Meadowlark Prairie goldleaf

teya felt sick. bronco's touch was reassuring and she closed her eyes for it, but by the end of his explanation she was tense and bristling and wide-eyed.
her mouth spasmed into something between a sneer and a sob. she stared over the windswept land and tried so hard to remember if she had known any of this in the beginning.
or if it would have mattered.
teya had seen reyes as someone to be rescued. she had pursued him so hard due to her dislike for towhee, her insistence that reyes forget the woman who had shamed him and kept him from his children.
"he say he thrown out of caldera for attacking his son. responded too fast." her words were soft. "when he finally come to join, he tell eljay and i, yes, he fight with niamh. but not that."
apology and guilt was plain upon her face when teya finally looked at bronco again. "he not welcome here." it was all she could muster, the shock turning to pain and then twisting her gut. how oddly bronco must think of her! maybe he was disgusted by her choices under his gentle expression. "your mom, is she —"