Page 142 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys
“You peeled it.”
“I perfected it.” He offers me half. I wave it away. “Suit yourself.”
He bites into it and chews for a while before glancing sideways. “Kid asleep?”
“Yeah.”
“Doing better?”
I nod. “Arizona helped.”
“I figured.”
He says it like there was never any doubt.
Willy finishes his mouthful and wipes his hands on his jeans. “Tori canceled?”
I nod. “Sadie held it together until she got to her room.”
His shoulders sink. “That’s rough.”
“She told me she cleaned her room and brushed her hair specially.”
Willy closes his eyes briefly. “Kids shouldn’t have to think like that.”
“No.”
“They’re supposed to believe that adults will keep their promises.”
I stare out across the yard. “I keep thinking I handled this wrong.”
He turns toward me. “What’d you do?”
“I let Sadie get attached.”
“To Arizona?”
I nod. “I saw how happy she was, and after everything with Tori I kept telling myself having one more person who loved her couldn’t be a bad thing.”
“It isn’t.”
“It might be.”
He waits. I already know he isn’t going to let me leave it there.
“Arizona’s just passing through,” I say. “Sadie doesn’t get that part. She hears guitar lessons, bedtime stories, and somebody who always shows up when she says she will.”
Willy rolls the apple core between his hands before tossing it toward the compost pile. “Yeah.”
“If Arizona leaves…”
The words dry up before I finish them.
“She’ll wonder why another person walked away.”
I rest my forearms on my knees. “I don’t want that for her.”
“I know.”
