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Emma rubbed my arm. “Well . . .”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.”
Emma started tugging on the pack I was wearing, assessing it. “I don’t know. I see the way he is when he’s around you. Half the time he looks like he wants to devour you. If my sister wants to compete with that, she’s crazy.”
“I think I’m the crazy one. Ryder isn’t ever forgiving me.”
“Then he doesn’t deserve you.” She handed me another backpack to try on.
I undid the one I was in and handed it to her. “Maybe we just weren’t meant to be. We didn’t exactly have the easiest go of it with my parents being so against us. It was one of the reasons he took so long to propose.”
“What were some other reasons?”
“He hated seeing me torn between two worlds, as he called it. He worried that eventually I would resent giving up my fortune. That there would be a day that I really wanted something, and he wouldn’t be able to provide it. I think that thought killed him more than anything.”
“Then he’s an idiot if he wants Marlowe. I love my sister, but you see how she and Macey live. Dad has never given them limits. I was surprised when he sold the boutique.”
I latched the backpack belt and pulled it snug around my waist. “Ryder has money now, so they are all set.” I held my stomach at the thought of them being together.
Emma tightened the straps for me. “Does his money bother you?”
I thought for a second. “I don’t begrudge his success at all. I always thought he was super smart. It’s just . . . the amount of time he spends at work and his fancy car—it’s not him. I fell in love with him because he valued time over money. Something my family never did.”
“Speaking of your family. Have you talked to them?”
“No,” I snarled. “Not even my memaw has called me back, which is unusual. I hope my parents didn’t poison her.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t think they would, but you never know. Memaw still has a controlling number of shares in the company. And the board of directors listen to her, sometimes above Daddy. She loves to stir trouble.”
“Did she like Ryder?”
“I think so. She thought he had a great body. She always told me she could see why I fancied him. But she used to needle him, saying he was only romancing me to get to my money. He didn’t take it well, as you can imagine. See, she and granddaddy had a love for the ages and Hobbs Inc. was like a child to them. So, she was always cautious about anyone who was brought into the family. My daddy went through a grueling vetting process of doing everything from being granddaddy’s caddy one summer to having to start out as a sales manager, even though Daddy came with his own wealth.”
“So, could she make it so you inherited Hobbs Inc.?”
I shook my head. “My parents own the majority of controlling interest. When Daddy was made CEO, that was part of the package. And to my momma’s irritation, Memaw is giving most of her money away to charity when she dies. She gives to all sorts of animal charities and she’s determined that her alma mater name a building after her.”
“She’s sounds like a character.”
“You have no idea. When I showed her the pictures of Ryder and well . . . me . . . she vowed to chop off his ‘thing’ and feed it to her Doberman Pinscher.”
Emma giggled before cutting off with a frown. “You don’t think she was in on it, do you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. If she was, that would shatter my heart. Memaw was the only person I felt like loved me growing up. She came to every dance recital and performance, even when I was in college. The same could not be said for my parents.”
Emma smooshed my cheeks with her hands. “Know this. You have a family now who loves you, even while extremely jealous of your gorgeousness.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “Thank you, Emma. You’re like the sister I never had.”
She dropped her hands. “I feel the same way about you,” she teased. “Now let’s get you prepared for Saturday. Are you sure you still want to do this? It’s more difficult than any of the trips we took last year.”
“You don’t think I can do it?” I had thoughts of not going because of the cost of the backpack and supplies, but I wanted to prove to myself and Ryder that I wasn’t the same woman who left Georgia. The one who was so easily persuaded by my parents to betray the man I loved.
