The Hearts We’ve Broken (The Road and The Rodeo #3)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

juniper

Ishould have realized something was off when neither my boyfriend nor my best friend answered their phones. I’d tried calling both of them at least three times while I was at the store getting supplies for our New Year’s Eve party, but the calls went to voicemail.

Every. Single. Time.

Whatever, if they complained about the type of champagne I got, or told me I bought the wrong snacks, it was on them for not answering.

“Hey, babe! Can you—” I pushed the front door open with my hip, arms full of grocery bags, expecting to see my boyfriend in his usual spot playing video games or watching sports on the couch. “Brady?”

I froze when I heard noises coming from our bedroom.

“Fuck,” a male voice rasped what sounded an awful lot like a moan.

What the fuck? I set down the bags and pounded on the bedroom door three times. Whoever was in there didn’t stop as the slapping of skin and the creaks of our bed started to increase in speed.

“Oh, God, Brady, don’t stop!” The muffled voice through the thin wall was enough for me to throw the door open, revealing my boyfriend balls deep in my best friend.

“What the hell?” I screamed, white-hot rage coursing through my veins.

If you’re going to cheat on your girlfriend, at least lock the fucking door.

Both of them scrambled out of the positions they were in, Ava covering herself with the sheets—my sheets—and Brady rushing over to me butt-ass naked, not even bothering to cover his junk that was just inside my best friend.

“Baby, baby, baby, I can explain,” he stammered as I walked further into the room to pick up his jeans and fling them at him.

“Explain what, exactly? How you were fucking my best friend?” I snapped as I shielded my eyes and held my temple at the same time. This whole interaction was giving me a migraine.

I’d have to wash my eyes—and frankly, my brain—out with bleach later, because I’d never be getting the horrifying image of them out of my head.

They both rushed to put their clothes on, but I was already storming toward the front door. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to stay here.

Brady raced after me, presumably to keep apologizing and beg me to stay, but I slammed the door in his face before he could say anything.

The rear door of my car was still open with grocery bags in the trunk.

I debated throwing the grocery bags out and leaving them on the curb but decided against it.

My money, my groceries. I closed the hatchback then yanked the driver’s side door open, sliding in as fast as humanly possible before shutting and locking it.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

Brady

Baby, I’m sorry, please let me explain.

Do not start. We were done the moment you started seeing Ava

A separate text from Ava came through after I hit send.

Ava

June, please

I blocked both of their numbers and tossed my phone into the passenger seat before resting my forehead on my steering wheel, fighting the urge to slam my head against it repeatedly.

What a clusterfuck.

I had nowhere to go, but I would’ve rather lived in my car or a cardboard box on the side of the highway than continue to live in that house after everything I had just witnessed.

How was it that a few weeks ago, I was newly graduated from college, and now I was homeless?

To top it all off, my shit was still in the house, so I’d have to go back at some point.

I tried to think of friends I could stay with until I found my footing, but I could—pathetically—count them on one hand now that Ava and Brady were completely out of the picture.

What I needed was to get out of this town.

The plan was always to leave anyway after Brady graduated, but I assumed I had at least five more months.

Five months to work in a research lab in Goldfinch to gain experience then find a good job in a place we both wanted to live. Five months to figure my life out.

I shook my head, cursing myself. My entire future was planned around him. A goddamn boy.

What a foolish thing to do.

I scrolled my contacts, trying to think of who I could call in a favor from.

No, she’s all the way in Florida now.

Still in Goldfinch.

My finger landed on a friend who I hadn’t talked to in a while but still had a good relationship with. She lived in a small, middle-of-nowhere town. I couldn’t even remember the name of it, Miles something? Maybe that was exactly the type of place I needed.

What do you have to lose? I thought as I hit the call button.

A month and a half had passed since I caught my ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend together. Within a week, I had completely moved out of our—his—house. Up until that point, I’d been couch surfing, staying with the few friends I did have in town.

A couple of them had offered to let me move in, but I’d turned them down. Goldfinch wasn’t large enough for me to stay. I didn’t think I could stomach seeing Ava and Brady together around town, so I packed my bags and drove east toward Miles City.

Natalie was one of my friends from freshman year.

We had several classes together and quickly became friends.

She’d graduated last spring, so we weren’t as close as we used to be, having fallen out of touch once she left, but our friendship was still recent enough that I was comfortable asking her for a favor.

Once I told her the situation—she’d met Brady several times since we’d started dating freshman year—she had immediately agreed to let me stay with her for as long as I needed.

She wasn’t a huge fan of Brady while we were together; now I could see why, but at the time, my judgment was so clouded by what I thought was love that I didn’t care.

“I need to find a job,” I groaned from my position on the couch. “I feel like a freeloader.”

“I mean, it’s not like you haven’t been looking, right?” Natalie replied from the kitchen, the wall that separated us muffling her voice a bit.

If scrolling aimlessly on job search engines counted as looking, then sure. But all those jobs required a relocation, and I was picky.

“Why don’t you look downtown? I’m sure someone would be grateful for the extra help, even if it’s only occasional. That way you can work, make some money, and stop feeling so bad about not paying rent. Even though I told you it was fine.”

I nodded, though I knew she couldn’t see me. “You’re right. Don’t worry, I’ll be out of here before you know it.”

“June, it’s okay. Seriously. I just want you to be happy.” She walked over to the couch and extended a hand to help me up.

I took it, grateful to have a friend who literally and metaphorically picked me up. “Thanks, Nat. I’ll be back later. Wish me luck.” I grimaced as I let out a pathetic laugh on the way to the front door.

I couldn’t believe this was the situation I was in.

I knew a lot of people fresh out of college were still figuring things out, but I assumed I would be looking into places to raise our future kids, not wondering why my boyfriend decided to stick his dick in my best friend.

Or why she even let him do that in the first place.

For a while, I imagined it was all a bad dream. A really, really bad dream. I’d wake up any moment, and Brady and I would have a nice laugh about it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream, but my actual life.

Did I miss something? Was I oblivious to the signs? Surely they weren’t that good at hiding it.

Mid-February in Montana could be one of two things: negative temperatures with snowstorms every weekend, or a balmy forty degrees without a single speck of snow on the ground. This year happened to be the latter.

Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures, I still huddled in my jacket as I went from business to business asking about employment opportunities.

I’d take anything at this point, short-term or on-call, hell, I’d even be happy with one shift a week if it meant I could pull a little bit of my weight with Natalie.

Most people, understandably, didn’t know who I was and weren’t willing to hire a stranger on the spot or add a new employee to their roster when it wasn’t needed. I couldn’t blame them for that.

I was about to throw in the towel and go back home when I reached the end of the street and saw the old-timey western sign of Rudy’s bar.

What the hell, why not? I thought to myself as I pushed open the double doors.

The bar was fairly quiet, with it only being early afternoon.

Fluorescent bulbs lit up the space, and the local country western station played over the speakers at a respectable volume.

High-top tables occupied the open area to the right of the bar, and the back corner housed a pool table.

A few old men sat at the bar, watching a rodeo on the television mounted in the corner.

Brady was a big sports fan—football, baseball, rodeo, you name it. I, on the other hand, would have rather done anything else than sit in a dusty arena that smelled like horse shit. Now that I thought about it, the horse shit was quite fitting for him.

“Hello there, young lady.” A booming, yet friendly, voice broke me out of my thoughts. A large man with white hair and kind eyes stood on the other side of the bar. “What brings you in today?”

“Hi.” I smiled. “My name’s Juniper, and I’m…well, you see, I’m new in town and—” I hung my head a little at how awkward I was being.

“You’re looking for a job?” He finished my sentence for me.

“Yes, sir.” My chin was still dipped down, but my eyes flicked up toward his. “I understand if you don’t need help or don’t want to hire a stranger.”

“Do you have bartending experience?”

I nodded. I’d done some bartending when I was in school at Sapphire Gulch University. The college bars tended to be packed, so I knew my way around a bar. I could hold my own practically anywhere.

He paused for a beat, tilting his head to the side as he stroked his short beard. “When can you start?”

I blinked a few times. My mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out at first. “A-as soon as possible.”

“Why don’t you come by tomorrow night, Juniper, and we’ll get you started? My name’s John, but everyone ’round here calls me Rudy.” He reached out his hand, and I took it. “Welcome to Miles City.”