I step inside the tiny air-conditioned shop and wave hello to Lou.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite bartender.”
I grimace as I recognize the annoying voice of Reid Wild behind me.
Out of the four Wild brothers, Reid is the one who loves to tease and irritate. And Teflon Reid seems to get away with just about anything.
I turn around to face him.
He’s a handsome cocky ass; I’ll give him that. With that dark hair, blue-green eyes, and square jaw, Ginny calls him “sexy bastard” behind his back.
“Where’s your baby brother at?” I say. “Your mama said he was here with you.”
“Should be any minute now. Take a seat. Let’s catch up.”
I don’t want to catch up with Reid because I know what he’s going to talk about. “I’ll just wait outside for him.”
But Reid follows me to the door. “What do you think of Logan’s fiancée?” he asks before I can make my exit.
I pause, working my way into a civilized response. Anything less, and I’ll never hear the end of it.
“Happy for him,” I stammer before turning and walking out the door.
Reid won’t follow me in this heat. He’s always hated Texas summers. If he’s not working on the ranch, he chooses A/C every time.
But apparently, the news of Logan and Gigi is big enough to get people to do things they normally wouldn’t.
Reid chases me out the door. “Little Lo’s all grown up, I guess, huh?”
I stare at him in silence.
All grown up. “I guess he is.”
“Mace?” Reid leans closer. “You okay? You’ve gone pale.”
I swallow. “I’m fine.”
His expression shifts from typical-mischievous Reid to something I don’t think I’ve ever seen on his face before. Concern. Instead of teasing me like I’m expecting, he changes the subject and says casually, “It’s the heat, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I get out. “The sun is brutal.”
He reaches out and gives my ponytail a light tug. “I don’t know too much, but somehow, everything’s gonna turn out all right in the end, Macey.”
“That it will.” I wave awkwardly. “Excuse me.”
He walks back inside, and I go sit underneath the big oak tree at the edge of the parking lot. Once I’m in the shade, I glance into my purse to make sure the divorce papers haven’t wrinkled, and then I pull out my diary. Might as well read another entry while I wait.
49
Mama and Daddy got their first official divorce last month. I should have been prepared, but it always hurts when somebody leaves for good.
Daddy had been drinking a lot, and Mama and I held an intervention with Uncle Benji to convince Daddy to go to rehab. This is his second try—he went once when I was a baby, but it didn’t stick. This one didn’t either. He quit after just two weeks at Hills for Health and was back home and running The Cowherd like always. And like always, Mama woke me up and brought me to the bar with her so together we could get him out to the car and drag his drunk ass home.
Mama claims her eyes are getting worse now that she’s a mother of four, and she can’t be bothered to read on her own anymore. She says I will be her eyes and her voice from now on. And her ears—she sends me to snoop on Daddy at The Cowherd at least twice a week. She wants to know before anyone else who he’s seeing so she won’t be caught off-guard when some big mouth like Billie Wells stops her on the street and says that she heard Benjamin Henwood is seeing a hot young blond chick.
I read Emma to her, and as much as I loved it, having Mama hovering over my shoulder and exclaiming over every single paragraph got tiresome. So when I got the chicken pox, the best part was I got to read Northanger Abbey by myself because Mama can’t stand to be around the ill. Or the downtrodden. She’s too downtrodden herself to have much patience for others in that state.
I was in bed reading when Logan brought my homework by. He sat on the bed with me, leaned back, and put his arms behind his head. Even though he didn’t say it, I knew he didn’t want to stay around his house and watch his daddy and uncle have yet another fight about the farm while his mother snuck into the pantry to drink her wine.
