Page 98 of The Wedding Ranch
She couldn’t sit on this information. Each day she didn’t tell him was one more that she lied to him, and she wasn’t a liar. “I’ll be there. Give me an hour. Can I bring anything?”
“Just your smile. See you when you get here.”
Any other day that would have made her heart bubble. Today it only hurt to know that she was about to reopen old wounds that hadn’t yet healed.
Dressed in leggings under jeans and layers on top too, she pulled the tags off of a hip-length jacket she’d bought on sale while in Denver on business. It had been too cute and too good of a deal to pass up, but she’d never had the chance to wear it in the four years she’d owned it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Her phone rang. “Pam? Hi.”
“I tried to call you earlier,” Pam said. “Did you get my message?”
“I did. Sorry.” Truth was she was distracted. “I was going to call you.”
“Did something happen? You sound strange.”
Lorri told Pam every gut-wrenching detail. How fond she was growing of Ryder. The way he made her feel. The hope in her heart about being a part of things with him, and then what she’d discovered about the accident. And that Jeff had been the one at the wheel of that other car that stole Ryder’s perfect family from him.
“Lorri, I can’t believe this.”
“I’m on my way to tell him.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should just keep it to yourself. I mean, would you want to know? Does it matter?”
“I don’t think I’d want to know, but I’d deserve to. Wouldn’t it be the ultimate betrayal to not tell him?” Lorri hated to think how bad that would hurt him.
“Look. You said so yourself it’s taken him seven years to begin to break out of that grief. Why drag him back under? Just relax and enjoy his company. Maybe it’s going to be nothing more than friends anyway.”
“That’s possible,” Lorri said.
“Then it wouldn’t matter anyway. I mean, if he doesn’t know you’re Jeff’s sister now, it’s highly unlikely he’d find out. And you like spending time with him. You’re both so happy and doing so well. Don’t ruin it.”
In exactly an hour Lorri pulled into Ryder’s driveway still considering everything Pam had said. Maybe she had a good point. She’d just be sure they were nothing more than friends and then everyone would be happy.I don’t know if I can do this.
She drove around to where Ryder had the horses tacked up at the hitching post, parked, and walked over to meet him.
“I think it’s even colder over here, where the land is open with nothing to break the wind.” She huddled into her jacket, running toward him to keep warm.
“Might be. Don’t you love fall?” he said as she got closer.
“I love pumpkin spiced lattes. Is that the same thing?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. And if you gourmet coffee gals stopped to consider it, you’d realize you could get a nice slice of pie with all the pumpkin spice you’d like and real coffeefor less calories and a whole lot more satisfaction.” He tightened the cinch on Dottie. “If you ask me, there’s never a good reason to ruin a decent cup of coffee.”
“Well, I tell you what. If you serve me an honest-to-goodness slice of homemade pumpkin pie with my coffee, I promise to drink it straight. Deal?”
“Deal.” He walked over toward the barn. “Come here. I’ve got something for you.”
She followed him inside to the tack room. It smelled of leather. Saddles were stacked on individual racks four high along the short wall. On the outside wall, halters and reins and all sorts of equipment hung side by side, but instead of hooks, a thick tree branch with the bark still on it had been cut into two-inch-thick slices. The four-inch diameter of the branch was perfect for hanging the leads and leather neatly over them.
A wooden plaque with the word HEADQUARTERShung over a Dutch door. He walked into that room.
“This is your office?” she asked.
“Yep.” He stepped around the heavy wooden desk and plopped into a red leather chair with cowhide accents on it. “You like it?”
“I do. It looks like you.”Rugged. Colorful. Quiet. Manly. Very much a cowboy style.
He turned and picked up a large box from the credenza behind him. “I hope you like this.”
