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“I learned to cook pretty young. Nothing complicated at first. Sandwiches, scrambled eggs, casseroles. By twelve, I could get dinner started before Mom got home if she was working and Dad was still out riding fences. I knew when bills were due and where Mom kept the checkbook. If something needed doing, I did it.” She laughed softly to lighten the mood. “Once, I had to forge her signature on a check and drop it in the mailbox to keep the lights on because it had slipped her mind.”

“You were twelve.”

“It’s not like I was paying the mortgage every month, Mac.”

“That wasn’t what I said.”

Jodie looked away.

Ugh! He’s making this feel sad.

She didn’t want it to be sad. It had just been life. Her perfectly ordinary life.

“There were plenty of good things, too,” she said, smiling. “I had rodeo. My best friend got into it first. Her family hauled us both around, so I always had rides to practices and events. Mom and Dad came when they could and they were the loudest people cheering in the stands.”

“When Shelby didn’t need them.”

Her smile faded. “No, it wasn’t like…”

But it was like that.

“Did things get better after the seizures stopped?”

Jodie rolled her lips in. “Mmm…yes and no. Of course it was better that she wasn’t sick anymore. That was great. But Mom and Dad had been very protective of her. So, she’d started rebelling. Smoking pot, cutting class, drinking. Her grades were abysmal and she had a smart mouth. By the time I got to high school, Shelby had already been through most of those teachers.” Jodie grimaced. “So every time I walked into a new classroom, I could practically see them wondering if they were getting another Shelby.”

“What did you do?”

“What do you think?”

Mac’s eyes closed briefly. “You worked harder.”

“Of course I did. I behaved respectfully. I did all my homework plus extra credit. I became a peer counselor. I was elected class treasurer because nobody was more trustworthy than me. And I was the salutatorian, but I wrote the speech for the valedictorian.”

Now Mac chuckled. “Of course you did.” Jodie gave him a look, but there was too much tenderness in his face to sustain it.

“I just wanted them to know I wasn’t going to be trouble. They’d gone through enough with my sister, and she wasn’t the only rebel in the class. It made it easier on everyone, and it’s also just how I am.”

“So you never went through a rebellious phase? Never partied, never sneaked out⁠—”

“Oh, I snuck out. Of course I did.”

“Really?”

She sighed. “Yeah, okay, it was to drive my sister home after partying when she and her friends were too wasted.”

“What about when you were older?”

I was afraid you’d ask that. She didn’t want to admit what it took to get her sister straightened out.

“Oh, she’s fine now! She’s off living her best life⁠—”

“I was asking about you, Jodie. What about when you were older?”

She looked down at their hands again.

Okay. Fine.

“I was planning on going to vet school. I’d been saving for years—birthday and Christmas money, odd jobs, every spare dollar from my vet tech job. I was about to start applying. I had enough for the prerequisites and the first stretch and a plan to take out loans for the rest. Then Shelby got into trouble again. She was living in Denver.”