CAL Small towns were never part of the plan—too quiet, too close, too permanent. I stick to the rodeo circuit. Fast rides, faster exits. No roots. No ghosts. But Poplar Springs? It hits different.
I roll in to promote a local event and end up staring into a past that isn’t mine. Seems I’m the dead ringer of a man this town buried. A man Amy loved.
She looks at me like I’ve torn something wide open. And I feel it too—the pull, the guilt, the heat I’ve got no business feeling. I tell myself to walk. But then I learn I’ve got ties here. Blood.
A nephew who doesn’t remember his dad. And for the first time, I wonder if I’ve been running from the wrong things. So I do what I’ve always done. I leave. …Or at least, I try.
AMY He’s not Luke. I know that. But the way he walks, the way he looks at me—it hurts just the same. I should shut the door, tell him to go.
Instead, I watch him reach for my son with a tenderness he doesn’t show anyone else. He says he’s just passing through.
But I see the pain he doesn’t speak, the way he holds my son like a promise he never made. And if he walks away, I don’t know how to carry both goodbyes.
