“Thank you,” Libby mumbled, fighting the sinking feeling claiming her stomach as the realization hit her—she may never get another opportunity to make things right.
She’d hurt Chance like no one probably ever had. Not his mother who had abandoned him. Or his father who might as well have. He thought she didn’t trust him, that somehow he hadn’t been good enough. She didn’t want him to believe that about himself.
She’d been the one not good enough. She’d been scared, afraid of the future and of losing her past, her family. It was important that he understood that.
She’d have to call Lonnie. Thank goodness they’d exchanged cell phone numbers. He’d surely know where Chance had gone. And what he’d be needing.
*
“I’ll be fine by myself, don’t you worry,” Chance said in answer to Lonnie’s question as he fiddled with the radio until he found a country station. Strains of “Drink a Beer” filled the void. He could use one right about now.
Lonnie was driving him and his Ford back to the mountains of Colorado, which he now called home. Lonnie had left his truck at Chance’s place when they headed out to the Frontier Days Rodeo together. Once back at the house, Lonnie would be leaving to go back on the circuit, having already lost some valuable time staying with Chance while he was laid up in the hospital. Lonnie was a good friend, his only true friend.
Chance might be well known on the circuit and had received a lot of Facebook and Twitter well wishes, some from other competitors, many from fans he didn’t know, but it didn’t change the fact there was only one person in this world who he seemed to matter to—the guy sitting next to him. It was a sobering thought. And one that had occupied his mind more than once in lonely moments over the last five years.
Maybe that was the attraction of rodeo—at least there, for eight seconds, people cared about what he did. There he wasn’t a nameless, faceless nobody. In the arena, he was somebody.
He thought he’d mattered to Libby once, and then he found out he didn’t. She hadn’t loved him. She’d used him to assert herself with a domineering father. When reality had set in, she’d run—from him.
And yet, she’d come to the hospital every day.
“How are you going to get around and feed yourself when you can’t put any weight on the foot?” Lonnie asked.
“I’ll eat easy things. I’ve made a list of stuff, and we can stop at the store on our way in.” He’d make it work. He wasn’t about to cost Lonnie any more time. One thing he was used to was being on his own.
“Did you contact the visiting nurse service?”
“I made arrangements.” Not that he thought he needed one, but the doctor had been reluctant to release him without knowing someone would be checking on him for a few days at least. “I’m on the mend. I’m not even on the pain meds right now.” And didn’t he know it. The sharp pulses were a sonavabitch.
Lonnie’s phone started ringing, and he fished it out of his jeans pocket, one hand on the wheel.
Libby waited four rings before she heard someone say hello.
“Lonnie? It’s Libby.”
“Hey, Libby.”
“Where are you? Where is Chance?”
“Chance is right here in the truck. The grumpy guy next to me.” She could hear a country tune in the background.
“Can I talk to him?”
“Ah, he’s…he’s sleeping right now.” Lonnie didn’t sound at all convincing.
“Where are you taking him?”
“Home.”
“Where’s that?”
“Colorado.”
“Where in Colorado?”
There was an awkward pause. She could imagine the signals between the two friends.
“Look, Lonnie, who is going to take care of him? You’re going out on the road, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Does Chance have anyone?” She hated the twist in her gut as she asked that question.
“No.”
“Is he hiring someone?”
“Not that I’m aware of. Look, I’ve got to go.”
“Text me his address when you can. Please, Lonnie. Let me help him. I owe him at least that.”
“Bye, Libby.” The line went dead.
“What did she want?” Chance wasn’t sure the pain that shot through to his foot was just from his injuries. “I signed those goddamn papers her attorney sent with some notary lady before I left the hospital.”
“She’s worried about you, is all. She couldn’t have known you were leaving the hospital.” Lonnie glanced in Chance’s direction. “She came every day, you know.”
“For no good reason. She’s planning on marrying someone else.”
“Maybe she was concerned about you. She was always soft hearted.”
He’d thought so until that day she’d left him. The day that changed him. Made him stop believing in miracles. Made him stop believing in people. Made him realize that he had to save himself because no one else would. Made him wonder if he should just lie down and die.
“Yeah, well, she can practice being soft hearted to that suit she’s going to marry. I’ve no use for Libby Brennan.”