Page 96 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

“I—what?”

Alex peered at her, pure worry in his expression. “I hadn’t seen you since you left for the cemetery,” he said. “I thought maybe you’d gone to Three Rivers, so I called over there, because you said we were gonna have grilled shrimp in memory of Levi, and no one was here.”

Edith searched his face, her memory returning. She didn’t have a defense for herself though.

“He said he dropped you off here hours ago and broke up with him.”

“No.” Edith shook her head. “I didn’t break up with him. I said I needed a break.”

“From….”

“Just—everything.” She blew out her breath. “I specifically told him I didn’t want to break up with him.”

“Well, Edee, he’s confused. Heck, anyone would be confused with what’s gone on today.” Alex gestured back toward the house, his bright eyes blazing with frustration. “I’m confused. I honestly didn’t expect to find you curled up in the dark, the door locked, and a year’s worth of dried tears on your face.”

Edith’s anger fired at her then, and she wiped her face. “I—you didn’t.”

Alex glared at her and stepped outside the she-shed. Then he turned back. “I’m almost sure that man is in love with you, and you literally told him you needed a break as you sat in front of your deceased fiancé’s grave. He thinks he’s never going to measure up. That you’ll never love anyone but Levi.” Her brother marched away from her. “Honestly, Edee, what would you think if the tables were turned?”

He scoffed out an angry breath and stalked away, muttering.

Edith watched him go, not sure what she was supposed to do now. The scent of the barbecue grill filled the air, and her stomach growled. But Edith retreated back inside her she-shed, this time to her desk. She didn’t lock the door, and she pulled up the website for her favorite dog breeder.

She had a lot to work through, but not tonight. She didn’t have the mental energy, and she just wanted to look at pictures of puppies.

Edith remembered she’d told Finn she’d call him later, and she’d do exactly that. She’d call him when she could, and right now, she simply couldn’t do anything more than look at the cutest dachshund puppies she’d ever seen.

Chapter Thirty

Finn suffered through a couple of days before his mother threw a piece of bread at him and said, “Okay, enough moping. It’s time to talk to me and Daddy.”

Finn looked up from his lunch, then around the table. Sam was gone, and most of the table had been cleared. Daddy pulled out his chair and sat down, a couple of bowls in his hand. He set one in front of Momma and said, “Cherry chocolate, darlin’.”

He threw a glance at Finn and dug his spoon into his chocolate ice cream. “Momma’s right. You leave on Thursday, telling us it’s the day Levi Kingsley died, and then you come home spitting mad, and you haven’t said two words to anyone since.”

“I have too,” Finn argued back. He looked at his full plate of food, not even realizing he hadn’t eaten it.

“He wasn’t spitting mad,” Momma said. “He’s heartbroken.”

“There were a lot of slammed doors,” Daddy said as Finn got to his feet. He took his plate into the kitchen and scraped the food into the trashcan. “And he has to decide about that ranch in two days, and it’s time to talk.” Daddy took a bite of his ice cream as if they were talking about nothing at all.

“He is standing right here,” Finn said, seething in air through his nose.

“Then talk,” Momma said as she too calmly dug out a bite of her cherry chocolate ice cream.

“Edith said she needs a break,” he said. “She said she doesn’t know how to be ‘not alone,’ which is a really weird way for her to say she doesn’t want to be with me.” He wanted some ice cream too, but not badly enough to go out into the garage and dig some out of the freezer.

He returned to the table, because he was an adult and he could have hard conversations. “Not only that, but the ranch is way more than I can afford. I’m going to lose it.” He felt like buckling and crying too as his chest tightened and everything on his face turned numb. “Kevin wants so much more than I thought it would be.”

“Why’s that?” Daddy asked.

“The harvest and the cattle,” Finn said miserably. He ran his hands through his hair and then laid his head down in his arms on the table. He stared close-up at the saltshaker, wondering how his life—which had been going so well—had come to this.

Staring at a glass container, the rest of the world blurry beyond the facets of light glinting on the saltshaker.

“If I buy now, I’m reaping the rewards of the cattle and the harvest, so Jerry’s baked those into the price to make it fair.”

“Seems fair then,” Daddy said.

---