Page 66 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
Chapter Thirty-One
Riley hadn’t criedthis much in a very long time.
It was the wedding yesterday, she told herself.All that love and emotion, it just got to her.
Because you thought you’d found it for yourself.
“Honey?What’s wrong?”
She turned to look at her father.“Nothing.I’m just happy for Nic, and Jackson.”
“It was a very nice wedding,” her father confirmed.
He’d kept to the back of the gathering because it was easier for him to not have to dodge people on his crutches.He had also been her excuse to leave right away, since standing for the reception after would have been more than he could do yet.
Not that she wouldn’t have found another excuse, had she needed one.Because she would swear she’d actually felt the moment when Miles had spotted her.Since she couldn’t bear to look at him and be reminded of what a fool she’d been—again—she’d hastened to the back of the room to her dad and gotten them both out of the barn as fast as she could manage.
She’d considered not even going to the wedding, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t do that to Nic.Especially not because she was afraid to face one of the groom’s closest friends after finding out what he was really after.
And the price he was willing to pay to get it.
“So when’s Miles coming back here?”
Her breath jammed up in her throat at the unexpected question.“I doubt he will,” she said, looking away so he couldn’t read her expression.He’d been good at it when she’d been a child, and he hadn’t lost much since.Or she hadn’t gotten any better at hiding from him.“I assume he’ll be back to Hollywood for good now.”
“Assume?You don’t know?”His brow furrowed.“You two have gotten pretty close.”
She bit back a sigh she was afraid would turn into a moan of pain.Obviously he knew Miles had been spending nights here.Her father was no fool.Hadn’t been since he’d made the poor choice of marrying her mother.And he knew her well enough to know she wasn’t into casual sex.
“Temporarily, while he was helping out.”She didn’t know what else to say.
“Good of him.Good man, like Jackson.”
Not quite, Dad.If you knew his ulterior motive, you wouldn’t be saying that.
She hustled herself off to change clothes.As she pulled on her well-worn work boots, something else hit her.Normally, under this kind of emotional strain for whatever reason, she would ride up to the overlook and sit on the bench until she’d figured out whatever was eating at her.But now all she could think of was how she and Miles had made hot, fierce love up there.Forever marking that spot in her mind as if they’d used a branding iron.
Forever taking away the peace she had always found there.
To stop the tears that were threatening to spill over again, she shed the work clothes in a scramble and put on something a little less worn, a little more publicly presentable.
“I’m heading over to Whiskey River,” she told her curious father as she came back out into the main room.“I want to talk to True Mahan about that addition we’ve been considering.”
Although he looked startled, no doubt since she’d never mentioned this, indeed it had only popped into her head just now, he accepted the story.Jack of all trades contractor Truett Mahan was in demand all over the county, and getting on his schedule ASAP was the only way to guarantee your job would get done anytime soon.
She paused in the doorway and looked back.“And if anybody asks, I’m just off on an errand, okay?You don’t know where.”
“But—”
“Please, Dad.”
She left it at that, knowing that he’d do as she asked, even if he didn’t understand why.Just as she would do for him.Trust.What a wonderful thing.
Too bad she’d misplaced hers with Miles Flint.
*
“I’m sorry, Miles,I can’t.I promised her.”
