AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not just today,” he told himself. He didn’t need to stand here and explain himself to everyone who happened by, so he returned to his truck and started the task of going through his phone.
Seventeen missed calls.
Thirty-one texts, from everyone from Blake, to Daddy, to Todd, to Jolene.
Not a single call or text from Maddy. He looked up after having read through the strings from various people. They were all about the bulls, cattle, horses, and goats being out. The ranch thread had blown up, with over four hundred texts in an afternoon.
He’d missed them all.
He looked up and out the windshield, his eyes trying to adjust to the sudden darkness after all the bright light from his phone screen. “Todd said she was looking for you,” he said.
Was she, though?
Kyle already felt like the ultimate loser. He’d been this low when he’d first returned to the ranch five years ago too. His ego felt as bruised. His heart felt withered and dry. His relationship with Maddy felt like he’d tossed it aside and it had regressed two whole months.
How did he call her now? What would he say? Was she here, at the concert?
He once again searched himself for all the bravery he could find. Then he dialed Maddy.
* * *
Half an hour later,Kyle watched as Maddy pulled up to the lodge and got out of her dark red sedan. The lights in the front parking lot at the lodge could illuminate the tiniest of insects, and he had no trouble seeing her from the corner window where he stood.
His heartbeat thundered like a big bass drum, and he left the corner and started weaving through the desks to the door. It sat in the middle of this big room, with administrative space over where he’d been hiding in the darkness and the dining room in front of him.
That half of the lodge was lit, but dinner had ended an hour ago. Only the hum of the air conditioning could be heard—and the squeal of the front door as Maddy entered.
He rounded the chest-high desk where guest checked in upon their arrival at the lodge, ready to hold Maddy and tell her how sorry he was. She wore a denim skirt that hugged her legs to the knee and cowgirl boots, her hair in curls, and a red and white plaid top. He’d never seen her look so…cowgirl, and he suddenly wondered where she’d been.
She stopped just inside the door, and the sight of her in clothes he’d never seen before made him stall too. The scent of smoke and something else hit Kyle, and he frowned. “Where’ve you been?”
“I went dancing with Hadley,” she said coolly. She folded her arms across the knot in her shirt, and Kyle caught a peek of her bare midriff.
“Dancing?” She danced with him, and something red and clouded entered his mind. “Were you here for the incident with the bulls?”
“Yes,” she said. “I corralled the goats with Holly and Nash.”
Even his less-than-outdoorsy siblings had gone to help. Kyle could just see Holly in her high heels, holding both arms out to keep the tide of goats at bay. He could barely swallow, and everything he’d planned to say in the past thirty minutes dried right up.
“Who were you dancing with?” he asked at the same time she said, “What do you want, Kyle?”
His name hung in the air, full of her frustration and ire. He couldn’t blame her. Yet, he wanted to.
“What do I want?” he repeated. “I want my girlfriend to not be dancing with other men.”
“You don’t even know what I was doing.” She took a step forward, and it felt dangerous. The fire in her eyes burned hotly, and Kyle was simultaneously fearful and attracted to her. “I went out with my girlfriend, because my boyfriend was MIA. He hasn’t called or texted me in three days, which you know what? Feels a lot like last May when he thought if he just went silent, we’d be broken up.” She paused still out of arm’s reach from him. “So you tell me what I was supposed to think. Because I thought you were done with me, and you just didn’t have the guts to say it—just like last time.”
“No,” he said.
Maddy waited, and Kyle’s mind raced. “I just have a lot going on, Maddy.”
“Join the club.”
“I know I’ve been distant and whatever these past few weeks.” He had been, from everyone. “I’m trying to—I’m going to make it all right.” He was. He wasn’t a bad brother, who ignored his family when they needed help. He didn’t flake on starting the concerts and welcoming the bands to the ranch. He didn’t ignore his girlfriends.
His gut rolled, because Mama was right. He’d changed—and not for the better. He had to fix this. He could. He would.
“You call me when it’s all been made right,” she said.
