Chloe’s words echoed in her head as she made her way down to the kitchen and looked in her fridge for something to eat. But as she stood staring at the contents of her refrigerator, nothing looked appealing. Even though her body was hungry, she couldn’t imagine anything tasting good. So she closed the door and leaned back against it.
She wandered from room to room as if she might find peace and a release from the pain in one of them. When she found herself in her bedroom again, she sank onto the side of the bed and realized she couldn’t put off telling her family the news any longer. She didn’t want to risk her mom or one of her sisters stopping by the store and finding out something was wrong from Katrina.
After forcing herself to take several slow, deep breaths, she hit the number for her parents’ house.
“Hey, sweetie,” her mom answered. “I was just about to call you and see if you wanted to have lunch with Heather and me. We’re going shopping for the baby afterward, if you think you could pry yourself away from work for a while.”
Linnea’s lip trembled again at the idea of being around that much happiness when her world was falling apart. Not only had her older sister, Heather, been married to a great guy for two years, but they were expecting their first baby around Thanksgiving. A mere three months separated Linnea from becoming an aunt for the first time, but today the thought only made her want to cry. She’d dreamed of having a bundle of joy to call her own, as well, but now...
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m not up for lunch today.”
“What’s wrong? I can hear something’s wrong in your voice.”
Linnea wanted to believe that the telling of what had happened would be easier the second time through, but she was wrong. It was so much worse.
“Oh, honey. I’ll be right over.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to pretend to be brave. You’re my daughter, and I intend to be there for you.”
Desperation filled Linnea to overflowing. She loved her mom dearly, was thankful she had caring parents who were always there for their children when they needed them. But for some reason, her mom had never grasped that when Linnea said she wanted to be alone, she actually meant it.
“I won’t be here. I’m going to visit Chloe for a few days.” She hadn’t meant to take Chloe up on her offer, but the words had flown out of her mouth before she’d even thought about them. But now that she’d committed, it felt right. She could give herself a few days to get over the shock, to make all the necessary calls to cancel her fantasy wedding, to prepare herself for going back to the work of encouraging customers to buy in to the dream of forever.
“Honey, are you sure?”
“Positive.” And she realized it was true.
When she finally promised her mother that she’d call if she needed her for anything, anything at all, and agreed to let her mother make some of the necessary cancellation calls, Linnea tossed a few items of clothing and toiletries in a bag, grabbed her laptop and hurried for her car. She didn’t think she breathed until she drove out of her neighborhood and away from the chance that either her mother or Michael might show up at her front door.
She pointed her car toward Blue Falls, the small town in the Hill Country that Chloe called home. It might not be Linnea’s home, but right now the familiar was the last thing she needed. If she had only one wish, it would be that Blue Falls held some magical way of making her forget Michael Benson and the giant hole he’d left where her heart should be.
“Come on back to my place,” Tiffany Clark whispered into Owen Brody’s ear as she clung to him like a barnacle. “You know you want to.”
Part of him was tempted by her curvy figure and her warm lips nibbling on his ear. Plenty of times he would have taken her up on it. But tonight he was just dog tired after a day of working on the ranch with his brother and dad and then a couple of hours devoted to training the horse he hoped would make a good roping horse. And then he’d gotten the bright idea to come into town for a couple of beers and to scope out the female landscape at the dance hall. Halfway into his first beer, he wished he’d stayed home and gone to bed.
Now, if that wasn’t a sad statement about his life. It wasn’t as if he was an old codger, but for some reason his normal routine of working hard followed by playing hard just wasn’t doing it for him tonight.
He gently pushed Tiffany away from him. “Not tonight, Tiff. I’d be falling in my plate if I had a plate.”
His rebuff earned him a pout from Tiffany, and for a moment he reconsidered passing on the pleasure she was offering. But he had the oddest feeling that his being tired wasn’t the only reason he wasn’t dragging Tiffany and her tasty curves to the nearest bed. Hell, the nearest horizontal surface. But damned if he knew why she didn’t look quite as appealing as she once had.
Owen slipped off the bar stool where he was sitting and tossed a couple of bills on the bar.
“Calling it a night so soon?” asked James Turner, who was tending bar tonight.
“Yeah, just hit the wall.”
James shot him a crooked grin. “I think hell just froze over.”
“Be careful or I’ll take my tip back.”
James just laughed and moved to fill another drink order.
Owen stepped out of Tiffany’s reach before she could attach herself to him again and made for the door. He stifled a yawn as he headed out the door and across the parking lot to his truck. A stiff breeze sent a paper cup tumbling across the parking lot, and thunder rumbled in the distance, promising some good sleeping weather.
As he drove toward home, a few sprinkles of rain began to fall. Just as he passed Crider Road, he noticed emergency flashers blinking on a car up ahead. As he got closer, he spotted a small silver car pulled halfway off the road. A woman wearing a skirt and high heels stood beside the car and then proceeded to kick the flat rear tire. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the image she made even though she was obviously upset.
He pulled in behind her and parked, leaving his headlights on to illuminate her and the car as he slipped out of the truck.
“I don’t think that’s going to help,” he said as he approached her.
When she looked toward him, he hesitated for a moment as recognition hit. “Linnea? What are you doing out here?”
She took a step back as she shaded her eyes against the bright light. He realized she must have figured out she wasn’t in the safest position, broken down alone on the side of a rural road at night.
“It’s Owen Brody. Are you headed to the ranch?”
She seemed to deflate more than relax. “That was the plan, but my tire had a different idea.” She sounded even more drained than he felt.
He walked the rest of the distance to the rear of her car. “Don’t worry. I’ll get this changed for you.”
“Thank you.” Her voice sounded so small that he met her eyes and saw a sadness there that he’d never seen before in his sister’s best friend.
“You okay?”
“Been a rough day.”
He wasn’t a “share your feelings” sort of guy, but for some reason he wanted to ask her what was wrong. Instead, he asked her to pop the car’s trunk so he could get the spare before the approaching storm reached them.
She moved to comply and had to catch herself against the side of the car when she twisted her ankle off the edge of the pavement. The curse that came from her shocked Owen, it being so at odds with the classy lady he’d always known her to be.
“Did