For keeps. Which is why she still loved Pike and why it hurt so much to realize his heart wasn’t made of the same stuff as hers. But no matter how painful it would be to spend more time with him, she would do it. Because Mia needed her and that was more important than anything else.
“I’ll be on the float trip and at the wedding and anywhere else you need me,” she promised, rubbing her palm in soothing circles around Mia’s back.
“Even the trail ride, bridal shower, scavenger hunt thing on Wednesday?” Mia asked. “Or whatever my insane grandmother is planning?”
“Of course,” Tulsi said. “I’m bringing a few of my good trail horses and I promised Emily I’d come over early and help her saddle all the others.”
“Good,” Mia said with a sniff as she pulled back from the embrace.
“I’m so sorry I upset you,” Tulsi said, feeling awful. “I didn’t realize you were struggling. I’ve been so caught up in my own troubles I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”
“It’s okay.” Mia smiled. “I understand why you’re upset, but I think the float trip will be a good thing for both of us. A chance to get away from it all, you know?”
Tulsi did her best to push thoughts of sharing a canoe with Pike from her mind. Thursday morning would come soon enough and her mama had always told her not to borrow tomorrow’s trouble today.
“And you don’t think I’m crazy, right?” Mia asked, a vulnerable note in her voice.
“No,” Tulsi said with a smile. “I’m just concerned about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“If Bubba and I are your arms and legs, what body part is Ugly Ross?”
Mia snorted with laughter. “Oh, Ross. I love him to death, but he’s just not an arm or a leg, you know? He’s more like an appendix. Sort of useless, but you’d be really upset if he suddenly started acting up.”
Tulsi giggled. “Poor Ross. I’m going to tell him he’s the vestigial organ of friends.”
“Don’t you dare,” Mia said, slapping Tulsi on the thigh with a grin. “You know I love him. It wouldn’t be home without Ugly Ross. Besides, he’s bringing all the food for the float trip, so we don’t want to piss him off.”
Their talk turned to preparations for the trip and Tulsi did her best to think only of the fun she’d have with her best friend, not how hellish it would be to have Pike so close but still a million miles away.
CHAPTERNINE
Pike
Pike and Miapulled up to their grandmother’s house mid-morning on Wednesday to find the horses for the trail ride already saddled and tied up along the fence. Gram was waiting for them on the porch, sipping a glass of sweet tea in full Wild West attire, including a petticoat under her long skirt and a six-shooter tucked into the holster slung low on her hips.
Mia chuckled as they climbed the porch into the shade. “I thought this was a scavenger hunt, Sugar Britches. Should I have brought my sidearm? Are we going to be hunting squirrels on the way down to the creek?”
“It’s not a real pistol, Amelia Louise,” Gram said, pruning her lips. “It’s part of my costume for the Wild West convention next month. I figured I should practice riding in it with family first before I embarrass myself in public.”
“You look great, Gram.” Pike leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. “You’re going to knock all those old cowboys out of their saddles.”
Gram beamed. “See, Mia, this is the way you behave if you want to be my favorite grandchild.”
Mia laughed. “You saidIwas your favorite last weekend.”
“Favoritegranddaughter,” Gram corrected as she stood to give Pike a proper hug.
“I’m you’re only granddaughter,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to find Sawyer. Is he in the barn?”
“Yes,” Gram said. “I put him to work disposing of those terrible dolls you left last time.”
Mia made a stricken sound and dashed off the porch, shouting, “Don’t do it, Sawyer! Those aremynaked cowboys! I have more plans for them!”
Gram giggled wickedly as she grabbed her cell phone off the table near her glass of tea and started down the porch steps. “I’ll be right back, Pike,” she whispered. “I need to snap a picture of Mia getting a taste of her own medicine. I’ve got those blow up dolls rigged to fall on her head as soon as she walks into the barn.”
Pike shook his head as he watched Gram scamper across the yard like she was sixteen instead of seventy-something. Gram could insist he was her favorite all day long, but she and Mia were two of a kind and getting tighter with every passing year. It was one of the many ways Lonesome Point had moved on without him. Back when he was in high school, Mia and Gram had constantly butted heads, but now they’d banded together to expand the ghost town and were friends as well as family.