Page 66 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

Cayden allowed a small smile to touch his lips. “I’m not on speaker, am I?”

“No,” Spur said.

“You’re relaying everything to Olli, though.”

Scuffling came through the line, and Spur said, “Give me a sec.” He clearly covered the speaker and said something to his wife, and then he was on the move. “It’s a good thing you didn’t come tonight,” he whispered. “Ginny did end up coming after Olli told her you weren’t there, and she is a mess.”

“I don’t want to hear about it.” Cayden was surprised at the strength in his words, but they were true. “I know exactly how she probably is, and I’ve made my choice.”

“I respect that,” Spur said. “I do. We all do, but Cayden…did you really tell her no when she said she loved you?”

“She told you that?”

“Oh, I was pressurin’ her about the two of you, and she got in my face.” He sighed, and Cayden didn’t want to keep him up. Tomorrow was Sunday, but the ranch needed care every single day of the week. “It was my fault. I don’t think she’d have said anything otherwise.”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Cayden said. “I really don’t. It’s a very difficult situation, and I am not going to allow her to give up something that is her birthright and something she’s literally worked on and for over the past thirty years of her life.” He shook his head, his determination hardening as he spoke. “I’m not. Not for me.”

“Even if she wants to?”

“How could a person really want that?” he demanded. “That’s just stupid.”

“So you think she’s stupid?”

“No,” Cayden said, his anger calming after the flare. “No, of course not.”

“That’s the message you’re giving her.”

Cayden couldn’t control how Ginny felt. He sighed and hung his head. “Why did she come over?”

“Her mother was at the country house when she showed up after the vow renewal.”

Cayden got to his feet. “Really?” In his mind, when Ginny admitted to their relationship, he stood at her side, his hand steady and strong in hers. They’d face Wendy Winters—and their future—together, because theybelongedtogether, and if her mother couldn’t see it, that was her problem.

I belong with her, he thought.I love her.

Horror filled him and he sank back to the couch, Spur saying something he didn’t hear. All he could hear was a shrieking sound in his ears that made his chest tighten with every passing second.

“I have to go,” he blurted, and he pulled the phone from his ear while Spur said, “Check in tomorrow. You’re in the state, right?”

“Yes,” Cayden said. “I’ll check in.” He hung up and got to his feet again. A couple of steps got him to the desk, and he snapped on the lamp there. It was far too late to go to Ginny’s house. He wasn’t even sure where she’d be.

He pressed one of his hands to his eyes, trying to think of what he could do right now.

“You need a plan,” he said. “But do you really?” He paced to the locked door and touched it. “Maybe you just get in the truck and go find her.” He had no idea what he’d even say to her, and the way his mind circled without grabbing onto any one thought wasn’t comforting.

“It’s too late to go find her,” he said. “You’ll scare her, and that’s the last thing she needs.” He paced back and forth. “Okay, plan.”

All he could come up with was a Swiss cheese and spinach quiche, which was one of Ginny’s favorite foods. He’d brought her the treat once or twice when she had to go into the office early.

He could take her that tomorrow and beg her to forgive him for being so stupid. Technically, they hadn’t broken up yet. She’d asked him to wait until today, and he hadn’t done it. He had watched her sneak out of the farmhouse without going after her. Maybe that was as good as a break-up.

Cayden sat at his desk again, waking his computer with a couple of clicks on the mouse. Then he started to plan.

* * *

“And that’s where I am,”he said the next morning, the cheese and spinach quiche on the table between him and his parents. “She wasn’t at the country house or the mansion on Virginia Lane.” He hung his head and picked at the blueberry muffin his mother had put on a plate for him. Daddy was eating the quiche, because someone should. “I didn’t dare go to her mother’s house.”

Neither his father nor mother said anything, and Cayden looked up. “Tell me what to do.”

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