Page 31 of A Miracle for the Confident Cowboy

“Duke—”

He huffed. “No. I’ve been grieving all week. I don’t need to hear that you think he’ll come home. What I need right now is for you to just understand what I’m going through and let me figure things out.”

She didn’t speak, prompting him to look in her direction. She frowned. Pain flittered across her face and she looked away. “You’re right,” she whispered. “I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what I would do if I lost Daisy or if she got away.”

Dang it all!

Now he had more to feel guilty over. He’d pushed her away and all because he couldn’t shake his personal cloud that wouldn’t stop hovering overhead. Duke reached out to her but she side-stepped him. That movement alone hurt more than everything he’d been dealing with in the last week.

Sophie lifted both of her hands and shook her head. “I was trying to help you get your mind off him, but you’re right.” Those two words. She repeated them again, a hint of venom beneath her voice. “People grieve in different ways. Sometimes we need to be with the people we care about so we can forget our pain. Sometimes we need to dwell in it to get it out of our system.” She met his eyes and that was when he noticed it in her eyes. The brief hint of something she wasn’t saying to him.

He'd been so caught up in the issues with his family and his missing pet that he hadn’t noticed she was dealing with something. His heart clenched in his chest and he sought for the words that might be enough to bring her back to him—to convince her that he didn’t want anything to change between them even though he got the distinct feeling that was exactly what was going to happen between them.

“Sophie,” he whispered.

Her smile looked forced. “It’s okay, Duke, really. Maybe tonight was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have pushed you to come out when you clearly aren’t in the mood.”

“It’s not that…” Maybe a small part of him agreed with her statement, but he didn’t want her knowing about it.

“I’ll see you later, Duke. I’m going to head home. Maybe we can get together a little later.”

Maybe. That word could mean so many things depending on the context and the tone in which it was said. Sophie couldn’t have sounded less convinced in the words that came out of her own mouth. But she’d already given him a quick hug and she was hurrying away as if she didn’t want to be in his presence for a second longer.

His pain shifted to anger. He wasn’t angry with Sophie. There was no reason for that. But he sure as heck was furious with himself. What was it about this month that seemed to drag him down to the depths of despair every year? The more he thought about it, the more he had to admit that this wasn’t the first December he’d been down in the dumps.

And it likely wouldn’t be the last.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It wasclear that Duke was struggling with a lot and it was more than Sophie thought she was capable of helping him with. It didn’t help that she’d always felt a little at odds with him. Nor did it help that she was hiding something from him.

They were both responsible for the distance that had grown between them and she didn’t know how she was going to be able to get past it.

Sophie cared for him—deeper than what should have been possible. Part of her wanted to hate Pippa for putting each of them in the other’s path. At this point, she felt she already knew what was going to happen. She’d take the gig, move out of the country, and when she returned, they wouldn’t be able to pick up where they’d left off.

Not even the optimistic side of her could come up with reasons to have faith. Sometimes relationships didn’t have a chance. Timing was everything and they simply weren’t blessed enough to let it play its crucial role in their lives.

She spent the next couple of days in communication with her manager and avoiding Duke. While Sophie kept telling herself that she had one foot in staying in Texas and one foot already on that plane, deep down she knew she had made her choice. In a few weeks she’d be leaving.

The decision weighed heavy on her chest. Logically, she couldn’t stay. She knew that. Pippa, Rob, even her parents would be disappointed in her if she chose to let this opportunity slip through her fingers.

When there was a knock on her door, she hesitated answering it. She wasn’t sure she was ready to tell Duke what was about to happen. She didn’t want to break things off with him. Her heart had been slashed and was now being pulled into two directions. If she stayed in Texas, one part of her would have still gotten on that plane, leaving her feeling left behind. If she left, the other side of her heart would remain in Texas with Duke.

Another knock on the door, this time with more impatience drew Sophie’s attention. She just needed to enjoy the rest of the time she had with him—even if all of that time was spent looking for Gus and being there for him in the way he needed her to be.

She took a deep breath and exhaled as she headed for the door. When she pulled it open, she froze. “Pippa?”

Her friend entered, a grin on her face. “So? Have you made your decision?”

Sophie nibbled on her lower lip. “Yeah.”

Pippa jumped up and her grin widened. “You’re taking it. I knew you were. I knew you couldn’t give up an opportunity.” When she noticed that Sophie wasn’t excitedly jumping up and down with her, she pursed her lips together. “What’s the matter?”

Sophie didn’t know what it was Pippa was seeing on her face, but it must have been enough to give away everything Sophie had been keeping from her friend.

Pippa’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Duke.”

The single word carried all the weight of a falling redwood. Sophie grimaced and her friend’s brows creased.

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