Page 21 of Pretend To Be My Cowboy
Emma had tried her best to lie down and rest, like she’d told Nash she was going to, but once alone in her room, her mind had started racing again. The silence after she heard Nash leave the house was unbearable.
And so she’d called Lizzy. It was the call she was dreading least, so best to get it over with, right?
Lizzy’s response had been stunned silence followed by a million questions, and now this. A heavy quiet as Lizzy no doubt battled the same jumble of emotions she’d experienced in Mr. Billman’s office.
Emma leaned back against the pillows, not exactly relieved now that she’d told Lizzy, but...deflated. Exhausted.
And no closer to knowing what she was supposed to do next. So instead, she studied the room around her, like her father might have left some clues behind in his home. Some hint as to why he’d kept his secrets, why he hadn’t let them know they had far more family than they realized.
One thing was clear. There were no clues to be found in this guest room. It felt more like a hotel room. Clean but sterile. No personal touches. Nothing to make it feel like a home.
Because it wasn’t a home. Not her home, at least.
Any connection she’d thought she might have with Frank O’Sullivan because of their shared genetics had been a figment of her imagination. He hadn’t loved her and Lizzy from afar, as she’d always hoped. He’d been busy raising another daughter and ignoring four others.
Her head fell back against the wall with a thud.
“Well…” Lizzy sighed. “While this was definitely not the way we’d expected things to go down, it doesn’t really change much, does it?”
Emma eyed her phone in disbelief. “Lizzy, we have five other sisters now. That changes everything.”
“I know, I know,” Lizzy said quickly, and Emma could practically see her sister’s picture-perfect features setting into that all-business look she got when she wasn’t having other people’s drama.
Which was always kind of funny to Emma because Lizzy had no problem embracing her own drama. But clearly right now Lizzy didn’t feel like getting dragged into the emotional quagmire that was five new sisters.
Emma couldn’t blame her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it yet, either.
“I’m just saying that when it comes to whether or not we sell the ranch, you and I are still on the same page, right?”
Emma nodded, even though Lizzy couldn’t see her. “Yeah.” She agreed, but felt this weird tug in her chest, so repeated herself for good measure. “Yeah, of course.”
“I mean, we have to sell,” Lizzy continued. “We don’t know anything about running a ranch, and that’s a huge chunk of money we’d be getting.”
Emma nodded again. That was what she’d been telling herself too.
It had always been the plan, ever since they’d found out about the inheritance. Adding new, unknown, anonymous sisters to the mix didn’t change that.
She sat forward, gazing out the large, open window on the far side of the room. Through it she could see the sweeping green land and the blue sky, getting ready to change its colors as sunset approached. A warm breeze blew the scent of wood and wild flowers into the room.
“It’s not like you really need the money, though, right?” Emma brushed her finger over her lower lip, still staring at the idyllic picture through her window. “Connor has plenty, doesn’t he?”
It was a rhetorical question. Lizzy’s fiancé was loaded, and everyone knew it.
Lizzy’s laughter on the far end made Emma smile. It sounded so girlish, like they were high school teens swooning over the hottest guys in school. “I know how to pick ‘em, right?”
Emma shook her head with a huff of laughter. “I’d say Connor is the one who lucked out by finding you.”
“Aww.” Her sister’s teasing tone lightened the air in Emma’s room even more. “But you have to say that. You’re my sister.”
Emma shrugged. She’d meant what she’d said. Truthfully, she didn’t know Connor all that well. Not as well as she’d like, at least. Not for lack of trying, of course. It seemed she and Lizzy were forever trying to match up calendars for her to spend more time with him, but Connor was a busy ad executive, and while he was rich in wealth, he didn’t have such luxury with his time.
He seemed nice enough, though, and he made Lizzy happy. That was all that mattered.
A twinge of something unpleasant and toxic had Emma shifting restlessly.
She moved to the edge of the bed, coming to stand as Lizzy chatted away for a few minutes about the latest wedding plans.
It wasn’t that she was jealous of Lizzy. Well, she was. But not like that. Mostly she was happy that her sister had found love. And if she was just a little sad for herself because she was thirty-one and still a million miles away from her dream life of a loud, chaotic, child-filled home with a loving, kind man...well, that wasn’t Lizzy’s fault.
