Page 114 of Worth the Fall
It was a gorgeous morning. It was early enough that the Texas heat hadn’t gotten up quite yet. The willow trees were lazily swinging their branches, and the dew still clung to the grass in the pasture.
“He’s gonna be okay,” Dennis promised as soon as the door shut.
I let out a breath that had been making my chest ache. “I know.” My emotions were already a mess, but having Dennis here, simply to talk to me and help me understand? It was enough to make me weepy.
We walked to the edge of the pasture and leaned on thefence.
I watched a horse as black as night run across the grass and chewed my cheek. “He’ll recover-or fake that he’s fine-then he’ll get back on that damn horse and do it all over again.” I shot a surprised glance at Dennis, as if I couldn’t believe I let myself say all that.
Luckily, Dennis did not shout at me for disrespecting his family’s beloved sport. He simply exhaled. He wasn’t looking at me, just staring off into the endless horizon. “It’s a torturous cycle, isn’t it?”
I nodded, grateful he didn’t yell at me.
This time, he turned and looked at me. He opened and closed his mouth, as if he was too scared to say what he wanted to.
I gave him a helpless gaze. “Dennis, can I ask you something?”
“Of course, cowgirl.”
My heart felt hollow, and for just a minute, I pretended Dennis was my own dad. I pretended he was the person I could trust most in this life and talk to about anything. I needed a dad’s advice. “Dennis, how do I support him if I can’t stand to watch him almost kill himself?” I did everything I could to bite back the tears. “I mean, this is the true love of his life, and I want nothing more than to be his number one fan, but…”
Dennis put his hand on my shoulder. “Allegra, I know it’s hard to watch someone you care about be in pain, for any reason.” He hesitated again, and I wanted to ask what was weighing so heavily on his mind that he couldn’t seem to spit it out.
He had the same look on his face when he and I had talkedin the Nash, Oklahoma, house, and we never finished that conversation either. Finally, he shook his head and answered my question. “How do you be supportive when it’s killin’ you to watch him hurt himself?” Thankfully, he didn’t make me try to answer and went on. “You don’t try to be his fan. You are his anchor. When he comes out of the dirt, whether it’s a win or a loss, if he’s bloody or a champion, you’ll be the place where the adrenaline stops. You be the person that reminds him thereisa world outside the gates, a world that’s worth coming back to.”
He paused, a shadow crossing his face. “Just stay in the stands, Ally. Even if you have to close your eyes until the whistle blows... just stay. Because the second you leave, he’s got nothin’ to ride for but the buckle. And a buckle is a cold thing to hold onto when the lights go out.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“If you fart one more time, I’m leavin’ you on the side of the road!”
I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle my laugh.
Jimmy was driving Colton’s truck, with Colton in the passenger seat. He was leaning back,an ice pack wrapped around his ribs and a warm washcloth soaking his tight hand. “It’s not me!” Colton promised. “You’re justsmellin’ yourself.”
“You’re the one who’s been eatin’ all the jerky.”
“Careful, boys. We’ve still got three hours to Stephenville,” I said in a fake motherly tone. To be honest, I was half listening. I had surprisingly more work to do than I originally thought, getting all cocky for a while that I was caught up.
I was a week and a half out from my presentation, the presentation that could give me my dream job.
I had done my best not to think too hard about it, because that meant the summer was over and the promise of being with Colton and the Nash family every day was gone. It meant I was going back to Chicago, and Colton would be in Oklahoma.
I couldn’t think about that right now; it made me want to cry.
I adjusted the brightness on my laptop, the bright glare of the Texas sun making the screen almost impossible to read.
Mr. Sterling’s latest email was causing butterflies in my stomach.
[Presentation locked in for the 29th. The board expects Director-level vision, and I am expecting perfection from you. You got this, Ford.]
Talk about no pressure.
“Your keys are clickin’ so hard I can hear it over the music,” Jimmy laughed, turning another song about Texas down a few notches.
“You’re doing that thing with your jaw again,” Colton added, twisting his neck enough to look at me. “What’s got you so stressed?”
I relaxed my jaw, not realizing I had such an obvious tick when I was stressing out. “I’m, uh, I’m trying to finish up my presentation for the board of my company.”
