Her cell phone rang, but when she saw it was Jace calling, she let it go to voicemail.
A few minutes later, she made a call to someone else.
As silly as it seemed even to himself, Jace was nervous. It wasn’t his first trip to the National Finals Rodeo, but it was the first time he had this much at stake.
It wasn’t until they checked into the hotel that Billy told him they’d be roommates. It didn’t bother him, he was just surprised that he wasn’t rooming with Tucker. Then again, Ben and Billy had never been great fans of one another.
It stemmed back four years, when Billy won National Saddle Bronc Champion at the NFR. For some reason, Ben got it into his head that Billy and Ben’s now wife, Liv, were an item. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth. Billy had been in love with Liv’s daughter, Renie.
It didn’t matter how illogical it was, Ben never had much good to say about Billy, and the feeling was mutual.
“Don’t understand why the hell we couldn’t have had our own damn rooms,” Billy mumbled. “We got money problems nobody told me about?”
“It’s not that,” Ben answered. “We were lucky to get the rooms we did. E
verything was sold out months ago.”
Tucker was off to the side, on his phone, probably talking to Blythe. Jace had called Bree and left a message, the day before, but hadn’t heard back from her. Maybe she hadn’t gotten it. It wasn’t like her not to call him back, at least not lately.
He walked in the opposite direction of where his brother stood, and hit redial on her number. The call went straight to voicemail.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” Red said when he answered Bree’s call.
“Do you have a minute?” she asked.
“For you, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
“You’re always so nice to me.”
“What can I do for you? Or are you just calling to shoot the breeze?”
“I’m not. I, uh, need to get away, and was wondering…”
“The ranch is closed up tight for the season…”
As she feared.
“But you can stay over at the lake house with me. If you wouldn’t be too uncomfortable.”
“That’s so generous of you, Red. I don’t want to impose.”
“You should know, I don’t offer if I don’t want to. I’d love to have you visit.”
“Thanks…” Her voice trailed off.
“Do you want to talk about whatever it is, now?”
She didn’t; she couldn’t.
“The semester ends in a few days, and then winter break lasts until the first week of January.”
He told her she could stay as long as she wanted, and offered to pick her up at the airport in Hailey, so she didn’t have to rent a car.
“I need to ship something up to you, something I don’t want to bring on the plane.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what’s on your mind?”
“I can’t,” she couldn’t say any more. If she tried, she knew she’d start to cry, and then he’d worry more than she was sure he already was.