Page 50 of Heart Like a Cowboy

Hell.

Alana had told Tilly about the argument. Or worse. And while he was debating if he should try to intercede, Tilly snapped toward him and started his way. Not the slow pace, either. She came at him fast.

“You put Alana up to this,” Tilly practically shouted. “I know it was you.”

“No,” Alana argued. She was right on Tilly’s heels, and she tried to take hold of the woman’s arm when she caught up with her.

Tilly slung off her grip and kept her attention pinned to Egan. “You told her to say that Jack and she had argued when you know it didn’t have anything to do with what happened to him. Happily married couples argue over plenty of little things, period. That wouldn’t have been enough to distract Jack.”

Egan saw the woman lift her hand and could have stopped it. He didn’t. He let the slap come. Tilly’s palm struck him hard, but he didn’t actually feel it. He couldn’t because her pain was ripping him apart inside.

When she went to slap him again, Alana latched onto the woman and spun Tilly around to face her. “My argument with Jack wasn’t little,” Alana blurted out. “Jack was cheating on me, and I found out. I confronted him during that call, and he didn’t deny it. Jack was having an affair,” she spelled out.

It seemed as if every muscle in Tilly’s body went limp, and she stared at Alana. And stared. Then, she started shaking her head. Little movements at first that quickly picked up speed.

“No,” Tilly mouthed, and the response had almost no sound.

In contrast, Alana’s voice had plenty of sound. “Yes. I found out when I saw his credit card statements, and he didn’t deny it,” she repeated, her voice lowering and calming with each new word. “The last thing I said to him wasgo straight to hell.A few hours later, he was dead.If you want to blame someone for that, then put the blame squarely on me.”

Tilly shook her head again, and while she was processing the bombshell she’d just heard, Egan tried to figure out a way to fix this. Not a complete fix. That wasn’t possible. But he was about to suggest that Alana and Tilly go someplace private so they could talk this out.

“I’m sorry,” he said, but that was all he managed to get out before Tilly turned on him again.

“You put her up to this. You made Alana tell this vicious lie so you could save face. Well, it won’t work. I know the kind of man my son was, and Egan Donnelly, I see you for exactly what you are.”

Tilly slapped him again and stormed away, delivering the rest of what she had to say with her back turned to them. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re the one who should be dead, not Jack.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FORACOUPLEof long moments, Alana could only stand there and sigh. Tilly’s grief and anger had frozen her in place. Had shaken her to the core. But since Alana knew she was responsible for a lot of that grief and anger, she had to do something.

She started with Egan.

“I’m sorry,” Alana told him, and then she went running after Tilly, believing that’s exactly what Egan would want her to do.

Later, she could try to make him believe Tilly hadn’t meant what she’d said to him, that deep down the woman would soon be sorry for slapping him. But for now, Alana just had to make sure Tilly didn’t do something to harm herself. In her state of mind, there was no way she should be behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Thankfully, Alana made it to Tilly’s car before the woman could fish out her keys from her purse and drive off. “Please,” she told Tilly. “Let’s talk, and then if you want, I can drive you home.”

Tilly went into the full headshaking mode again, but she also gave up looking for her keys and gripped the steering wheel as if it were capable of grounding her to the earth. The tears came. Of course, they did. Tilly had just gotten a triple whammy. First, hearing Egan’s confession. Then, the two-pronged confession that Alana had dumped on her.

Alana had meant to tell Tilly the first revelation about the argument, but the second, the part about Jack’s cheating, had just come flying out of her mouth. And while it was the truth, it’d clearly had devastating results. Alana needed to minimize the chance of this turning from devastating to an out-and-out tragedy.

“Tilly, please let’s talk,” she tried again, and Alana glanced over at Egan as he drove away. He looked as down and out as she did.

The woman didn’t let go of the steering wheel, but she didn’t issue a flat-out “no, get lost,” either. Perhaps because Tilly was trying to hang on to the delusion that her son hadn’t cheated and that Egan had put Alana up to saying that. Alana would need to shatter that delusion but not now.

Tilly had a car even smaller than Alana’s, and the seats were jammed with other boxes that appeared to be flyers, banners and such for the life celebration. There was no place for Alana to sit without doing a major unloading so she gently took hold of Tilly’s arm and eased her out of the car. She was more than a little surprised when Tilly allowed that to happen, and the woman didn’t protest when Alana led her back toward the oak tree.

There were no benches or seats nearby so Alana kept hold of Tilly and continued moving until they reached a shaded bench about fifteen feet on the other side of the tree. A quiet spot right in front of a small pond and fountain. The air was filled with the scent of the Grandma’s Yellow roses from the bushes that the town council had had planted around the entire perimeter of the water.

On the other occasions when Alana had come here, she’d found it peaceful, but she wasn’t counting on water features and the Grandma Yellows to pull off any magic today. Tilly was hurting. And crying now. So Alana just put her arm around her and let Tilly sob.

It surprised Alana that Tilly didn’t push her away or yell, scream or slap her. It was possible, though, that the woman had just burned off that initial slam of anger and shock and was moving on to the processing part.

Something that Alana would have to do.

Even though she was trying to comfort Tilly, Alana was still dealing with her own slam of anger over Tilly slapping Egan. Egan hadn’t deserved that, but he’d silently taken both blows because he was a decent guy who’d gotten thrust into a nightmarish situation.

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