Taking On The Cowboy

Part 14 - Chapter Thirteen

Tara woke to the sound of people leaving, the busy noises of people dragging suitcases down the hallway. She'd fallen asleep with Gage's arms around her and it had felt safe. She stretched, long and languid like a cat and rolled over expecting to come up against her one time lover. But the bed was all hers, plenty of room to stretch. She was alone in the room. His room.

He might not be physically present in the room with her, but his presence was all around her. Two pair of riding boots lined up heel to the wall, caramel coloured cowhide rug on the floor, and on top of his dresser she could see a collection of rodeo belt buckles. Curious, she extracted herself from between the sheets, and walked barefoot across the smooth cow hide to the dresser. There were six belt buckles - two for calf roping and four for cutting. She turned the most eye catching of them over in her hand, it was a tiny works of art, an intricate rodeo scene sculpted in relief and captured in cast metal. Laid out in metal was the moment after the calf has been roped but before the rider has jumped from his horse. The buckle was heavier than she'd expected, and colder. On the back Gage's name was engraved, and the date. The year of the accident. And on the front the words "State Champion" were emblazoned in pale gold against a silver background. She turned over each of the buckles, but the one she'd picked out first bore the most recent date.

Gage really was a Cowboy through and through. She'd not thought about what he'd missed while he'd been in prison. Tara put the buckle back down on the dresser reluctantly, contemplated taking it with her back out to the cabin. For some reason it seemed to represent Gage and she wanted it with her. She'd always been a magpie and here was a bit of sparkle with a back story.

"He was good." Liz came up behind her, fresh towels in her arms. "He was really good." Her smile was heavy with melancholy. "He still is good, but he doesn't have the competitive streak he once had."

"You don't think he'll go back to it?" Tara tried to sound encouraging. She'd not seen Liz in this mood before.

"The doctor says he needs to watch his head. One good knock and he'd be in trouble."

"Your family lost a lot in the accident too - I never really thought about that. I thought Gage just picked his life back up from where he left it. I thought he was lucky. Lucky to come home when Dan didn't. Lucky to have a family to welcome him home."

"He is lucky Tara."

"I know. But don't you think it's weird that I never thought about what he lost?"

"Not at all. I imagine there wouldn't have been much room for anything other than hate and hurt. Tara I think you're incredibly brave coming here."

"I don't know. I didn't really have much of a plan. Just a need."

"Whatever you call it you've managed to rise above your grief and hurt, and turn it into something good."

"Liz, I'm scared. What if Gage didn't do it? What if he did?"

"They both did it. It could have been either of them. Whichever one it was they both paid for it."

"And us too."

"And us too."

"Darling, you need to be careful. If you really want to go down this particular rabbit hole, it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"How do you mean?"

"Not everybody's going to understand why you'd want to clear the name of the guy who served time for causing the accident that killed your brother."

Tara sort of snorted. " I've never cared much for what other people think, you learn not to when you're different from everybody else - being raised by your grandmother. It's like that Johnny Cash song, you know the one about the boy named Sue? You either get tough or die. Anyway, I'm not the sort of person who would see an innocent man convicted."