He stalked down the hill but didn’t head for the barn. Instead, he made for his truck. Nothing like a drive up to the more remote area of the ranch to help him untangle his thoughts.
If only he’d taken time to think seven years ago.
THAT HAD NOT GONE WELL. Grace sat on the bench, bone weary and wishing she could turn back the clock even an hour. One would think, after all the time she’d spent contemplating various ways she could tell Nathan about Evan, she’d end up doing something other than just blurting it out at the first opportunity.
She didn’t let her doubts get the better of her, tempting her into believing she’d made a mistake in telling Nathan about his son. It was the right thing to do, for many reasons, but she wished he’d stuck around longer so she could explain further. Part of her couldn’t blame him for his reaction. If she were in his spot, she had no idea how she’d react.
There was no going back now, though. She’d simply have to figure out how to progress from her clumsy start.
“Didn’t go how you’d hoped, huh?”
Grace looked up to see Laney Stuart had approached without her noticing. “I don’t know why I bothered running scenarios in my head because my brain and mouth staged a coup and abandoned them all.”
Laney sat on the bench next to Grace. “Well, at least it’s done.”
“It’s far from done. I fear it’s just the beginning.”
“Then at least you can stop imagining how he’ll react. Now you know.”
“And I feel loads better,” Grace said, her voice full of sarcasm. “I thought you were here for moral support, not stating the obvious.”
Laney squeezed Grace’s hand. “I am, sweetie. I’ll listen anytime you need to talk.”
Grace squeezed back. “It’s good to see you. It’s been too long.”
“You just miss my French toast.”
Grace managed a small laugh. “If my stomach ever calms down, I fully expect you to make me some.”
Laney leaned back with a dramatic sigh. “You only love me for my culinary skills.”
“If I remember correctly, French toast is the extent of your culinary skills.”
Laney playfully punched Grace in the arm. “That’s not true.”
“Oh, you’re right. I forgot mac and cheese—from a box.”
Laney gave Grace a narrow-eyed stare. “Tell me again why I like you, why I took a week off from work to come to the-middle-of-nowhere Texas.”
“I babysat your daughter so you could study?”
“Hmm, seems I remember doing something similar for you.”
She had indeed. Laney had been a single mom grad student trying to finish her degree and plan for a wedding to her long-distance boyfriend when she’d advertised for two roommates. Grace, along with Emily Stringer, one of Grace’s fellow interior design students and her current business partner, had answered the ad.
Grace still swore something cosmic had brought the three of them together. She’d bonded with Emily over their shared love of interior design, and with Laney over their single motherhood. Laney and Emily had similar personalities: strong, determined and quick with snappy comebacks. Considering the roommate horror stories she’d heard during her years of college, she’d won the roomie lottery.
While Evan and Cheyenne had played, Grace and her two best friends had studied, laughed, planned for their futures and shared their deepest secrets. Laney and Emily were the loving, nurturing, fun sisters her own had never been.
“It’s so good to see you,” Grace said, growing serious. “You have no idea how much it means to me to have you here.”
“I think I do. You were there for me on some of my most frightening days. And you know Emily would be here, too, if you hadn’t threatened her with bodily harm if she closed the doors.”
“I know, but our business is too new for both of us to be AWOL on the customers we do have. Plus, she’s already been there for me so many times.”
“Don’t worry about that now. Focus on what you came here to do.”
Grace sighed. “I doubt I could think about anything else for more than two seconds if I tried.”
“You’ll get through this, just like everything else.”
“I hope you’re right.” Grace took a deep breath then stood. “I better get us settled in our cabin.”
“He’ll come around. May take some time and he might be angry for a while, but he’ll get over it. And if not, I’ll be forced to kick his ass.”
Grace lifted an eyebrow. Of the three of them, Laney was by far the most girly.
“Okay, hire someone to kick his ass,” Laney admitted.
Grace leaned down and gave Laney a quick hug before walking down the slight incline toward the stables. “Evan.” When he turned at the sound of his name, she motioned for him to come to her. “Come on. We have to take our stuff to the cabin.”
“But, Mom…”
“We’ll be coming back in a bit. Now don’t argue.” Her last words came out a little sharper than she intended, so when he reached her she gave him a big smile and placed her arm lovingly around his shoulders. “I see you and Cheyenne found each other.”
He grunted in confirmation but kept staring back at the corral. “Isn’t she pretty? She ate sugar cubes right out of my hand!”
“Cheyenne?”
He looked at Grace as if she’d suddenly taken leave of her senses. “No! Eww. I was talking about Dolly, the horse.”
“Oh, of course.” Grace bit her lip to keep from laughing.
But as they got into the car and headed up the hill to the cabins, her urge to laugh faded away. When she thought about it, Evan really wasn’t that different from his father. Back when she’d known the younger version of Nathan, he’d been more wrapped up in horses and football than he had in any girl, least of all her.
As Grace pulled up in front of their cabin, she realized she’d never been inside one of them. She’d come to the ranch several times while tutoring Nathan, but they’d been confined to the dining room in the main house where Merline could watch them. That had been one of her parents’ conditions of her employment—that she and Nathan never be left alone. As if the two of them would suddenly go off and do all manner of sinful, indecent things. Little did they know their tight leash contributed to her doing the thing they most feared.
“Mom? Are you getting out?”
Grace shook off the dust of the past and realized Evan had already unbuckled himself and gotten out of the car. He stared at her through the open passenger window.
“Yeah, sweetie.” She needed to pull herself together, regroup. She’d stumbled through her initial meeting with Nathan and the big reveal, but there was no going back for a do-over.
With Evan’s help, she got their bags inside. When she dropped their biggest suitcase on the bed, she noticed Evan had climbed into a chair to look at some framed photos on the wall. She walked up behind him and immediately spotted Nathan in one of the photos, sitting astride a horse in early-morning light. His face wasn’t fully visible, probably wouldn’t even be recognizable to the casual observer, but she knew it instantly. Despite that one night together, they’d never been a couple.