by Jessie Evans
“Sometimes,” Reece confessed. “I’m sending Dad a new horse on Friday, by the way. This one is a real pisser. No way you’re breaking him in a month.”
“Are you trying to get me killed?” Tulsi asked, rolling her eyes as she took the plate Mia offered. “I got thrown twice by the last present you sent.”
Reece was quiet for a moment, making Tulsi worry she’d made her sister—who could be as volatile as their father at times—angry. “No, T.T.…I guess I just keep thinking that if you stand up to enough horses, you’ll work up the guts to stand up to Dad. No one can give you permission to stop giving a shit about his bullshit except you, you know?”
Tulsi swallowed, but before she could think of what to say, she heard Reece’s name called on the loudspeaker on the other end of the line.
“I’ve gotta go, talk soon,” her sister said. A second later, the line went dead.
“Reece?” Mia asked, popping a bite of apple pie between her lips.
Tulsi nodded and dug her fork into the golden crust where the vanilla ice cream was just starting to melt, ignoring the churning feeling in her stomach. “She’s riding tonight and had to go.”
“She’s insane. It’s amazing she hasn’t broken every bone in her body by now.”
“She’s broken a lot,” Tulsi said, stabbing another bite of pie. “But she keeps going back for more. Some people don’t learn from their mistakes; they just keep making the same ones over and over again.”
Mia hummed knowingly around her fork. “Talking to her always pisses you off.”
“It does not,” Tulsi said, aiming for a light tone and failing. “I’m not pissed off.”
“And I don’t want to eat half that pie,” Mia said. “You and Reece are just too different. You’re like the angel and devil characters from those old cartoons. You got all the sweet and she got all the trouble.”
Tulsi wrinkled her nose, not liking the comparison for some reason. Usually, she didn’t mind being called sweet. She was sweet. And shy and the kind of person who would bend over backward to avoid making waves or hurting feelings. Even when the church camp director had been making her blood boil on the phone, Tulsi hadn’t raised her voice or said anything impolite. She hadn’t been raised to talk back to her elders, even if her elders were being ridiculous. She’d been raised to nod and smile and to firmly believe that a woman caught more flies with honey than vinegar.
But Reece had been raised the same way, only it hadn’t stuck. Reece had been standing up, speaking out, and letting her sour side show since they were children. She was always ready for a fight and wasn’t shy about calling a pile of poo a pile of poo.
Meanwhile, it had nearly killed Tulsi to stand up to Chad today and fight for something she knew was right. The only person she’d ever stood up to on a regular basis was Pike. For some reason, with him she hadn’t been shy about disagreeing, speaking her mind, or showing him the core of iron at the heart of her. She hadn’t been afraid to show him anything because…he’d loved her.
Really loved her—light and dark, sweet and sour, and everything in between.
The thought made Tulsi’s pie taste like it was curdling in her mouth.
It was true. Pike was the only person who had ever known her, inside and out, even the parts she was sometimes afraid to admit were there, and that’s why she couldn’t bear to be around him. Looking into the eyes of the man she’d once trusted with her every secret and seeing someone who was only interested in a one-night stand was too much to take. She had to avoid him as much as possible until he left town, and now was as good a time as any to let Mia know the float trip was a no go.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” Tulsi said, setting the pie down on the coffee table in front of her, her appetite vanishing in a fresh wave of anxiety. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to make the float trip, after all.”
“What?” Mia’s eyes widened. “But we’ve been planning it all summer.”
“I know,” Tulsi said, hating herself for upsetting her best friend during her wedding week, but knowing she wouldn’t survive twenty-four hours on the river with Pike. “But with my funding getting cut and all the stuff with Dad, I don’t feel like I’d be very good company.”
“But you’re going to be at the wedding, right?” Mia sat her half-eaten pie down on the table beside Tulsi’s, proving how upset she was. Mia wasn’t the type to abandon dessert until her plate was empty and every crumb had been swiped up with a finger.
“Of course! I’m maid of honor. I wouldn’t miss being a part of your big day for the world.”
“Miss it,” Mia said, wiping her hands on her napkin. “I don’t care. Just please, please come on the float trip. It won’t be the same without you and Bubba. It won’t feel like old times at all.”
“You can’t be serious, Mia,” Tulsi said, though she could tell that Mia was dead serious. “You’ll still have Ugly Ross, Pike, and Sawyer with you. It will still be a good time.”
“I don’t care about the good time,” Mia said, her eyes beginning to shine. “This isn’t about that. It’s about proving that nothing good is going to change. That even though I’m getting married and Bubba’s moved away and we’re all getting older, we’re still the same people we’ve always been. That we’re still family and we’re always going to be, no matter what.”
Tulsi reached out, taking Mia’s hand and giving it a strong squeeze. “You will always be my family. I love you with every single piece of my heart. You know that.”
Mia squeezed her hand. “Then come with me, Tulsi, please. Let’s make one more wonderful memory before I say I do.”
Tulsi’s forehead wrinkled. “You aren’t having second thoughts about the wedding, are you? I thought you and Sawyer were doing great.”
“We are,” Mia said, sniffing as she brushed a tear from her cheek. “I love him so much, but that doesn’t mean I’m not nervous, too.”
“Why?” Tulsi asked gently. “Don’t you think you’re making the right choice?” She certainly did—Sawyer worshiped Mia and was one of the kindest, sexiest, most amazing men Tulsi had ever met—but Mia’s opinion was all that mattered.
Mia shook her head so vigorously her curls stretched longer. “No, I know Sawyer’s the one for me. I guess…” She curled her feet beneath her and crossed her arms. “I don’t know, I guess I’m worried there’s no going back after the wedding. I may be codependent or whatever, but your friendship means the world to me. Sawyer’s my heart and soul, but you and Bubba are my arms and legs. I can’t imagine the three of us not being as close as we are now. I just don’t ever want to lose you.”
Tulsi opened her arms, pulling Mia in for a hug as her best friend’s face crumpled. “Oh, sweetie, you won’t ever lose us,” she cooed, rubbing Mia’s shaking shoulders. “Yes, things are changing, but Bubba is a rock, you know that. His love is forever, and so is mine. I’ve loved you since we were little kids and once you have my heart, it’s yours for keeps.”
For keeps. Which is why she still loved Pike and why it hurt so much to realize his heart wasn’t made of the same stuff as hers. But no matter how painful it would be to spend more time with him, she would do it. Because Mia needed her and that was more important than anything else.
“I’ll be on the float trip and at the wedding and anywhere else you need me,” she promised, rubbing her palm in soothing circles around Mia’s back.
“Even the trail ride, bridal shower, scavenger hunt thing on Wednesday?” Mia asked. “Or whatever my insane grandmother is planning?”
“Of course,” Tulsi said. “I’m bringing a few of my good trail horses and I promised Emily I’d come over early and help her saddle all the others.”
“Good,” Mia said with a sniff as she pulled back from the embrace.
“I’m so sorry I upset you,” Tulsi said, feeling awful. “I didn’t realize you were struggling. I’ve been so caught up in my own troubles I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”
“It’s okay.” Mia smiled. “I understand why you’re upset, but I think the float trip will be a good thing for both of us. A chance to get away from it all, you know?”
Tulsi did her best to push thoughts of sharing a canoe with Pike from her mind. Thursday morning would come soon enough and her mama had always told her not to borrow tomorrow’s trouble today.
“And you don’t think I’m crazy, right?” Mia asked, a vulnerable note in her voice.
“No,” Tulsi said with a smile. “I’m just concerned about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“If Bubba and I are your arms and legs, what body part is Ugly Ross?”
Mia snorted with laughter. “Oh, Ross. I love him to death, but he’s just not an arm or a leg, you know? He’s more like an appendix. Sort of useless, but you’d be really upset if he suddenly started acting up.”
Tulsi giggled. “Poor Ross. I’m going to tell him he’s the vestigial organ of friends.”
“Don’t you dare,” Mia said, slapping Tulsi on the thigh with a grin. “You know I love him. It wouldn’t be home without Ugly Ross. Besides, he’s bringing all the food for the float trip, so we don’t want to piss him off.”
Their talk turned to preparations for the trip and Tulsi did her best to think only of the fun she’d have with her best friend, not how hellish it would be to have Pike so close but still a million miles away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pike
Pike and Mia pulled up to their grandmother’s house mid-morning on Wednesday to find the horses for the trail ride already saddled and tied up along the fence. Gram was waiting for them on the porch, sipping a glass of sweet tea in full Wild West attire, including a petticoat under her long skirt and a six-shooter tucked into the holster slung low on her hips.
Mia chuckled as they climbed the porch into the shade. “I thought this was a scavenger hunt¸ Sugar Britches. Should I have brought my sidearm? Are we going to be hunting squirrels on the way down to the creek?”
“It’s not a real pistol, Amelia Louise,” Gram said, pruning her lips. “It’s part of my costume for the Wild West convention next month. I figured I should practice riding in it with family first before I embarrass myself in public.”
“You look great, Gram.” Pike leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. “You’re going to knock all those old cowboys out of their saddles.”
Gram beamed. “See, Mia, this is the way you behave if you want to be my favorite grandchild.”
Mia laughed. “You said I was your favorite last weekend.”
“Favorite granddaughter,” Gram corrected as she stood to give Pike a proper hug.
“I’m you’re only granddaughter,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to find Sawyer. Is he in the barn?”
“Yes,” Gram said. “I put him to work disposing of those terrible dolls you left last time.”
Mia made a stricken sound and dashed off the porch, shouting, “Don’t do it, Sawyer! Those are my naked cowboys! I have more plans for them!”
Gram giggled wickedly as she grabbed her cell phone off the table near her glass of tea and started down the porch steps. “I’ll be right back, Pike,” she whispered. “I need to snap a picture of Mia getting a taste of her own medicine. I’ve got those blow up dolls rigged to fall on her head as soon as she walks into the barn.”
Pike shook his head as he watched Gram scamper across the yard like she was sixteen instead of seventy-something. Gram could insist he was her favorite all day long, but she and Mia were two of a kind and getting tighter with every passing year. It was one of the many ways Lonesome Point had moved on without him. Back when he was in high school, Mia and Gram had constantly butted heads, but now they’d banded together to expand the ghost town and were friends as well as family.
Pike ambled down the steps and over to the line of horses, stopping near a mare with white socks and a shiny black tail he didn’t recognize. But that didn’t mean much. He’d lost track of how many horses called Gram’s barn home a long time ago. He wasn’t a part of this town anymore and usually that was just fine with him. He wasn’t the type who got homesick.
Or at least he hadn’t been until Monday night, when he’d lain awake wondering how different his life would have been if he and Tulsi had stayed together. He’d managed to keep his mind off depressing shit yesterday by helping Sawyer’s crew lay new floorboards in the ghost town schoolhouse, but last night had been a repeat of the night before. Every time he closed his eyes, Tulsi’s face floated in the darkness behind them. Every time he fell asleep, dreams of that happy life they’d never had tortured him awake again.
He didn't want dreams of Tulsi: he wanted the woman herself. At the very least, he wanted her forgiveness, but he had no idea how to go about apologizing for all the stupid things he’d done.
“What do you think, pretty girl?” Pike held his knuckles up for the mare to sniff. “Think I can convince her not to hate me?”
The animal blew out a long breath, setting its lips to flapping.
“Well, what do you know?” Pike asked, smiling as he stroked the animal’s neck. “You’re just a horse.”
“I’d be careful if I were you,” came a sweet drawl from behind him. “She bites when she’s impatient to get going, so watch your fingers.”
Tulsi. Again. He would call it coincidence that she’d appeared right when he was thinking of her, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about her for the past two days. He turned to see her stepping off the porch, a glass of tea in hand. She was dressed in faded blue jeans, a light pink tank top, and a tan cowgirl hat that had seen better days, but she still took Pike’s breath away.
“Hey you,” he said softly.
“Hey yourself,” she said, wiping one hand on her worn jeans. She looked exactly the way she had when she was eighteen and used to meet him in her father’s back pasture for a ride after school. Pike’s chest tightened as he remembered the way she would run to him and throw her arms around his neck, hugging him so tight there was no doubt in his mind that she was thrilled to see him.
Now, she stood with her arms crossed and her tea clutched to her chest, meeting his eyes for only a fraction of a second before her gaze fell to the ground and an awkward silence swelled between them. Pike wanted to say something to ease the tension, but before he could say a word, Ugly Ross and his date roared up the dirt road in Ross’s ancient bug, kicking up dust, which the hot summer wind whipped across the yard.
By the time the dust had cleared, Tulsi was gone.
Pike didn’t see her again until the group of twenty friends and family members were mounted and starting down the trail behind his grandmother’s house. He was near the front of the group, behind Sawyer and Mia; Tulsi was at the very back, trailing behind with Ross’s date, a girl with jet black hair and arm sleeve tattoos who looked like she’d be more comfortable on a skateboard than a horse. Tulsi had always had a soft spot for newbies—going out of her way to make sure they had a great first experience because she wanted everyone to love horses as much as she did—but Pike knew there was more to it this time.
She was avoiding him. It was what he’d expected, but it still made him feel like shit. She was right there, the woman he was still in love with after seven years apart, the woman he’d probably love until the day they put him in the ground, but she might as well be in another time zone. She didn’t want anything to do with him, and that near-kiss Monday afternoon was probably the last time he’d ever touch her.
The knowledge made him ache all over and by the time they reached the end of the trail, where a cool stream ran through a grove of shade trees at the back of Gram’s acreage, his knee felt like it was catching fire. His doctor has said he was clear to ride as long as he wasn’t in pain. The first two and a half miles had been okay, but as he slid to the ground to water his horse by the stream, his bum leg threatened to buckle. He clung to the saddle for a long beat, grimacing as hot licks of pain shot through his connective tissue.
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br /> “You okay?” Mia asked, frowning at him over her horse’s back.
“Fine,” Pike forced out through gritted teeth. He wasn’t going to ruin Mia’s shower by making her worry about him. He’d stick a cold can of soda on his knee during lunch and walk the horse back to Gram’s if he wasn’t feeling better come time to head to the farmhouse.
“Here, let me tie him up for you.” Sawyer appeared beside him and took the reins.
The other man was the same height as Pike but built like a brick shithouse, with massive shoulders and bulky muscles Pike had only seen on pro football players. Sawyer didn’t look like the kind of man who was big on empathy, but he always seemed to have his finger on the pulse of how other people were feeling, especially his bride-to-be.
“I can get you an ice pack if you need it,” Sawyer said too softly for Mia to hear. “I packed a few in the cooler just in case.”
“Thanks, man, that would be great,” Pike said, clapping him on the back. “I should have thought of that. I’m not very good at being a gimp.”
Sawyer smiled. “No worries. Between you, me, and Tulsi I figured one of us would need to ice something. I threw my shoulder out a few weeks ago putting up the new framing for the jailhouse, and Tulsi’s hip has been acting up since she got thrown by that last horse she broke for her dad.”
Pike’s eyes shifted to where Tulsi was helping his grandmother spread white tablecloths, from the saddlebags, on the two long picnic tables set up by the stream, gut clenching at the thought of her being thrown. “She’s breaking horses now? That was always her dad’s thing.”
“His arthritis got too bad a few years ago. Now Tulsi’s handling that side of the business.” Sawyer shook his head as he followed Pike’s gaze across the shaded meadow. “It’s hard to believe a person that small can boss around a thousand pounds of horse, isn’t it?”
“She’s tougher than she looks,” Pike said, forcing his eyes away from Tulsi before he gave himself away. “So did y’all finish up the schoolhouse this morning?”