“What’s the problem.” My cousin doesn’t ask it as a question.
He does it in his usual way—lay it on me because I know I’m the smartest person in the room and I can help you out.
And he’s not wrong. Luke is super smart, especially when it comes to people. He’s the life at every party even though he hates to dance and rarely makes a big show of anything. He’s the life of the party because of who he is—a cocky, strong-minded cowboy who never lets bad things tear him down for good.
The light over his desk casts a glow across his face,highlighting the long scar on his cheek and his dark hair that he drags his hand through as he waits for me to answer him.
“Do you think you’ll ever compete again?” I ask him without planning to.
He narrows his blue eyes. For a second, I’m certain he’s going to stand up and take a swing at me.
Instead, he takes a deep breath. “You and I are similar, Wild. We both have love affairs—some would call them unhealthy, possibly toxic—with our careers. We both risked our lives for our work, something not everyone can understand.”
True.
“In my case, former career.” His eyes flash with a deep pain. “Will I compete again? Time will tell.”
I nod. “Understood.”
“So. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…” He cocks his head and studies me for a moment. “Why don’t you fill me in on your dilemma? Seems like you’ve got something with your boat and your love life all mixed up.”
I stare at him. “How the hell…”
“I can sum up a problem in one sentence most of the time.” He smirks. “Just one of my many gifts.”
So I tell him. About the arrangement Emery and I decided on, her job offer, the cottage in Lucky Bay, how I offered to take her there and show her around, all of it.
When I’ve finished, Luke leans back in his rickety-ass wooden chair and links his hands behind his head. “So you’re happy she’s getting this cottage in Maine, but it will sting like hell to know she’s right down the road and you can’t commit to her. You’re glad she’s getting to know your in-laws but you’re upset because it’s only temporary. And the closer you two get, the harder it’s going to make the goodbye.”
I roll my shoulders. “Something like that.”
“Question.”
“Yeah.”
“Is this the first time you’ve felt torn?”
“Torn?”
“Between your career and a woman.”
I open my mouth to tell him he’s way off-base, that nothing and no one will ever make me feel the way I do on a boat.
But then I shut it.
Luke’s steely gaze never leaves mine as I work through his question in my head.
“I guess so,” I say eventually.
He cocks an eyebrow. “So you admit to feeling torn. This is a real thing then.”
“I guess it is.”
I don’t know that anyone else can understand what I’m going through, even Luke. I don’t know his reasons behind his obsession with bronc riding, but I know his connection to his dad is more about Wild Ranch than the rodeo.
“I get that you miss him, Michael.”
Luke’s tone is gruff but as genuine as could be.
