41. Isabelle
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
isabelle
THREE MONTHS AGO
E llison and the boys had been here a month ago for the Houston Rodeo, and Ellison was coming back to Texas in May for a couple weeks to work on wedding things here with me and her mom.
Reid’s birthday was coming up too. I remembered last year, after Colter proposed to Ellison, I gave him a lot of shit for not telling me when his birthday was. All he’d told me was he didn’t like his birthday—didn’t care for it. But he didn’t tell me why.
I’d found out when his birthday was because Ellison and I had been talking on the phone during one of our weekly catch up calls and she’d mentioned Reid’s birthday had been a few weeks prior.
“Yeah, so, not much has been going on here. Reid and Colter went back on the road pretty shortly after we got back from Glacier. I wanted to throw him a small party for his birthday since it was a few weeks ago and he was on the road, but he didn’t want to have one. And oh my goodness, you will not believe?—”
I’d cut her off. “ Wait, hold on. Go back.”
“The boys went back on the road?”
“No. Reid’s birthday?” I had asked.
“Oh, yeah. His birthday is April twenty-first.” She’d continued updating me on her life, but all I could think about was why he hadn’t told me about his birthday. I loved throwing people birthday parties and celebrating with them.
A couple days later, I’d texted him about it.
i’m mad at you
Reid
Why?
why didn’t you tell me your birthday was in April?
Reid
It didn’t seem important
but it’s your BIRTHDAY
your day of BIRTH
Reid
I’m not a huge fan of my birthday, tbh
It’s not important to me. Just another day
that’s sad…
Reid
Eh, it’s fine
At least at that point we had gotten over the friendship miscommunication at the Houston Rodeo, or at least didn’t talk about it, so it wasn’t uncomfortable. I had pretty much shut down any kind of conversation about it. I didn’t need that kind of rejection from him .
But now it was only a few days until his twenty-seventh birthday.
hey
Reid
Hey
your birthday’s coming up
Reid
Yep
you never told me why you don’t like your birthday
i mean, you don’t have to
Reid
…
I waited as the three little dots appeared and disappeared, telling me he was typing out a response. This went on for a few more minutes before they completely stopped.
Part of me was worried I’d struck a nerve, but the other part wanted to believe he was just busy and couldn’t respond.
Reid
My mother’s an alcoholic.
i’m sorry…
Reid
She has been for the past fifteen years. I don’t like my birthday because I never celebrated it. She ruined it every year .
I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t think there was a proper way for me to express my…condolences? Sympathy?
My finger hovered over Reid’s phone number. I didn’t know if he even wanted to talk about it, but maybe he wanted to try since he was willing to text about it.
I hesitated for another moment, debating whether it was the right thing to do, but before I could hit the button, my phone flashed with an incoming call from him.
I let out a sigh of relief and answered the call. “Hi.”
“Hey.” He sounded tired.
“Are you doing okay? Like, really?” I wanted to check in with him.
“Yeah, I’m fine. We’ve just been busy on the road. There’s a lot of pressure this year already with how the NFR ended and the wedding coming up.”
“That’s understandable. You know you can always talk to me though if you need it, yeah?”
“Yup.” He popped the P. “I know I’ve kind of left you in the dark about a lot of things regarding my past. I don’t mean to, it’s just not something I like to talk about.”
“I understand that. You never have to tell me anything if you don’t want to either. I just thought maybe it would be helpful to talk to someone?” I offered.
“It probably would. I’ve just always kept things to myself.” He paused. “She let the alcohol control her. But I got used to it. I did my own thing. I worked hard and got out. And I got my siblings out.” He sighed. “But any friends I did make in high school never knew anything about my home life. And they didn’t ask questions when I asked for rides to rodeos or needed to borrow their horses to compete. ”
“I’m so sorry.” My heart ached for him. “I can’t imagine what that was like. Do you?—”
“Talk to her? No, not anymore.”