He shot out of his seat and scowled down at them. “Well, I know my dreams. You know them. We’ve had this same argument several times over the course of the last couple of years. I wanted to become a rodeo star. And after I met Lacey, I’ve wanted nothing more than to make her mine.” Though now, his dreams were shifting again. Teaching children had taken a front seat in his desires along with his growing love of the woman who was the source of his current happiness. He’d kept that part of hisdream quiet, not wanting his parents to shoot down the idea like they had his others.
His mother smiled sadly at him. “We haven’t really supported you the way you’ve deserved, have we?”
Her words brought him up short. He practically gaped at her. Was this the same woman who had told him that nothing would come of a rodeo dream? Was she the same person who had warned him about getting too close to Lacey because she was a single mother? “Why?” he demanded. At her utterly confused expression, he slowly dropped back into his seat. “Why are you suddenly okay with it?”
Once again, his parents shared a look, and he found he would give nearly anything to know what it meant. Then his father leaned forward and clapped him on the back. “We haven’t seen you happier than you’ve been when you were with her. Even when you were working at Sagebrush, we could tell.”
His mother nodded. “I thought that maybe you’d lose interest in her or this rodeo fascination, but I was wrong.”
He wanted to yell at her for being so blind. Of course he wasn’t going to lose interest in Lacey. She was his… everything. She was his reason for getting up in the morning. When she looked at him like he could light up her whole day, he could believe it.
A smile pulled at his lips—one he hadn’t noticed until he felt his mother’s hand taking his and squeezing. “We’ve missed that smile, Mack. And it appears that it only comes around when you’re with her.”
All at once, it faded. “But I’mnotwith her—not anymore.”
She nodded sadly. “Well, we wanted to let you know that we’ll support you. Whether you patch things up with this girl or not. And if you run off to join the rodeo or if you stick around. We love you. Always have.”
Warmth spread a soothing sense of contentment throughout his chest, and he offered his mother one of the first legitimate smiles he had in a long while. “Thanks, Mom.” He was tempted to tell her of his additional plans. Would they be just as supportive about his career choices? Or would they be skeptical like they’d always been? There was only one way to find out.
She returned the smile with one of her own and squeezed his hand again.
“But honestly? I think I want to marry her.”
They looked surprised but only briefly before they smiled, as if that idea pleased them.
“And I might have found a different career path.”
His father’s brows lifted further, and his mother tilted her head with curiosity. “Oh?” she murmured.
Mack nodded. “Caleb pointed out that I’m good with kids.” His smile broadened as he thought back to Bridger and the time he’d been able to spend with him. “He said I was good at teaching Bridger how to ride. Maybe I could look into starting up a business. Horse riding lessons for kids or something.”
Both of his parents were beaming now, and for the first time since he was a teenager, he felt like he was on the right track. Saying his idea aloud held a lot of power to it. And it just felt right.
Mack losttrack of how many times Lacey had looked at him, frowned, and gotten into her car only to leave him hanging. In his defense, he wasn’t following her around town. As fate would have it, he’d bumped into her in town more times than he could count. It was like a higher power was toying with him. Then there were the times he’d shown up at her work with a clear intention of talking to her. The restaurant owner hadn’t turned him away, but they were refusing to seat him in Lacey’s section every single time he came. So now he’d wait for her at the end of her shift in hopes that she’d stop by his truck and talk to him.
She still wasn’t answering his messages, and he hated seeing that she’d read them without a response.
A man could only take so much of this sort of thing.
Thankfully, his chat with his parents had done enough to keep him going.
He sighed as he watched her drive away, his frustration growing. He needed to talk to her. If he let her keep pulling away, then he’d end up losing her entirely. That was why he didn’t feel completely terrible about following her home.
She got out of her car and slammed her door before she marched over to his truck.
Mack rolled down his window and grinned at her. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Mack—” she warned.
“Let me say something first,” he hurried to say, praying it would be enough to open up a decent conversation. “Then you can tell me to leave.”
She frowned but gave him a nod to indicate he could continue.
He traced his fingers along the leather of his steering wheel then heaved out a breath. “I spoke to my folks. About my future.”
Lacey lifted a brow.
“I stood up to them. Told them what I wanted, and…” Mack blew out a breath. “They said they wanted me to be happy, and they would support me.”
