“I agree.”
“Really? First you challenge me, then wait for me to process through it, and then simply agree with everything I say?”
Red looked at her with softened eyes. She waited for him to say something, and about the time she was ready to give up and walk away, he said, “You know what you need to do. Get out of your own way and do it.”
“More riddles,” she huffed.
“On that note,” he rose, “I’m going out of town for a few days. I hope you’re still here when I get back, and we have the chance to fish together before you go back to Colorado.”
Bree’s eyes filled with tears. “Red?”
He stood behind her, put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “You’re gonna get through this, Bree. Give yourself the time and space to do it. You said it yourself, this isn’t something you can force.”
He walked away, leaving Bree sitting in the dining room of the main lodge. She’d never felt more alone than she did right then.
Jace and his parents stopped in Casper, Wyoming, for the night, since it was about halfway between Helena and Monument. He called Billy and asked if he could stay at his place in Black Forest. His mom and dad were staying with Tucker and Blythe.
When he pulled into the driveway, his mother argued with him about it.
“You’d make more progress with your brother if you stayed with him rather than here.”
“Drop it, Mama. I’m not showing up at their house unannounced.”
She kept at him, insisting that they were both being stubborn. Once they saw each other, it would be different, she told him.
He ignored her, climbed out of the truck, grabbed his bag, and walked into Billy’s house without looking back. It might mean he’d be stranded there for the night, but he didn’t care.
He was feeling the way he’d expected to, like an outsider in a life that had once been his. If he hadn’t met Irene at Colorado Black Mountain Ranch that summer, none of this would be happening. His life’s chain of events would be entirely different. It wouldn’t have changed what happened in the past though, so regardless of how it came about, his role in the accident would’ve come to light eventually.
Through Irene, Jace had met Billy Patterson, and even though it had been complicated for a while, they’d become close friends.
Two Thanksgivings ago, Jace reconnected his parents with another branch of the Rice family, who they hadn’t seen since they were kids. Irene’s mother, Liv, had married Ben Rice, and they invited Jace and his family to join them in Crested Butte for the holiday. That had been when Jace and Tucker met Blythe Cochran, who was now Tucker’s wife.
It felt as though that week was a lifetime ago. In reality, it hadn’t been two years.
Jace opened the refrigerator, expecting it to be empty. Billy and Irene lived in Crested Butte almost full-time. He should have thought of that before he let his parents leave with t
he truck. To his surprise, it was stocked with beer.
He sat on the back deck, took in the view of Black Forest, pulled out his cell phone, and called the one person he knew would welcome him with open arms and not an ounce of judgment: Lyric Simmons.
He’d been with Blythe the night they met Lyric, the week before the start of the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Once again, it felt as though that had been a hundred years ago; so much had happened since then.
Blythe and Lyric had become fast friends, and shortly after they met, Lyric hired Blythe to work with her at RodeoChat, a social media-based outlet for the latest rodeo news.
“Jace Rice, how the hell are ya?” was the way Lyric answered his call.
“I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse. How ’bout you, girl?”
“Busy, as always, back and forth between here and Oklahoma. Never a dull moment, right?”
“Right. Hey, uh, I’m in town and wondered if you would like to get together?”
“In town meaning what? Where are you exactly?”
“Billy and Irene’s place. In a couple days, I’m headin’ down to Crested Butte.”
“You see Tuck and Blythe yet?”