Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 114263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Today, though, my books are shoved to the side to make room for Garrett’s pictures. Surveying them, my chest tightens. There was nothing else in the box. Just stacks and stacks of four-by-six photographs.
The fact that Garrett, a wildly wealthy man, considered these some of his most prized possessions has me feeling short of breath.
He was a damn good human being.
A flawed one too. I know he regretted letting Aubrey and Mollie go. But far as I know, he never chased after them like he should’ve.
The regret is killing you, I told him once. Go get them.
But the next morning, he’d still tacked up his horse, Maria, clearly intent on staying in Hartsville. I think so much time had passed that he didn’t want to disrupt the new lives Aubrey and Mollie had built in Dallas.
I think, more than anything, he was scared. And stubborn. And he used the excuse of running the ranch to avoid confronting his feelings. His failings, too.
Pot, meet kettle.
I glance at the empty desk across from mine. Garrett’s. Wyatt and Sawyer cleaned it out a couple of weeks after he passed, even though I said I would do it. I think they knew going through his things would likely destroy me.
Kind of like looking through these photos must’ve destroyed Garrett. He clearly loved his ex-wife and daughter, but they never visited, and he never visited them. As far as I know, anyway. Is that why he put the photos in the lockbox? So he wouldn’t have to face his regret?
I pick up a sun-bleached photo of Mollie. She was really fucking cute as a kid. Blonde pigtails. Big smile that showed off the two front teeth she was missing.
There are countless photos of her on horseback. More’n a little shocking to see City Girl cheesing it on top of a gorgeous, spotted Appaloosa. But she looks at ease in the saddle. Happy, even.
Wonder if she misses it. The horses, the sunshine. The wide-open spaces of life in Hill Country.
I shove that thought aside in an attempt to ease the ache in my chest.
Garrett also looks happy in these photos. Really happy. I wouldn’t say he was unhappy during the time I knew him, but he definitely wasn’t lit up the way he is in these pictures.
Families are complicated. I know that better than anyone. But the idea that Garrett died without ever making things right with the people he clearly loved more than anything is downright tragic.
I should’ve pushed him more. Tried harder to get him to Dallas—or at the very least, get him on the phone more often. But he got set in his ways and ended up using his money in a failed attempt to buy his daughter’s affection.
Now he’s gone.
What if I die before I have a chance to make my dreams come true? What if I’m not able to save Rivers Ranch?
What if I never have a family of my own?
No-strings sex suits me just fine for now. I wanna get laid, I got calls to make.
Sometimes, though, I wish I had someone who slept in my bed for more than a night. I wish I had a person—the person—to talk to and take care of. Someone who’d take care of me too. Life is heavy. It’d be nice not to have to face it alone for once.
Not like it matters. I’m too damn busy taking care of everyone else to even think of adding a girlfriend to the mix.
Maybe that’s why Garrett stayed single after his divorce. Still, I wonder why the hell he left these pictures to me and not to Mollie or Aubrey. What is he trying to tell me? Is he trying to teach me some kind of lesson? Show me a way to avoid making the same mistakes he did? Or was this some sort of clerical error, a typo in the will that was never fixed?
Looking out the window over my desk, I blink the blurriness from my eyes. Do I share these with Mollie? Send them to her, maybe?
She’s gotta regret not trying harder with her dad. What the fuck is wrong with her, not visiting even once? The man clearly adored her, but she couldn’t be bothered to come see him. She sure enjoyed the fruits of his labor, though. I saw the checks he sent to the University of Texas. Heard him negotiating with real estate agents to buy her the condo she wanted in a ritzy part of Dallas.
Red-hot anger sweeps through me. I’d be thrilled just to see my parents again. But nothing, not even the most extravagant gifts, was ever good enough for Mollie.
I startle at the knock on the door. Quickly wiping my eyes, I gather the photos and carefully place them back in the worn leather bag I used to carry them home from the bank. I have no idea why Garrett gave me these pictures or what he wanted me to do with them. All I know is they were important to him, so they’re important to me.