CHAPTER 23

west

I was free. To leave. I couldn’t wrap my head around that piece of information. Jackson was ready to lie to a fucking judge just so I could get the hell out of there. He gained nothing from it.

Okay, maybe he gained not having to be around me any longer, but that didn’t feel like the reason either. Not really. Not considering everything he’d said.

And that fucking thing about his door being open? What the fuck was I supposed to do with that? Did he honestly think there was a shred of anything left between us?

Or was there?

I shook that question free as I arrived at the stables. There wasn’t. He couldn’t see it. I was too fucking broken to be with anyone—even if I did want a relationship. Who the fuck would choose to be with someone like me? I had nothing to offer him but the demons I couldn’t conquer.

I was free to start over—to take the money and find somewhere remote and alone to start over .

Bailey huffed, her head popping out over her stall door. The sight of her tugged hard at my heartstrings. Did I want to be alone for the rest of my life?

I couldn’t take her with me. There was no good way to take a horse on a road trip with no destination in mind. She deserved a hell of a lot better than that. She deserved everything she had at the ranch.

Beamer’s head joined hers in the aisle with a neigh. A small smile turned the corner of my lips. Beamer was loud and nosy. It wasn’t so much that he liked people. He just liked knowing what was going on and what snacks he could get out of it. He didn’t like sugar nearly as much as he liked peppermint, but he’d trample a bitch for some pumpkin. Hell, he’d almost trampled me the first time I brought it out.

Two more heads popped out at the noise—Domino and Dolly. They were brother and sister, inseparable in the most annoying way. Cute but annoying. Wherever one went, the other just had to go or they became irate. It made doing everything with them all the harder—especially with the way Domino liked to chew on shirttails if he wasn’t the one getting attention.

As I stood there staring down the line of stalls, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to leave. Sure, living in a stable wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t the worst place I’d ever slept. And I had a purpose for the first time in a long fucking time.

But was it enough to make me stay?

I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to do.