“Ah. So what you’re saying is that you’re upset with your mother for leaving town when she didn’t know you were in town. Is that right?”
Bree hated when her father was right. Not just her father, she hated it when she was wrong and anyone else was right.
“Okay, so she didn’t know exactly when I was coming home, but still. How often does she go to Crested Butte?”
“Depends on how you define ‘often.’ Since Liv moved there, and you and your sisters developed lives of your own, she’s in Crested Butte at least once or twice a month.”
“Once or twice a month? Why?”
Mark put his hand on top of Bree’s. “Stop this, and tell me what’s really going on.”
“I just didn’t expect her to be gone.” Bree put her head in her hands. Tears threatened, and she wasn’t a six-year-old; she was a grown-up. The fact that her mother wasn’t home shouldn’t make her cry.
“You could always go too. Renie and Blythe are there. I think that’s why your mother went. Jump in the car, you won’t get there much after she does.”
She couldn’t, but she didn’t want to tell her dad why n
ot. Bree looked over and saw a suitcase near the front door. “Whose is that?”
“Mine.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to help your sister Brooke and her husband put a deck on their new house. If you don’t want to go to Crested Butte, you could come with me.”
If there was anything she could think of worse than going to Crested Butte, and seeing Jace, it would be going to visit her older sister.
Tucker was insisting they stop in Santa Fe for the night. Billy and Jace wanted to keep driving.
“The sooner we get to El Paso and pick up the bronc, the sooner we can be on our way back. You are in a hurry to get back, aren’t you?” Jace asked him.
“Not in such a hurry that I don’t want to sleep.”
“Jesus Christ,” swore Billy. “Is this how it’s gonna be with the two of you? One of you whinin’ all the damn time about somethin’?” He pointed to a service station they were about to pass. “Pull in there.”
Jace stopped the truck. Billy got out the passenger door and walked back, toward the trailer. When neither Jace nor Tucker followed him, he walked back and pounded on the window.
“Get your ass outta the truck,” he yelled at Tucker.
“What’s he talkin’ about?” Tucker asked Jace.
“No idea.”
He got out and walked back to where Billy stood by the trailer.
“What?”
“You wanted to sleep, go sleep.”
Tucker opened the door. “Why didn’t you show me this before we left Crested Butte? I could’ve been sleeping comfortably this whole time.”
Billy shook his head and glared at Tucker. “Cause I didn’t know I was travelin’ with somebody too stupid to know the first thing about a rig.” He stomped off, back in the direction of the truck, and opened the driver’s door.
“Get out,” he barked at Jace. “I’m drivin’.”
“What the hell was that all about?” Jace asked when he got back in the truck.
“Your idiot brother didn’t know he could sleep in the rig. And he’s our newest partner. This is just fuckin’ great. Tell me this, does he at least know the difference between a bronc and a bull, or am I gonna have to explain that to him too?”