“I’m not going to the Ball, and even if I was, I wouldn’t be getting my nails or hair done. And it wouldn’t take me two days to get ready. Wouldn’t even take me two hours. I’d just shower, put on my dress and boots and go.”
He shook his head, checked his smile. She was smart as a whip and still sassy, too, but he liked her sense of humor. He’d always found her refreshing. “So why aren’t you going?” He nodded at the young cowboys standing around the pool table looking forlorn now that Callan had left. “Didn’t any one of them ask you?”
“I have more fun here. Besides, the Ball’s expensive. Two hundred bucks a couple.”
“And you’re telling me no cowboy was willing to scrounge up two hundred bucks to take you?”
Her cheeks flushed pink. She glanced away, lips compressing. “I was asked. But I said no.”
“Wrong guy?”
She shot him a sharp look. “Is there ever a right guy?”
“You don’t like men now?”
She gave him another severe look. “Just because I can ride and rope better than any cowboy my age doesn’t mean I’m gay.”
“Never said you were.”
“Good, because I’m not. I just don’t feel like dating and doing the whole romance thing right now.” She pushed her empty beer bottle across the counter, away from her, and signaled to Grey that she wanted another. “Trying to come to terms with something and its not easy. I’m mad. And confused. But mostly mad.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
She laughed once. “You might regret saying that.”
He already was. But, he couldn’t back out now. “Tell me. If it’d make you feel better.”
“I don’t know what could make me feel better. Except maybe another beer.”
Grey arrived, with the needed beer. He popped off the cap and slid the bottle across the counter to her.
Callan snapped it up and took a sip.
Troy frowned. This wasn’t normal Callan behavior and he didn’t know what to make of it. “What’s going on?”
She didn’t answer immediately, but then she looked up at him, brows furrowed, expression grim. “I learned some dark Carrigan family secrets.”
“How dark?”
“Pretty damn dark.”
“Why don’t you just tell me? Then I can get back to worrying about my own problems.”
“You think this has nothing to do with you?”
Her words were full of challenge—so like Callan. “Maybe you should get to the point.”
“Maybe I will. The thing is—our Mom had an affair.”
He stared at her. Was this the beer talking? He remembered Bev Carrigan as a very proper sort of woman. Beautiful, with nice manners and a gentle way about her. “You’re talking nonsense, Callan. Maybe you should find a nice, gentlemanly cowboy to give you a ride home.”
“I don’t need a ride home. I plan on crashing on Sage’s couch when I’m done here.” Callan shredded the label off the bottle. “But first, hear me out. I want you to listen to my story.”
“Your Mom’s been gone a long time. Why did this come up now?”
Callan’s smooth jaw tightened, her expression fierce. “The timing sucks. I couldn’t agree more. But with all that’s been going on with Mattie and her husband—they split up this fall—Sage decided to come clean. Apparently she’s been keeping this secret since she was only twelve years old.”
Troy’s head throbbed. He had enough drama with Trey in jail and McKenna engaged and Cormac trying to raise April and Darryl’s baby as if he was daddy material when Cormac was the least likely of all the Sheenans to settle down.
And now Callan was throwing all her family stuff at him, too.
“Hang on,” he said, rubbing at his temple. “Wes and Mattie are separated?”
“On their way to divorced.”
“Too bad.” He’d seen Wes at a few rodeos. The man knew how to ride a bull. But marriage—that could be harder. “So what does that have to do with Sage keeping a secret?”
“She thought Mattie might be more inclined to work out her troubles with Wes if she knew that our mother had an affair. And that it hadn’t ended in divorce for our parents.”
Twisted logic, in Troy’s mind. But he could sort of see the connection. “How did Sage know her Mom cheated on your dad?”
“She walked in on them.”
Wow. That was pretty heavy. And life changing for a kid.
Kind of like him walking in and discovering his mom was dead.
“Sorry,” he said gruffly. “That’s shitty. For Sage, and for all of you.”