She couldn’t formulate a reply to his self-degrading statement. All her emotions were knotted up into a lump in her chest so that she felt everything and nothing all at once. She was in shock, and she needed to gather her thoughts and decide what to do. Quickly. “Are you coming too?”
Her father shook his head. “No. I’ll be over later. The hands are all packing up and I want to see them off. I feel like hell for turning them loose with so little notice.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why wait until today? You could’ve told me anything and I would’ve been here sooner. We could’ve stopped this from happening.”
“I thought until the last minute that it would all work out. Then when it went south…I was too ashamed to tell you.”
The humiliation and vulnerability in his eyes broke her heart. She’d hesitated leaving him to run the ranch alone after her mother had left him and filed for divorce five months before, but he’d assured her that it would be a good distraction and that he could handle things. Obviously, he’d overestimated his ability to distance himself from the pain of losing the woman he’d loved for forty years.
He’d told her back then not to worry about him, or the situation. He’d said that one thing remained true. Even if marriages ended or people died, the land would always be there for her. It would last. Now even it was gone.
* * * *
Chris Potter stood with his best friend, Julián, looking at watches at Clay Cook Jewelers while they chatted with Lily Cook, who also happened to married to their boss, Del, and his brother Clay. The gorgeous redhead removed the fancy watch Julián pointed at from the case so he could take a closer look at it.
Chris heaved a disgusted sigh. Chickenshit. Chickenshit. Chickenshit.
Julián glanced at him and showed him the watch. “What do you think?”
I think you’re being a chickenshit. “Eh. It’s okay.”
Julián tilted his head. “You don’t think she’ll like it?”
On numerous occasions, Chris had seen the way Julián acted after phone conversations with Gwen. Saw the way he looked when he got a text message from her, or when he gazed at her pictures on his phone. The guy was in love with her. And he was looking at watches?
“It’s a nice watch…I guess.”
Julián grimaced and handed the watch back to Lily, and she said, “Would you like me to give you some time to browse, Julián?”
Julián smiled at her and replied, “No, Lily, he’s right. This woman means something to me. A watch is not quite…”
Lily smiled back at him and said, “Want a recommendation? From a friend?”
Now this is more like it. Tell him, Lily.
“Sure.”
Lily gestured to them both and they followed her down the row of cases until she stopped behind one filled with fancy rings. Julián scratched his neck, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable.
Lily put out a reassuring hand and said, “Hear me out. These are fashion rings, not engagement rings.”
There’s a difference?
“Let’s just say that you think about her a lot—and you want her to know that—but you’re not proposing…yet.” Lily smiled as she lifted a ring from a case and showed it to him. Julián made a speculative sound and Chris leaned closer so he could have a look at it.
“It’s yellow gold, and all the tiny diamonds are set so they won’t snag on anything, so she could wear it all the time”—she smiled broadly—“and think of you every time she sees it. There’s plenty of room inside the band if you’d like to have something romantic inscribed, too. The diamonds are all good quality but very small so I don’t think she’d feel overwhelmed. It’s a very sentimental gift. And it’s not an engagement ring.”
Chris finally spoke up. “She’s right. You can go with the watch, if you want, but this little ring seems understated enough that she won’t freak out but nice enough that she knows you care about her.”
Julián still looked unsure and handed the ring back to Lily. “I’m not sure. I don’t want her to take it the wrong way. It might shock her.”
Chris wanted to land his fist on the top of Julián’s head and knock some sense into his brain. The guy practically mooned over that woman.
Another customer waved at Lily in the busy store, and she said, “Why don’t I give you gentlemen a few minutes? I’ll help this customer and come right back to you.”
“Sounds great,” Chris said. Long enough for me to pound sense into this guy. He nodded toward the quiet spot by the front door and Julián followed him.