“Did you say he’s in Spain?”
“Yeah. He’ll be back around Thanksgiving.”
“Thanksgiving?”
“Back off, Ben. I’m not kidding.”
Liv came into the kitchen and put her arms around Ben’s waist. “Causing problems, cowboy?”
“Nah. Matchmaking. That’s all I’m doin’. Right, Renie?”
Renie smiled and walked toward the stairs. “I’m happy to be home.”
“I’m happy to have you here, sweet girl. It’s nice to see you smile.”
“Thanks, Mom. And thanks, Ben, for letting me stay here.”
“Your home, too. Always and forever.”
Renie threw herself across her bed and rolled onto her back. She wasn’t ready to declare open season on her relationship with Jace. If you could call it that. He’d made it clear he wanted to continue what they started at the ranch, but she wasn’t sure she did.
Billy had been on her mind more often since she got here. She told her mom that she was done spending all her time thinking about him, but she was lying.
Ben climbed into bed next to Liv and wiggled his arm under her to pull her closer. “What do you think she’s gonna do?”
“I don’t know. She won’t talk about Billy. If she were as ‘done’ with him as she says she is, she wouldn’t be so sensitive about him.”
“What about Pooh? Should I go get her? Would that make it easier on everybody?”
Liv kissed his cheek. “That’s sweet of you to offer.” She put her head down on his chest. “Let’s give it a little while longer. Her horse, her responsibility—also her only remaining tie to Billy.”
“You’re thinking Pooh is still there on purpose.”
“Very much so.”
“Maybe I should stay out of it.”
“Usually best when you’re dealing with affairs of someone else’s heart.”
13
It had been two weeks since Renie arrived back in the life she thought she left behind in May. While she felt better than before she left, being back here drove home how much the changes in her life had only been temporary. She needed something to keep her busy, so she didn’t dwell so much on her unhappiness.
With places gearing up for ski season, Renie asked Ben if they had any openings at The Goat, the Rice family’s bar on the main drag downtown. He was quick to say yes, and told her he wanted her to stay busy, hang out with people her own age, and not slip back into the funk she’d been in last spring. She agreed. That was why she asked about the job in the first place.
“I hope you’re okay with it,” he said to Liv after he’d already told Renie she could work there.
Renie looked at her mother with a hopeful expression.
“It’s something, anyway, Renie,” Liv answered. “You’ll be twenty-four in three months. I really wish I could talk you into getting back into the vet program in Fort Collins.”
“No.”
Liv held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, I’ll drop it.”
A few hours later, Renie woke with a start. She’d been dreaming about Billy again. She wished she could find the damn off-switch for Billy dreams. She’d give anything not to think about him, dream about him, yearn for him, ache for him, not miss him so much that her heart hurt the way it did.
She thought by now it would have gotten easier, but it felt the same today as it had earlier this year, when she’d left him in San Antonio, standing in the hospital doorway holding his baby.