any favors.”
“Hitting the road isn’t doing a favor for most women.” He did his best to resurrect his usual cocky grin. “Most of ’em want me to stick around.”
She didn’t answer and he opened the car door. “Stay, Sarah. At least for today, tomorrow, as long as it takes to work things out. And if you’re still here when I get back, the job offer’s open.”
“I’ll be gone,” she said as he opened the door. “I might stay the night. I need to make some plans. But you can come back after that. And you won’t hear from me again.”
***
Sarah woke in the morning with an emotional hangover. She felt drained, as if someone had wrung out her heart and left just a shriveled husk behind.
The day before had been like the world’s wildest bronc ride. She’d had that magical moment of reunion with the horse she’d thought was Flash. Then the near-disaster with Kelsey, and the realization of her own shortcomings. And to top it off, she’d discovered that the man she—loved, maybe—was the villain in the life story she’d constructed to cope with her own shortcomings.
She felt like she’d been dropped in the dirt by the ultimate bucking horse. She could feel the fall in her bones; it was like she was bruised right down to her soul.
Rifling through the unfamiliar cupboards, she finally found a coffee cup. Like the rest of the cabin’s meager supply of dishes, it was made of heavy white china decorated with ranch brands and rodeo scenes. She poured herself a cup of the coffee she’d set brewing the night before and took a long sip while she pondered her future.
At least her lack of material goods made her mobile. As she headed for the front porch, she started to formulate a plan. She’d stay at Kelsey’s for a while. Mike would just have to put up with her, because she needed to regroup, redesign, and restore her life. Getting fired from Carrigan wouldn’t help her professional reputation any, but she’d only been there a few months. Maybe if she just left the job off her resume entirely…
Kind of like she’d left any reference to Two Shot out of her conversations about her past. Yeah, that had worked out just great.
She leaned against the log wall and scanned the prairie, drinking in the long, featureless vista as she sipped her coffee. Maybe it was time to stop the sins of omission and face the truth. It wasn’t like the truth was so terrible. She’d gone from relative poverty to success in the business world. That was something to be proud of, right? Anyone could be born to success. It took a special kind of determination to claw your way up from poverty. She was a small-town girl who’d made good—or at least that’s what she’d been yesterday.
Today, she was a small-town girl who’d failed. She was right back where she’d started—in Two Shot country. And she could moan and cuss about that all she wanted, but the truth was, it was time to start clawing her way to success again.
Chapter 34
The view from the porch was bleak, just a flat plain scattered with rocks and sage, but the longer Sarah looked the more she felt like she belonged here. This was the landscape she’d grown up with. The subtle greens and golds broken by gold and gray rocks and pale, parched earth were the colors of home.
It was a good day for horses, the kind of day she’d loved as a girl. The heat of the sun was tempered by a gentle, lilting breeze, just enough to cool the skin without raising dust. The Wyoming sky was a hard gemstone blue, and the grass glistened like gold tinsel. It would be a perfect day to spend with Flash Junior. What had Lane called him? Cinnamon Chrome. Cinn.
She squinted at the dusty, disreputable car parked in the drive, with all her earthly possessions jammed inside. She was in transit, moving from her old life to something new and unknown. This wasn’t the destination she had in mind, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pause and rest, let herself out to play like a dog taking a roadside break on a long car trip.
She checked her watch, thinking of Roy as she always did when she looked at the no-frills Timex with its bold, simple numbers. It was early, not even six yet. She was hungry, and she didn’t have the energy to cook. In