He got off the counter and approached her, motioning for her to sit on the sofa. “He told me Boones don’t quit. That leaving rodeoing meant I wasn’t his son.” He rubbed his hand down the scar on his arm. “So, I left,” Wyatt said. “And I never went back.”
Letty swallowed. “Do you regret it?”
“No.” His voice was steady.
She kicked off her shoes and pulled her legs under herself. “Do you miss it?”
He thought about it longer before he sighed. “I miss what it would’ve been without him.”
She nodded once. “Family is complicated. You know, you’re allowed to outgrow people.”
Wyatt snorted.
She took a moment. “My grandmother raised us,” she said. “Three different fathers, same mother.”
Wyatt didn’t react, but she could tell he was listening. “That’s not necessarily unusual.”
She cocked her head. “My older sister and I are eleven months apart.”
He pursed his lips. “Ah.”
“Our mother had addiction issues, pills at first, and then anything she could get her hands on. She’d disappear for days.”
Wyatt’s expression sharpened. “How old were you?”
“Old enough to understand when the lights were shut off.”
He didn’t interrupt.
“Mamère, my grandmother, moved us into her house in New Orleans when I was eleven, Livvy was twelve, and Tessa was four.”
He leaned forward as she tilted her head. “You’re close?” She smiled as he shifted. “Livvy did pre-med, I chose disaster science… We left Tessa behind.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“It felt like it.” Her throat tightened. “She got pregnant at twenty,” Letty mumbled. “Guy disappeared before the baby was born.”
Wyatt’s jaw hardened. “She kept…?”
“Her, yes.”
“Where is the baby now?”
She sighed. “With Mamère. Tessa’s working as a sous chef, trying to build experience so she can open her own place. She’s working some private job on an island in the Gulf.”
“That’s not rudderless,” he said.
“No, you’re right. She’s finally finding direction.”
“That’s good.” He reached out to touch her hand.
She let his hand touch hers and settled. “You know,” she said after a moment. “Livvy had a break-in.”
His eyes sharpened. “What?”
“Someone broke into her house in Virginia.”
Wyatt went still. “Is she okay?”
