Page 70 of A Reckless Memory

Sutton leaned against the fence post and watched the horses graze on the hay we’d just fed them. Her beige stocking hat was pulled down to her eyebrows and the tip of her nose was red, but she didn’t seem in a hurry to head for home just yet. “Can I tell you something and swear you to secrecy?”

“Absolutely.” She’d been quiet the whole day, showing up before noon. She planned to leave after we were done in the barn, even though it was dark, but there was no wind to blow snow over the roads and the weather wasn’t supposed to change until the middle of the week.

She went quiet again, her brow furrowing and her breath puffing out. “I’m going to file for divorce.”

My shock detonated in my head. Divorce? I’d heard her unhappiness in our snippets of conversation, but she’d been with Wilder for over ten years. They went together in my mind. A pair, even when they weren’t together. From the anguish swimming in her gray eyes, the decision wasn’t easy. Neither was the loneliness. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” She didn’t look at me. “So damn sorry.” She inhaled a long breath. “But I have to leave before I hate him so much I can’t stand myself. I’m going to move.”

“Where?” We’d grown closer over the years and now we were only hours away. I’d seen her more in the last year living in Crocus Valley than in the ten years before that.

“I don’t know. I have to figure that out before I file.” She kept a hand propped on the fence post. “I didn’t want to put you in the middle, but I wanted to ask if it’d be weird if I moved closer to you.”

“You’d move to Crocus Valley?” Excitement that I’d have my closest friend nearby warred with my sadness that she felt she had to move in the first place.

Her gaze scanned the dark land. The barn light cast over the pens and corrals and the quiet landscape stretched out beyond, dimly lit by the moon high overhead and the faint glow from the city. “It’s quiet here. Rural areas always need more vets. Maybe I can build the life I’ve wanted in Crocus Valley. Start my own practice like I once planned.”

Did she mean she wanted to meet someone new and start a family? My heart was breaking for her. Anger built toward my brother even though I knew he had a shitty example of family life growing up. I wanted to make her feel better, but I didn’t know what to say. “I’ll be your first customer.”

“You sure that Dr. Jake you were telling me about won’t run me out of the county?”

“No. He’ll probably hit on you.”

Sutton’s laugh was empty. “I don’t know if I’d recognize his attempts.” She chewed on her lower lip and tears glistened in her eyes. “I wish it would’ve worked out. You guys are family to me. I got three brothers and a sister when I married Wilder.”

“It’s not going to be easy for you, but you’ll always have me as a sister.”

“I know,” she whispered, then offered me a watery smile. “And with that, I need to get going. I’m on call tomorrow.”

I gave her a hug. “Drive safe.”

“Thanks for inviting me. This was a needed distraction.”

I walked her to her pickup and stood on the porch to give myself enough time to process the passing sadness of her announcement. I wanted her happy. I wanted my brothers to be happy. But it seemed like dark clouds hovered over all our relationships, ready to dump on us.

No wonder Eliot and Austen stayed single.

Cody eased outside with no coat, only his nice pullover sweater. He was actually in jeans and cowboy boots. The guy worked an office job, and he usually dressed the part. I was almost relieved to see he took a break from being on all the time.

“It’s quiet out here,” he said.

“It’s quiet at your place too.”

“Not as much mooing or whinnying.”

“The owner of the cattle across the road lets them spread out more.” Daddy maximized space and efficiency, not always in favor of the cattle.

His gaze landed on the dark stretch under the sky. During the day, the gently rolling hills were brown and white. “How many acres are for sale over there?”

“It’s two quarters. Three hundred and twenty acres of paradise.” I leaned against the porch. “I would’ve bought it if it was open when I was looking.”

“Then you wouldn’t have the rescue.”

“True.” Or a reason to hire Ansen. “But it’d be nice to rent pasture, get hay shares, and not have to do any of the work.”

“I would’ve been more supportive of that idea.”

“Which is probably why I would’ve bought this place anyway. I might’ve decided to cut and bale the hay instead of splitting the shares so someone else could do it.”

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