Read Online Wild Hearts (Novella) by Tina Wainscott - Free Book Online Page B

saying you married her because everyone expected it? You weren’t the kind of kid who gave in to peer pressure.”
    He turned to face her. “I married her for you and Dad.” He might have laughed atthe total shock on her face if he could find a speck of humor in all of this. “She brought you two out of your depression. When she was around, you smiled, laughed. It was the first time I’d seen you do that since Callie’s death. I wanted to give that back to you more than anything. So I did, in the only way I could.”
    His mother put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Knox …”
    He’d only recently come to realize that Courtney’s coloring was similar to Callie’s, and that maybe his parents—consciously or not—saw her as a grown-up version of the daughter they’d never get to see grow up. Knox had married her out of guilt, and that was the biggest travesty he’d committed, as far as she was concerned. She had married him, hoping to change him. Two kids without a clue.
    “Please don’t vilify her anymore. Tell your friends and your hairdresser and everyone else who loves sticking their noses into other people’s business that it wasn’t her fault. That we were just the wrong people to get married and were too young to know better. That’s all they need to know.”
    He headed into the house before his mother could get any nosier. The smell of pork chops filled the air, but he wasn’t really hungry. Callie’s face stared at him from several of the walls covered in collections of family photographs. He and Ethan as gangly kids, Callie a toddler, their parents happy in their understated way. They’d never been lighthearted people, all about working hard and producing results.
    His gaze fell on pictures of him and Ethan competing in various rodeos. One of Knox’s belts was framed above a picture of him getting launched off a bucking horse. Although those were the post-Callie days, her pictures were still scattered throughout that timeline.
    Like him, she’d loved wandering off to explore their vast property. When he’d started to head off toward the creek that day, she wanted to tag along. He’d told her to bug off. He had plans to meet a girl, the daughter of a neighboring rancher. It would be the first time for both of them; he’d stolen a condom from his older brother’s stash. Like any fourteen-year-old, he’d been so focused on getting laid—or, more precisely, getting rid of his burden of virginity—he hadn’t noticed that Callie was following at first. Soon he ditched her. Left her alone to fall into the creek and drown.
    Knox made himself move on to the big, airy kitchen, where his father was cuttingonions. He paused in his chopping. “Don’t you look like a bucket of fun. Find any problems out there today?”
    Knox pulled a cold beer from the fridge. “Nothing major. Ethan and I’ll take care of it in the morning.” He leaned against the counter and took a long draw of beer. “Next week I’m going to take the Cessna and meet the boys down in Texas for a couple of days.”
    His father gave him a long nod. “That’ll be good for you.” He waited, as though he knew there was more.
    Knox grabbed another knife and started working on the green pepper sitting next to the cutting board. “Then I’m going down to Miami and talk to the guy with the private security firm. See about a job.”
    His father gave another nod as he dumped the onions into the pan. “Thought you might do that.”
    Knox sensed no recrimination in his voice; no disappointment, either. They’d never made him feel obligated to help run the ranch, especially knowing Knox needed to roam. “I’ll be back in time for the cattle branding.”
    His father languidly stirred the onions. “You know, you can stop trying to atone for her death. It wasn’t your fault.”
    Knox had heard the last sentiment before, though it had never rung true. But he’d never heard the first, and the blunt words twisted in his chest. Had his