Page 53 of Boston
“Yeah, well, join the club,” Cash muttered. He just wanted to go home, order some greasy French fries, and ignore life.
“I’ve been mentoring a good talent,” he said. “He’s going to continue to ride this summer, but I need a break.”
Cash felt stupid telling his father he needed a break from a career that he’d only been doing for six years. Of course, he’d been in the rodeo a lot longer than that. It had consumed his life since he’d moved to Coral Canyon at age twelve. Heck, even before that, as he’d religiously followed everything his father had been doing on the circuit.
“I’m coming to Coral Canyon in a couple weeks,” he said.
“You are?” Daddy asked. “When? For how long?”
“I’m staying with Boston for a couple nights,” Cash said. “And then I’ve got a vacation rental up in that new neighborhood they built just south of the apple orchards.”
“You’re not going to stay with us?” Daddy’s demeanor darkened, but Cash simply shook his head.
“No,” he said. Cousin night was on Monday, and Cash could definitely attend, but that would put him in town earlier than he’d anticipated, and would spur a whole host of questions Cash didn’t want to answer.
“Have you told your mother?” Daddy asked.
Cash shook his head, grateful when a waitress arrived and asked for their drink orders. That introduced a sense of normalcy to this steak dinner, which was really a confessional for Cash.
“Are you going to go see her?” Daddy asked.
“I don’t know, Dad.” Cash didn’t mean to sound so defiant, and his father had let him have his own relationship with his mother, however he wanted it to be. “She doesn’t really care when I come,” he said. “It’s more of a nuisance to her than anything.”
“Cash, buddy, I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It is,” Cash said. “You don’t know. You’re not there.”
“All right,” Daddy said, holding up one hand.
“She’s got her own life, Dad,” Cash said. “And I’m just part of the past.”
“I’m sure she’d be really upset if she heard you say that.”
Pure irritation filled Cash, and it quickly morphed into anger. He’d been dealing with this quiet, simmering madness his whole life. Daddy had taken him to a therapist in Coral Canyon for years, and that had helped, but Cash had gotten out of that habit as his rodeo training had accelerated.
“I don’t know why she’d be upset,” he said. “Her actions have spoken volumes. Everyone’s have.”
The waitress arrived with drinks and a basket of bread. “Do you guys need another couple of minutes?” she asked.
“I don’t,” Cash said, looking up at her. “Oh, hey, Gina, how’re you doing?”
“Just fine, Cash. How ‘bout you?”
“Yeah, doing great. This is my daddy, Blaze.”
“Hey,” Daddy said, barely looking at her.
Of course. Daddy could be a real grump when he wanted to be. Cash sighed and handed her the menu. “You know what I want.”
“Ten-ounce sirloin, medium rare, French fries, no coleslaw.” She grinned at him in a way that Cash had seen before; she liked him. “You got it.”
When he normally would have smiled and flirted with the pretty waitress, today he just looked across the table at his father. He put in an order for a ribeye and a baked potato with everything on it, and he swapped out his coleslaw for the green beans, before handing his menu to Gina. She grinned at Cash and walked away.
“I’m going to be in town until the end of July,” he said. “After that, I’m not sure what I’ll do, probably just come back here and keep working with a few other guys.”
“Do you want to be a trainer?”
“I don’t know, Dad.”
