Katie glanced around. “Where is Tabby?”
“She went straight to the ranch to visit Trip again. Seeing Tenterhook yesterday made her realize how much she missed being at the ranch and being around her horse. I have a feeling she’ll be out there all day today.”
Trip was the owner of the Lone Creek Ranch that Katie had taken riding lessons at in high school. That’s how she’d met Bruce. Tabby had lived on the ranch since her parents died several years ago and learned barrel racing from Trip, who had known her father years ago when he and Tabby’s father were both bronc riders.
Katie poured herself a cup of coffee and pondered whether to bother with a bagel or an English muffin for breakfast to fill her stomach so it wouldn’t sour after she had her conversation with Kas. She decided on cream in her coffee and conversation. She’d deal with the upset stomach later.
Dragging a chair from the table, she then sat down and faced her brother. She wanted to dive in and get this over with. But she sensed something was wrong.
“Okay, out with it.”
Kas glanced up at her and frowned. “With what?”
Her brother was a successful businessperson in New York City. But he was also a hometown boy. She knew how much he loved Sweet. But his life and his business were in New York City.
Katie had always thought that that was an odd combination. How could you love the big city, the noise, and the activity and still love the quiet and the harsh life of Montana winters. But Kas always came back during the winter. And it wasn’t just to play hockey with the local boys.
She leaned back in the chair. “I’ve known you too long for you to pretend something isn’t spinning around in that head of yours.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not about you.”
The momentary sense of relief she felt was fleeting. “It’s not Tabby, is it?”
He didn’t say anything.
“What is it?” she asked, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. “Tell me.”
“She misses Sweet.”
“You already said that. Tell me something I didn’t already know.”
“She hates New York City.”
“So do a lot of people. They still live there.”
“I’m afraid that she’s not going to want to come back to New York City with me. “
Katie frowned, reached a hand out, and placed it over her brother’s. “Did she break up with you?”
“Tabby loves me. I have no doubt about that. It’s just New York City has her down. Some people acclimate to it quick enough. It took me a while too. But every day I come home, I find her sitting in the same chair by the window, looking at the busy street below. I can see it in her face. She doesn’t feel like she belongs there.”
“She belongs with you. You belong together. That’s what love is supposed to be, right?”
Katie said the words easily enough. She wasn’t sure she believed them anymore. If she did, maybe she’d still be married. But thinking back to the hard years she’d lived with Bruce, and the betrayal she always felt, she knew something just wasn’t right with them. She’d stuck it out far longer than she should have. In the end, Bruce had been the one to leave.
She knew it wasn’t love that made it not work. She loved him well enough. Well enough? What was that? You shouldn’t love somebody well enough. You should love them with everything inside you. It should be like breathing fresh air. Looking at her brother, she realized that maybe that’s what he was questioning.
“Do you love Tabby? I mean, like for the rest of your life can’t-spend-another-moment-without-her type of love?”
He nodded. “I can’t imagine not having Tabby in my life. I’m not quite sure how I was before I met her. It seems a little surreal to think that just a few months ago she wasn’t in my life at all. Now I can’t imagine what it would be like to go back to living in that big apartment in the city with just me.”
“Lots of people have long-distance relationships. It works.”
Kasper made a face. “It won’t work for me. I don’t want it to work like that for me. I don’t want to be one of those people who get to be with the woman I love twice a month.”
“What are you going to do?”
He puffed his cheeks as he blew out a quick breath. “Not think about it anymore this morning. Tabby hasn’t said anything to me. She hasn’t even asked about how long we’ll be here. I just suggested we come for a visit and she ran and packed her bag. Seeing how happy she was to be here made me realize just how unhappy she was in New York City. But that conversation is for another time and one to be had with Tabby.”
She grabbed her coffee mug and curled her fingers around it noting that the temperature was already cooling. She didn’t bother taking a sip.
“Caleb is going to be getting out of the hospital in a few days.”
“Good. He’s going to be okay?” Kas asked.
“Yes. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
When Katie thought of all the ways it could’ve been worse, it made her heart stop beating. If the beam had hit him square on the back of his head or neck, it would’ve been a lot worse. He could’ve been paralyzed or even dead.
“I hope you learned your lesson,” Kas said.
“Yeah, I don’t know what made me think I could handle a project like this.”
Kas frowned. “I’m not talking about the project. Well, I guess I am a little. You should’ve gotten insurance or made sure anybody who was on the property had their own insurance to cover whatever kind of injuries may happen.”
“Insurance?”
“I doubt very much Caleb will sue you for anything. He wasn’t on duty but he is missing time out of work and that’s something you need to talk to him about. His
