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“I’m glad he has your support.”
“Thanks.”
Her tone was guarded, so I pressed. “But you still feel guilty?”
“I resented him for so long. The golden boy who got everything. I didn’t realize…”
I splayed my hand on her thigh and gave her a reassuring rub. Hadn’t I just been thinking about how differently I’d been viewing my childhood as an adult? “Don’t hold being a kid against yourself.”
“I don’t know what I would’ve done differently.” She leaned closer until our heads were tipped together. “Not gone so far away for college? Come home more?”
“Do you really think it would’ve helped?” I asked gently.
She slumped and leaned her head against my shoulder. “No. It took being away to make me realize this is really what I want. It wasn’t jealousy from seeing Kane getting it.”
I had the life I’d dreamed of when I was a kid. She had the life she had dreamed of. Too bad they were so far apart.
“I’m not surrounded by buildings and people,” she continued. “I can ride Target instead of going for a run. I hate running.”
I chuckled and rubbed my hands up and down her legs. We hadn’t gotten to do much with just the two of us since our trip to Dickinson. “I do run and ride a bike, but I haven’t been for a long ride in a long time.”
“You need to fix that problem.”
“Any ideas?”
I thought she’d suggest an evening ride if it cooled off enough, but she thought for a moment. “This weekend. We’ll take Target and Papa’s horse, Bolt, and go to Medora.”
“The Badlands, right?” She nodded, and I sifted through my memories. “Dad actually talked about Medora.” Family rides and camping when he was a kid. He used to tell stories around the table when Mama was alive. More good memories I’d forgotten about.
“It’s getting harder to find horse-friendly trails, you know, since mountain bikes don’t shit like a half-ton animal, but there are still some good ones.” Her blue gems twinkled and her mouth quirked. “We can even camp. Papa will cover for me for a weekend, as long as he can still sneak away to fish at least once.”
“Do you have a trailer with a camper?” I hadn’t seen anything but an old white trailer that would be cozy for two horses. They either hired out when they had to transport large numbers of cattle, or they used the nicer pickup with the gooseneck trailer. The gooseneck didn’t have a space for sleeping.
“Nope.”
“An RV?”
Her smile widened. “Also, no.”
It’d been years since I’d stayed in anything less than a five-star hotel. She thought I’d balk at staying in a tent. Little did she know that Ansen and I would camp in the bed of Dad’s pickup under the stars. We’d run to the creek and hunt for snakes. Bonus points if we spotted a venomous one.
Mama used to bring us lemonade and brownies. Sometimes, we hadn’t been able to last the entire night. We’d been so young we’d scared ourselves silly. When we were older, we would’ve done fine, but by then, Mama was gone. It was like we’d made an unspoken agreement that the memories were too raw to try it again.
They weren’t raw anymore. Just bittersweet. A little more bitter since I had no idea what my brother was doing these days.
I’d take care of that issue when I returned to Dallas. I had two weeks to win my wife back, to show her I could somehow give her what she wanted, and to get her to seriously consider that what she wanted wasn’t in Coal Haven.
On a slightly less important note, our sleeping arrangements could be closer together. I leaned into my touch and her thigh flexed under my hand. “The real question is whether you’re packing one tent or two.”
Alarm widened her eyes, and I laughed. Instead of being insulted that she hadn’t realized tent camping meant closer quarters than my motel room, I wasn’t. I’d noticed the beat of heat in her eyes and the flush that crept up her neck as she realized exactly that.
“We have only a tent that sleeps four.”
My grin remained in place. Still a small space.
Her eyes narrowed. “But separate sleeping bags.”
“Sure.” I’d give her that. I wanted her good and ready when I got between those toned legs again.
