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.
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