Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“I feel bad, man.”
“What did she expect, though? It’s not like you’re the type to settle down.”
Jacob pulled off his gear and nodded as he put it aside. “I know. But still. We’re friends.”
Tate gave Jacob a smirk before exchanging a look with his twin. “You sure about that?”
“Yes,” Jacob huffed. “We’ve been friends for at least eight years, if not more. That year I saved up enough money to buy a place on the mountain? That was the year we met. But then I found out she had a huge crazy family.”
Jason chuckled quietly under his breath, drawing Jacob’s attention but when he didn’t say something he continued.
“I mean, there have been a few times when I considered…”
Both Dennison men paused what they were doing in the locker room. They’d competed tonight and both had done well. Jason had placed. But now, they were staring at him like his hair had caught on fire.
“You did?” Tate finally asked.
“Considered what?” Jason added.
Jacob shrugged. “She’s attractive. She’s funny.
I like that she can hold her own when we’re all hanging out together.
Before I realized how close her family was, I thought…
” He shrugged again, not knowing why he was admitting to any of this.
“You know how it is,” he finally muttered.
“Neither one of you went into this professionally in the same way I have. You rarely travel. You compete at the amateur level so you can stay local. You care about your family and taking care of them. Living life on the road isn’t conducive for someone like her. ”
The twins nodded in understanding, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. They could see what he was getting at.
Hallie was raised in a large family. That support system was important especially for women.
Those who traveled? They didn’t care if they set down roots anywhere.
They could live on the road their whole lives and be fulfilled.
“Besides,” he added, “I like my job way too much. I might not sit behind a desk for fifty hours a week, but I’m still a workaholic. I have goals. Dreams. I’m not going to let myself get distracted by a girl or anything else.”
“How’s that going, by the way?” Tate asked. “Last I heard, you were in the running for the finals this year in Vegas.”
Jacob nodded. “Yeah.”
“Two years in a row. That’s impressive.”
“Thanks,” he grunted out. “It’s a lot of work, but I think this year I might have a clear shot.”
His friends nodded. Then Jason spoke. He was the quiet one but when he gave advice or said something, it was usually gold. “I think you did the right thing. Letting her down easy. Even if there were some latent feelings for her, it’s best to draw that line before it gets too blurry.”
“Yeah,” Jacob mused. “Exactly. I just hope that this doesn’t make things weird between us. She said she’d come tonight and I haven’t seen her.”
Tate frowned. “She wasn’t sitting by my sisters. Lately she’s been hanging out a lot with Faith. They’ve gotten pretty close.”
Disappointment clogged Jacob’s throat. It wasn’t like he was competing tonight, but still. She’d told him she’d be here, and he’d gotten used to seeing her smiling face. Did that make him the bad guy? That he wanted her around but refused to offer her the one thing she wanted?
Nah. He was in his rights to clearly define the parameters of his friendship with her. And if she wanted to make it weird, they’d work through it. Because they were friends.
The second he followed the twins out of the locker rooms, they were all accosted by three excitable women. Brent followed behind the girls. Wren, Lydia and Faith Dennison corralled around their twin brothers with praise and congratulations. Brent nodded at Jacob and he nodded back.
Was Brent more reserved than usual? Had he heard about what had happened with his cousin? This was the problem with big families. Nothing could be kept secret. Jacob half-wondered if he’d have to steer clear of Sagebrush for a while.
Movement down the hallway caught his attention, and he shifted his gaze to see a familiar blonde, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. There was a definite difference to her hair. It was shorter, and there was a streak of… blue in her hair.
Blue?
What did she do?
He took a step in her direction, but Brent waved him off with a subtle shake of his head.
Well, great. News had spread. Of course it had. Hallie might have acted like she was fine after he’d turned her down, but she most definitely wasn’t. “I just want to talk to her, even things out,” he said under his breath.
Another shake of Brent’s head. “I get it, but that’s not going to happen. She doesn’t want to talk to you right now. Just… give her some time.”
Jacob’s jaw tightened as he shifted his attention to Brent. He couldn’t tell if Brent was upset or not. He was being protective, but he wasn’t throwing fists or insults. That had to be a good sign, right? Of course it did.
Hallie hadn’t slandered his name to her family. She just needed some space so she didn’t have to be embarrassed. He could understand that.
And yet that split second of seeing her tugged at something inside him. It had only been a couple days since her confession, and he missed her. His text messages had gone unanswered and she hadn’t been hanging around.
“She’ll be fine,” Brent’s words drew his attention. “Don’t worry about her. She’s resilient.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know.” And even though he could tell himself that none of this was his fault, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was.
He missed her. Why did he miss her so freaking much?
Not because he had feelings for her.
Jacob refused to believe that.
He’d been honest. Upfront.
And yet, the truth remained.
He. Missed. Her.
After saying his goodbyes to his friends, he threw all his belongings into the back of his truck and climbed behind the wheel. He shoved his key into the ignition and turned over the engine but before he could pull out of his parking space, his phone buzzed.
Relief pooled in his gut, but it immediately drained when he saw who the sender was.
Ryker: You can’t keep ignoring my calls.
Ryker: Mackenzie just had the baby. A healthy girl. You’re an uncle again.
There were two missed calls before his brother had texted.
Jacob fought the urge to tap on his contact and reply.
But ultimately, his pride won out and he tossed his phone to the side.
It had been six years since he last spoke to his brother.
Six years of silence and he wasn’t going to start speaking just because his brother had another kid.
Was he petty?
Probably.
But their argument went deeper than even his brother wanted to admit. It hadn’t mattered back then, so why would it matter now? Ryker made his decisions, and he could live with them just as Jacob was living with his.
Right about now, Jacob could use a friend. He could use Hallie’s sunny disposition to drag him from the cloudy mood he’d found himself in. He just wanted his friend back. She was as close to a best friend as he had.
The guys were great, but they were all focused on different things in their lives.
Not only that, but since they were also rodeo competitors, it was hard to develop a meaningful friendship with them that wasn’t based on their careers.
The rodeo seemed to be the only thing they had in common. Without it, would they even be friends?
With a huff, Jacob put the truck into gear and headed home. The drive up the mountain wasn’t so bad especially with his four-wheel-drive. Up there, he could see the whole town. He’d found the cabin-style home one of the first times he’d visited Rocky Ridge, and he’d loved it the second he saw it.
The cabin was situated on the hill with two bedrooms, a large entertaining space and two bathrooms. There was a decent amount of land surrounding the house but no yard to speak of.
It was the perfect getaway when he decided to come home to train for an upcoming event.
He’d left his hometown in Tennessee after his brother had met Mackenzie.
At the time he’d probably jumped the gun and acted rashly, but once he’d let things settle and he’d found this place, he knew it was where he was meant to be.
It was his escape from the world. Not many people were invited up this way because he opted to spend time with his friends in the valley. Lately, he’d been spending a great deal more time at one ranch specifically—at least when he was in town.
The beam from his headlights bathed the cabin in their bright glow. Home sweet home. At least for the next week or so. Then he’d be on the road for a few more weeks.
He glanced over to the right where a small stable had been constructed.
And beside it was a corral where his horse could stretch her legs.
The rest of the terrain was covered in shrubs or trees.
One day he could probably clear some of it away and expand the house.
Or that was what the realtor had suggested.
Little did the realtor know that Jacob didn’t have an interest in becoming a family man.
He wasn’t even sure he’d make a good father.
Heaven knew his wasn’t the greatest. The man was aloof at best. Jacob and his brother were raised more by their mother than the man who had sired them.
When their father was present, he was overbearing and hard to get along with.
He wasn’t abusive, and yet Jacob never got the feeling that he was meant to be a father, either.
Perhaps that was where Jacob’s aversion to a relationship stemmed from.
Where his desire came from to find a career that didn’t lock him down in one place only to be forced to raise children who didn’t deserve to have a father like him.
Jacob shook his head and climbed out of his truck.
Hallie didn’t realize she’d dodged a bullet with him.
That was why she was avoiding him. She might be feeling embarrassed for confessing her feelings and that was normal.
But if she knew just how much of a shadow clung to him, then she would have turned the other way.
Hallie was all sunshine and rainbows. She could find the bright side in every situation. She was the perfect hype man when it came to preparing for a competition. That was why he missed her. She was yin and he was yang. She was light and he was dark. She was all smiles and he was serious.
They completed each other but not in a romantic way.
Definitely not a romantic way.
Because she might possibly be his best friend and he’d never want that to change.
Jacob headed inside and dropped his keys in the bowl on the table near the door. He flipped on a switch and glanced around the clean space. It had never felt cold before. Quiet, yes. But cold? He fought a shiver and moved toward the thermostat. Maybe the AC was on too high.
But no, the temperature was set to a comfortable seventy degrees. Being up in the woods, the trees offered most of the climate control and the air conditioning didn’t have to work too hard.
He tapped at the thermostat then sighed and moved into the kitchen to fix a snack.
With a turkey sandwich in hand, he glanced around the empty space.
It was just how he’d left it and yet something was off.
Jacob couldn’t put his finger on it and that bothered him to no end.
Maybe he needed to hire someone to come out and clean the place up, air it out while he was gone on his trips.
But no, that didn’t seem like it’d solve this nagging feeling.
Maybe it wasn’t the house that was bothering him. Maybe it was that strange empty feeling he had. Or the sense that something big was going to change in his life.
He shuddered.
Jacob refused to lose a friendship over this.
He should have gone after Hallie that night and made sure they were in a good place.
He shouldn’t have listened to Brent when he told him to give her space.
Hallie wasn’t that kind of person. She had a need to settle things when times got tough.
It was that whole mentality of not going to bed upset.
And he’d done that. He’d been the one to tip her life on its side and all the contents had come out.
He dropped his half-eaten sandwich on the plate he’d left on the counter and brushed the breadcrumbs from his fingers. Jacob didn’t have feelings for her. But that didn’t mean he didn’t care for her. He’d make this right one way or the other.
Pulling out his phone, he scrubbed at his jaw. All he knew was that he needed to get her to agree to hang out with him. If they could just be in the same place and he could get her to talk to him, then maybe he could put her at ease and make the whole situation less awkward.
Jacob: Hey, can we talk?
The second he sent it, Jacob regretted it. That sounded ominous while at the same time made it seem like he could have changed his mind. Hallie could read it either way.
Dang it!
Jacob: Saw you at the arena, but you left before I could say hi.
He scratched the back of his head and then groaned. What was he doing? When the message showed as read, his heart dropped.
Making a mess of things, that’s what. Jacob tossed his phone aside and sighed. He’d track her down in person. They had to figure this out because heaven knew he needed his friend more than he’d wanted to admit.