Page 61 of Cowboys & Horses

“Don’t be daft. Just tell me.”

He shook his head. “It’s not my place—”

“Brady, just tell me. Please.”

Sighing, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Your sister has had a miscarriage.”

I said nothing for a good minute or so. I didn’t know what to say. How exactly was I supposed to feel about that? Was I supposed to feel sorry for her and offer her my condolences? Or was I supposed to take joy in the fact that karma had come right back around and taken a chunk out of her skinny ass?

“Is that where Ben is?”

He nodded, his lips pulling into a thin line.

Ouch. That stung. But also, kind of sealed the last nail in the coffin for me and him. As traumatic and serious as a miscarriage was, I was pretty sure that nearly being eaten alive by a mountain lion was a little higher up on the scale—at least where it concerned his fiancée and his sister-in-law. The fact he’d rushed to her side confirmed to me that despite his desperate pleas, he obviously had feelings for her beyond ‘just a fling’.

A couple of minutes later, I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, it’s done me a favour at least.”

Taking a hold of my hand, Brady offered me a small smile. “It’s ok to hurt over it. It’s only natural.”

“I just can’t get my head around it,” I said, shaking my head. “Why chase me to the other side of the world, confessing his undying love for me and then leave me half dead in a hospital bed for mysister?”

“People do strange things in extreme circumstances. You can’t ignore the fact that you’ve had a decade together, grown up together. As unhappy as you both were, that’s a hard habit to break.”

Habit. The lightbulb flickered on. That’s exactly what we’d become. We’d digressed into two people living a routine ‘rat race’ life and completely forgotten about each other, what made us want to be together in the first place. Not only had we lost sight of ourselves, but also each other.

“Yeah,” I said, smiling through a thin film of tears. “You’re right. You always know the right thing to say.”

He smiled. “Not all the time but I try my best.”

I lost myself for a minute, going back over the last time I’d seen Ben, the confrontation with Brady...then I remembered. His wife. I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth and decided to deal with that later. I couldn’t cope with it right now. My head was spinning enough as it was.

“Sophie,” Brady said, taking my hand. “I need to explain something to you.”

I gave him a smile and nestled back into my pillow. “I’m tired. Can we leave it for now?”

He stroked my hand and nodded. “Sure.”

Turning my head away from him, I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep. If anything, to keep my tears locked away.