“I’ve been looking a long time for the truth. What I get is everyone’s version of it.”
“Isn’t it past time to reconcile those versions? It takes courage to see the other side, look at things in a different light, change your mind. Like the courage it takes to get back in the saddle and ride the same horse that just bucked you off. One thing I’m convinced you’ve got, son, is courage. Put it to good use.” She gave a clipped nod of her head.
“I’m sure she told you that Sam had a heart attack. She’s staying with Brennan Motors, just like her old man always wanted. Wants me to live in Wyoming.”
“And you want to stay with the rodeo. Nothing there says you can’t have both. It will take some working out. Some compromising. But you know it can be done. Rodeo doesn’t require your home base to be in…where’s your ranch? Colorado? Horses like Wyoming prairie grass as much as Colorado mountain grazing.”
“Sounds like I’m doing all the compromising. That ranch means a lot to me. Means I’ll always have a place to call mine.”
“Maybe you need a place to call yours and hers. After all, she’ll be alone a lot, raising your children. Helps to have family nearby.”
“Children? I’m not cut out to be a father. I didn’t have a very good role model, remember.”
“He surely taught you what not to be. That’s a start. You’ve enough of my daddy in you to build on. She told me what you’ve done for your neighbor’s son. Give yourself a chance. Everyone deserves a second chance…”
This wasn’t what he expected when he stood outside the apartment door. But maybe this is why he had come. To find out if he was good enough. If he could let the past be and move forward. He looked at the small, thin, worried woman before him, and something softened in his heart.
“Even you, Mom?” He hadn’t said the word Mom in reference to anyone in over a decade. It should sound strange to his ear. It didn’t.
Her smile could have lit up half of Oregon. But as quick as it came, her expression turned serious.
“I’m not asking for a second chance for myself. I don’t deserve it. She does. And you deserve the happiness she’ll bring you. Because if she does anything to hurt you, son, she’ll have me to answer to.” Her smile was back.
“Spoken like a mother-in-law.”
“Well, now I’m going to speak like a mother. You’ve got to trust her, but you’ve also got to trust yourself again. Trust your judgment of Libby, your judgment of her sincerity, her love. That takes courage, son.”
Chapter 22
Libby curled up on the large sectional with Cowboy snuggled at her side and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Hazed and Confused ice cream in hand. The flavor’s name perfectly matched her state of mind. How could she have been so wrong about what Chance needed? Even now, the look on his face when he came back from the hotel room haunted her.
How could she have been so…so Pollyannaish?
To think that it would all work out simply because she liked his mother, believed her story, and thought Chance would feel the same. But he hadn’t. He’d been seething underneath that controlled veneer of his. Seething at her meddling. Seething at what he viewed as her betrayal, again. Seething about confronting what he wasn’t ready to confront—would never be ready to confront.
If the circumstances with her dad and her plea to keep their relationship going even if it meant seeing her in Wyoming had driven him away, why had she thought seeing his mother would have brought him back to her?
Because she believed in happy endings. Because down to her deepest core, she felt Chance needed to understand the ties that bound people to one another.
At least she had tried. Just as she had attempted to give him a happy ending years ago by marrying him. Both had been mistakes. Mistakes it was high time she forgave herself for making.
“You should be going out tonight with Doug. Heard he’s headed to the Cattleman’s Club.” Her father walked to the sofa, looking like his former self, almost.
It had been weeks since his heart attack, and she’d been gratified to watch him get stronger with each passing day. He’d been keeping, mostly, to healthier foods. He continued to drink decaf coffee, though he drank just as much. He’d been attending cardiac recovery therapy and was talking about enrolling in a gym downtown.
His weight was down, though he still had a ways to go, and his attitude was upbeat.
He frequently expressed his happiness at having her onboard, and she, surprisingly, was happy to be onboard.