Page 16 of Wild and Unruly
“I’m doing great, honey. The church is running a bake sale this weekend so I’m about to pop out to the store and get what I need to bake some things for that. I got a small promotion at work, too.”
“Congratulations, Mom. That’s great.” Mom worked as a receptionist at a local law firm, and after years of being a stay-at-home mom, she thrived at her new job.
“Thank you, honey. I’m excited about it too.”
We both go quiet for a moment, thinking over what to say next. It’s the same thing every time. Who was going to bring up Mason.
“How’s Mase?” There, Band-Aid ripped off.
Mom’s sigh could rival a million mothers’ sighs. “You know, he’s hanging in there.”
I purse my lips, rubbing my hand over my eye in frustration. “Is he still liking his job?”
He works at the post office and was actually really well-liked at the job, but when we talked about it, I could tell he was barely holding on to his sanity.
“Oh sure, I mean, it’s nothing special to him, but his manager likes him enough, and he’s making a living.” Her words do nothing to reassure me.
Part of me wants to tell her what I found out, that Tommy Smith was still running around causing issues. I wonder if his dad is still a part of their scheme or not. He was a major part of the problem when Mason’s accident happened.
But I keep my mouth shut. I don’t know anything yet. I can’t go giving false hope or make her worry for nothing until I have something more concrete.
“Well, that’s good.”
“How are you liking the people you’re working with?”
I let my mom distract me and tell her all about the ranch and the people on it. She listens intently, asking questions here and there, and even I can hear how light I sound talking about them.
I tell her about Dani and her facility, in the back of my mind wondering if that would be something that could ever help Mason get back to what he loves. I don’t say a word of that either because, again, false hope is dangerous.
We finally end the call with her telling me she has to go get her church things done, and I let the smile drop as I say goodbye, wondering what I can do to make this better.
Mason doesn’t deserve this type of life. He deserves far more than what he has. He deserves to ride again, to be around horses the way he loved to before. He deserves to have more than just going to work at the post office and settling because he was eighty percent wheelchair-bound.
A new wave of determination wakes me up, and I startgetting dressed for the day. While I was still one hundred percent focused on taking care of this article and making it the best I could for this family, I was also going to do something that helped my family.
I have to.
Discretion was a big part of my job, and right now, I was discreetly trying to decide if I could have a nonchalant conversation with Celina without drawing suspicion. I went through a variety of questions in my head before working up the courage to walk over to the woman who was getting her horse ready for a lesson.
Pasting on my reporter smile, I step over to the woman, giving her plenty of space so she can continue to work.
“Hi,” I start, and Celina’s head turns in my direction. She was a pretty lady with dark-brown hair sprinkled with streaks of gray that made her look classically beautiful. She was tall, slender, and dressed like a woman who had a bit of money. All the way down to her sparkly spurs.
“Hello,” she replies, and I keep a smile on my face even as she scrutinizes me.
“I don’t know if you remember, but we met the other day.”
“You’re Bonnie Helix,” she says, turning her attention back to her horse. “You work forHorse Universe, and you are doing a piece on Three Rivers.”
“Uh, right.” I nod my head, glancing around to make sure we are still alone. I know from Dani explaining to me when I arrived that Stetson and his brothers, plus a few of the handsthat work here, were out moving cattle today, so it was just Dani, CT, and two other hands working in the barn today.
Right now, we had a moment of privacy, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get it again.
“I was just hoping I could ask a few questions about Dani and CT from a client’s perspective, see if you had something you’d like to say about their work or the facility?” I wasn’t lying. I really did want that kind of content for the article.
I just picked her specifically.
“Fine,” she says, moving to the other side of the horse and continuing brushing her horse.
