Page 19 of August’s Cowboy Braxton

"That's you."

"Yeah."

"And the other must be Eli."

"Yeah."

She carried the frame to the couch and sat down. The picture rested in her lap. "What happened?"

I stood by the window and looked out at the storm while I tried to decide how much I wanted to tell her. "It was a summer storm just like this one. I was seventeen. Eli was fourteen. Lightning hit the barn."

Thunder punctuated the end of the sentence like the universe had a wicked sense of timing.

"Fire spread fast. The barn was full of hay and dry as hell despite the rain. I got Eli out. Got the horses out. Thought we were clear."

"But you weren't."

"One of the mares panicked. She was trapped in the back stall. Eli heard her screaming and went back inside before I could stop him."

Addison's voice was quiet. "You followed him."

"Hell yeah, I did." The guilt threatened to pull me under like it always did.

"What happened?"

I didn’t answer right away. I’d already said too much. But Addison didn’t push, just sat there and waited. Finally, I took in a deep breath and told her. "The roof came down. Beams, tin, the whole damn thing. Eli was under it before I got halfway across the barn floor."

I heard her suck in a breath, then let it out steady and controlled.

The same way I'd taught myself to breathe after it happened.

"I pulled him out. Tried CPR. Tried everything. The fire department got there ten minutes later. By then it didn't matter."

"Braxton—"

"He went back for a horse. A goddamn horse. And I couldn't stop him."

She stood and crossed the space between us, stopping close enough that I could feel her there.

"You were seventeen."

"Old enough to know better."

"Old enough to blame yourself."

I looked at her finally. "Aren't you going to tell me it wasn't my fault?"

"Would you believe me if I did?"

"No."

"Then I won't waste my breath."

Something about that honesty hit me harder than comfort would have.

She moved back to the couch, pulled her knees up, and wrapped her arms around them. "Evie taught me early on that people don't like it when rodeo queens admit they're scared."

The shift in subject caught me off guard. "What?"