Rough Terrain (Vista Falls #1) Read Online Free Page B

bridge since Sage called me a friend.” Wes wondered if it was even possible for them to rebuild the trust they’d lost. “I’m not even sure that it’s possible anymore.”
    “Wes, let me ask you a question,” Gabby said, leaning closer. “Why did you come back to town? Really?”
    “To make peace with the past, I guess.”
    He looked around the bar with the same vinyl bench seats and old wooden chairs he remembered. The walls were lined with framed photos Bernice had taken at local events along with sports paraphernalia from Rusty’s favorite teams. The jukebox in the corner was a relic, but it still played the tunes the old-timers loved. This was home. That was why he’d come back.
    “To make peace with the past or with Sage?”
    Sage was a huge part of his past. He couldn’t think of his time in Vista Falls without thinking of her. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to make peace with her decision to give our son away.”
    “You mean your decision to give your son away. Don’t try to put it all on her, Wes.” Gabby released a shaky breath. “I was with her when she gave birth. She didn’t want her parents there, but she was scared to go through it alone.”
    Tears burned his eyes as he imagined what she must have gone through, how she must have felt handing that tiny baby over to a nurse, knowing she’d never see him again.
    “I held her all night,” Gabby said, fighting back tears. “She was inconsolable after he was born. I was so scared she might try to hurt herself. That’s how shaken up she was.”
    Sage had always been one of the most upbeat people Wes knew. He couldn’t imagine her slipping into the kind of darkness Gabby described.
    “How did she get through it?” he asked, forcing the words past the lump in his throat.
    “It sounds cliché,” Gabby said with a bitter smile, “but she got through it one day at a time. Hell, it was one hour at a time for a long while. During that initial period, before the adoption was finalized, she was so tempted to call the whole thing off.”
    “Why didn’t she?” Wes asked, wishing with everything in him that she had. “She must have known that I would have supported her.”
    “You would have tried. But you wouldn’t have been living the life you are now.” When Wes frowned, Gabby said, “That’s what she was most afraid of, I think. Not only of ruining that precious baby’s life but ruining yours too. She thought you’d end up hating her because you wouldn’t have been able to pursue your dreams.” Gabby clapped a hand over her mouth before jumping up. “I’ve already said way too much.” She bent to kiss Wes’s cheek. “It was good seeing you again. It’s nice to have you home.”
    “It’s nice to be home,” Wes whispered as he watched her walk away.
     
    ***
     
    Colt walked into Wes’s office two days later, just as he was finishing the last pages of Sage’s book. He’d stayed up all night reading it and hadn’t been able to set it aside long enough to focus on work that morning.
    “What’s that?” Colt asked, gesturing to the book as he sat in the chair across from Wes.
    Unable to speak, Wes handed it to him, trying to make sense of everything he’d read. He still couldn’t believe that Sage had had the courage to be so open and honest about the most painful thing she’d ever endured. She held nothing back. Reading it was like reading her personal journal, and it both clarified a lot of things and confused the hell out of him.
    “Is this for real?” Colt asked, looking at Wes after he read the book jacket. “She actually wrote a book about the adoption?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Have you read the whole thing?” Colt asked, turning it over in his hands.
    “Cover to cover.” And he’d probably read it again. And again.
    “Wow. Must have been intense.”
    “Not nearly as intense as it was for her to write it, I’m sure.” Wes could never have found the courage to put his heartbreak down on paper to be