Chapter One #2
Yup, I’m stuck in detention, and Mrs. Baumgartner’s making us write letters again.
She said it’s something productive to do since we hadn’t done much else lately.
As if anything in high school is worth squat.
It’s not like I’ll use this crap after graduation.
Especially calculus. Who the hell has ever used it outside of school?
But Carly can’t get that. She thinks the world will explode if I fail calc.
What’s the big deal if I blow off a few classes and flunk a couple tests my senior year?
But everything is a big deal to her. I hear you two dated in high school.
Seriously, dude? Tell me she was different then, cause otherwise you must’ve been some kind of sick.
And not in a good way. But since you’ve known her so long, you got any ideas of how to get her off my ass?
So far, ignoring her and telling her she’s not my mother and can’t tell me what to do isn’t working.
Miss Little Goody-Goody needs to lighten up and get a life because she damn sure can’t live mine.
You’d think she was forty because all she does is work and bitch at me.
Maybe if I spike her iced tea she’ll mellow out, but I’m not sure there’s enough alcohol in town to get that job done.
The only other thing that might help is if she got laid, but who would want her?
’Course everyone here thinks she’s a saint because she’s running the damned horse therapy. All I ever hear is how great Carly is for giving up her life to help raise me and for continuing Mom’s legacy. What BS. They don’t know what she’s really like, but I do.
Well, Owen, I’ve hit a page of writing. I can turn this in and sleep until the bell rings.
Owen folded the letter and returned it to the stack. What was going on between Carly and her brother was more than normal teenage rebellion. What worried him was how Ryder’s anger had grown over his letters. They don’t know what she’s really like, but I do.
If he chose two words to describe Carly, he’d pick honest and compassionate. That was why her career made so much sense. She’d spent her life helping disabled veterans. First as a volunteer at Horses for Heroes, then on staff, and now as the executive director.
What had she told him about her volunteering when they’d dated?
Something about how the program paired traditional therapies with horseback riding and somehow that helped veterans.
Sometimes when nothing else had. He saw Carly’s blue eyes sparkling with pride and accomplishment when she talked about being part of the team who helped a vet regain movement or find relief from the PTSD keeping him chained to his house.
Carly, practical and realistic, with the soul of an optimist and the heart of a fighter, possessed a steel will that refused to let her, or anyone around her, give up. That was what he remembered about her. That and how she kissed him senseless.
Hold on. She wouldn’t let anyone give up. With the battle facing him, he needed her in his corner to keep him going.
The details of how to rebuild his life clicked into place, and Owen knew his road back began in Service, with Carly.
*
Three months and four days. If Carly Maddux could hang onto her thread of sanity and patience until Ryder graduated, she’d be free.
For the first time since she was fifteen and her mother died giving birth to her brother, Carly’s life would be her own.
She could see what the world outside Service, Texas, had to offer and finally figure out who she was.
Sitting at her desk in the renovated grain shed that served as Horses for Heroes administrative offices, she stared at the framed postcard on her desk.
Memories of her and her best friend Reese Cartwright’s vacation to Denver after graduation flitted through her mind.
That was where she’d relocate. The area had it all—hiking, horses, first rate medical facilities, and a wonderfully progressive culture.
The perfect place for her to explore what the world had to offer.
She had her plan. Over the last months, she’d subtly trained her assistant, positioning her to be Carly’s replacement candidate when she gave notice in another month. She’d started applying for jobs, hoping she’d have an offer by Ryder’s graduation.
But now she sat in her office, eating yogurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries, while she worked through lunch. Ah, the executive director perks were endless, and one reason she intended to return to the therapy.
Her cell phone dinged indicating she’d received a text. “Want to grab some lunch?”
“Already ate” she texted back to Reese.
“At ur desk again?”
When Carly failed to answer, a minute later her phone rang. “I’m guessing the no response is a big yes,” Reese said.
“You wouldn’t want to be around me. I’m in a lousy mood.”
“What’s your brother, dad, or both done now?”
“I think the men in my family have a fatal flaw in their DNA. Possessing a Y chromosome has wiped out their ability to understand simple concepts.”
Ones such as skipping school leads to detention and puts a college scholarship at risk. For her father, it was expenses exceeding income causes financial problems. Straightforward, clear basics of cause and effect, but neither could comprehend that.
“The school called me this morning because Ryder skipped again.”
“Why didn’t they call your dad?”
Carly stood and paced her office. “They don’t even try anymore, and I can’t blame them. He rarely answers, and when he does return the calls it’s usually days later.”
“Plus, he’s never been good about stepping up in the parent department. Thank goodness Ryder had you.”
She’d believed that once. Now she wasn’t sure. “Ryder’s so angry lately.”
“I doubt it has anything to do with you. It’s probably about a girl, the moon phase, or because it might rain next week. Or, he could just be mad at the world.”
That might be, but until two months ago, her brother hadn’t lumped her with the rest of the world.
Before then they could talk about almost anything.
But lately, on a good day, Ryder was distant and ignored her.
On a bad day, he blasted her with anger when she said good morning and screamed she couldn’t tell him what to do.
His attitude had to have something to do with her, and yet, no matter how many times she replayed the last months in her head, she couldn’t pinpoint any cause for his attitude change.
“What’s worse is he missed a calculus test. An unexcused absence means his teacher could give him a zero.
Just what he needs when he’s already failing.
I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’d never been in trouble until two months ago, just before he met Dylan Danvers.
I’m glad Ryder befriended the new kid in town, but—”
“That’s who your brother’s hanging with? That kid’s trouble. Store owners around town think he’s got sticky fingers. Not only that, but he showed up here drunk after the football game last Friday night. I had to ask him to leave.”
“Great. Now I have to worry about Ryder drinking in addition to failing calculus.”
“Tell Ryder the truth about his friend. Tell him to stay away from the kid.”
“All he’d do is toss the fact that I’m not his mother and he doesn’t have to listen to me in my face, and then he’d storm off.”
Dark haired with their mother’s bright turquoise eyes, looking at her younger brother reminded Carly her mother would never be completely gone.
When he was little, she and Ryder cuddled on the couch every night before bed, and she’d read to him.
Then when he started school, he’d read to her.
She’d been the one he ran to when he scraped his knee or needed reassurance. But not anymore.
“You may not be his biological mother, but you’ve been one in every other way.”
A vision of her mother, before her difficult over-forty pregnancy had drained her physically and emotionally, appeared in Carly’s mind.
Strong, organized, and intelligent, her mother held the family together while running Horses for Heroes and managing the ranch finances.
No one, not even a loving sister, could replace a lost mother.
“I can’t count the times he’s been in detention lately.
When I’ve talked to him about it, he tells me to get off his back and claims it’s no big deal.
He doesn’t get that if he fails calculus or has too many absences, he won’t graduate.
It’s as if he’s determined to screw up. I don’t know what to do. ”
Mama, I know I promised I’d help raise Ryder, that I’d make sure he grew into someone you could be proud of, but it’s gotten so hard, and he’s so angry, particularly at me. I’m afraid I haven’t done the job you would’ve.
“I can’t give up on him. There has to be a way to reach Ryder, to turn around his attitude before he throws away his future.”
One she’d have given anything to have had at his age. Didn’t he realize how lucky he was to have the option to attend a major university and live on campus? Apparently not, from his actions which put his graduation and scholarship at risk.
To obtain her bachelor’s degree and then her Master’s of Speech Pathology, she’d driven an hour and a half each way to attend classes. And that was only possible after she’d completed mountains of paperwork for her father to receive financial assistance for after-school daycare for Ryder.
“If you could talk to your mother, what would she tell you?”
Her mother’s melodic, soothing voice filled with optimism rang in her ears. Just do the best you can, baby. And trust your instincts. No one can ask more than that.
Clarity rippled through Carly along with another dose of anger.
She’d done her best with Ryder, but she wasn’t his parent.
“It’s way past time my father cowboyed up in more ways than dealing with his son.
Maybe I’ll have more success with that than I have teaching Dad economics. Do you know what he did?”