As much as she didn’t understand the situation she was in right now completely, at least it wasn’t that.
“That poor woman probably thinks that you’re his jilted girlfriend,” Marlowe said.
Lila shrugged. “That’s his best cleanup.”
By the time they were done shopping and had stuffed all of their bags into the car, it was late enough that they decided to go to Violet and Lace, a small restaurant that served local fare on the main street.
It was upstairs above one of the boutiques, and had a dim, quiet dining room with a deck with flowers and old-fashionedcurtains.
“I’ve never been anywhere this nice,” Lila said, looking around sheepishly, and Cara had to wonder what life had been like here for Lila.
She knew from Marlowe, and a little bit from Cody, that they had spent their lives being ostracized because they were poor and because of who their mother was. Then, Cody and Walker had made a lot of money riding on the rodeo circuit, and that had changed their status, and then, their paternity had been revealed when their father had died. Their father, who had owned one of the largest ranches in the whole county, and had left it to them.
But she imagined that it had been lonely. She imagined that people hadn’t talked to her much either. She wondered if she and Lila had a lot more in common than she had actually assumed.
If she and Lila had lived a pretty similar life, when you dug deeply. She was harder and more feral, or at least feral in a different way than Cara had ever been, but she had probably missed all kinds of normal things that other people took for granted.
“Well, you have been to the Painted Ridge dining room,” Marlowe pointed out as the waitress put a basket of fresh-baked French bread on the table.
“That is true,” Lila said. “That’s ours, though.” She smiled. “Ours.”
Lila managed a lot of the logistics around the ranch. She was efficient, but she wasn’t front-of-house material. She was perfect for negotiating prices, placing large orders, and researching how to get different things done, but she wasn’t the kind of person that you wanted dealing with customers.
She was just too… honest. Actually, that’s what it was. Cara covered up a lot of her tougher feelings with her cheery demeanor, and Marlowe had that smooth professionalism that covered up any amount of angry or flustered that she might be.
Lila just didn’t bother.
It was refreshing, really. She was sort of like Zane in that way. Although… Maybe that wasn’t true. Zane covered up that soft part of himself with his taciturn demeanor. Maybe Lila was covering up some softness that Cara hadn’t seen yet.
“I don’t know what to get,” Lila said.
“Get everything,” Marlowe responded.
Because they could. They could.
Lila had money now when she hadn’t before. Cara had a kind of freedom that she never had before. To stay out all day? To please herself, spend her own money, know that she could go back to her own house, or back to bed with Zane.
Well, it was good to know that she had options. That she had everything, really. After so many years of having no choices. After so many years of giving and giving and giving until she felt like her skin was nearly worn off her bones, now there were so many opportunities for her to just be.
She really felt like this was it. She had made her new life here, and maybe she didn’t know what the future was going to look like, but she had so much.
She really did have so much.
And in the uncertainty, she could be grateful for that.
She was very grateful for that.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Zane looked around the barn, at the streamers that were hanging in there, paper lanterns, bunches of crêpe paper flowers, and he had to smile. It looked exactly like he would imagine prom might, though he wouldn’t know.
It was perfect. Perfect for Cara. It was a gesture, one that had taken hold of him when he had had the idea, and one that had forced him to work with Cody, Walker, and Marlowe.
That had been the most difficult part.
Getting their help, saying that he wanted to do this.
Now he was there, looking at all that hard work set into motion. A prom for two. Possibly the most ridiculous idea on record, but one that just had to happen.
