Page 140 of Things Left Unsaid

“What was his name?”

A smile twists my lips. “Ralph. Grandma told Mum a lot of stories, ones Ralph shared with her. That’s why she came here. To see the place her mother always regretted not visiting.”

“That’s sad.”

“It must have seemed like a rags-to-riches story. She came over with nothing and then married into one of the richest families in the province. How was she to know that everything comes with a price?”

That has her pulling a face. “I’m sorry she had to go through that. I’m sorryyoudid too.”

“It’s fine.”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Why didn’t you want to live at the Bar 9?”

“Because the temptation to smother my grandmother was too strong?”

Snorting out a laugh, I retort, “She’d have fought you like a bear in a trap.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“You’re not the murdering kind.”

“The town doesn’t believe that.”

“No,” I agree, rubbing my eyes. “That why you haven’t left the ranch?”

“What’s there to leave for?”

“Amazon deliveries?”

She grins but hides it behind her beer. “The ranch hands bring the mail.”

“There is that.”

Zee releases a sigh. “Does this place have any happy memories for you?”

“The house, the ranch, or the town?”

“The house.”

I hum. “Plenty. Bad ones, sure. But I grew up with my brothers. I’d do anything for them.Didanything for them. I wanted them to be safe in a way that I never was so I took a lot of pleasure in seeing them grow up normally.”

She blinks. “You’re a very good man, Colton.”

“Hardly.” Thatshethinks that matters.

More than she’ll ever know.

“Not many would…” She plays with her earring. The fidgeting is new—that’s why I notice it. “The bulk of my memories from home are good ones.”

“Then why don’t?—”

“Because the two people who made them good aren’t there anymore,” she admits, her voice raw with grief.

“I’m sorry, Zee,” I rasp, leaning forward so that I can snag her hand in mine. “It’s not fair. How my douche of a father can still walk this Earth but your parents, good people, have both passed away.”

Her chin butts her chest, but she doesn’t free her hand. “The prospect of living there, full-time, without them was more than I could stand.

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