adam would have a problem with that.”
“Would he, though?” Violet giggled. “Pretty sure that’s every guy’s dream.”
Becca glanced at herself in the mirror. Had she overdone it?
Large blue eyes, enhanced with smoky shadow, subtle liner, and delicately shaped brows, popped and stared back at her. Lips glistened, and she hadn’t meant to make her cheekbones look so…so…defined, or her skin so flawless. Wasn’t her fault she found the contour kit she’d been given last Christmas and decided to give it a whirl. It was just sitting there. In the drawer.
Rebecca leaned forward. Crap. She totally should have scrapped the contour kit. Seriously. She was taking a bartending shift at the barn dance, not going clubbing in the city. She reached for some tissue.
“Don’t you dare!” Violet walked over and hip-checked her away from the mirror with a wink. “Now let’s go. We’re going to be late, and you know how bitchy Nadine gets.”
“True.”
Rebecca followed her girlfriend downstairs and out into the cool night air. Their pal Nadine was a board member for the local fall fair, and she’d roped both Violet and Rebecca into volunteering for a few hours at the dance.
“Where’s Adam?” Rebecca asked, sliding into Violet’s Jeep. “He staying home with the kids?”
“God, no. The twins are at his parents’. He was meeting up with some of the guys, and they’ll probably end up at the dance later. That’s if he wants some of this tonight.”
Violet giggled and slapped her butt. Married eight years, Violet and Adam were still happy and in love, and they made it work. If she didn’t love Violet so much, she’d be jealous as hell, because there’d been a time she wanted all that. But for some mere mortals like Rebecca, the end game never quite happened the way she’d envisioned it.
Now a little pensive, she leaned forward as they drove across the bridge and then headed along the river toward the fairgrounds. Adam used to hang with Hudson back in the day, and, mouth suddenly dry, she shot a sideways look at Violet.
“What?” Violet asked, eyebrow raised in question.
“Nothing.”
