Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(30)
Lucas Armstrong had been keeping them and Cindy Ballantine, Easton’s mother, updated. Memphis called his dad every few hours to let him know what was going down with this latest escape of Wyatt and Easton’s.
When Camille didn’t say a word, Beckett stood behind her and moved his hands over her shoulders.
“I’m gonna fix it.”
“You can’t fix it,” Camille said. If there were a way, she would have found it by now. Harley needed time, and Wyatt refused to give it to her. That was the long and short of it and there wasn’t a thing any of them could do about it.
“To get our boy back, we’re going to have to set him free,” Beckett said.
Camille turned to face him, to stare up into his ice blue eyes, a trait their son had inherited from him.
“I confirmed it today, our bulls were selected again for the PRCA. Duke’s going to manage it, but he’s taking Brant with him. We’re gonna send Wyatt. Cindy said it was good for Easton as well.”
Duke was Beckett’s brother. Brant, his son, was a year older than Wyatt. It was an honor for the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association not only to select the Doran bulls again, but also to have these boys ride in other events while the bulls were utilized.
Brant was a saddle bronc rider. Wyatt preferred the bareback, but lately he’d managed to take any ride that was wild enough to distract him from the reality of anything beyond the ride he was on. Easton wasn’t a rider, at least not in the professional sense, but he knew how to manage the bulls, how to manage Wyatt.
“How’s that going to solve anything?” Camille protested. For Wyatt’s entire life, they had instilled both sides of the business into him. He needed to understand it to carry on the family legacy one day, but unlike Truman, Wyatt had a passion for the jumper world, too. Camille thought this deal would kill that passion more so than what this tragic division had done.
“You gotta let ‘em run, Momma. We’re holding him back, which is making him think there is something out there he’s missing. If he goes on this circuit, he’ll have freedom, he’ll ride, he’ll get it all out of his system.”
“We’re teaching him to run.”
“No, we’re teaching him that he can’t outrun it. We’re teaching him to fight harder and think clearer next go ‘round.”
“Fight harder? He’s done nothing but rebel.”
“And he’s rebelled without thought. He’ll learn to think. He needs space. That boy is not going to manage this empire of ours if we don’t do this. He has to leave. He has to get some life under his belt. Right now, he sees this farm as a prison. Give him a good year or so on the road, and it will be home again.”
When she didn’t say anything, he went on. “Look, Lucas raised Memphis on the track, took that boy from city to city, showed him the wild side of life—and look how that worked out. Memphis is the only one of the three of ‘em that doesn’t have a wandering spirit. He’s grounded because he knows what’s out there. He knows where home is. This is gonna help Easton. You know I told his daddy I would watch after him. It’s gonna help Wyatt. Everyone gets what they need out of this.”
“He needs an education, Beckett.”
“Does he?” Beckett said with a raised brow. He and his wife came from far different backgrounds. Beckett’s education came from the land he was raised on, the family that raised him, the life he was born into. It wasn’t the same for Camille—not even close.
When Camille looked down, when the ghost of the barriers they had broken down decades before made itself known, he lifted her chin, smiled slightly. “He’s going to get one. Duke has set Brant up on some kind of online education. He has it outlined where the boys will make it to UT for the classes they can’t get online. The deal I’m putting before Wyatt and Easton, with Cindy backing me, is they get this freedom, they get paid good money, but all of it leaves the second their grades fall. They are going to have to figure out how to manage it all.”
Camille hated to admit it, simply because she didn’t want Wyatt to leave Willowhaven for any extended period, but he had a point. Wyatt was brilliant. The boy had yet to make it to a full day of school his senior year but still managed to carry a 3.8 GPA. The only classes he never skipped were the ones that were already giving him college credit.
This circuit had discipline and responsibility, no doubt, but he could be hurt. One bad ride and it could be over for him. If that weren’t bad enough, she knew in every field there was a wild side. There was no telling what kind of hell he and Easton could raise or what trouble they could get into.
There was no doubt, though, that if they didn’t do something, Wyatt was going to throw his legacy away, simply because the heaven of Willowhaven had turned into a hell for him.
Right then, truck lights came down the drive.
“They are heading out the day they graduate. I’m sending him with my rig. We just got to get him through the next week and a half.”
Camille wanted to go to Wyatt right then, pull him in her arms, do something to take away the pain she could feel from where she stood, but instead she nodded for Beckett to go, for him to take care of their son, make a man out of him.
Wyatt had never been away from her for more than a few days’ time. This was going to kill her, but she trusted Beckett, knew without a doubt that though her husband seemed carefree to most, he had a deep reverence, never came to a decision lightly, and whatever his solution was, it was meant to solve more than one issue.