Page 77 of Ocotillo Kisses
Britt was surprised to find herself biting down hard on the offer to take her sister’s turn.
She didn’t have time. She had meetings all next week, and a few new venues to check out for possible future contract. She did not need to drive back across the state for another month.
But she couldn’t get the idea out of her head.
She lay in bed that night trying to see how she could make it work. She could move the venue visits to this week, possibly, but she still wouldn’t make it back to Broken Wheel in time for Ginny’s birthday. She could maybe see if her assistant Helen would do the visits, but that would mean letting go of some of her control. She didn’t know if she had it in her.
Okay maybe she might be more convinced if she knew how she would be welcomed in Broken Wheel. She hadn’t left under the best of circumstances.
But if she didn’t return now, when would she go? Would she wait another thirteen years and let feelings fester? And what would Con do in those thirteen years? Marry? Have a family? She would never want to go back to that.
So this was her chance to win Con, but...what if he didn’t want to be won? And was she willing to give up control of her business—willing to give up her business—to live in a small town? What would she do to occupy herself? All of West Texas probably didn’t have enough events to make up for walking away from her business here.
Why was she even thinking like this? She had never planned to stay. Never. That part of her life was in the past. The past. She needed to leave it there and look at her future.
Here. In Houston.
Chapter Twenty Seven
SinceSofia didn’t have a lot of guests currently, they decided to hold Ginny’s birthday party in the courtyard of the motel. Weather was kind of risky this time of year in West Texas, but the forecast looked good. The men had set up plastic tables along the wall with the landscape mural, and the women loaded them with food. Sofia had pulled a TV out of one of the rooms and set it up with a karaoke machine, and smaller tables were arranged for people to sit and eat.
Con stopped himself from glancing again and again toward the room he and Britt had shared. He had scheduled his GRE and requested his transcripts from San Angelo State in preparation for applying to vet school. He had talked it over with his mom, but hadn’t told anyone else but Javi. He figured while he waited to hear, he could make arrangements for the ranch, and for his mom.
She had been taken aback by his announcement at first, but as he laid out his plans for the ranch, and ideas for her so she wouldn’t be alone, she had come around to it.
Well. Mostly. She had said she would consider moving to town, but into one of the apartments Sofia was putting in her motel. Alexis didn’t want to deal with a second floor apartment and stairs.
She was doing her best at putting on a brave face. Because he was getting a late start, he probably wouldn’t get into school until the spring semester next year, at the soonest. But he’d waited this long, and that gave him plenty of time to get everything settled.
He needed to figure out what he was going to do about Britt, because a lot could happen in a year. Maybe, after the Independence Day celebration, he could fly to Houston and look her up.
No, he wasn’t going to surprise her. That would be awkward. He would figure out another way to contact her before he got there.
He took a seat at one of the tables near his mom, who was talking with Austin. Con hoped he wasn’t interrupting something private, but his mom just patted his hand when he sat and continued her conversation.
“I think that will be so much fun. You said it’s Britt’s idea?” She slid her gaze toward Con to make sure he heard.
