Page 10 of Pretend To Be My Cowboy
She stared at him as the words registered. Frank had a wife?
“He remarried?”
Nash nodded, and judging by the way he shuffled in his thick socks and scrubbed the back of his neck, he was just as uncomfortable that he was the one filling her in on this fact as she was.
“I see,” she said. Guess the old pops forgot to mention that in his last Christmas card.
Nash cleared his throat and she forced a smile as if that could get rid of these bitter thoughts.
She wasn’t bitter. She didn’t do bitter. She’d gotten over her father’s absence a long time ago. Lizzy too.
She took a deep, calming breath and after a moment her smile actually felt real. “I’m glad he wasn’t alone.”
Nash nodded, and for a second it looked like he might say something else. When he didn’t, she kept moving, poking her head into rooms. There wasn’t much to see. The architecture was divine, the furniture lovely...but sparse. And there were no knickknacks, no photos, not even a print on the wall.
“I take it they haven't been living here for a while,” she said.
“No,” Nash said. “They moved to Bozeman years ago. It’s only a couple hours from here but he didn’t get back much.”
“She must be devastated,” Emma murmured.
“Who?”
“Frank’s wife.” She glanced over at him. “Losing your husband to a car accident. It’s just so sudden. She must be heartbroken.”
“Uh…” There was that neck scrubbing gesture again as he winced. “Loretta passed away about three years ago.”
“Oh.” Emma’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
His expression was tight, pained. Not for the first time she wondered just how close he’d been to her father and Loretta.
“She got sick,” Nash said. “So they eventually moved to the city. Closer to medical care and uh… well, they never came back.”
Her chest ached for a man she’d never known. “It must have been too painful for him.”
She turned away, heading down the hallway and ducking her head to hide the surge of emotion.
It was ridiculous to be crying over a man she didn’t know. Even more idiotic to be this upset about a stepmother she never even knew about.
She took a few deep breaths to calm the tears that threatened to spill, but her hands were shaking when she pushed open a door at the end of the hall.
Her head spun for a second and she caught herself with a hand against the doorframe. This room…
“He had a room for us?” Her voice came out too high and breathless, but the sight of this space with its purple walls, bunk beds and the desk in one corner...it was so clearly meant for daughters. Meant for them.
The air felt too light and she tightened her grip on the door.
“He went to all this trouble,” she said with a shake of her head. “And yet he never once invited us out here.”
The tears she’d been fighting now stung her eyes and she glanced up to see Nash watching her with concern.
Concern and...confusion.
It wasn’t the first time she’d caught him looking at her like that. Like he wasn’t sure what to make of her.
“What is it?” she asked.
He rubbed a hand over his mouth, his gaze thoughtful. But before he could speak, her phone rang.
