Page 100 of The Last Dance You Saved
“I loved you both, you know,” she said softly. “Spence always had the lead by just a smidge, but I really did love you both. And even though I knew it was wrong for us to start dating, I was also a jealous teen who felt jilted. I wanted Spence to be jealous too, and I knew the best way to do so was by using the competition your father had flamed between the two of you.
“It’s not okay I used you that way, but once you kissed me, I sort of forgot the reasons I should stop. You were damn good at what you did with women, even back then when you were just finding your groove.”
I didn’t know what to say to any of it. Her admission of loving me, or the fact she’d used the wedge our dad had shoved between Spence and me to her advantage—or disadvantage, depending on how you looked at it.
She gave me a weak smile. “I’d never admit it to Spence, but I think you were better at it than he was. The romancing… That thing you did with your tongue.” She raised a brow, and I almost blushed. “If you were that good then, unpracticed and raw, I can’t imagine how devastating you are now.”
I finally found my voice, and it was with a hint of anger that I said, “Don’t you dare flirt with me, Lauren.”
She laughed. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Stupid, I’m trying to tell you not to lose the woman you sent packing. I’ve never in my life seen you look at anyone or anything like you look at her.”
“How the hell do you think I look at her?”
“Like she’s the only thing that can top this…” She waved her hand at the stunning colors flaming in front of us.
The truth of it settled hard inside me. Sadie did top this. She topped anything I’d built for myself since leaving here too. I’d hand over my entire empire if it meant I could keep her.
“What’s the deal with her and Lorenzo?” Lauren asked.
“As much as we can all figure, they’re cousins.” Her brows raised, and I rubbed a hand over my beard. “It gets worse. Her family… They have Great-grandma Beatrice’s jewelry that was taken from the movie studio.”
Lauren’s eyes went wide. “What?”
I explained what I’d found out about the jewelry and what I’d put together from what Puzo had told me and Beatrice’s journal.
Lauren tilted her head when I was done, asking, “So, you sent her away because you’re holding her responsible for her great-grandmother’s actions?” I shook my head. I wasn’t. I didn’t give a shit about what happened with our ancestors, but she didn’t let me respond, just kept on going. “Wouldn’t that be like me holding you responsible for your great-granddaddy winning the ranch from mine in a poker match?”
“Winning and stealing are two different things, but that isn’t why I sent her away,” I said. “And it won’t stop me from trying to get her back. Whatever really happened eighty years ago wasn’t her fault.”
She nodded. “You’re right. It’s not her fault. Just like it isn’t yours or mine. Somehow, Adam forgot that.” She shrugged and was quiet for a few heartbeats before saying, “I told you he wanted me to leave with him after I graduated. When I was a kid, I used to agree because it was easier than fighting with him about it. I thought he’d eventually see the truth—I needed this place. It’s embedded into every fiber of my being.”
“You always belonged here,” I said and meant it.
“I have, and our daughter does too. Once upon a time, you belonged here also, but I think, even if things hadn’t gone down the way they had between the three of us, you would have outgrown this place. You needed to stretch your wings, fly away, and discover the world before you were ready to come back.”
“I was forced to outgrow it.”
Lauren blew out a frustrated breath. “We’re right back to the same argument we’ve always had. What I did was wrong. Letting anything develop between us was wrong. I regret what I did to you. To both of you. Because I broke something beautiful. I broke a brotherhood that had survived the cracks your dad tried to place in it. But I also can’t regret it because it gave us Fallon.
“She’s fierce and protective in that way you always were. She’s kind and generous just like Spence, and she has a bit of my sass and stubbornness. She’s the perfect combination of all of us. She’s thebestof all of us, and she needs this place in a way you once did.”
“I adjusted to not having it. She would too,” I said, but I’d already made up my mind that she wouldn’t have to. If Fallon wanted the ranch, she’d have it. Not just because I wanted to keep Puzo’s grubby hands off it, but because I’d seen her here this week and realized if I took her from this place, it would leave an even bigger hole in her chest than the one I was still trying to fill in mine. Before I could tell her that, Lauren went on, making her case just as she’d tried to make Sadie’s.
“Don’t make her, Rafe. You look out at that sky and the horses, and I see you aching for it even now. Just like I see you aching for the woman you sent away. Don’t make our daughter live without this when leaving it is still causing you to slowly bleed out. Don’t punish our daughter for my tragic mistake.”
“I’m not selling the ranch,” I told her.
“You don’t—what?”
“We’re keeping it.”
Relief bled across her face. “Thank you.”
“You may not be thanking me once I start tearing it apart to make it better.”
She laughed. “She’s going to be so happy.”
We let that settle between us, and for the first time since I’d left the ranch over fourteen years ago, I felt at ease in her presence. Lighter. We’d finally crossed the bridge to the other side, the one I’d refused to cross even when my family had tried to show me the way.
