I see what’s about to happen, and so does Anna. She moves sideways, foot poised to step into the yard, her hand raised and her mouth open with a warning that doesn’t make it in time.
Charlie’s forehead meets the edge of the ceramic bird feeder hanging from the tree, and he drops to the ground, screaming and holding his head.
Bright red blossoms immediately, pouring from the wound. Anna and I run for him, in step with each other, partners again.
Anna kneels beside him and I peel off my T-shirt, pressing it to his forehead to stop the bleeding. Charlie sobs and Anna soothes him while I stay quiet, applying pressure. When I think it’s safe, I pull away the ruined shirt and survey the cut.
Anna blinks up at me, eyes horrified. Charlie looks at me. Teardrops stick in his eyelashes. I wink at him, determined not to let on how deep the gash is. “You’ve got yourself a good one, buddy. We’re gonna get you fixed up, but I have a job for you, okay?”
Charlie nods, his lower lip quivering.
“Do you think you can keep this shirt pressed to your head? I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could handle it, but if you think it’s too much, just say the word and I’ll ask Peyton for help.”
“No,” Charlie says quickly. “I can do it.”
He reaches for the shirt and presses it against himself. Placing one arm under his back and the other under his knees, I lift him into the air. Susan holds the side gate open for me, and I stride through.
“We’ll keep Peyton with us,” she tells me.
Brock opens the back seat of my truck and I pause, looking at Anna. “There’s a blanket in the bed, can you grab it?”
She does as I’ve asked, spreading the navy blue blanket across the leather. The Hayden Cattle Company logo embroidered on the corner faces me. I get Charlie buckled in and climb into the driver’s seat.
Without a pause, Anna hauls herself into the passenger seat. For a second I stare at her, dumbfounded. We could be seventeen again, the way she just jumped into my truck and looked across the center console at me.
I shift into drive, one hand giving a terse wave out my open window, and head for the emergency room.
“You good, bud?” I ask Charlie.
Anna looks back at him.
“Yeah,” he responds. “It stings.”
I hold up a thumbs-up sign and hope he sees it. “They’ll have something to help with that. Just hang on a little longer.”
My forearm rests on my center console as I take the familiar turns through Sierra Grande. At first, it’s a soft touch on my elbow. A gentle grazing down my arm. Then Anna’s fingers slide over the back of my hand, coming to rest on my own, squeezing me.
I meet her gaze in the enclosed space. I don’t need to ask her what she’s thinking. I can see it plain as day on her face. Thank you, she says, I’m glad you were there.
In the end, Charlie gets seven stitches.
And me? I’m hoping Anna comes home and stitches our family back together.
4
Tenley
“Are you sure?” Jasper asks, her nose scrunched and her eyebrows raised. Through the screen we’re talking on, I watch her grab a cup of yogurt and a spoon.
“Yes,” I answer, setting my laptop on the counter in my parents’ kitchen. I face the computer toward the Malibu beach on purpose, to make my sister jealous. The effort is probably wasted. She prefers the view of the Manhattan skyline from her Brooklyn apartment. “Besides, I don’t have a choice. I signed a contract, remember?”
Jasper gathers her dark hair over one shoulder. Like our parents, she has an olive complexion and dark brown hair. With my fair skin and blonde hair, I am the odd woman out.
For the past five minutes, Jasper has been trying to talk me out of filming. “Arizona, though? I just think of dirt and tumbleweeds.” Jasper shudders and I roll my eyes.
“If you have suggestions regarding where I should film a movie about a woman who inherits a cattle ranch, I’m open to hearing them.” My stomach grumbles and I cover it with a hand. I don’t usually wait so long to have breakfast, but my mom asked me to come eat with her and my dad before I leave town.
Jasper lifts her hands. “Fine, you’ve made your point. At least you’ll have Calvin with you, so you won’t get lonely.”
“True.” Calvin Lawrence has been my friend since we acted in a teenage variety show, and I was happy to hear he’d signed on to play my love interest. He’s a great actor, and I already know we have good chemistry.
“Is Mom excited?” Jasper holds the spoon in her mouth as she asks the question.
I purse my lips and look out to the living room, where my mom had walked through just before my video call with Jasper. “For the most part,” I answer. It’s the truth… kind of. My parents are very excited to get the movie filmed and distributed. My mom has dollar signs in her eyes, and I don’t blame her. If the movie flops, my parents will lose everything. The Malibu house I’m standing in, the place in Aspen, and who knows what else. But Jasper doesn’t know any of that. If I hadn’t overheard their conversation two months ago, I wouldn’t know about their current situation either.
They hadn’t known I was at their house, and they’d come home arguing. It wasn’t just a little disagreement, either. It was a balls to the wall, all cards on the table screaming match. Never, in the entire time I lived with them, had I heard them behave that way. They’d spotted me, frozen in place in my seat at the dining room table, and scrambled for everything except the truth. But I’d heard what I’d heard and there was no way to sugarcoat it.
“Anything new with Tate?” Jasper asks, making her voice light on purpose.
“He’s called a few times, I let it go to voicemail.”
“So that’s it? You’ll just never talk to him again?”
“Not if I can help it.” I’m putting on a brave face, but I miss him. I think, anyway. Maybe I just miss the idea of him. The more distance I get from what happened, the more I wonder how much I actually loved him. My pride may be more wounded than my heart.
Jasper tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “Good luck managing that in LA. Big city, small town.”
“I know.” I almost ran into him last week on a local hiking trail. I’d noticed him ahead and promptly turned around, got back in my car, and drove to a different trail.
“He’s saying you were on a break at that time. That he was upset and made a bad choice, but he didn’t cheat on you.”
I nod. This isn’t new information. Christian called me before it hit the news. He’d heard about it in the break room while brewing his K-cup. Perks of having publicists who work at the same firm, I suppose.
“Is that true?” The hope in Jasper’s tone irritates me. Forget women all over the world, Jasper is Tate’s biggest fan.
I give her a derisive look. “What do you think?”
She opens her mouth to respond but our mom walks in, interrupting her. “Jas, is that you? I can hear your voice but I can’t see you. Tenley has you facing the water.”
“She’s trying to lure me back home right before she leaves,” Jasper quips.