Page 13 of Everyone Loved Her
She pursed her lips, her eyes shifting out to the barn and corral, where Blaze and his help were once again working with more horses. “I took some sleeping pills.” Mom’s voice was quiet, and it was a little shocking, considering the womannevertook anything—not even Tylenol for a headache.
“That’s okay,” I said, seeing the flash of guilt in her hazel eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with that. If it helps, then it helps.”
She nodded, her eyes stuck on the arena. “Just for now.”
“Yeah, just for now.” I glanced down at my cup of coffee, overloaded with creamer. I was struggling to findthe words, knowing that she was hurting more than even I was in the moment. My dad had been her whole world, and while she was stronger than most—and hardened from the loss of Sam, I knew that this wasn’t easy for her.
I just wished that I knewhowto be there for her. I didn’t even really know how to be there for myself, feeling numb and still reeling a bit from last night.
“So, Sarah is good?” Mom spoke up, her tone brighter. “I haven’t seen her in so long—well, I take that back, actually. I see her around town all the time, but I never have a chance to talk with her. You know how that goes, but I know Sam was close with Lucas at some point, I think.”
“Yeah, well, looking back, I should’ve just ducked and ran,” I chuckled, relieved to see a smile tugging at her thin lips. “But yeah, I think she’s good. Well, shesaysshe is. She basically just left me at the bar in the middle of a conversation.” I couldn’t hide the confusion from my face. “That was kind of weird.”
Mom raised her brows at me. “Not very thoughtful of her.”
“Well, I don’t know that I would go that far with it,” I said quickly. “She seemed to be a little... agitated, maybe? I don’t know. Her phone just kept going off, and so maybe something was up. She talked about dating a lot of men. I can’t imagine that being an easy thing to balance.”
“Huh,” was all my mom said in response, her eyes flicking from me to the boys on horses.
I cleared my throat, shifting in my chipped wooden rocker. “Who knows. Drama probably.”
“Maybe.” She turned to me. “Did you see anyone else you know there? I figured that’s where all the kids are at these days.”
“Well, first of all, I’m almost thirty-four, so I don’t know if that counts as being a kid. Secondly, um...” my voice trailedoff as a lump caught in my throat, Garrett coming back to mind. “No, I didn’t. I guess maybe I don’t knoweveryonein town like I thought I did.” I hated lying to her, but with dad’s death still fresh, I hated the thought of drudging up the past even more. We didn’t need to discuss Garrett. I wasn’t even sure I could right now.
“I always forget how fast the time goes by,” Mom commented, getting a distant look in her eyes. “You blink and the years are gone, though I wasexpecting to have some grandchildren by now.” She shot me a playful smirk to which I rolled my eyes, both of us laughing.
“Maybe someday when I actually find a man who’s not a worthless piece of shi?—”
“Language,” Mom warned me but then made a face. “But yeah, Jared was a piece of work. I’m glad that’s over. I never liked him all that much.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I ever saw in him.” I let out a sigh, my mind flashing back to the past nearlydecadethat I had wasted on my ex-husband. There was a time that I had been severely broken up over the whole marriage ending, but not anymore. The heartache was replaced by a potent reminder of the fact I ignored all the red flags he brought with him, all because I was desperate to move on from my past. It had worked a while, but it wasn’t an actual solution.
“You know,” Mom gave me a cautious look, “Now that Dad is gone, I don’t know who’s going to keep up with Garrett. I’m sure you know that he was down there at that mechanic shop at least once a week. Well, I think I told you that.”
I nearly spit the coffee right out of my mouth at the mention. “Oh?” I croaked, before clearing my throat. “I knew he visited him, but not that often.”
Mom took a sip of her own coffee. “He’s married now, but I don’t know how well it’s working out for him. I don’t think anything is working out for him.”
“Wait, what?” I jerked back in my chair, shaking my head in disbelief. “He was... Sarah mentioned that she wasseeinghim for a while—or something. It was hard to tell what she meant.”
Mom’s brow furrowed. “Oh... But he’s married to Brittany Romano. She goes to our church. Maybe something happened though. I don’t know. I don’t keep up with the drama. I haven’t seen any divorces in the paper though.”
“Well, it’s not true if it hasn’t made the paper,” I mumbled under my breath, my eyes dropping to the still mostly full coffee in my lap. There was a time that I thought I wouldalwaysbe here in Rustdale, starting a family of my own and letting the kids grow up on the ranch like I did...
But that wasagesago.
We fell into silence after that, and my mind ran back to last night, back to Garrett saying he would come see me today. Would he actually do it? And how would I explainthatto Mom, if he did? I brushed a few strands of loose hair from my face, making a note to redo my hair when I got a chance.
“When do you think you’ll go see Greg?” Mom’s voice caught my attention. “I know that it’s pretty cut and dry, but you know how those things are, I just feel like it’s better to be lawyer to lawyer. I don’t have the stomach for it.”
I laughed softly. “I don’t think Dad’s will is very complicated, Mom. He probably just left everything to you.”
“No,” Mom said, her lips pursed. “That’s not what he did at all.”
“What? What else would he have done?” My stomachknotted up. “There’s no way that he would’ve put in a clause to sell it or something.”
“No, there’s not a clause to sell, but I know that he gave you partial ownership—and honey, we aren’t exactly doing well. Thereisa chance that we’ll have to sell. We haven’t been in the black in years. Savings floated us for most of the time, and then past that...I don’t know. We’ve had some big dry spells. There’s a lot you’re gonna have to look over. I should’ve told you before now, but it just…”