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God, I hate this. My ankle’s fine. This all feels unnecessary. Though, I’m sure it’s not the real reason I’m here. I heard mention of my mental health.
When I look Sara’s way, she’s staring back at me in nervous anticipation, and I hate that I’m still not ready to talk. “Not yet. Maybe soon.” I shrug.Or maybe not.
“I understand,” Sara says as she pats my arm before sitting up straighter in her chair. “Want to know what happened to Grant on the farm today? It involves mud.” She bites back a smile and bounces her eyebrows, changing the subject without further question.
And I adore her for it. “Absolutely.” I smile.
With a beaming grin of her own, Sara regales me with the tale of her husband’s “literal fall from grace”—as she calls it.And rightly so. He apparently fell off their horse, Grace, straight into the mud. It’s exactly what I needed to hear, and even though I’m ninety percent sure she made the entire thing up for my benefit, because Grant’s an amazing rider, it still makes me laugh. Something I didn’t think would be possible today.
“So, next on my list is candy,” she says when she’s finished her story, sitting back proudly.
“Your list?” I ask hesitantly, looking at her hands.
Sara reaches down to something and giggles. “I wrote down a list of things I could do to cheer you up.”
Okay. “How did you know I’d need that much cheering up?” Yes, I rolled my ankle and got stuck at the top of a mountain. But she didn’t know that before arriving here.
Sara sighs. “Because of the look on Jesse’s face when he raced out the door to find you, and the look on yours when you came back.”
Oh. Are we that obvious?
“I promise I’m not fishing for answers,” she adds before I can speak. “I know you’ll talk when you’re ready. I just want you to know, I’m trying.” She squeezes my arm before leaning over and pulling several bags of candy out of nowhere. I didn’t even see her bring anything in.
“Thank you. I know you are. And I appreciate it. It’s a great start. But I am curious, what’s next?”
Sara grins and I can’t help but smile in return. “Next is a rom-com, specifically one from the nineties.”
“That’s good. I like it.”
“Then I have music and wine. Though you’re probably not supposed to have wine right now.” She grimaces. “Anyway, last, I have…” She hesitates before cringing. “Jesse.”
“Jesse?” I bolt upright as my eyes flash to the door, as though I’ll see him standing there, waiting. But he’s not. Sara scrunches her nose but doesn’t answer right away.
“Well?”
“He’s still out there.” She tenses. “And from the broken look on his face, I’m going to guess something happened between the two of you, only I wasn’t sure if speaking to him would help or hinder the situation. Which is why he’s last on my list. Sort of anif-all-else-fails, backup plan.”
Her reasoning is good, I’ll give her that, but I’m stuck on the words “he’s still out there.” I was under the impression he left. Probably because I wastoldhe left. I don’t know how I feel knowing that he hasn’t.
Sara frowns exaggeratedly. “It was a bad idea, wasn’t it?”
“No, not abadidea. I’m just not sure it’s a good one.”
“Do you want to know what he’s doing?”
Do I?That doesn’t seem like progress. Although it would be nice to know that he’s hurting as much as I am. “Sure.” I shrug.
“He’s moping around and begging to see you.”
“Good.”
“Good?” Sara stares at me in shock until I smile.
“Trust me, he deserves it.”
“I’ll always trust you. You know that. Want me to get Grant to kick his ass?”
I’d love to say yes, but something tells me he’s been through enough already. And if anyone’s going to kick his ass, it’s going to be me.
