Page 16 of Ocotillo Kisses
Chapter Six
“Mom, I hope you’re not thinking of doing some kind of reunion for me and Britt,” Con said over breakfast the next morning. He hadn’t brought it up last night because his mom had been so excited about being involved in something again, so he didn’t want to take that from her.
But he’d tossed and turned a lot last night imagining Britt here at the house, just the three of them. Sure, he could make himself scarce, he could even go out and do a fence check that day, or something, put as much distance between them as possible.
But the idea of her being in his house, with his mom, really bothered him. His mother knew, of course, that Britt had hurt him when she left, but he didn’t think she knew the depth of it. His parents had been lost in their own grief, and his father had rotated between blaming himself, blaming Mrs. Driscoll, blaming Con. So Britt had been the only person Con could turn to, and she’d turned away.
He was told she was grieving herself and didn’t know how to deal with it, and he got that. He hadn’t known how to deal with his own grief and overwhelming guilt. But he’d thought she loved him, and if she’d loved him, she would have turned to him, too. But she’d shut him out, then bolted, and he’d been absolutely alone.
So his mom couldn’t know that, couldn’t understand that betrayal.
“Of course I wouldn’t try to push you together if you didn’t want to be. If it is too painful to you, then I’ll tell her not to worry about it. But I thought it would be easier for her to come here than for you to drive me there. At least here you can keep yourself busy.”
He nodded. “That’s what I plan to do. I just don’t want you to get any ideas about inviting her to dinner or something.”
She shifted her gaze to the side, which made him think she had been thinking about it.
“I won’t,” she said.
“Mom, I mean it.”
“I won’t. I’m sure she won’t be here more than an hour. I don’t think we’d have that much to talk about.”
He couldn’t help but wonder if he would come up at all.
Britt wasn’t surprised to see Con’s truck was gone when she pulled up in front of the ranch house two days after the town hall meeting. Shewassurprised that she was disappointed. He didn’t have to forgive her, but she really hoped he would. She had been wrong, and maybe she hadn’t made sure he knew that she knew that.
She walked up the steps of the house where she’d spent so much of her teenaged years. She could almost feel Con’s arms around her when he’d greet her at the door, could almost feel his lips on hers. How many nights they’d spent on this porch, and the one in the back, how many days down at the barn, she helping with his chores so he could be free sooner so they could go horseback riding, and the things they’d done on those rides.
How much better would that be now that he was a grown man?
No, she couldn’t let her thoughts go there. She knocked on the door, and Mrs. McKay answered almost instantly, since Britt had texted when she was on her way.
Mrs. McKay had been a beauty queen back in her day, and even when Britt had left, she’d been a stunning woman of about forty, trim and active. So when Britt had seen how much weight she’d gained, so much that walking exhausted her, Britt had been stunned. Her grandmother had told her Mrs. McKay didn’t go to town much anymore, had become something of a recluse, but also that she was working on losing the weight with the help of Austin Driscoll, the new town doctor, the son of the woman her husband had blamed for Claudia’s death.
Wow. Who said small town life was dull?
Okay, she did.
