Page 31 of Rancher's Return

“Oh. Well. Jackson,” she said, reaching across the table and putting her hand over the top of his. Buck felt his hackles rise. And he couldn’t even quite say why.

Oh bullshit. You know why. You like her, and you don’t want her touching anyone else.

Sure. But that was nonsense. What did it matter?

“I really would appreciate if you kept this to yourself for now. Buck and I ended up meeting because of our kids. His boys are at the school now. And Lily and Colton are... They’re dating. So, we... reconnected.” She repeated that part. Probably because it was difficult to distill all of this. Probably because it still made her feel uncomfortable. And fair enough.

“I told Buck about my business idea, and he offered to invest. But I am not ready for that to be public information.”

“Oh yeah. Of course, but you’re sitting here in the diner with him.”

“I know. It’s not cloak-and-dagger. I just... I don’t want my parents to know yet that I am doing this with him. I’m going to talk to them.”

“Listen, I’m not going to spread around what’s happening. For a second thereabouts I thought maybe you were dating.”

Marigold laughed. Too loud and too long, and her cheeks went red. “No. Absolutely not. But you know... You know how kids are. And ours like each other. So what can you do?”

Jackson snorted. “Nothing. I mean, I know that well enough. If I was in charge of who Elizabeth dated, her roster would look a lot different.”

Buck felt the need to defend Colton, but he knew it wasn’t the time. Or the point. So they got to work discussing everything. And by the time it was done, he felt certainty in his gut.

When Jackson left, he turned to Marigold. “I’d like to talk to your parents.”

“What?”

“I’d like to talk to them about this. And I’d like to extend... I don’t know if an apology is the right word. Because being sorry about what happened is never going to change it. But I don’t want to create a situation where you have to hide, and... I need to build these bridges with everybody. I accepted that when I came home.”

“I don’t know that that’s totally fair,” she said.

“Listen, I don’t actually need absolution on the level you seem to think I do.” He took a breath. “I’ve lived in a state of self-pity for a long time. You don’t get anything accomplished. But I find that guilt, and the driving need to make up for the fact that I’m alive while they are gone, has turned me into a better person. I know that’s a double-edged sword. Because it almost doesn’t seem fair to have the chance to improve myself when they don’t. When they don’t get to grow and change.”

“The truth is, you didn’t cause that accident. The truth is, if you had been riding in the car, you would also be dead. The truth is, you didn’t make anybody drink.”

“Yeah. That is the truth. But the truth doesn’t serve anybody. Not half as well as a villain does. It doesn’t even serve me as well.”

“So you just... You’re just happy to be the scapegoat because it does something for you?”

“It makes me worth a hell of a lot more. And I can’t deny that it matters.”

“Let me... Let me call them.”

She got up from the table and went outside. He watched, as she wrapped one arm around herself and put the phone up to her ear. She bit her thumbnail as she waited, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She said hello, chewed her bottom lip. Beyond that he couldn’t quite tell what she was saying.

She looked upset. And then resolved. Grim. She nodded her head. Then she hung up her phone and walked back inside.

“Okay. We’ll go over there.”

“All right.”

The thought didn’t scare him. Because the worst-case scenario was that her dad would shoot him. And if that happened, he would be upset for his boys, but his family would take care of them. Support in any scenario was one reason it had been important that he give them this whole network. He didn’t want his boys’ happiness, their security, hinging only on him.

So really, even the worst case didn’t much worry him.

He felt like he had been living on borrowed time for the past twenty years. Also, he didn’t sincerely think her dad would kill him.

“Should we go together?”

“Sure,” she said.

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