Looking for Trouble (Jackson: Girls' Night Out 1)

“Oh, speaking of...” Isabelle muttered.

“That’s not what I meant. We didn’t do anything. Except argue.”

“About his mom?”

“Kind of. I said he needed to stick around and take care of her. Make sure she’s really okay. He said I needed to grow up and move out of here. Go somewhere new. As if I could just walk away from my dad. I told him to fuck off.” She shook her head in exasperation, then noticed that her friends weren’t giving quite the same look. “What?”

Lauren shrugged.

“What?” Sophie repeated.

“You’ve been here your whole life.”

She bristled. “So? It’s a great place. Ninety-nine percent of the people who live here moved from someplace else, because everyone loves Jackson.”

Lauren didn’t back down. “You don’t love Jackson.”

Sophie looked at Isabelle for support, but Isabelle shrugged. “What if you’re meant to be somewhere else and you don’t even know it?”

“You guys, my dad needs me.”

“For what?” countered Lauren. “To cook and clean? I’m sure he can handle that just fine on his own. What’s he going to do when you get married and you’re too busy to help?”

Sophie didn’t say what she was thinking, because she was thinking that she’d never expected to get married. She couldn’t. Because she needed to take care of her dad. And because she was just like her mom. Her friends wouldn’t want to hear that even if it was the truth. “I take care of the books, too. All of the bills and accounting and—”

“Sophie,” Isabelle interrupted. “There must be a thousand men his age in Wyoming who take care of that for their own ranches. Or they hire an accountant. I bet if you asked your dad he’d say he doesn’t need you.”

Sophie gulped the last of her martini. How could she say that? What if it were actually true?

“I’ll get you another,” Isabelle volunteered, setting off for the bar again.

“That’s terrible,” Sophie whispered once she was gone.

“What’s terrible?” Lauren asked.

“Everyone keeps saying that he doesn’t need me. That I should leave. But what is family for? We need each other. We take care of each other.”

“I love my son to pieces, but he’s off at college now and I’m fine. If he ends up back here at some point, I’d love that, but if he’s happier somewhere else that’s where I’d want him to be.”

“You’re a lot younger than my dad, Lauren.”

“He’s not the issue, Sophie. You’ve hung around here way too long. You want to travel, right? You always talk about it, but you never do it.”

“I’ll travel,” she said defensively.

“Sure,” Lauren said, but her smile was too sympathetic. It wasn’t pity for what had happened to Sophie yesterday; it was pity for what happened every single day.

“You have the same life,” Sophie insisted. “We live in the same place and work at the same library. If it’s fine for you, why isn’t that enough for me?”

“Because I think you want more. And I think you’re afraid to take that chance.”

Sophie stared down into her empty glass. Did everyone think that?

“Hey, I might be wrong. But think about it. You don’t need to make any life-changing decisions. You could just try a road trip. Take a vacation. Spend a couple of weeks somewhere else.”

But Lauren didn’t understand. If she left for two weeks, her dad really could realize he didn’t need her.

A new drink appeared. Sophie took it from Isabelle’s hand and drank it quickly. “Sure,” she eventually said. “I’ll take a vacation.”