I roll my eyes, even though she can’t see me. “It’s been busy. You know how it is. He is single.”
“Uh-huh. And how ishe? You know damn well that I don’t want to hear anything about the cattle anymore. Tell me everything about this man again,” she presses, not letting me off the hook.
I pause, biting my lip. “He’s… good. Supportive. Mature. More than I expected, honestly.”
“Supportive, huh? More than you expected.” Her voice is teasing now. “It sounds like you really like him.”
“From a few words?” I protest weakly.
“It’s not just the words, I can tell by the tone of your voice,” she says with a laugh. “Come on, Sutton. Spill. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I flop onto the bed, the towel slipping slightly. “I don’t know, Kels. He’s… different. He makes me feel safe but also like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to jump. And that scares me.”
“Of course it does,” she says, her tone softening. “You’ve been through a lot. It’s natural to be scared. But you can’t let fear keep you from something good.”
“What if it’s not good?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper. “What if I get hurt again?”
“Then you pick yourself up and keep going,” she says firmly. “You’re one of the most resilient women I know.”
“But I’m tired of being resilient. I just…I just want it to work out, you know? I’m tired of the lessons.”
She giggles softly. “Girl, I feel that in my soul. You have to look at it from this point of view, though…Everything in life is a lesson in some way. If you’re always thinking it’s a negative lesson, then it will be.”
I let out a long groan. “Man, you and Wade are full of the wise advice today.”
I think back to the way he looked at me earlier, the way he held me like I was the most important thing in his world. I smile.
Maybe I should be looking at those positives.
“Maybe it’s time you let yourself be all in,” she says gently. “You deserve to be happy, Sutton. Don’t let your past steal that from you.”
I’m quiet for a moment, her words sinking in. “Thanks, Kels. I needed to hear that.”
“Anytime,” she says. “Now, what’s the latest on the cattle situation? Any new leads?”
I fill her in on what we’ve found so far, bouncing ideas back and forth. She’s sharp as a tack, and her insights always help me see things from a different angle.
Even in college, we would talk through assignments and scenarios to see things from different ways, and we almost always figured out what we needed to.
“I’ve missed these sessions,” I laugh.
“Me, too. Thank goodness for modern technology that we’re able to still do them even when we’re in different states.”
“For sure. It’s nice to have another person’s point of view. Doc Lucy is great, but her experience is limited to what she’s seen in Hicks Creek.”
“I feel that. We’re lucky that we’ve been able to travel for our experiences.”
“Maybe I should explain that to my dad,” I sigh. “I know he thinks that I abandoned our family by going to A&M and by living in Montana, but those experiences have helped me save a lot of cattle.”
“They’re going to be the reason you save his cattle and the town of Hicks Creek.”
“Yeah. I need to change my way of thinking, though. Who cares if he ever understands that? I know what it’s done for me.”
“Other people’s opinions are none of your business,” she says.
“You’re right. That’s going to be a giant switch of mindset for me. I think I’ve lived my life to prove my dad wrong, but…I have to also accept that may never happen.”
“Look at you,” she says softly. “That’s a big deal.”
