Good Together Read Free Page B

enough. It was her worst nightmare, of course, that Wes would be mauled by a bull and be terribly injured—or worse.
    The fact that it had happened to some other woman’s husband, this time, didn’t make it easier to bear.
    But what troubled her even more was that Wes hadn’t called to tell her what had happened. She’d assumed he hadn’t wanted to frighten her. But in the past, he’d shared everything with her. The good. And the tough.
    When he came home, she could tell the accident had affected him deeply. How could it not? But even then he refused to talk about it, leaving the room if she so much as mentioned Dex Cooper.
    That was when Wes’s rodeo scores had started dropping.
    It was so obvious now, Mattie couldn’t believe she hadn’t made the connection earlier.
    “Dex’s death is part of it,” Wes agreed. “You know I was planning to quit next year anyway. But that kind of cinched matters for me. And I started wondering what it was all for, anyway. All those years in the rodeo ring. Sure I won some belt buckles and made some money. But for what?”
    Finally he was being honest. But why had he waited until it was too late?
    “You rodeoed because you loved it. And the money you earned helped us raise our daughters.”
    Unconvinced, Wes glanced over the pictures on the mantel. His parents and hers. Their daughters. Their wedding photo. God, they’d been young.
    “I understand why you’re quitting the rodeo. It’s time.” Few men continued to compete into their thirties, and even less once they hit forty. “But why sell the ranch? Seems to me that it’s the perfect time to be expanding—not getting out.”
    Wes rubbed his face and sighed. “You don’t get it. I’m done, Mat. I’m just...done.”
    How dared he say that? “What about the rest of us? I’m not done. I love this ranch and I’ve worked harder at it than anyone. And what about Portia and Wren? If we sell, where are they going to go for Christmas and the summer break? This is their home .”
    “You don’t get it, Mat. You think the girls are going to keep coming back here all the time—well they won’t. They’ll get a job in the city and they’ll meet a guy and we’ll be lucky if they visit one week out of the year.”
    Maybe. Eventually. But there were a lot of years to go before that day. “Aren’t you rushing things a little?”
    “The twins are eighteen. How much time did you spend going back to the Circle C once you were that age?”
    Heat flared over her. “That’s not a fair comparison. Those were different days. And Hawksley wasn’t the kind of father that you are.” Her father had been disapproving and distant—always. He’d never given any sign that he cared whether his daughters came to visit or not. The only ties Mattie felt to the Circle C were to her sisters. The four of them, despite the gaps in their ages, were very close.
    “Parents have to step back when their kids are grown. That’s just how it is.”
    He’d never talked like this before. “Our roles change,” she agreed, talking slowly, trying to figure out who this man was. She’d always felt that their parenting styles blended perfectly. But looking back now she could see that Wes had connected better with the girls when they were younger. Their adolescent stage had confused him. And maybe he’d pulled back more than she realized. “But they still need us.”
    “Portia and Wren haven’t needed me since I taught them to drive.”
    “Why are you being so literal? You know being part of a family is more than doing jobs for one another. Family provides our emotional bedrock. None of us ever grow out of the need to be loved.”
    “And I’ll never stop loving them,” Wes said, his voice subdued once more.
    The implication of his words hit her with another ferocious stab of pain.
    He’d never stop loving their daughters.
    But he had stopped loving her.
    * * *
    A Week Later
    Nat Diamond left his doctor’s office in Polson with a feeling of