Page 4 of Everyone Loved Her

Garrett sighed as he stared at the back of his eyelids, his consciousness beginning to come and go. “Yep, lucky me.”

She turned on a Zach Bryan song, and the harmonica intro filled the cab. He tried to focus on the lyrics, hearing something about a funeral. It felt like torture to hear that word. The last one he was supposed to have been at was Sam’s, and he’d nevermade it. He’d been in jail. He should’ve been there for his best friend. He should’ve been there for the family that had become his own.

And for Beth.

He took a deep breath as Sarah took a hard right off the highway, bouncing the car down a gravel road. He felt the tires slide a little on the rocks, and bile rose up in the back of his throat as it triggered his mind to run wild. Sounds of a distant scream filled his ears, and he raised his hands to cover them like a child, biting down on the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted copper.

It hadn’t taken much for him to realize he had a weak mind. He always had, maybe. Maybe it was a good thing he and Sam never made it to enlist. Maybe it was a good thing Beth ran off and found someone who wasn’t scared to tell the world he was seeing her.

“You know what I heard…” Sarah’s voice trailed off as the car came to a stop, and the music faded suddenly. “Garrett?” Her voice was charged with concern, and he heard the distant click of the seatbelt and opening of the door. A gust of warm air blew through the car as she swung his door open.

His eyes fluttered open and he looked at Sarah, panic written all over her face. “Sorry,” he slurred. “Thought I’d take a quick nap.”

“You lookeddeadback here,” she grimaced, swatting his arm. “Your color was all wrong. I was thinking you mighta had alcohol poisoning or something.”

“Ain’t never beenthatlucky,” Garrett chuckled, lazily climbing out of the car and nearly falling to his knees as he did so. Sarah’s frail arm snaked around his waist, and by some miracle,they made it to the front porch of her late seventies model trailer house.

“You just need to sleep it off,” Sarah said, as they struggled up the steps, the thud of his boots echoing through the holler. They hovered at the front door as she dug out her keys and unlocked the door. She pushed it open, and then froze at the familiar face standing there in the entrance.

“What the hell is he doin’ here?” a familiar voice shouted.

Sarah held up a manicured hand in surrender. “Just let me call his daddy and he’ll be gone. I promise. I couldn’t leave him there at the bar. Beth Young is back in town, and I think he drank a lot more than normal…”

Garrett tried to hang onto the last shred of his consciousness, but before he could throw a hand to defend either one of them, it all went black.

Just like always.

Chapter 3

“So,what did you think of Blaze?” Mom asked me, sipping her coffee as I stepped onto the front porch, a grocery list in my hands.

“I think he’s just another cowboy,” I quipped, shaking my head, though my eyes drifted out to the corral where the ranch manager was loping one of the colts. If I was seventeen again, I might’ve been drooling over the way he made it look so easy—but I wasn’t that girl anymore. Cowboys were trouble, especially when they lived in this town.

Regardless, I felt a pang of longing as I watch him fall in rhythm with the young, sorrel gelding. I had once watched my brother and father do theexactthing, in the same place. Part of me wanted to go out to the barn and saddle up myself, and tear through the woods as fast as the horse’s legs could carry me. I was no hand, and I learned a long time ago that riding horses wouldnevercome natural to me. But I still enjoyed it once upon a time.

A long, long time ago.

I turned back to the paper in my hand, clearing my head as I read through the black bolded letters. “This is a really hefty list. I mean, there’s still a whole fridge full of casseroles.”

Mom shrugged, her eyes still on Blaze. “I’m tired of eating casserole.”

“The funeral wasyesterday.”

“I know, but I just don’t like casserole.” Her eyes came back to meet mine, rimmed with a somberness that could gut punch even the hardest of us.

I gave her a hug around her shoulders, squeezing her. “We can throw them all out if you want. I don’t care.”

She laughed, wiping a rogue tear from her cheek. “That’s okay. We’ll just keep feeding them to the ranch hands. I know Blaze has a couple of guys that are coming out to help him since your dad isn’t here anymore. You might have to give them some guidance—you were always out there helping him, even more so than Sam.”

Sam.

The lump in my throat doubled in size at the mention of his name, never mind the memories that came with it. “Yeah, I’ll help out if I need to. Just let me know if anyone needs me.”

“I’ll tell Blaze.”

“Great,” I breathed out, adjusting the navy blue ball cap on my head. I was having a bad hair day to say the least, and since I was no longer working at a firm—or going to work at all for that matter, a hat was an actual solution. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Thank you for running errands for me, Beth.” She gave me a smile and tiny wave, before turning her attention back to the corrals, where another couple of guys had appeared to watch the show as well, hooting and hollering as he loped a large circle.

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