Page 88 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
He stilled. He’d had the distinct misfortune of meeting her ex when he’d come to the ranch. A surge of jealousy washed over him at the idea of that jerk with Dahlia.
“I thought just because he was nice to me, because he needed me…” She shrugged with a little wince. “I was stupid.”
He shook his head. “You were young, not stupid.”
She arched a brow. “I guess the same goes for you and Rena, huh?”
He laughed under his breath. She was right, of course. But he’d never seen it that way… until right now.
How easy it was to let someone else off the hook for being young and naive when he’d spent the better part of a decade cursing himself for the same thing.
He sighed. “In the end, I guess Rena and I thought that having shared dreams was enough. That since we both wanted to travel and one day start a family, that was a good enough basis for marriage.” He lifted his head to meet her gaze, his smile rueful. “It wasn’t.”
A silence descended. He supposed she had lots of questions. He knew there was more to say. But for a long moment they just sat quietly, lost in their own thoughts.
She got busy disinfecting his hand. He hissed at the burning antiseptic, but she didn’t let up until the wound was cleaned.
“So, what happened? Why couldn’t you stay married?” she finally asked when she was done torturing his poor palm.
He reached for a bandage and focused on the wound.
“Within a few months of traveling, we realized that dating and living together are two very different things. We just… we thought differently about so much stuff, and we were constantly biting at each other. Little spats turned to full-on arguments, and then we started sleeping in separate rooms at the various places we stayed in. After a while, it just seemed silly that we were seeing the world together but alone.” He shook his head with a sigh. “One night we met a group of fellow travelers, and she really hit it off with one guy in particular.”
Dahlia’s head shot up, her eyes wide. “Did she cheat on you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But she’d wanted to, and it made her realize that our marriage was a total farce, and it was holding us both back. I had to agree with her.”
“How’d your parents react?” Dahlia cringed as if she already knew the answer.
“They weren’t happy about it.” His expression took on a hard edge; he could feel it. His emotions always got a little brittle when he remembered this part. “They were mortified. Told me I wasn’t allowed to divorce my wife. They didn’t care how hard it was. I’d made vows, and I had to keep ’em.” He met Dahlia’s gaze, wondering if she could see the pain traveling through him. “The thing is, if Rena wanted me to, I would have done just that. I didn’t take my vows lightly, even if I regretted them.”
Dahlia nodded, and he felt the vise around his lungs start to break.
“But Rena knew it was a mistake too. As she put it, it was a mistake she didn’t want to spend a lifetime paying for.” Dahlia winced, and he chuckled. “She wasn’t trying to be mean. Just honest.”
Dahlia nodded in understanding. “It must have been a tough time for you both.”
“It was,” he agreed. “But while Rena’s parents eventually saw reason and supported the divorce, my parents dug in their heels.”
He scratched the back of his head, wondering how much to tell her. Most people in Aspire would likely never guess that the bushy-bearded mountain man came from old money.
And he didn’t relish admitting aloud that his parents used that wealth to try and control him, wielding it like puppet strings.
“Needless to say, they didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms. So I left. I try my best to keep things civil these days. I check in regularly, mainly so my younger sisters don’t forget I’m alive.” He shot her a self-deprecating smile, but she frowned back at him with a concern that made his chest too tight. “I think if it were up to my father, he’d rather just forget that they once had a wayward son. Heck, they’ve probably written me out of their will.”
She arched her brows. “Is that a big deal?”
He winced. “Money’s never a big deal, but, uh… I probably kissed a couple hundred million dollars goodbye.”
Dahlia gaped. “A hundred million?”
He scrubbed the back of his neck again at her open-mouthed stare. “My parents are quite… well off.”
“Quite?” Dahlia let out a surprised laugh.
“At least I still had access to the money my grandparents left me in their will. I used that to buy this luxurious place.” He swept a hand through the air, as if showing off his grand home.
They grinned at each other, and he felt it again, that strange connection like an invisible tether tying them to each other.
