Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Cowboy shook his head. “They didn’t know why. Until they saw me with Val, when he was healed. They said nothing at the time. But when I got home that night, I was greeted by my father. ‘You a black-lover now, boy?’ he shouted. They were older parents. Didn’t think they could have kids, until I came by . . . real surprise.” He shook his head. “He might have been older, but he was a rancher and damn good with his fists.”
“He beat you.”
Cowboy nodded. “So bad I couldn’t move.”
“When he could, he snuck out and came to us.” I sighed. “I hadn’t seen him in days. By that point I saw him every day. I . . .” I dropped my head and tried not to sound pathetic. “I kinda came to lean on him. With my seizures . . . I never liked to go out much. Do much in public in case they hit.” I pointed at Cowboy. “He, with his loud mouth and who-gives-a-fuck attitude, helped me.” I glanced at Cowboy, knowing the gratitude I felt toward him would never repay how he’d saved me. “In a town where people only saw color—saw me as the half-breed boy who would be better off dead, a pollution, an abomination—he didn’t. He came to see me as his best friend. We did everything together, because he knew I needed him.”
“Plus, I was starting to outgrow our home pretty damn quick . . . I just didn’t care anymore. Val was the best person I’d ever met.” His eyes watered. “That, and his folks. People who took up for me, when my father nearly beat me to death. Folks who . . .” He looked away.
The lump in my throat was suffocating.
“They took you in?” Sia asked.
Cowboy nodded. The part of the story I wasn’t sure I could tell had arrived. I looked down at my hands to see they were shaking. I felt the burn patches on my arms like I had just gotten them yesterday, the blisters bubbling in the too-hot heat.
“He went to confront them,” I whispered, remembering my papa leaving the house. I felt a hand on my shoulder, squeezing in support. Cowboy sat to one side of me. Sia moved to the other. I kept my eyes on the comforter. “First, he went to Cowboy’s folks. Told them what he thought of them. Then he went to my grandparents.” Cold shivers ran down my back. “Turned out my grandmother, who was gradually getting better, had no idea we were even in town. My grandfather hadn’t told her. She’d been bedridden since her stroke.” I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. “She asked to meet my mamma the following night, asked my papa to pass on the invitation. She wanted to see her daughter again first. Then she wanted to meet me.”
“Did you ever meet her?” Sia said, caution in her voice.
Agony engulfed my face. It fucking cut through every inch of me. “No,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, as that night came back to haunt me once again. The one I never wanted to remember, but always did. The night everything just fell the fuck apart . . .
“I won’t be welcome there,” I said.
“So the fuck what?” Aubin argued. He threw his arm over my shoulders. His eye was still black from his papa’s beating. His lip was split. And he was carrying his upper body badly. A couple of his ribs were cracked. “It’s the biggest rodeo that comes this way. The real professionals.” Aubin hadn’t ridden since his papa had whooped his ass. “It’s huge. State-fair big. The chances of us running into them is small.”
I saw the excitement on Aubin’s face. I knew he’d miss it if I said no. But he lived for this stuff. “Fine. We’ll go.”
Aubin scrubbed my head with his knuckles. “Knew I’d get you liking horses eventually.”
“Wouldn’t go that far.” I got up and grabbed my coat.
“Where you going?” my papa asked when we walked into the kitchen. Boxes were strewn about the room. We were finally leaving this fucking place. In a few days, we’d be gone.
“Rodeo,” Aubin said happily. My papa raised an eyebrow.
“You got my kid to go watch people riding broncs?” He put his hand on my head. “You feeling okay, Val?” My mamma laughed as I shrugged him off. “Well, just make sure you’re back later tonight. Your mamma is meeting with your grandmother, which means you’re staying with me. Movie, junk food. Sounds ideal.” He looked at Aubin. “You staying tonight, Aubin?”
Aubin ducked his head. “My mama called too actually. Said I’d meet her at the diner. She wants to see me.”
My papa rubbed Aubin’s head. “You need me, you call.”