Page 59 of Wrangling a Wild Texan

“I thought the same thing with my wife, but I found out that it’s never too late to prove you love someone. Although, after all Sunny’s been through, it might take declaring your love on a New York Times Square billboard to get her to believe you.”

A Times Square billboard?

Reid smiled. “I think I might know of something that would work even better.”

All he needed was paint . . . and the nerve to take a step on the wild side.

Chapter Twenty

Most women might be heartbroken that the man they had started to have feelings for had rejected them like a holey, mismatched sock. But most women hadn’t been raised like Sunny. They hadn’t been rejected over and over again until their heart had formed a thick outer shell that nothing could penetrate.

Okay, so maybe her heart did feel a little battered. But it wasn’t anything she couldn’t deal with. She was a strong woman who was in control of her emotions.

Although hiding out in the emergency room bathroom as soon as Reid and Sophie stepped into the lobby wasn’t exactly the action of a strong woman. But she didn’t want to put Reid, or herself, in an awkward situation. So she’d hidden out until they’d left, then caught a ride home with Corbin, Belle, Jesse, and Liberty.

Corbin seemed to know something wasn’t right and kept shooting her glances in the rearview mirror the entire drive back to the bed-and-breakfast. She knew he was going to want to interrogate her. So as soon as they got there, she used the excuse of being tired and went to her room.

Shewastired, but she didn’t go to bed.

Instead, she grabbed a blank canvas, while Jimmy hurled obscenities at her, and started to paint. The painting didn’t turn out angry as much as miserably sad. Ultramarine blue was the predominant color, and rather than throw it, she dripped it down the gray base-coated canvas like the tears that dripped down her cheeks.

She didn’t try to push back those tears. She was through hiding her emotions. Through putting on a bright smile and acting like everything was just fine and dandy so she wouldn’t be pitied or upset the people she loved. Like everyone else in the world, she had the right to be angry. To cry. To throw fits. To paint angry art. She was who she was and people could love her or not.

That included Reid Mitchell.

It also included her mama and daddy.

After she finished the painting, she cleaned her brushes, gave Jimmy more birdseed to throw on the floor, and then called her parents. Her mama answered with her usual enthusiasm.

Her mama was good at hiding her true emotions too.

“Hey, my sweet little ray of sunshine! It’s about time you called your mama. Didn’t you get all my messages?” Sunny had gotten them. She had just been putting off dealing with them. But she couldn’t put it off anymore.

“I got them.”

There was a long pause. “Well, if you got them, I didn’t receive the money. Did you Venmo me?”

“No, Mama, I didn’t.”

“Oh. So are you gonna send a check this time?”

“No. No check. I’m not sending you any more money, Mama.”

“What? Why? If this is about me not answering your call last month, your daddy and I had just gotten into an argument andI wasn’t fit company. You know how I get when me and your daddy fight. I just want to be alone.”

A great sadness filled her. Her mama would never change. Sunny had to accept that.

“Yes, I know how you get, Mama. In fact, if anyone knows how you get, it’s me and Corbin. We were the pawns in your and Daddy’s pathetic marriage. We were the ones who suffered the most every time you fought. And I’m through pretending that we didn’t.” Emotion rose in her throat and it was a struggle to get the next words out. “I’m also through trying to make you love me. If you can’t love me, that’s your loss. Not mine.”

Before her mama could reply, she hung up the phone. Her heart hurt and her hands shook, but she also felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt lighter than she’d felt in a long time. Maybe forever.

She also felt drained.

Stripping out of her paint clothes, she crawled into bed and fell fast asleep.

She woke in the morning to a loud “Bullshit!”

She rolled to her back to find Jimmy Buffett perched on her painting. She sent him an annoyed look. “What’s bullshit to some folks is art to others.”

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