Page 52 of Boston
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Cash Young pulled open the door to the high-end steakhouse that his father loved, expecting to see his daddy already seated. His father rarely ran late these days, and Cash had been chasing him his whole life.
He swallowed against the emotions gathering in his throat, the pinching, twisting awfulness of them almost more than he could handle. He didn’t understand why God kept pushing him toward Coral Canyon. There was nothing for him there.
“Hey, there you are, buddy.” Dad rose from the end of a bench, and Cash pushed his way through a couple of people to reach him. His father hugged him, clapping him heartily on the back, and then he stepped over to the hostess station ahead of several others.
“He’s here,” he said.
The young woman there literally cut off another person and said, “I’ll be right back.” She already had two menus in her hand, and she gestured for Cash and his father to follow her.
Cash almost wanted to apologize to those still waiting. Daddy had probably called ahead and then flashed money when he got here. He hadn’t ridden in the rodeo for a little over a decade now,but Jackson Hole was cowboy central, and lots of people still knew about him.
Cash felt like he was following a larger-than-life version of himself as he dodged through the restaurant to the booth in the far corner, where, sure enough, a reserved sign sat.
“Right here, sir,” the woman said, sweeping it away. “Is this okay?”
“This is perfect,” Daddy said. “Thank you.”
He sat down with his back against the wall facing the restaurant, and left the other side that only faced the window for Cash. He got recognized sometimes too, as he was a current bull rider at the top of his game.
But the truth was, Cash was still coming into his celebrity and success, while Daddy had already lived it. He picked up one menu and used the top corner of it to push the other one closer to Cash.
“I’m surprised you’re not in Utah,” he said.
Cash was sure he was. “Yeah, I didn’t do that rodeo this year,” he said coolly.
In fact, he’d done his last rodeo for the foreseeable future last weekend. He’d spent the last week going through laundry and making arrangements for someone to pay his bills and rent for the next six months.
On July first, Cash would show up in Coral Canyon at the Silver Sage Mountain Resort and Lodge. He’d spend two nights with Boston there before he settled into the vacation rental he’d secured for the month of July.
After that? Cash had no idea.
“Why not?” Daddy asked. “They’ve got a couple there that are usually real good.”
Cash had been avoiding this exact conversation for far too long. He hadn’t, and didn’t, pick up his menu, choosing insteadto look steadily across the table at his father. “I’m going to take a break for the rest of the year.”
Daddy lowered his menu, his dark eyes filled with shock. He was made of shadows and night, and the only reason Cash had any lighter features at all was because of his mother, who had blonde hair and blue eyes.
Cash could easily blend into the night the way his father did, especially when he wore a black leather jacket and a black cowboy hat, both of which Daddy wore right now.
“You’re done competing for the year,” he said slowly, as if trying to put the words together in a way that made sense.
“Yes.” Cash nodded decisively.
“Why?” Daddy asked, and wasn’t that the million dollar question?
Cash couldn’t tell him that he was terrified of getting injured, though he was. He couldn’t tell him that he didn’t love the rodeo, though he didn’t. He’d been incredibly blessed and given amazing opportunities, some that any man would probably kill for, and he didn’t want to be ungrateful.
“I just….” he started, but the extra time he’d given himself to talk to his father about this particular thing still had not allowed the words to come into his mind with any clarity.
“I don’t know why, okay?” he said almost in a combative tone. “I just know that there’s this uneasy feeling in my gut, and I’m shaking every time I get on a bull—and not because I’m on a two-ton animal who wants to buck me off.”
No, Cash was way past those nerves.
Daddy’s mouth set into a tight line. “I don’t understand.”
