Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
She winced. But more due to chagrin over what she’d said rather than from the pain of him digging into her hand for the splinters.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It was rude.”
“I know I don’t smile or laugh much. Other than Wyatt and the ranch, I’ve found it hard to find joy in things. And even with those things, well, the ranch can sometimes feel like a never-ending thankless job. And Wyatt . . . he hasn’t been that happy with me since Elise’s death.”
“He’s grieving,” she said, hoping she wasn’t overstepping.
“I know. He misses Elise. Thankfully, he doesn’t remember all the times she let him down. The times she said she’d be somewhere and wasn’t. All the times she’d fall asleep and forget to pick him up from the bus. Or would start slurring her words and stumbling around, breaking things and yelling.”
“What . . . she what?” she asked, amazed.
“Elise was an alcoholic. But she hid it well for a long time. I don’t know, maybe I just didn’t want to see it. Perhaps I was in denial. When I found out, I tried to get her into rehab and counseling, but she wouldn’t go. I hid the car keys and I tried to be home whenever she was with Wyatt.”
God.
She couldn’t imagine what that was like for him. “You must have been devastated.”
“I was upset for Wyatt. He deserved a mother who was there for him. Who put him first. Elise was like that until the alcohol took over. I know she loved him so much. But she was putting him in danger so I gave her an ultimatum. Either she cleaned up her act, went to rehab and got help or she was out. And I would keep Wyatt. She lost it. Yelled, screamed, hit me, threw things. Thankfully, Wyatt wasn’t there at the time.”
“Then what happened?” she whispered.
As he spoke, he drew splinters from her hand. But she barely felt anything. She was too caught up in his painful story.
“She left. I didn’t know that she’d hidden a spare set of keys for the car. She took off as I was trying to clean up before Wyatt got home. I called Tex, because I didn’t want her driving like that. I knew she could hurt someone or herself, but she barely made it out the driveway before she crashed. She died two days later.”
“That’s so awful,” she whispered as he disinfected her hand and bandaged it.
Then he crouched down to pull her slippers off. That was when she remembered that she was wearing her alligator slippers. But he didn’t even look twice.
They were really cute slippers. As soon as she’d seen them in the store, she’d known she had to have them. Thankfully, she had very small feet and was able to fit into them despite the fact they were meant for kids.
He carefully took off the bandage around her foot.
“I’m so sorry that happened, Jeb. For you and for Wyatt. Elise too.”
Because she was certain that the other woman wouldn’t have wanted things to end up the way they had. Who would willingly leave this man and boy?
It was going to be very hard for her to leave, that was for certain.
“Things hadn’t been good between me and Elise for a long time. But I never wanted that for her. And I definitely never wanted it for Wyatt. He worships her. Like I said, he doesn’t remember the bad. Which is a good thing. It’s just hard when he idolizes her. I feel like I’m losing my son, the kid that used to be my best bud, because he’s angry that she’s gone. And he is angry at me.”
Wow.
She’d never thought he’d tell her stuff like this. That he’d open up.
“Urgh, sorry. I just spewed out everything, didn’t I?” He grimaced. “I never talk like this.”
“Maybe you’re overdue. And I told you about my father.”
“I’ll kill that bastard if I ever meet him.”
Okay, that was quite the vow. She knew he didn’t really mean it. But it definitely warmed her from the inside out to have him on her side.
“I guess Wyatt is angry that she’s gone and he can’t be mad at her so he’s directing it to you. He’s got to let it out on someone and you’re safe because you’ll always love him.”
He froze and she moved her gaze down to meet his surprised one.
“Uh, sorry. I should keep out of it.”
“No, I . . . I think you’re right. How did you know that?”
Casey shrugged. “I was mad when my mama died. No one told me that she was going to die. I thought she was going to get better. It wasn’t until my granny came to see her and discovered that my father and brothers were lying to me that she took me aside and told me the truth. Of course, then I got really mad at her.”