Page 36 of Heart Like a Cowboy

“Jesse’s,” he supplied, and yeah, he gave her a little look, no doubt to see how she’d react to the man’s name.

Remi tried to have no reaction whatsoever, but her dad wasn’t an idiot so he’d likely known that Jesse and she had once beeninvolved.

“But Egan’s been working with the new horses,” her dad added. “Working with everything else, too,” he said with some frustration in his voice. “He hasn’t got time for that.”

“Egan is Egan. He’ll make time,” Remi insisted. It didn’t seem fair to put that on him, but even if he hadn’t been the oldest, Egan would have taken on the lion’s share of responsibility. It was in his nature.

“I’m worried about him,” her dad went on. “He’s held on to the hurt and anger too long over what Colleen did to him, and the grief about Jack is still eating him alive.”

Remi was in complete agreement about the last, but she had hopes about that hurt and anger over Colleen. She had seen the scorching heat in Egan’s eyes for Alana. Of course, that might be all shot to hell now that Alana was having to deal with the not so juicy tidbits about her husband’s cheating.

“Egan will move on when the time is right,” Remi settled for saying. Yeah, it wasn’t a clever comeback, but she hoped her dad embraced it. She didn’t want him worrying about his kids, not when he had so many health worries of his own.

Her dad nodded, maybe agreeing, maybe just wanting to change the subject. “Did you get a chance to see Audrey before she left?”

“I did for a minute or two.” Again, nothing clever came to mind so Remi went with, “She looks good.”

This time his nod was definitely of agreement, but his expression had more of that frustration in it. Rather than try to pick apart exactly what was the root of this particular frustration, Remi went with a subject change.

“What’s this?” she asked, picking up the album he’d been holding when she had come in.

“Memories,” he readily answered. “Of happy times. Of course, most photo albums are happy since people don’t tend to hang on to pictures of the miserable times. Effie put this one together. Plenty of others, too, I recently found out. Did you know she’d done albums for each year your mom was here at the ranch? She stopped doing them after your mom passed and then moved on to doing albums for each of you kids.”

Remi hadn’t known that, but she had seen plenty of family photos over the years. Heck, she’d studied the ones of her mom. Studied hard while trying to recall any sliver of memory that might be buried in the subconscious of her first two years of life. The studying had been a bust, though. There was simply nothing there for Remi to remember.

He took the album from her and turned the pages until he got to one that wasn’t under a protective sheet but had rather been tucked inside. Remi knew it, oh, so well. It was her mom when she’d been young, barely eighteen, and a brand new airman fresh out of basic training.

According to the family stories Remi had been told, her mother had joined the military so she could see the world and have an adventure away from Emerald Creek where she’d grown up. Adventures had apparently been had, what with assignments to Turkey and then Alaska. She’d returned home at the end of her four-year commitment, renewed her teenage romance with Derek and the rest was history. Marriage, four kids. Her death.

So many people had asked Remi if it was Audrey or her brothers who’d influenced her to go into the military, but it was neither. It was her mom and understanding the woman’s need for an adventure. Remi wanted that rolled up together with the rescues. That didn’t dig up any actual memories of her mother, but Remi felt as if she were sort of following in the steps of her mom’s own combat boots.

Her dad turned a couple of pages and tapped another photo that Remi had seen many times.

It was of her birth.

Well, slightly after her birth, anyway, with her mother holding a crying gunky-faced newborn while her dad looked on. There was no denying the happiness in their expressions, and Effie had said on more than one occasion that both her parents had been thrilled with their three sons but had also wanted a daughter. They’d gotten one, but her mother only had two years with that daughter. Two years apparently marked with lots of trips to the hospital after her cancer diagnosis.

“I thought I was going to die,” her father said, closing the photo album. He continued before Remi could say anything. “While I was on the floor, I thought of you. Of my boys and Audrey. But I thought of your mom, too. I thought of it all.”

Again, she didn’t get a chance to respond because her dad turned to her and buried his face against her shoulder. Remi sat there, holding her father while he did something she’d never seen him do before.

He broke down and cried.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ALANASTOPPEDHERcar on the narrow gravel road by the creek and barreled out, not caring one bit about the deluge of rain that immediately hit her. The anger and hurt were fueling her now, and she wasn’t sure she could feel anything but that.

She wasn’t crying and had no plans for it. Though, tears might come. After the hurt and anger had burned their way through her and left her drained and unbearably sad.

Again.

But for now, her eyes were dry—well, except for the rain—and while yanking off her necklace, she marched straight toward the banks of the creek. Even though the creek was about fifteen yards across, the water was fairly shallow in this spot. The creek bed was filled with colorful smooth rocks, and despite the rain, the water was still crystal clear. Not green, though, despite its name of Emerald Creek. Early settlers of the area had called it that because of the thick green foliage that grew on the banks.

She threaded and stomped her way through that foliage, stopping right at the creek’s edge, and she opened her hand to hurl the necklace as far as she could.

Alana made the mistake of looking at it first.

A mistake she’d made many, many times in the past when she’d been planning to toss it or hide it away where she’d never have to see it on a daily basis. The chain itself was plain sterling silver, and it had no pendant per se.

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