Page 10 of Stranded on the Prairie
I should have known better, should have controlled myself, but there’s something about the way Bobby was staring her down that made it impossible to keep my fists to myself.
"Jesus, Wyatt!” Riley exclaims, as soon as we are outside, but there is the hint of a grin on her face as she stares me down. "What are you-"
I look over my shoulder, and there are a few people spilling out of the saloon – though most of them have no argument with me specifically, they’ll take a fight wherever they can get it. I lower my head and make for the path back to the cabin, keeping her close at my side, when a voice catches my attention.
"Wyatt? That you?”
My gaze snaps up. I recognize the voice at once. How could I not?
After all, it belongs to my own damn brother.
"Cade?” I mutter, frowning at him. No reason for any of my siblings to have come all the way down from the house to town, they got their supplies delivered, unless-
"I was looking for you," Cade tells me, as he runs a hand agitatedly through his hair. "Headed for the cabin."
"What for?” I shoot back, suspicious. His gaze shifts to the woman beside me, and I can tell he has questions, but he thinks better of pressing on them.
"For Ma,” he replies. "She’s...she’s not good, Wyatt. And it’s only right you say goodbye to her."
I freeze on the spot. The thought of setting foot back in that place after so long, turning around and walking back to the life that I have tried for so long to leave behind, it’s-
But then, out of the corner of my eye, I notice the look on Riley’s face. A sudden certainty, like there’s no way she’s going to settle for anything less. And, when she turns to face me, her tone is just as sure as her expression is.
"We have to go see her, Wyatt," she murmurs. I clench my jaw. Can’t argue with her, as much as I wish I could. Which means my only choice is to see this through. I turn back to Cade, and nod for him to lead on.
Before I have a chance to change my mind.
CHAPTER 6
Riley
Idon’t know how much further we’ve got to the Granger family home, but I know I can’t let Wyatt turn his back on this until he’s had a chance to bid farewell to his mother.
His hand has not moved from mine since the second we stepped out of the saloon, his fingers locked around my own like he never intends to let go.
I know how he feels.
The drawn look on his brother’s face when he told him the news, the weight in the air as he took it in, it’s more than either of us can ignore.
And I am glad that he is not going to put up a fight on the matter.
Not like I did.
The day I lost my mother, the woman who raised me all by herself, I had been across the country – she'd called me and told me that they were taking her in to the hospital overnight just to keep an eye on her, and that I didn’t need to come home to check on her.
I’ll be fine,she’d told me, and even then, I had recognized the artificial confidence in her voice.
I should have gone to be with her then, but I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. I felt like, if I acknowledged how serious it was, I would just make things worse.
And then, she was gone. If it hadn’t been for the yoga studio, I would have lost my mind entirely, relying on it for what little structure I could cling on in the months following her death.
That had been two years ago now, but to this day, the sting of it, the knowledge that she went out alone, plagues me more than I’d care to admit.
I won’t let him carry the same burden. No matter what has happened between his family and him, he deserves to have a chance to see her off, to say goodbye.
The house finally appears on the horizon ahead of us, a large wooden building on the top of a hill, uneven roof sloping up towards the graying evening sky. I glance at Wyatt out of the corner of my eye as Cade strides out wordlessly ahead of us.
I try to read his expression, but he seems determined not to let me see it. Whatever’s going on inside his head, he doesn’t want to share it, and I can’t blame him.
