“Yeah, but they’ve recalled our loan. We have a month left. Debt collection processes have started.”
Every face goes slack with shock. Kayley gets up and leaves the room. Nia starts crying. Gemma sighs, dropping into a chair, taking to staring out the window.
Mom steps closer. “And you thought getting yourself killed would solve our problem?” Her eyes are homed in on me, intensifying as I shift on the bed, sitting up.
“I—”
Her hands close over mine. “No, Hadley, I will not lose a husband only to lose my son as well. No matter the reason. This ends now. I’ll sell the ranch if I have to. Kayley does well living in town. We’d make do.”
“No, that’s not ha?—”
She shakes her head.
“I’ve been coasting as a parent for too long. Today I’m putting my foot down. I don’t care you’re a grown man who towers over me. I don’t care you’re more capable than myself and your father put together. I care that you don’t kill yourself over something as stupid as a place and a bunch of possessions. This ends now.”
I’m stunned.
My mother’s lived the last decade a shell of her former self.
This is the first glimpse of the woman she used to be.
It only took us potentially losing everything for her to wake up.
She leans down, and her forehead meets mine. The sentiment has every memory of Maggie flying through my mind as I close my eyes.
“I will not lose my son. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You quit that rodeo business. Sooner rather than later.”
I can only stare at the wall across the room as they all leave, promising to visit if I’m stuck here for another few days.
I spend the next few hours running through every single possibility. Until nature calls and I’m desperate for the bathroom. I swing my legs over the bed, sitting up.
My head swims.
I slam my eyes shut, but the bed under me sways.
As if on cue, a nurse pushes through the doorway. “Hold on, cowboy. You’re going to need a hand the first time back on your feet.”
She swings an arm around my shoulders and helps me to my feet slowly. I shuffle my feet like it’s been an age since I’ve used my legs, not a day.
My arm hangs heavy at my side as I reach the toilet, and she sits me down and leaves. The nurse call button is lit up in green on the wall by the toilet.
That’s when it hits me, I’m too young to be in a hospital bed. I’m too busy trying to make ends meet to end up injured every other weekend.
Closing my eyes, right here on this porcelain seat in Kennedy General Hospital, I make a promise to retire after this year. I have to take a punt at the championship. It could pay off almost all our debt.
We’d keep the ranch.
I could afford to pay for Nia’s college education next year with the income from the ranch if it wasn’t servicing debt.
One last rodeo to save it all.
Maybe Kales is right . . . I’m addicted.
Hi, my name is Hadley Jones, and I’m a rodeo adrenaline addict.
