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It turned out that a week away from Holt was much too long. The night he’d visited her, he’d kept guard in his truck outside her motel room. She’d finally agreed to relocate to a different hotel the next morning with his help.
He was one stubborn man. In the best way possible way and in every way opposite of his brother.
“What’s that?” Ruby asked, sidling up to Macie where she sat at the hotel desk, browsing a website on her laptop.
Macie pulled her daughter onto her lap and drew her close. In all of this, in all that had happened, Ruby had made every heartache worth it. This child born of her had brought Macie comfort when nothing else could.
“That’s an apartment in San Antonio,” Macie said.
“A swimming pool?” Ruby touched the laptop screen.
“Yep, do you like it?”
“I wanna swim, Mommy.”
“Of course you do,” Macie said with a smile. She rested her chin atop Ruby’s head and continued to click through photos of the apartment complex. There was a playground, a community barbeque area, and a swimming pool, and the one-bedroom apartments were in her price range.
She’d decided to stay in Texas. Ruby deserved the best, and being near her grandparents would fulfill that requirement. But San Antonio would also give them some distance that Macie needed from the Prosper family to sort out where she fit.
“Should I call them?” she asked.
“Yes!” Ruby said.
Macie laughed.
“Can I watch TV?” Ruby asked.
“All right, just for a little bit,” Macie said. She hated that Ruby had been watching so much TV in the hotel room, but really, their options were limited right now. Anything to distract her from incessant questions about when she could ride Sammy again or get ice cream with Grandpa or make pancakes with Holt or read stories with Grandma.
Macie wanted all of these things for Ruby, but it wasn’t like she could waltz back onto the ranch as if nothing had happened between the two brothers.
She called the apartment complex and found out that tours were open anytime between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. After hanging up, she pulled up the bus schedule app she’d downloaded to her phone.
Before she could decide on a schedule, her phone buzzed with a text from Knox.
I need your help.
Macie frowned. What could he be referring to? Her pulse thumping, she wrote: What is it?
Her phone rang, and with Ruby wrapped up in her TV show, Macie answered it.
“Are you still in Prosper?” Knox asked.
He knew she’d left, so the question confused her.
“No, I’m in a hotel.”
Knox paused. “Can you get to Prosper by tonight? It’s Mom’s birthday, and I’m not going to make it.”
Of course he wasn’t. “Where are you now?”
“I’m hitting a few other rodeos in Texas, and I’m going to try to qualify for the pro-circuit. You know, the PRCA.”
Macie held back her sigh. Knox had failed at qualifications the past three years for one reason or another, but maybe winning the Prosper Rodeo had upped his confidence again. He’d sent her five hundred dollars, out of the ten thousand in winnings.
“Okay, so you want me to take her flowers or something?” Macie said. “Those can be ordered, Knox.” She could only imagine the awkwardness of showing up to see Heidi, a woman who thought she’d betrayed and used both of her sons, and telling her happy birthday.
“Flowers or whatever is fine,” Knox said. “But I know what she really wants is to see her grandkid. It’s all she talks about when I call her.”
