Here? As in Crested Butte? Was that his truck she just saw barreling toward Ben’s house?
“Jace, would you mind telling Ben I took his truck? I’m heading over to the house.” On the ranch, most everyone left their keys in the ignition, it was a habit.
“Wait, do you think you should go alone? I can go with you. Or maybe let Ben go if you’re worried about it.”
“It’s okay, I know who it is.” As she pulled the truck away, she caught sight of Jace, still standing on the front porch. She hated to do this to him, but what she’d done today to Billy was worse.
It didn’t look as though anybody was home when he pulled up, but Renie texted him saying they needed to talk a minute ago. Maybe she was home alone. He knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. He turned around and saw the headlights of another truck coming toward the house. He leaned against the porch railing and waited.
“Hi,” she said, jumping out of the truck.
“Hi.”
She walked up the steps to where he stood on the porch. “You drove all the way here.”
“Yep.”
“How come?”
“Cause my mama told me I was being a jackass.”
She stood close enough to touch, and before he could reach for her, she put her fingers through his belt loops, pulling him closer to her.
“About what?”
“What you spent your day doin’.”
She let go of his belt loops, put her arms around his waist and her head against his chest.
“I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
“About today.”
“Do I even wanna know?”
“No. You don’t. But you need to.”
“Shit,” he said. “I was afraid of this.”
“Come on, let’s go inside.”
Renie pulled her vibrating cell out of her pocket as she walked in the front door. “Hey, Mom.”
“Renie, is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Billy’s here.”
“Oh.”
“Jace knows, or at least he knows I left.”
“He came in and told Ben.”
“I gotta go, Mom, but everything’s okay.”
Billy was waiting for her on the couch in the family room when she came in the house. Somehow he’d managed to light the fireplace during her brief conversation. She sat next to him, tucking her feet under her.