Page 68 of The Cowboy Takes A Bride

Meredith closed her eyes and tried to think beyond the heartache she was feeling. She’d just told Jace she loved him, and he’d basically Han Solo’d her. Like she’d feared he would. Who was she, he wanted to know? Today of all days, she’d woken more clear about who she was and what she wanted.

“I know who I want to be. I’m already that person. I like who I am.” She wrapped her arms around her chest, hoping to hold her body together and hide the trembling that was about to overtake her and break her into a thousand pieces.

“I think—”

“You think? What about what I think? I suppose that doesn't matter now that you have your ranch. Goal achieved.”

“You haven’t had enough of living your life to say that, Meredith. You should go.” He kicked the dirt with his toe while pulling his hat lower on his face. “In fact, I should go, too. Lots ofcattle to round up, and your father is waiting.” He looked over her shoulder to the waiting limo.

Meredith searched his face and found nothing of the Jace she’d come to know and love. This stranger was cold and distant. She stepped back and noticed his mother. He'd even had the gall to say her father was the only family she had. Didn't Marjory and Willow count? She was grieving Pops as much as the rest of them. The world seemed to close in around her, colors muted. Everything to the side of her faded away as the world before her narrowed and began to disappear.

She swallowed and gave a small wave to Marjory. Her throat tightened. When Jace bent to pick up the lasso, groaning from the stiffness, she didn’t feel sorry for him. She’d saved his fool neck, and this was his life revelation? Normal people wanted to do more, see more, and be more. He just wanted her to go away so he could get back to work.

She narrowed her gaze, his backside facing her. Something inside her snapped. It was so loud she jumped, and she could hear it echo on the wind. The colors of her world were tinged with the red of anger. She lifted her booted foot and, with all her might, planted it against his butt and shoved. He went sprawling into the ground face first.

“You’re a stupid, stupid man, Jace Shepard. And you don’t deserve me.” She spun on her heel and stomped toward her father’s car.

“What about your stuff?” he called.

“There’s nothing here I want,” she yelled back.

Meredith waited until the car was off Shepard property before she broke down.

30

Sabrina stared at him like she wanted to do to him what they did to the turkey at thanksgiving—break his neck.

She’d come a few days after Pop's funeral, having been out of the country, and until now he’d done a good job of avoiding her, knowing if she got him alone she’d chew his ass.

He’d been right. His urge to sit on the fence and mope had gotten the best of him and, risking the chance, he’d come out to watch the sunrise and lick his wounds. Sabrina had found him moments later.

“I can’t believe you let her go.” She held up one finger. “I’m going to ask this next question even though I’m confident I already know the answer. Before you told her to leave, did you by chance tell her how you felt?” She stepped close and looked at him, shoving his hat up and away from his face.

“Ah, well…”

“I’ll take that as a no. I’m going to also guess that part of why you didn’t was because you wanted to test her. To see if she’d come back on her own. Am I wrong?”

Jace sighed and rubbed his hand along the wound on hisside. It ached something fierce. The pain actually radiated from the center of his chest and moved outward and left him breathless all the long damn day.

“You’re a moron. A big gigantic stupid ass imbecile.” She crossed her arms, her foot tapping madly, causing the grass to swish slightly.

He nodded. “Yeah, I reckoned you’d see it that way.” Frankly, he saw it that way, too. Every night he thought of at least a handful of different, better ways he could have handled that last day with Meredith.

“How do you see it, Jace? Another relationship that didn’t work? You expected her to go so you made sure she did?”

“Well, Rina, it was a little like playing house, to be honest.” He’d been telling himself that for the four days she’d been gone. Even though her clothes were in the closet, her dog-eared Farmer’s Almanac on the bedside table, her toothbrush in the holder. Knowing she was alive and okay was what kept him from destroying the house with his grief. Because what if she did come back? Having her stuff ready for her would say that she was welcome. Or so he hoped.

Rina stepped close and slapped him upside the head. “If you weren’t wounded, I’d punch you in the gut for that stupid remark.”

“Come on, tell me it wasn’t.” Please. He needed to know she hadn’t been buying time with him and his family.

Sabrina blinked at him, owlish. “Oh, sure. Okay. How about I find you another bride, and you can start over? Maybe a blonde this time? Here, I might have some pictures.” She fumbled her phone out of her pocket.

Jace couldn’t even imagine another woman. Each fantasy in his head starred Meredith.

“Shit, Rina. What should I have done?” He pounded his fist into the wood rail he wassitting on.

“Let me tell you what Meredith heard, and then you can tell me what you think you should do. Because you’ve already done the damage. Whether you fix it or not is up to you.”

---