Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59603 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59603 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“So how long will you be here?” Allison asked, finally putting out a question that I was wondering too but didn’t want to ask.
“I don’t know,” he said. “My father wanted me to take over the practice, so I will. At least for a little while. I don’t know how long it will last, to be honest.”
“Long enough to catch some of the ballgames I’m coaching?” Graham asked.
“Of course,” Mark laughed. “Hell, if you need another base coach, I might be game.”
Graham laughed. “The last time you coached baseball, didn’t you end up sending every runner that hit third home whether they would make it or not?”
“That’s beside the point,” Mark said. “It could be fun.”
“Indeed,” Camden agreed. “But while you are staying at the ranch, you’re learning to ride a horse.”
“I am?”
Camden grinned, and it was such a genuine expression that it made me feel warm inside. He was so happy to have his friends again. He missed them when they were all gone.
“I know just the horse for you,” he said with a smirk.
6
MARK
“Man, this is no joke of a driveway,” I said as we made our way down the long path that led from the main road to the ranch. “It was one thing in the daytime, but at night, it seems like forever.”
“It used to be worse,” Carmela said from the passenger’s seat. Camden huffed a laugh from behind the wheel. “It was all dirt and loose dirt at that. You would come down about twenty yards, and it would kick up so much dust that you would get lost, and your car would be covered in it.”
“I had to put a bunch of stuff down and put in a sprinkler system just for the road,” Camden said. “Now it doesn’t kick up so much anymore.”
“A sprinkler system for your dirt driveway,” I said, shaking my head. “Wild. You sure went all-in on the cowboy thing, Camden.”
He shrugged. “I like it,” he said. “I always knew I liked being around horses, but I love this.”
“I’m glad,” I said. “At least one of us had his shit together right from the start.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Camden muttered almost under his breath. There was a note that seemed to embody an emotion I couldn’t decipher in it. Was it sadness? Was it bitterness? I couldn’t tell. I just knew it wasn’t centered on me. I certainly didn’t have my shit together, not in any reasonable facsimile of reality. Whoever it was he was comparing himself to, it had to be someone else.
We pulled into the ranch a few minutes later, a light rainfall beginning to tap on the roof of the truck. As we got out, Camden and Carmela were talking about something I couldn’t quite make out, and I followed them inside. As soon as we were in, I shed my jacket and boots and took them to my room, putting on the slippers that I loved so much and making my way back into the living room area.
Camden was in the kitchen, and Carmela was sitting on the couch, looking at her phone. I sat down across from her on one of the reclining chairs and tried to work up the question that was burning in the front of my mind. Eventually, she must have noticed I was staring at her and lifted her eyes.
“So,” I said, “are you staying here too?”
She laughed, in a light and easy sort of way. It wasn’t dismissive or mean, just genuinely amused.
“No,” she said. “I have my own place.”
“Oh,” I said.
It dawned on me that I was just assuming she was still picking up the pieces of a life that had ended a while ago. Of course, by now she would have gotten her stuff together and moved on. It was funny, I thought, how you can just freeze a person in your mind. When they aren’t there, you just assume the next time you see them that time hasn’t passed at all.
But it had. So much time. Enough time for a lot of things to change.
“You’ll see me around, though,” she said. “I’ll be here plenty to bug you. I come and help with the horses as much as I can.”
“She actually teaches riding lessons,” Camden called from the kitchen.
He walked in with a couple of mugs and a few beers, along with some chips.
“Only under duress,” Carmela said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, I’m going to get going.”
“What?” Camden said. “I brought you a beer. We’re catching up.”
“Sorry,” she said. “Work in the morning. Helping a family out with an adoption. I need to get home and get some sleep.”
“Ah, damn. All right,” Camden said. “Love you, sis.”
He gave her a big hug, and Carmela turned to me, offering a little wave.
“Good night, Mark,” she said.
“Good night,” I echoed.