AllFreeNovel
Share Us
More like she was driving by and saw an unfamiliar vehicle and came up with a reason to stop in. “Is there something new I don’t know about?”
Mom scowled deeper than normal. “You have that football thing.”
Mom had always hated sports. She’d tried to forbid me to participate, but Uncle Cameron was more about the community than her. He’d talked to her about how good it would be for the school to have the Barron boys involved. How well it would reflect on them since they had a hard time earning a lot of the goodwill themselves. I doubt he’d said the last part; I just filled in the details.
“Stetson’s been coaching for years, and he’s still been able to help move and work cattle.”
She hmphed and paged through the magazine. Deceptively out of my business. Until she said, “Who was that?”
“Emery. She’s new to town, and her daughter’s always wanted to learn to ride.”
“And you let her bring all her kids out here?” Her voice was filled with more disappointment than disbelief.
“I invited them all.”
Mom frowned. “You like her or something?”
Yeah, I liked her or something. “Is that so wrong?”
“She’s a city girl. You can tell.”
“It’s Coal Haven. We’re all a little country.”
Her eyes narrowed. She always had a good bullshit detector. I just wished she called herself on her own. “Is it serious?”
“I met her only a few weeks ago, Mom. Besides, what’s wrong if it ended up serious?” I knew what would be wrong. The ranch was everything to Mom. And something that shifted my priority from it scared her.
Mom pursed her lips and set the magazine down. “People who don’t grow up like us don’t understand the life. They hear about the oil money, call us rich farmers or rich ranchers. Wealthy cowboys. You can’t trust ’em, Holden.”
“She’s divorced. I don’t think I’d be the only one dealing with trust issues.”
“Yeah, but you’re not dealing with money issues and she probably is.”
I sighed. Mom was most likely right, but it wasn’t my business. “Is it so hard to believe that maybe someone will like me for more than my last name? You realize it doesn’t mean a damn thing outside of the county, and Emery wasn’t raised here.”
Mom snorted. “Money talks everywhere, Holden. And it often talks louder when we profess our love.” Her boots were heavy on the hardwood as she crossed to the front door. “Make sure that football thing of yours doesn’t fuck with our schedule.”
She pushed out and let the screen door slam behind her.
“Thanks for the pep talk, Mom.”
I might not have had a support system, but I never regretted not telling Mom what had happened. If I had waited so many years just to tell the right person so I could heal the way I needed to, then that said a lot more about Emery than Mom would ever know.
