Instead, he got in his truck and started the seven-hour drive home. It would take him close to five to get to Fort Collins. He’d decide then whether to stop and talk to her about it.
It was one in the morning when he drove by her exit. It wouldn’t be right to wake her up over this. He decided to drive home and talk to her in the morning. The envelope sat on the seat next to him, unopened.
Renie logged onto Twitter and saw on RodeoChat that Billy hadn’t placed either Friday or Saturday night. He’d probably head home early Sunday morning, and when he got there, she’d be waiting for him. It’s what she would’ve done anyway, before things changed between them.
She loved her horse, but if Pooh wasn’t boarded in Billy’s barn, she wouldn’t go and see her as often as she did. Pooh was the excuse for her visit, Billy was the reason.
When she got to the house a little after nine, Sookie was sitting at the kitchen counter reading the newspaper. She knew Sookie, he’d worked for her mom last year. She talked with him for a few minutes, and then went downstairs to the room she usually stayed in—the one that had been hers all her life. If Sookie hadn’t been there, she might have gone and crawled into Billy’s bed. Probably not, but she might have.
Billy got home just after two in the morning, and saw Renie’s car and Sookie’s truck. God, if there were ever a time he regretted telling Sookie he could stay at the house, it was now.
What was she doing here anyway? He hadn’t texted her last night, and she hadn’t texted him either. He bet she worried about him, since she hadn’t heard from him. He often texted after he rode, and he would’ve, if Roxanne’s grandfather hadn’t gotten there when he had. He hadn’t known what to say to her after that conversation, so he didn’t say anything.
He went inside and went straight downstairs to her room, instead of his. As selfish as it was to wake her, he needed her. He took off his clothes, eased into the double bed, and wrapped himself around her.
She murmured, turned so her body faced his, but didn’t wake. And he didn’t go to sleep.
It was after seven when she finally woke. Billy thought he’d go crazy waiting for her to.
“Hi,” she said, her voice heavy with sleep.
“Hi.”
“I didn’t expect you until later this morning. When did you get in?”
“Couple hours ago.”
She opened her eyes wider. “How come you came home in the middle of the night, Billy?”
He hesitated and ran his hand over his face. “Listen, I got somethin’ I have to talk to you about, Renie. It’s important.”
She sat up, and without realizing she did it, pulled the sheet closer to her. She was wearing that sweatshirt again, the one that used to be his. It wasn’t as though the sheet covered anything the sweatshirt didn’t.
“Come here first.”
“No, Billy.” She started to get out of bed, but he held her where she was.
There was that look again, the fear he saw in her eyes last weekend. She was afraid he was about to hurt her—and he was.
The envelope was close enough that he could reach it. He sat up and pulled her into him, so he had one arm around her, holding her tighter than he should.
“A man came to see me last night after I rode. He brought this letter with him. I haven’t opened it yet, but I know what’s in it.”
“What?” she whispered.
“He came to tell me that his granddaughter was killed in an accident.”
He meant to keep talking, to tell her the rest, but the look in her eyes was ripping him to pieces. He pulled her closer, tighter, and she rested her head in the crook of his shoulder.
“She has a baby. A baby she believed is mine.”
Renie gasped.
“I don’t know what to think,” he continued.
“Are you going to open it?”
“At some point, I guess I’m gonna have to.”