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“What exactly does that mean?” I asked my mom’s doctor at her retirement home as I washed dishes in the sink. My house was totally quiet save for the sound of my phone on speaker on the windowsill over the sink.
“It wasn’t nearly as bad as the last stroke she had, but it’s clear to me this might become a regular occurrence. She’s in her late seventies, Mr. Neimons.”
“I’ll drive down to visit as soon as I can,” I replied before ending the call. I sighed heavily, setting the wet dishes on a rack to air dry. I’d put my mom in a retirement community a decade or so ago now, one that had a nursing home attached to it. I told myself she’d never get to the point where she needed round-the-clock care, but I was closing in on that now. She’d had a stroke last year that nearly ended her life, and another smaller one just a few days ago.
I didn’t visit her as often as I should have, and selfishly it was because the last few times I’d gone, she hadn’t recognized me as her son. I’d spent most of the visit introducing myself and convincing her I wasn’t my father, her own long dead husband, sitting in the armchair across from her bed.
I was, apparently, very good at pushing away the people who mattered the most to me.
I sat down in the armchair in the living room and flipped on the TV to the sports channel, absently listening to the sportscasters. My phone buzzed, and I looked down to find a text from Randy, one of the senior ranchers who worked beneath me at the ranch. He lived in the bunkhouse as well, but only in the summer months. They were all playing poker and wanted me to join.
Fine, but only to take Keely off my mind. I wasn’t too happy about the fact she’d gone to stay with Pete for the weekend and I wasn’t entirely sure why. Guilt, maybe, for giving her the cold shoulder for the past three days.
She hadn’t deserved it.
A little while later, I found myself sitting in the snug living room at the bunkhouse playing poker with the guys. The air was ripe with cigar smoke and the smell of whiskey, a glass of which was in my hand as I laid down my cards. Ben was a card shark, I was sure. He’d be going to bed five-hundred dollars richer than when he’d woken up this morning. I drained the rest of my whiskey and rose, making to leave and go to bed. I felt the effects of the hard liquor right away, my whole-body tingling.
Damn, it’d been a long time since I’d had a stiff drink.
But instead of it calming my desire for Keely, it had only made it much, much worse.
I walked back to my house, hoping the night air would dispel the memory of her lips on mine.
By the time I’d reached my house and was readying for bed, the only thing I could think about was kissing her again, and again. Kissing her mouth, her neck, her breasts, that sweet, sweet—
Heat rose over my body as I tried to fall asleep. I lay there for some time, feeling like a complete jackass for being so bent out of shape for wanting my best friend’s little sister.
I could have her. Pete couldn’t say or do shit.
Why not have her?
I was drunk. I shouldn’t have been pulling out my cellphone and looking through my texts from nearly two years ago. I didn’t have her number saved, but we’d texted back and forth a few times after the whole showdown with Kirk and Moira.
She’d texted to check in on me, and I’d checked in on her. That had been that.
All I wanted to say to her to now was to get the fuck out of her brother’s house and get her ass over to mine.
I didn’t say you could leaveI typed out without even realizing what I was saying.You better be back before I’m saddled up tomorrow.
I sent it.
“Shit,” I whispered, looking at the text. It was nearly one in the morning. She was probably asleep. I’d have no excuse for it, either, I realized.
All I knew for sure was that I’d just done something I couldn’t take back. I’d told myself I couldn’t do this. I’d told her we couldn’t do this.
I changed my mind.
I didn’t want Keely to run to Pete anymore. I didn’t want her to feel like he was all she had.
Because I wanted the person she ran to, to be me.
But then I woke up the next morning and had forgotten I’d even gone to play poker with the guys. I hadn’t realized I’d texted Keely until I was staring at the text, my heart racing.Oh, fuck. Keely had gotten under my skin more than I was willing to admit to myself, but now I’d practically just admitted it to her.
I looked up from my phone to the screen on the front door snapping closed and found the woman in question standing at the threshold to my house, ruffled and panting.
ChapterNine
