AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m really sorry, Hannah,” he said. “If we can just maybe pause for a while, I think I’ll be able to get to a place where I can be the man you deserve.”
“Luke,” she said, but he honestly couldn’t hear her say anything else.
“Please,” he begged. “I just need a break.”
Silence poured through the line for several long seconds. Hannah finally said, “Okay,” and Luke sighed.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Good luck, Luke,” she said. “I honestly mean that. I hope you can find what you’re looking for.” With that, the call ended.
Luke put his phone back in his pocket and faced the corral. He suddenly didn’t care about helping with the horses. The resort employed three full-time groomsmen to run the riding programs and take care of the horses. He only helped because it helpedhim.
Everything he did came down to how it madehimfeel.
Perhaps it was time to think about how someone else felt.
Luke turned on his heel and headed away from the horses. Away from the stables. Away from this resort out here in the western wilds of Beeville. He didn’t need to be here today, and he had plenty of other places he could go to try to understand the gravity of what he’d done.
* * *
Forty minutes later,Luke pulled into the cemetery. He’d been driving for a while, trying to figure out where to go and what to do. His opponent had been Robert Houser, and he’d thought about going to the Houser’s house and apologizing for his actions.
In the end, he hadn’t been brave enough to do that. He wasn’t even sure where they lived, though they had to be in the surrounding area, as the fighting district didn’t extend that far.
He didn’t know where Robert was buried, but he stepped over to the caretaker’s office. He knocked on the door and twisted the knob at the same time, and when he entered, a woman came through a door in the back.
“Good morning,” she said, clearly surprised to find him there.
“Good morning,” he replied. “I’m looking for someone I know is buried here. Is there a map or anything like that?”
“Sure,” she said, settling in front of her computer. “Name?”
“Uh, Robert Houser.”
“Robert…Houser,” she said as she typed his name into her machine. “He’s in plot F-twenty-seven.” She turned in her chair and picked up a paper map. “It starts with A in the center.” She circled the middle of the paper. “Goes out in concentric circles from there. F is over here, on the side of the hill. Twenty-seven will be down on the terrace.”
She smiled at him and handed him the paper. He looked at the scribbles she’d put on it and turned to leave. He remembered to say, “Thanks,” over his shoulder as he left, but his mind could barely think past that.
Time slowed down as he searched for the grave, but he eventually found it. He’d only taken two wrong turns, and no one else was in the cemetery that morning.
He looked down at the headstone with Robert’s name on it, and everything from the fight rushed at him. He could smell the sweat that always came with a boxing match. The jeers and yells from the crowd echoed in his ear.
Tick’s mint gum usually rode the air between them, as he sat and yelled instructions at Luke between every round.Watch the right hook. He’s creeping around on your left, because he knows you’re hurt over there.
Keep your gloves up, Holt. You can’t afford to take another hit like that.
Hit him hard, Luke. So hard, he won’t get up again. You’ve got the strength, and if you can just get in that one hit, his speed won’t beat you.
On and on, and Luke had loved every minute of it.
Luke had hit Robert as hard as he could. He hadn’t been able to get up again, though he’d tried.
Luke had hit him again. And again. And again.
It had taken the referee and three more men to get Luke off of Robert.
His eyes filled with tears, and he knelt down in front of the dark brown stone. He reached out toward the letters, but he didn’t touch them. “I’m so sorry,” he said, pure agony and regret flowing through him. “Your family was right. I was on steroids, and I’m not making an excuse, but there was some definite rage in that fight.”
