Wild Horses. Claire McEwen

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       CHAPTER THREE

      NORA LEANED OUT of the truck window, staring at the blue-gray blur of sagebrush rushing by, letting the hot afternoon breeze snap her hair in every direction. It was a good thing Wade was at the wheel, because her hands were shaking and her stomach heaved.

      Anger was bubbling inside her like lava, flowing over her initial surprise and leaving sharp edges and disjointed thoughts in its wake. Todd had freed the horses. He was the idiot who’d terrified her in the dark. He’d almost gotten her killed. He lived here, in Benson. Her mind jumped between topics, between their past and the present, as she tried to make some kind of sense of what she’d learned.

      Wade stopped the truck in front of their shabby ranch house. Nora stared at the peeling paint and sagging porch, seeing it with new eyes. Todd’s eyes. She’d always hid her impoverished, messed-up past from him. But soon he would know. Moving back here and facing that past had been hard. It would be harder with Todd Williams in town to witness her struggles.

      A shutter banged in the late-afternoon breeze. The amount of work the house needed was overwhelming. And when you combined that with what the ranch required, it was mind-boggling. Luckily Wade was fearless. Nora wasn’t sure she’d ever take on a project as large as revitalizing this ranch on her own. But the impossible nature of it seemed to spur Wade on and give him a focus as he got used to life outside the army, life away from war. And for that she was grateful. So grateful she’d offered to help him out. To move back to the childhood home she’d vowed to never set foot in again.

      Now she wished that she’d let him return home on his own. That she’d just offered financial support—a check in the mail from someplace far away from Todd.

      She realized, suddenly, that Wade hadn’t moved, either. They were sitting in the truck in silence—except for the noise of Wade’s fingers tapping restlessly on the steering wheel.

      “You’re angry.” She stared at him in surprise. Wade rarely got angry with her. Or anyone.

      “Yeah, I guess so.” Her brother looked straight ahead, not at her.

      “Why?”

      “Because you never told me about him.” He turned to face her then, his dark brown eyes narrowed in frustration. “He dumped you, didn’t he? Right after college. Right before you took me with you to Nevada.”

      “So?” She didn’t want to talk about that time. Didn’t want to remember how lost she’d felt. “It was none of your concern.”

      “Yes, it was. I’m your brother. We lived together. You think I didn’t notice how sad you were? That I didn’t wonder why you got up every morning with red eyes?”

      “You could have asked.” She sounded like the sullen teenager that he’d been back then. But she was ashamed at the memories—at the way she’d totally fallen apart.

      “I did ask, Nora! You told me you had allergies, but I never bought that. You wouldn’t choose to be a plant biologist if you had hay fever. I never could figure out what was wrong.”

      Nora smiled faintly at his logical conclusion. “I didn’t know you were worried.”

      “I heard you crying. A lot. I thought maybe it was all the stuff that was happening with Dad. Or having to take care of me.”

      She turned in her seat to face him then, and touched his shoulder gently. “I never minded taking care of you.”

      “I just worried that...well...” He glanced away for a moment. “I was a brat.”

      “You were a teenager, and I took you away from your hometown, so of course you acted out. But you were my brat, you know?” She reached over and ruffled his short hair. “You were my family.”

      He glared at her, refusing to be teased out of his frustration. “Then, you should have told me what was really going on.”

      He was probably right. But she didn’t want to admit it. “I guess I figured my little brother didn’t need to know the details of my love life.”

      “A three-year relationship is more than a detail, Nora. And it might have explained a lot. About how you were.”

      She didn’t want to talk about those dark days. “I was fine.” She glared at Wade, daring him to challenge her lie.

      Her brother just shook his head.

      “Okay, I wasn’t fine,” she admitted. “But I was embarrassed that I was such a mess. Plus, I didn’t think you’d care that your boring older sister got dumped.”

      “I did care. I still do.” Wade glanced at her, then away again. “I’ve noticed that you never go out with anyone for long. Is Todd the reason for that?”

      “No!” He’d put into words what worried her, but accepting that, saying it out loud, would make it real. She refused to be that pathetic. “I guess I never told you about Todd because I wanted to keep him separate from the rest of my life, you know? Because of Dad and Arch and Blake.”

      Wade was silent for a moment, fingers drumming again. “So you fell in love with pretty boy there, but never told him where you were from or what you’d been through. Or about how you were taking care of me?”

      “Trust me, he’s not pretty. Not to me, at least, not anymore.” Saying it out loud was the first step to believing it. “But yes, I fell in love. And I never told him anything about our family.”

      “I don’t know much about relationships, sis, but I know that’s not a very good СКАЧАТЬ