Page 35 of Lost and Lassoed

“You did.” I may be a hardass, but I have a soft spot for my sister. The thought that I’d made her feel like she messed up by trying to do something nice for me had been tying me up in knots.

“You helped me, too,” she said with another quick squeeze.

“How?”

She shrugged. “Teddy needed this.” I didn’t know what that meant, but I wasn’t going to push. My feelings about Teddy—old and new—were complicated enough without bringing whatever Emmy knew into the mix.

Emmy and I walked into the house. When you entered, you were right in the living room, but you could see all the way to the kitchen, where Riley was on a stepstool next to Brooks helping him do…I couldn’t tell what.

“We bought a pasta maker,” Emmy said. “He’s obsessed with it.”

“So are you,” Brooks called to us. “Pasta is one of her hyperfixation meals right now.”

Emmy and I made it to the kitchen, and I saw that Riley was helping Brooks shape some of the pasta dough into little spirals.

“Did you wash your hands?” I asked. My daughter looked at me, and you want to know what that little shit did? Rolled her eyes.

Apparently, she’d been spending way too much time with Teddy.

“Yes, Dad. I always wash my hands.”

“Just checking,” I said.

Emmy laughed under her breath. “Your stubbornness and Cam’s matter-of-factness make for a hell of a combination, don’t they?”

“You’re telling me,” I said.

“You two all good?” Brooks asked, looking over his shoulder at Emmy and me.

“All good,” Emmy said. She walked up behind Brooks and put her arms around his waist. He turned as best he could and kissed the side of her forehead. “How’s it going over here?”

“Good,” Brooks said. “We’ll be rocking and rolling in ten.”

“Gus and I will set the table.” Emmy grabbed plates and silverware. We went out the kitchen door to the small deck at the back of the house. When Jimmy Brooks owned this house, it had fallen into disrepair. When we first came here after Jimmy died, the windows were broken, the front door was hanging off its hinges, and the floors were as sticky as the ones at the Devil’s Boot. It was the first time I had ever seen Luke cry. But he spent a few years fixing up the house, and he’d done a good job. He had built the back deck during his renovations, and Emmy had strung up twinkle lights around it.

It felt so calm back here. They had a good view of themountains but were also backed right up against the edge of the forest. There was a small pond back here too.

Emmy and I set the table and talked about our weeks. She was excited about the new dude horses we’d rescued and bought. There was one named Huey that she was particularly fond of.

“Good dude horses are worth their weight in gold,” I said.

“And we somehow ended up with ten of them,” she responded. “There’s one, Alrighty, that we’ll probably want to put more experienced riders on. He’s great once you’re mounted, but he’s a little sensitive about his hind end, so whoever is riding him needs to have a good leg swing.”

“Have you told Wes?” I asked.

“Yeah, he was with me when we discovered the hind end thing.” Rescue horses usually came with baggage. Most of the time, we didn’t know where they came from or what they’d been through. We learned as we went, building trust with them along the way. Emmy was the best at it, next to my dad.

“I need to check in with him,” I said. “I can’t even remember what the Baby Blue calendar looks like.” Since Teddy started, I’d been able to work through most everything I’dbeen behind on—and made a lot of apologies to ranch hands and cowpokes—but I hadn’t quite made it to Baby Blue yet.When I thought about Baby Blue, I thought about what Teddy said—that Wes was capable and would tell me if he needed me.

“He’s got it covered,” Emmy said confidently—unknowingly echoing Teddy’s words. “You can’t be everywhere all at once.”

“But I need to be,” I said quietly. Full responsibility for Rebel Blue would fall to me one day, and I had the world’s biggest boots to fill when that day came. Emmy tilted her headand looked at me with concern. I didn’t know how to let go of any part of it. For the first time ever, I wondered if I was clinging to it all a little too tightly.

Before she could say anything, Brooks and Riley came out the back door. Riley was carrying a tray of garlic bread, and Brooks had a big bowl of pasta with pesto and a salad.

After dinner, the sun was starting to set in the Wyoming sky. The sound of crickets echoed through the trees, and Emmy and Riley were sitting on the grass down by the pond trying to spot fish.

Brooks and I were on the deck, each with a beer.

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