Page 47 of Headstrong Cowboy
You don’t think he wants to buy the farm?She’d fobbed Sunny’s question off, not allowing the idea to take root in her mind.But now, what if she was right?
Oh no.No!No!No!He wouldn’t do that to me, would he?
Chrissy closed the gap between her and Ryder.“Please tell me what I’m thinking isn’t right?That all of this hasn’t been a game to you.That you weren’t using me.”
“I’m sorry, Chrissy.I can explain everything.Please let me do that.”He reached out a hand toward her, but she stepped back.
Chrissy didn’t want to hear anything else.She didn’t need to.She’d gotten the message loud and clear.Ryder wanted their farm.
“I-I...”She swallowed, attempting to keep the sob threatening to erupt from her down.“I have to go.”
She rushed past Ryder, ignoring the calls of her mom and siblings.Before she turned the corner, she looked over her shoulder.Ryder stood with his shoulders slumped and his head down.
Chrissy cupped a hand over her mouth and all but ran out of the arena.She’d given her heart to another man and he’d used her in a way she hadn’t been used before.Her inexperience in reading men had been her downfall.
As the distance between her and the arena grew, Chrissy tried to let go of the dream of her and Ryder together, but it stuck to her heels like a clinging vine, ever hopeful that the outcome could be different.
Was anything she and Ryder had shared real?Or had it all been a lie?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ryder’s feet seemedto be cemented to the ground.The distance between him and where Chrissy had disappeared around the corner was only a few feet, but he felt like it was a hundred miles.
“What’s going on?”Eunice Bloom asked, clearly confused by her daughter’s abrupt departure.
“Yes, Ryder, why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”Sunny demanded, her eyes glaring at him and he was glad they weren’t at the farm where there may have been gardening tools within Sunny’s reach, because if they were, he feared she’d be tossing them his way.
“I wanted you to meet Ryder because he’s very interested in purchasing your farm.He wants to settle down in Marietta, and your property is in his desired location,” Lucinda prattled on, and Ryder wished she’d be quiet.
Weren’t Realtors able to read body language?Couldn’t she read the women around her and see that animosity coming from Sunny?The confusion from Eunice and Tilly’s disappointment?
“Oh, well, I see,” Eunice replied.“I don’t think this is the place to discuss it.Sunny, can you take me home, please?There won’t be any celebrations tonight.”
There was a firmness to Eunice’s voice that must have clearly surprised Sunny, by the way confusion quickly replaced her animosity.“Mom?”
“You heard me, Sunflower.I think we need to go.”Eunice looked over at him.“Mr.Chamberlain, I don’t believe a deal will ever be done.”With that, she marched away, both her daughters trailing after her.
“I’m missing something here, aren’t I?”Lucinda asked.
“You are,” Ryder said on a sigh.
“I’m sorry.I’m not usually so loose with my mouth and I pride myself on reading the situation, but I think the excitement with Chrissy’s win and with the fact that Eunice told me today that she would take the first offer that crossed the table, I saw you and—” She shrugged and a little pink bloomed in her cheeks.“I forgot my professionalism.I’m very sorry.Maybe I can talk Eunice around.”
Ryder shook his head.“I don’t think it will matter.The deal’s dead.I’ll be in touch.”
And like the Bloom family, he exited the arena, ignoring the shouts of greeting from his former fellow bull riders.
Without consciously doing so, he found himself back on the river path and sitting on the bench he and Chrissy had sat on the previous evening.
He shouldn’t be surprised that everything had blown up in his face.How many times had his inner voice warned him that he should tell her the truth?Tell her what his plans were.Tell herwhyhe was seeking her family’s land.She would’ve understood the need to connect to a mother who’d left him all those years ago.
For her to find out when and how she did cut him deep.Chrissy should’ve been celebrating an amazing rodeo victory.He’d lurked in the shadows and watched her and Ranger do their circuit.Her run had been one for the record books.He’d wanted to rush up to her afterward, but he’d hung back.When he’d thought it was safe to talk to her, it hadn’t been at all.
He should’ve stayed at the hotel.Waited until he knew for sure it was all over, like he had originally planned, but the pull to be near the woman who owned his heart had been too hard to ignore.
A lot of people would envy Ryder and his ability to be able to buy whatever he wanted.Whenever he wanted.But he’d rather be poor and have the love of his life close by.And did it really matter if he owned Munro land or not?It wasn’t like there were any others around who wanted to reclaim a lost legacy.Had it just been the depression talking in his mother for her to put a request to a son who had no idea of a family connection because his mother had never spoken about it?Was keeping a wish to a woman who’d decided death was better than living worth it all?He’d thought so at the time, but that decision was costing him someone in the present, not someone lost to a past long gone.
Would Chrissy even believe him now if he told her he loved her?
