Page 38 of Dependable Cowboy

“A good idea,” Sam’s gaze was knowing, however, as if he sensed that something more was going on with Aaron. “We’ll catch up later?”

“Absolutely.”

They parted after that, Sam eyeing him a bit pointedly.

Yet despite how much Aaron needed to discuss the jumble he was facing, once arriving at his parents’ residence, he shot the breeze with empty small talk for a solid twenty minutes. Even then he wouldn’t have gotten down to brass tacks had it not been for his mom. She rooted around for the real cause of him darkening their doorstep as effectively as a gofer.

“Aaron, what a welcome surprise.”

And…

“Haven’t had you just appear like this in a long, long while.”

And…

“Your color is off. Are you feeling all right?”

All her prodding was like a dam springing a leak in a vulnerable spot. Eventually and inevitably, the structure had to give way.

“No,” his voice left him at a rasp. “I’m really not all right.”

He proceeded to explain everything that had been happening between him and Joy. Not that they didn’t already know she was back in town and that they’d rekindled their friendship.

Or at least, that’s what he assumed they thought. Turned out he was wrong about that.

“Figured it’d be something like that,” his dad said on a sigh. “Something about you and Joy.”

“What do you mean?” Aaron croaked out.

“Well, things were bound to ultimately come to a head, weren’t they?” His mom moved to stand behind his dad’s chair, her hand on his shoulder. “Once you became close to her again, we knew you’d offer her your heart, even if she didn’t offer you hers.”

How had they known that whenhehadn’t?

“You’ve been attached to her since you were a boy, son,” his dad grimaced at him. “For better or worse.”

How interesting that his father would choose to use a phrase most often referenced when two people pledged their lives to one another. Something Joy had done with Wayne rather than him.

“Am I being stupid?” Aaron asked abruptly. “Spending time with her after all these years? Devoting myself to her?”

“Oh, honey…” This time his mom’s hand went to his own shoulder. “You can’t help it. Sometimes love is complicated.Sometimes it’s simple. For you, it’s just always been Joy Taylor. And it looks like it will continue to be.”

“Even though it’s apparently never going to actually happen between us,” he added, his sore throat making his tone a little bitter.

“You don’t know that,” his dad countered. “She didn’t say she didn’t love you this time. She just said she needed to cool it until the legal proceedings were done, right?”

“What she said was that she had to break up with me.”

“Hadto,” his mom echoed. “Not wanted to. Right?” Joy had specifically said she hadn’t wanted to. But Aaron only nodded. “I would say that’s a sign to not throw in the towel, then. Not yet, anyway. And you sound like you and her little girl were getting along well, too.”

“We are… were.”

“I say hang in there, then,” Mom reiterated.

His dad was the one to nod now. Only his could be considered one of encouragement.

“But divorces can go on for years,” Aaron told them as if they didn’t already know. They had a lot more life experience than he did and had known plenty of couples whose marriages hadn’t lasted the test of time. “Particularly when they’re messy.”

Besides, it seemed that Wayne would be doing his dead level best to make this one as lengthy and as messy as humanly possible.

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