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She leaned forward to caress her horse’s mane right as the snake uncoiled. The sudden movement made her horse rear up. Grace grasped desperately at the reins, but Arcadia bucked again, throwing her to the ground, her head hitting a rock jutting out from the dry earth.
“Oh my God.” Her mom jumped down, holding her own horse with one hand and reaching for Arcadia with the other. Grace blinked, pain throbbing at her temple. She reached up to her head, unsurprised when she saw her fingers coated with blood.
“Honey, are you okay?” her mom asked, her voice urgent.
Grace wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “I think so.” What an end to a terrible week. “Is Arcadia all right?” she asked, blinking at the brightness of the sun as she looked over at her horse.
“He’s fine.” Her mom patted his head. “I’ve got him. You want me to go get help?”
She shook her head.Ouch. That was a bad idea. Lifting her t-shirt to the cut from the rock, she wiped away the blood. “How does it look?”
Her mom grimaced. “Like you need some good cleaning up. You sure you’re up to riding back? I can get Logan to bring the ATV over to pick you up.”
“I’m sure. I just hit my head, that’s all. No big deal.”
Her mom pressed her lips together. “It’s a big deal to me.”
Slowly, Grace rolled onto her feet and stood, her head reeling from the sudden change in position. She touched her cut again – it felt stickier now. She was already clotting, that was good. She walked over to where her mom was holding Arcadia. The horse had calmed, especially since the copperhead had slithered out of sight. Patting her gently, Grace whispered calming words into her horse’s ear, then slid her boot into the stirrup and hoisted herself up.
“We’ll take it slow,” her mom told her.
“Sure.” Grace nodded, letting her mom lead the way. The horses were walking this time, not galloping the way Grace preferred, but that was okay.
Because for the first time all week, she hadn’t thought about Michael. That was good, wasn’t it?
Maybe she’d get over him after all.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
He’d spentthe last few days trying – and failing – not to think of her. Which was almost impossible at the best of times, especially when you no longer had a job to distract you. He didn’t even have driver duties to distract him since it was the weekend. So he was sitting in the living room, watching some re-run of a reality tv show because he couldn’t stand to watch anything that involved emotions.
He should look for a house. A job. Make some kind of plans for the future. But he couldn’t find the energy to do anything at all. Which explained why he was sitting in his mom and stepdad’s house on a Saturday evening when he was in his forties and should be anywhere fucking else.
With her.
“Hey.” Cam sat down on the chair opposite him, scowling, and Michael knew there was only one reason for that scowl. Michael’s mom had sent him to have a ‘talk.’ Which was pretty funny because Michael was almost middle-aged and Cam definitely was.
Or at least it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
“Hi.” Michael picked the remote up and shut off the tv. No point in doing this to the soundtrack of New Yorkers screaming at each other.
“Your mom…” Cam trailed off, running his fingers through his hair. “Well, I… yeah. How are you doing?”
“I’m good.”
“Uh huh.”
There was silence. The two grown men looked at each other, and it felt like there was understanding there. Neither of them was exactly excited about having this conversation.
“You want to tell her you tried, and I wasn’t forthcoming?” Michael asked.
Relief flooded Cam’s face. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot.”
Yeah, that’s what he’d like, too. To be left alone. “I’ll be okay,” he reassured his stepdad. On Monday I’ll look for somewhere to live. And then I’ll work out what I want to do with my life.”
“You’re still going to stay around here, right?” Cam asked. “I know your mom’s treatment has finished but there’s no need to up and leave.”
“For a while.” Until his mom was feeling completely right, at least. He wasn’t sure he could stand to live in this small town after that. Not whenshewas here.
