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.