His heart stopped. Honest to goodness stopped.
Ryan blinked and fought to find his voice. “Pardon?”
“Our relationship,” she said. “It’s not working.”
“Since when?” His voice rose, then cracked.
“For a while.” She pressed her lips together and gazed down at her hands.
“How can that be?” Ryan remembered the time he’d fallen off his dirt bike and had the air knocked out of him. He felt the same way now. “Everything has been good.”
She lifted her head and met his gaze. “I just don’t want to date you anymore.”
Panic raced through his veins even as he kept his expression controlled. “Tell me what’s not working. What you don’t like. We’ll make it better. I’ll make it better.”
Compromise. They would compromise and everything would be as good as new, except she was saying it hadn’t been good. Not for her.
“There’s nothing you can do.” She met his gaze. “Just like all those other women you dated that you got tired of and didn’t want to date anymore. A person can’t change the way they feel.”
“But I love you.” The admission tumbled from his lips. This wasn’t the way he wanted to tell her. No, never like this. But it was important—very important—that she knew how much she meant to him.
Something flashed in her eyes. A look he couldn’t quite decipher but one that gave him hope. Hope that her leaving him wasn’t a done deal.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “And because we won’t be together anymore, it’d probably be best if I didn’t work for you.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” he asked, on the verge of begging.
“No.”
“Don’t you love me? Or even like me? Just a little bit?”
For a second her tightly controlled features began to crumble, but then the mask returned. “It’s over, Ryan. There’s nothing you can say or do to change my mind.”
She rose then and turned toward the door.
“Why, Betsy?” he called out to her. “Why?”
“It’s for the best,” she said without turning as she walked out of his office and out of his life.
Ryan slumped back in his chair and realized his parents had left out one very important detail in their relationship advice.
Compromise only worked when both parties wanted a relationship to succeed.
Betsy kept her composure while meeting with the police and county attorney. She’d worried they might make her feel like a criminal, but everyone was respectful. They mentioned more than once that she’d done the right thing by coming forward. If only the action hadn’t carried with it such a high price tag....
I love you. That’s what Ryan had said. Betsy had wanted to tell him she loved him, too. Only the knowledge that he would be hurt by his association with her made her keep her mouth shut.
This was her battle, not his. And down the road when Chad’s attorneys tried to discredit her by bringing up her relationship with Ryan, his clients would be reassured by the fact that she no longer worked for him. What she was doing might not make sense, but she had to protect Ryan. Somehow. Someway.
By the time Betsy reached her car in the courthouse parking lot, she could no longer hold back the tears. And once she started to cry, she couldn’t stop.
Damn Adrianna for telling her to jump into a relationship with both feet and her whole heart. Look where that had gotten her—desperately in love with a man who would never be hers.
“Betsy.” A sharp rap sounded on the passenger-side window. “Are you okay?”
Betsy recognized Lexi’s voice immediately. She hurriedly swiped at her eyes, then shifted to face her friend.
“I’m fine.” Betsy’s smile felt stiff on her lips. “Just getting ready to head home.”
Lexi tried the door handle. When it didn’t open, she frowned. “Let me in. I want to talk.”
Talking was the last thing Betsy wanted to do, especially with a woman who was Ryan’s friend.
She’s your friend, too, Betsy reminded herself.
She’d barely clicked the door unlocked when Lexi slid into the passenger seat. Even though dressed in a black-and-gray-plaid coat that looked warm, her friend shivered. “It’s cold out there.”
Pulling a tissue from her coat pocket, Betsy surreptitiously swiped at her nose. Small talk. Definitely manageable. For a second Betsy considered asking what had brought Lexi to the courthouse but realized the social worker might then ask her the same question. “I heard on the radio it’s supposed to dip below zero tonight.”
Lexi’s lingering gaze brought a warmth to Betsy’s face.
“I’m not sure if there’s snow in the forecast or not,” Betsy added. “They say there’s a band of moisture—”
With gentle fingers, Lexi took her hand, stopping the babbling. “We can discuss the weather for a few more minutes. Or you could go ahead and tell me what’s wrong now.”
Her soft voice invited confidences. Yet Betsy found herself reluctant to tell Lexi that she and Ryan were no longer a couple. Somehow, saying it aloud would make it seem so, well, final.
But it is final, she told herself. It had to be. Ryan had worked hard to build a respectable practice in Jackson Hole. She would not let his association with her ruin that for him.
Betsy took a deep breath and forced out the words. “Ryan and I, we’re not together anymore.”
“What happened?” Lexi released Betsy’s hand and sat back, a stunned look on her face. “You two seemed perfect for each other. So happy.”
Betsy could take the questions. It was the concern in Lexi’s eyes that made keeping her composure difficult. But she had to pull this off. Ryan’s reputation in the community was at stake. “He wasn’t the man for me. I feel bad, but I had to call it quits. It’s best for him.”
The lies flowed surprisingly easily from her lips, but the speculative look in Lexi’s eyes told Betsy the woman wasn’t convinced.
“It’s best for him,” Lexi repeated slowly. “An odd thing to say.”
Darn. Darn. Darn.
“I meant,” Betsy stammered, “that it’s best for both of us. Best for him that he’s not with someone who doesn’t love—” Her voice broke. She took a deep breath and tried again. “Who doesn’t love him. And best for me not to be with someone I, I don’t love.”
Lexi’s gaze searched Betsy’s face. She must have seen something that answered her question because her amber eyes softened. “I’m sure someone has told you the story about Nick and how he lost his memory.”
Betsy nodded, the tension in her shoulders easing. Her time on the hot seat was over. Even if Lexi wasn’t fully convinced, it appeared she was ready to give her the benefit of the doubt. Betsy was grateful. Very grateful. “You fell in love with a man who didn’t even know his own name.”
“That’s right. But what you probably don’t know is that once we learned his true identity, we discovered he had a serious girlfriend back home.” Lexi’s eyes took on a faraway look. “By that time we were already deeply in love.”
Lexi was right. This part she hadn’t heard before. “What