Heartbreak Town (COMPLETED)

Chapter Ten

Renne set the last glass on the table before taking a seat next to Swayde. The family prayed, then began dishing out their food. "Can you please pass the green beans, Reagan?" Mamaw asked Renne.
"It's Renne." She mumbled in response. Renne reached for the bowl of green beans.
"Sorry, sweetie, what was that?" Mamaw asked, a little too sweetly.
Loudly, Renne slammed down the bowl of green beans on the table. "I said, it's Renne. I go by Renne now, not Reagan." She said through clenched teeth.
The smile faded off of Mamaw's face. "Oh okay. Well, we will start callin' you Renne then...if-if that's what you prefer."
"And also, I need everyone to stop pretending like nothing's changed here over the past five years, okay, because a lot has changed. I have moved on. I have a life in Montana now and it no longer includes y'all. And don't think I have forgiven y'all for keeping that secret from me. Because I haven't and I-."
"We were just tryin to protect you, Reagan. We didn't want you to get hurt." Mamaw said, interrupting Renne.
"Really? When were you goin' to tell me then?"
"We wanted to, believe me. But every time we were goin to, something else happened and we couldn't bring ourselves to tell you."
"Yeah, right." Renne scoffed, leaning back against her chair.
"We just wanted to protect you." Mamaw repeated, her eyes tearing up.
"Yeah, well you did everything but that." Renne said harshly and shoved her chair back and ran upstairs to her bedroom. Once she closed the door behind her, she tried calming herself by taking deep breaths, but it wasn't working.
Renne shook her head. What was she still doing here? She had served her purpose. She came and she saw her sister and her nieces and nephew. If Doug wasn't capable of taking care of the kids, Renne would send money. That's all they wanted, right? They found out that Renne's business and ranch is successful and that she could afford to send them money, so they took advantage of that.
Renne had to get out of here. Stomping to the other side of her room, Renne grabbed her suitcase, that was not completely unpacked, and set it on the bed. She began throwing open her dresser drawers, grabbing all of her clothes and began repacking. Renne didn't care if the clothes were folded, she just needed to get out of here...and quick.
A knock on the door didn't stop Renne. "Go away!" She shouted. The person on the other end of the door didn't listen, however, and Swayde walked in through the door. Renne looked up and scoffed, but didn't stop shoving clothes in her suitcase . "You are the last person in the world I want to see right now. Please leave me alone, Swayde." Renne said, throwing one of her shirts into her suitcase.
Swayde kept his distance. He stood with his hands on his hips as he took in Renne's tornado of a fit. "Well this is a familiar scene." Swayde said finally. A smile turned up one side of his lips.
Serious about this, Renne pulled open another dresser drawer and threw her jeans back into her suitcase without acknowledging Swayde.
"What are you doin', Reagan?" Swayde asked Renne. His voice seemed hurt, but Renne didn't fall for it. He didn't care if she left again; he didn't the first time.
"What does it look like? I'm leavin'. I served my purpose. Y'all wanted me to come down and see my sister and the kids. I did that. Y'all obviously don't want me here. Heck, I didn't even want to come down here. I guess I did come because I hoped that maybe, just maybe, I could forgive y'all and thangs would go back to normal, but I was wrong."
"It looks to me like you're givin' up." Swayde said calmly, his voice quiet.
Renne stopped frantically throwing things into her suitcase to look at Swayde.
Swayde cautiously took a step closer to Renne. "You're not a quitter, Reagan. We need you here. Mallory needs you here...I need you here. I know you probably don't believe me, but you being at the hospital today was the happiest I have seen Mallory since she was diagnosed with this cancer."
"Why do you want me to stay so badly?" Renne asked.  Now she was the one standing with her hands on her hips.
     "Because Mallory needs you here to help her get better. Your grandparents need your help with the ranch and your nieces and nephew miss you. Besides...I was hopin' that you and I could get a chance to talk." Swayde took another small step towards Renne. His voice grew quieter, and more serious, at his last sentence.
     "And what could we possibly discuss?" Renne asked, facing Swayde. She glared bullets at him.
     Swayde looked down at the ground and then back up to Renne. He took a deep breath before continuing. Taking a tiny, cautious step closer to Renne, Swayde said, "I was really hopin' that we could talk about why you left five years ago."
     "Swayde don't-"
     "And I wanted to apologize...again..." Swayde took yet another careful step towards where Renne stood, ready to pounce.
     "I will never forgive you." Renne growled through gritted teeth. She stormed past Swayde before he could say another word of protest.
     Stomping past her grandparents who were in the kitchen cleaning up from supper, Renne walked outside without her suitcase. She walked straight to the barn to try to calm down. Sure, she may have overreacted at supper and stormed off like a little girl, but she had a lot of emotional baggage that she had been carrying and just being in that house brought back way too many memories for her.
     Renne threw open the barn door and walked in. Immediately, her spirits were lifted. Taking in the scene, Renne saw that nothing in the barn had changed expect for the fact that there were several new horses that Renne had never seen before. But one horse who peaked his head out through his stall window, stood out to Renne. It was "Cruisin' Back Roads," aka, Cruiser, one of Renne's favorite stallions. Cruiser used to be a cutting stud, and amazing in cutting competitions, but he's now too old, so he's just used for ranch work. Renne used to be the only one that Cruiser would listen to and by the looks of where his stall still is, Renne reckoned that was still true. He reminded her of the mustang that she had trained, the one that gave Renne the nickname "Rebel." She named her 'partner in crime' Riot since she, too, was rebellious by nature and got Renne into a heap of trouble. After she visited with Criuser, she would for sure have to go say howdy to Riot.
     "Hey Cruiser. How ya been, boy? You behavin'?" Renne petted Cruiser's muzzle, then ran a hand down to his jaw. Cruiser nickered excitedly in his stall. "Yeah? You been cooped up for a while? Hmm? You need to get out?" Renne smiled when Cruiser rolled his lip and whinnied, throwing his head up and down. "Okay. Let me grab your bridle and a lunge line. I'll be right back." Renne made her way to the tack room. She wasn't surprised to see that none of the tack had been moved; the only thing that had changed was that the tack room had been straightened up.
     Renne grabbed Cruiser's brush caddy, a lunge line, and his hackamore bridle. With her arms full, Renne walked back out to Cruiser's stall. Since Cruiser was never one for cross ties, Renned grabbed his halter and lead rope and opened his stall door, stepping in. She laid an arm on top of Cruiser's neck, behind his ears to keep his head down while slipping on his halter. Cruiser would always try stretching his head up as far as he could to prevent having his head touched.
Once his halter was latched, Renne clipped his lead rope onto the ring of his halter, and grabbed his brushes and bridle, then led Cruiser outside to the round pen. Before attaching the lunge line, Renne ran a hand down Cruiser's legs and picked up each hoof, and with his leg bent, moved it back and forth to check for lameness. When Cruiser passed her test, Renne removed his lead, and attached the lunge line to his halter, then sent him out at a walk, and eventually a trot. After a few minutes, Cruiser had gotten out all his long time pent up energy and was loping around the round pen. Sure, it took him a while, and he wasn't always on the right lead, but it was something. Once Cruiser seemed good going right, Renne slowed him to a walk and walked towards his shoulder, putting the lunge line in her other hand, thus asking him to change directions. As soon as Renne felt Cruiser was well tuned, she slowed him back down to a walk before stopping him, then turned in, her back to him. Cruiser did as he was supposed to and walked up to Renne. Reaching out a hand, Renne praised Cruiser. She gave him a peppermint from her pocket, his favorite treat.
     Cruiser licked his lips and cocked his back leg as Renne praised him; he was completely relaxed. Renne knew it had been a long time since she had seen Cruiser, but she wasn't surprised that he behaved as well as he did. They had a special bond that Renne genuinely admired.
Shortening the lunge line, Renne led Cruiser back to the fence rail where his bridle was. She took off his halter before slipping the hackamore on. Renne latched the throatlatch before leading him off the rail. Renne slipped the split reins over Cruiser's neck before asking him to stand still so she could mount him. With one hand holding the reins and some of Cruiser's mane, Renne swung up onto his back Indian style. Cruiser nickered some and threw his head a little because he most likely hadn't been ridden in a while, especially not bareback.
Deciding to take it easy today, Renne just walked Cruiser around the round pen, and kept the reins loose and low on his neck to let him have his head. She let her legs relax on either side of Cruiser. As they walked around the round pen, Renne took the chance to admire the scenery all around her. The mountains set against the light blue sky, sprinkled with white fluffy clouds, made the perfect opportunity for a photo. Since Renne left her camera back in her room at the house, she grabbed her phone out of her hip holster. Telling Cruiser, "Woah," Renne snapped a few pictures of the breathtaking scenery. She made sure to include Cruiser's ears and mane in the frame to make the picture perfect.
Taking a deep breath, Renne said a prayer. She knew she was going to need to go back inside the house and apologize to her grandparents for losing her temper with them at supper. Renne knew she needed to apologize to Swayde, too, but she could wait a little on that, right?
Ending on a good note, Renne swung down off of Cruiser's back, took off his hackamore, replacing it with his halter and lead rope. Grabbing the bridle and lunge line, Renne led Cruiser to one of the rectangular corrals on the side of the barn. Since there was enough grass for him, Renne decided to not give him any hay, but because he did do so good today, Renne did give him another peppermint. She placed a soft, quick kiss on his muzzle before slipping off Cruiser's halter.
Renne walked back into the barn and was greeted with a loud shrieking whinny. There was only one horse she knew that would greet her like that. Turning a corner, Renne saw the horse who was so anxious to get out of her stall. "Hey Riot, how you been girl?" Renne said, smiling. Man, she missed her mustang.
     "I know, girl. I promise I will work with you tomorrow, okay? We will even go for a ride if you behave. I know you're jealous of Cruiser, but I miss you too. I need to go put Cruiser's tack back. You behave and I will see you tomorrow." Renne said to Riot. She slipped her a peppermint before taking Cruiser's tack to the tack room. Swayde always teased Renne for spoiling her horses and said she gave them too many treats.
     As Renne was cleaning Cruiser's bridle, she found herself smiling. Seeing Cruiser and Riot again now gave Renne something to look forward to while she was here. As long as she was working with the horses, she didn't have to deal with the reality of the stress of being back in Alpine Ridge. It had been a long time since Renne had felt this happy while working with horses. She was getting somewhere with Riot and Cruiser before she left five years ago, and working with Cruiser today gave Renne hope. Maybe this wouldn't be a wasted trip after all.