I shrugged, already trying to figure out what I should do about Em and the lease on my apartment rather than worry about the state of my former career. “The only happiness I’m worried about is my own.” And a certain unsmiling not quite a cowboy’s happiness, too, but she didn’t need to know that. She wouldn’t appreciate the challenge and didn’t deserve to know that my taste in men had vastly improved.
I shut the door even though she was still speaking to me and I couldn’t stop the face-splitting grin that stretched my mouth wide as I made my way back to the apartment. I threw open the door with more gusto than it required and called Em’s name at the top of my lungs. She didn’t respond, which was nothing new, so I went to the guest room to tell her I was quitting my job and chasing after the biggest risk ever. I thought she would be happy for me. I thought she would support my decision. I thought maybe she would even hug me and let her pretty smile back onto her newly scarred face. I thought she would be curled up in a ball under the covers on the bed like she had been since we got home.
I thought wrong.
The room was empty. The bathroom was empty and there were no signs of her anywhere in my house. I panicked at first, calling her cell no less than twenty times in a row. Every call went to voicemail and when I called her parents, they were just as lost and confused as I was. I tore through the room, looking for anything that might give me a sign as to where she went, when my phone rang. I didn’t want to answer it in my frantic state, but it was my grandmother’s number and there was no way I could ignore her after being out of touch for so long.
“Hey, Gram. Now’s not a good time, can I call you back in a little bit?” I was going to call the police and fill out a missing person’s report. I was going to call Grady and Wyatt and see if they could use some kind of super government tracking system and locate her. Okay, maybe that was a little bit irrational, but I was desperate to find my friend.
“Leo, I need you to listen to me for a minute.” She only used that tone with me when I was in trouble or when something bad had happened. Usually those two things involved one person and I was beyond done with her and the way she tossed me away. I had more love than I knew what to do with. I was no longer missing hers.
I groaned and shoved a hand through my hair. “Gram if this has something to do with Mom, I don’t care.”
“It’s not about your mother, dear, it’s about Emrys.”
I stopped digging through the drawers in the room that were now empty and looked up at the mirror my best friend had spent hours crying in front of. I don’t know what she saw when she looked at herself in the reflection, but all I could see was the same gorgeous, warm, wonderful friend who had kept me afloat when all I wanted to do was drift. Her outsides had changed and maybe her insides had too, but she was still made of the same stuff that always made her my favorite person in the entire world.
“What about Em?” I whispered the words and whipped my head around as I heard knocking on my apartment door. Thinking it might be the woman we were talking about I took a flying leap over the bed, and not so gracefully scrambled back to my feet as I raced toward the living room.
“She called me today and told me you met a man. She said this one is very different from the last. She told me you wouldn’t go to him as long as you felt like you had to stay and take care of her, so she asked me if it would be okay if she came and stayed with me for a little while.” My grandmother sighed. “I asked why she couldn’t stay with her parents and she told me I would understand once I saw her.” Another sigh, this one deep and sad. The pounding on the front door grew louder and more impatient and I wondered if Chris’s wife had changed her tune and wanted to take a swing after all. “Her poor face. The girl needs to rest and she needs someone to talk to.”
I skirted around the couch and pulled the chain on the door and flipped the deadbolt without looking through the peephole. This was the city, not the wild, wild west so I knew it was stupid but I was distracted and worried. “Gram, did she tell you what happened?”
“No, not all of it, but I gather she met a man too. Her eyes are so sad, Leo. She needs time.”
I sniffled a little bit and pushed back tears as they threatened. “I was taking care of her. I want to help her.” I felt like that was my job, my real job, one I wouldn’t walk away from until it was done.
“I know, sweetie, but she’s worried you’ll focus on her and forget about you. I love Emrys like she’s family. I’ll take care of your girl while you take care of you, and then you can come and get her and you can take care of each other. She needs space right now, Leo. She’s hurting and she doesn’t know what to do with that hurt. I’m sure you can relate.” There was dry humor in her tone that made my lips curl. “Whatever happened, I’m sure you were there for. You’re tied to that memory right now and as much as you want to help, you might be making things worse.” I hated that, but my grandmother was never one to beat around the bush. If Em needed time, I had plenty of it to give.
“I’ll take care of me, Gram.” I pulled open the door ready to demand an explanation for all the racket, and felt everything inside of me that had been cold and sluggish fire back to life.
On my doorstep was the cowboy I’d been waiting for all along.
Tight faded blue jeans held up with a buckle the size of my head at the center of that trim and toned waist. A broad chest covered in a well-fitted, plaid shirt with pearl snaps on the front and black piping along the seams. The cowboy boots on his feet looked as new as the ones I wore last time I saw him, but the black Stetson on his dark head was well loved and looked unbelievable on him. There still weren’t any leather chaps or a Sam Elliott mustache, but he had left his facial hair so that it was now trimmed into a perfectly groomed goatee. He was a western dream come true, and he looked so good, and I missed him so much, I couldn’t make words come out of my mouth. We stared at each other in rapt silence for a long minute until I heard my grandma’s voice squawk over the phone asking me if I was still there.