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Everyone’s heart but his momma’s.
Right before the pastor pronounced them man and wife, Josephine yelled out, “Wait a minute, you never asked if anyone objected, because I do.” She was escorted off the property while the snow swirled around her. Sawyer hadn’t talked to her since, as far as I know. I had a feeling my own momma might have done the same if Ryder and I had ever made it that far. More like she would have made Daddy do it because appearances were everything to her. It’s one of the reasons she hated Ryder so much. She wanted class and refinement; Ryder was in a class of his own.
Speaking of the awful man, had he arrived? I looked at my phone. Still no call or text from Emma. I’d kept trying to tell myself that I would remain unaffected by his presence, but I was having a hard time making myself adhere. I mean, I was planning to marry the man. I still had his ring. The one he sold his prized possession—his motorcycle—for.
Why did I feel a twinge of guilt? The man was a liar and a cheater. I should go home and toss the vintage wide-band byzantine diamond ring into the lake. At the very least I should sell it. There was a thought—I could use the money to go toward the down payment on the little place on Downing Street. The house I wanted reminded me of back home with a wraparound porch and a small balcony off the master bedroom that gave the best view of the nearby mountains. The white shutters against the buttercup yellow siding made this Georgia girl’s heart sing. Mr. Jacobsen promised me he wasn’t putting it on the market until the fall. He currently rented it out as an Airbnb and wanted to keep it one more summer season to maximize his profits. I only hoped the boutique made enough money for me to afford the down payment and secure the loan.
Memaw had offered to loan me more money, but I already owed her more than I liked to think about, though she said she was just deducting it from my inheritance. More than anything, she gave me the money because she loved needling my momma, her daughter. And nothing got to Momma more than me going against her wishes. She didn’t talk to me for a week after I announced my engagement to Ryder. She and Daddy had gone as far as bribing Ryder with a lot of money to walk away. Ryder had not taken kindly to that and begged me to elope. As much as my parents and I didn’t see eye to eye, I couldn’t imagine being without my family and friends on what should have been one of the happiest days of my life. I’d dreamt my entire life of getting married at the old white Presbyterian church with the bell tower that rang after every wedding. I couldn’t wait to hear them ring loudly telling the world that I was Mrs. Ryder Prescott.
Instead, I had been left with a shattered heart and a new address. The only loud ringing came from Momma hollering that she knew all along that she was right about him. Maybe it would be good to see him one more time. I could throw that perfect ring in his face and tell him exactly what I thought of him and his cheating ways. I’d lie to him and tell him I was over him like the Golden Gate Bridge and that he’d done me a favor. He thought so highly of himself that he would probably laugh and say something like, “Sure, darlin’, you keep telling yourself that.” Oh, I would. And I’d tell that dark-haired hussy he was with in the pictures that it was better her than me. After that, I would do my best to never see him again, even though we would be living on the same property all summer.
I still couldn’t get over the fact that he was going to live at the Ranch all summer. Out of all the places in the world, why had he chosen it? Emma thought there was nothing coincidental about it. But why, after all this time, would he choose to be near me? Momma and Daddy said he’d never even come by the house looking for me after I’d left. I had a place of my own in Georgia, but when he found it vacated, I thought he would have at least tried to look for me. My parents’ place seemed like a logical choice. Maybe he never even came by my place—I meant so little to him, he hadn’t bothered to come tell me he’d moved on. None of my friends from back home had seen him around either. That wasn’t too surprising considering he didn’t live in Roswell—said it was too high class for him. Yet, now he was going to stay at a swanky dude ranch all summer. That just proved what a liar he was.
