Done and Dusted

As Teddy goes to get drinks at the bar, Emmy runs into Kenny Wyatt, someone she dated in high school, and she fudges the truth about why she is back home, embarrassed about her accident. The music at the bar changes suddenly to play “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine,” a song Emmy knows her brother and his best friend use to make fun of her. As she looks for him, Emmy bumps into her brother’s best friend and her lifelong nemesis, Luke Brooks.

Luke, who grew up with the Ryders as a second family and always teased Emmy when they were younger, is immediately attracted to her once she walks into his bar, The Devil’s Boot. Luke thinks about his friendship with Emmy’s older brother, Gus, and how it feels wrong to be attracted to Emmy. Luke also notes how Teddy is a good influence on Emmy despite Gus’s contempt for her. When Luke sees Emmy with Kenny, he thinks about how Kenny left her for another girl at their homecoming dance, and he was dragged into getting back at Kenny with Gus and his brother Wes. To get the two away from each other, Luke puts on “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.”

The point of view switches to Emmy’s perspective, and she remembers having a teenage crush on Luke despite her hatred of him. She rails at him for separating her from Kenny. Emmy is surprised to learn that Luke now owns the bar, as he has a reputation for being irresponsible and careless.

Luke wakes up hungover the next morning after seeing Emmy leave the bar with Kenny. Gus calls and asks Luke if he can pick up his daughter, Riley, from her mother Camille’s house. Despite never being an official couple, Gus and Camille have a good relationship, unlike Luke’s parents. Luke sees himself as a “screw-up” because he is the product of an affair. His biological father stayed in town but didn’t raise him, and he was raised alongside his mother’s other children. Luke hasn’t seen or spoken to his mother in years. As a child, he felt out of place until he met Gus and felt like he had a family. Luke agrees to Gus’s request and mentions Emmy, and Gus is surprised to hear she is in town. Gus asks Luke to keep an eye on Emmy until he and his father get home from a trip to Idaho.

Gus calls Emmy and asks her if she is with Kenny, implying she shouldn’t forgive him for what happened at homecoming. Gus compares Emmy to their late mother, saying both are too forgiving. Emmy agrees to pick Riley up from their family’s ranch once she is done with her riding lesson.

Emmy drives to Rebel Blue Ranch, the biggest ranch in Meadowlark, which her family has owned since the 1800s and which is now owned by her father, Amos. Her brother Wes meets her at her car and tells Emmy her old room in the “big house” on the ranch is now occupied by their father’s new yoga studio, so she can stay in one of the guest cabins. When Emmy arrives at the corral where children are taking riding lessons, she is surprised to see that Luke is one of the instructors. Seeing her niece riding, Emmy is reminded of her recent accident, and she panics. Though she had been injured while riding before, the accident was the first time where she had completely lost control and been thrown from a horse she was training. Luke is anxious to see Emmy again, and he has the same feelings for her as he had the night before.

Luke sees Emmy at her truck and asks if she is moving back to Meadowlark and quitting racing, which Emmy doesn’t know for sure. They tease one another as Luke helps Emmy move into her cabin, and she tells him that Kenny only drove her to Teddy’s house when they left the bar. When she asks about how Luke came into possession of The Devil’s Boot, he tells her about how his biological father, whom he calls “Drunk Jimmy,” had owned the bar in secret and had left it to Luke after his death a few months prior. Though Luke saw Jimmy every now and again, he did not consider him a father and was surprised when Jimmy left him the bar. Emmy sympathizes with Luke, as her mother had died when she was a baby, and she hadn’t really known her. Emmy trips through the boxes they carried in and scratches her arm on something sharp. She hates blood, and Luke tries to distract her from it as he bandages her arm. Luke wants to kiss Emmy, and he contemplates it before Wes interrupts them. As he retreats to his car, Luke thinks about how nothing romantic can happen between him and Emmy.

A week after Emmy moves into her cabin, she is still thinking about almost kissing Luke, whom she hasn’t seen since. Emmy thinks about her clingy ex, Stockton, and how their breakup was inevitable even before her injury. When Teddy comes to visit, Emmy tells her about wanting to kiss Luke last week. Gus arrives and argues with Teddy before he and Emmy go to the big house to have breakfast with their father. Gus mentions how they are down a ranch hand and that Emmy will have to pick up the slack along with Luke. When they arrive at breakfast, Luke is there, and Emmy sits directly across from him.