He was one of her favorite cousins, and he now knew full well how she was struggling, so anything he offered would be worth serious consideration.
She’d keep that in mind.
Reaching the cafe, Talia paused, seeing Grizz at a table by the window. He saw her and waved, grinning in his usual way. She waved back, managing a smile she didn’t have to force, then moved to the doors and pulled them open. It wasn’t crowded, which wasn’t surprising, as it was barely lunchtime—more like brunch.
She wondered if he chose this time partly on purpose.
She moved around the scattered tables and found Grizz, leaning over to kiss her cousin’s cheek fondly. “Hi there.”
“Hey, kiddo.” Grizz winked, still grinning as she sat down. “Hungry?”
“I could be.” She shrugged a shoulder. “More like I need coffee.”
Grizz chuckled at that. “Can do. Get whatever you want, it’s on me.”
Talia gave him a playful look. “Well. In that case, I’m starving.”
His chuckling deepened, the sound rolling across the table and creating a smile that Talia hadn’t meant to form. It was just the nature of his laugh, and the familiarity of it. She’d missed this, and even the sudden pang of regret at shutting everyone out for so long couldn’t shrink her smile.
“It’s good to see your old self, Talia,” Grizz told her. “Even if it’s just a quick glimpse.”
She nodded, having come to the same conclusion herself. “I know. I can almost feel her, but it’s like seeing a stranger rather than myself.”
Grizz cleared his throat. “Which brings me to my idea.” He paused as their waitress came by, and they quickly gave her their order, Grizz opting for the lunch side of brunch, while Talia stuck to the breakfast side.
Once Talia had her coffee poured, the waitress moved away, giving Talia the chance to look back at her cousin. “You were saying?”
He surprised her by pulling out his phone. “I’m sending you a link,” he informed her, tapping at the screen of his phone. “And I want you to seriously consider it.”
“You’re sending me a link?” Talia repeated before snorting softly. “Grizzy, you could have sent me a link without taking me out to lunch.”
He gave her an exasperated look as he set his phone down, his piercing blue eyes widening. “Look, I wanted to see you, check on you, and actually discuss this with you like real family members, okay? I can send you links to my Amazon wish list or stupid videos of goats whenever you’d like, but this is worth being in person.”
Talia snickered and held up her hands a little. “Fine, okay, I’ll listen.” She reached for her now buzzing phone and clicked on the link in the message he’d sent.
A website popped up with a picture that was straight out of a John Wayne film, complete with dirt roads. All it needed was an empty Main Street and a saloon, but at least it was out in the countryside.
Sort of.
There were hills, which was nice, as she’d always thought of the Wild West as being flat, and the house was absolutely gorgeous, in a rustic, homestead sort of way. A row of trees lined the road up to it, and there was a gate bearing the same logo as the top of the page.
“Broken Hearts Ranch,” Talia read aloud. Her eyes flicked up to Grizz. “They don't beat around the bush, do they?”
He smiled at her. “Keep reading, smartie.”
She did so, scrolling past the picture. “It’s in Lost Creek, Texas, which means nothing to me … A therapeutic retreat?” Her brow furrowed, and she read more closely. “For women needing a place to heal and time to do so. Specialized therapy based on individual needs, incorporating the structure and work of ranch life to help reset the broken pieces of life.”
Grizz said nothing, for which Talia was grateful.
She was too busy staring at her phone in stunned silence.
Why stunned, she didn’t quite know. But her thoughts were hard to put words to, so all she could do was stare.
She scrolled back up to look at the picture, pushing the snarky first impression out of her mind. There were at least three shades of green on those hills she’d mocked, and four shades of yellow, which seemed an odd thing to notice, but it was true. She’d never imagined Texas as a place of color in nature, but she had never been, so that impression wasn’t founded on anything except those John Wayne movies that always showed more dirt than anything else.
Even now, she wondered if there had been filters placed on the picture to make it look prettier.
She forced her thoughts to move onto the purpose of the place, and found herself swallowing with some difficulty. “You think I need to go away to have therapy?”
It wasn’t a fair question, and she knew it the moment the words left her mouth.
Grizz’s brows shot up. “Is that what you think I’m saying? Really?”
She could only shrug again. “It’s therapy, and it’s away.”
“Talia …” He sighed and sat back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the table. “Look, I got this info from Rachel when we talked after pancakes. She jumped out of bed and ran to get her phone, and with three kids, I don’t need to tell you that she never gets out of bed for anything less than a fire alarm.”
She would have smiled at that had she not been so confused at the moment. Not about Grizz’s intentions, or his wife’s, as they’d always been very generous where Talia was concerned. The issue was more how she felt about what he was suggesting, if she could seriously consider it, and if such a place, with such a purpose, could actually do anything for her.
“Rach says,” Grizz went on, oblivious to Talia’s internal debates, “that someone in her dance company went to this place after a car accident ended her dance career. Her body eventually recovered and endured the rehab to get her functional, but it didn’t do anything for the loss of her passion in life. She went to Broken Hearts after it was recommended, and came back completely changed. She’s the technical advisor for their company now and regularly fields job offers from New York companies.”
“Wow,” Talia murmured, impressed despite herself.
That wasn’t something to be ignored, but every person’s situation was so different. How could she possibly expect such a place to work for her specifically?
Was there a therapy to be applied for a woman who had spent her entire adult life, almost from the day of high school graduation, devoting her life to her child, working purely to provide for her child, spending every day loving her child, only to then lose him on a snowy day in a crosswalk?
“I looked through the details,” Grizz said after a long pause, no doubt waiting for Talia to respond, “and it’s solid. Run by a licensed, credentialed therapist, individual sessions and group sessions, working on her family’s ranch, a beautiful setting away from a big city …” He reached across the table and tapped his fingers on her forearm almost anxiously. “Rach is convinced this will help you.”
“Help me?” Talia asked softly. “Or fix me?”
“Hey.”
She met his eyes, her own beginning to water. “What?”
He gave her a sympathetic smile. “You don’t need to be fixed. Rachel knows that, I know that, Clint knows that, and I think you know that, too. You need to heal, and you need to reset. And since your job conveniently wants you to do so …”