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Melanie’s eyes widened slightly. She was trying to hide her surprise. Only Jade knew about my involvement with Bryce, and her word was as good as gold. Clearly he and I had kept our attraction under wraps. Melanie looked seriously astonished.
“What about him?” she asked.
Where to start? I stayed silent for a few seconds that seemed to stretch into hours.
Melanie didn’t try to prod me. She always let me go at my own pace. Finally, I opened my mouth.
“I’m in love with him.”
“I see. When did this happen?”
“I’ve had growing feelings for him for a while, and I’ve been attracted to him forever.”
“He’s going through a lot right now.”
“I know that. And I get it.”
“Does he have any idea how you feel?”
“That I love him? No. It doesn’t matter anyway because he doesn’t feel the same way.”
“How do you know that?”
Words came tumbling out then. I told Mel everything. All of Bryce’s and my encounters, our passion, how he told me I made him insane.
And our last encounter.
The note he’d left.
“It was devoid of even the slightest bit of emotion,” I said, choking back a sob. “And I almost… I almost…”
“But you didn’t, Marj. You didn’t.”
“Only because of Jade and the boys. They need me. I can’t be broken right now. I have too much to do.”
“The reason why doesn’t matter. What matters is that you didn’t succumb to the urge. You didn’t harm yourself.”
“He’s moving into the guesthouse, Mel. He’ll be living less than a half mile from me, and he’ll be working here on the ranch. How am I supposed to deal with any of that? The lovemaking was so amazing. He was so full of desire and passion. I swear the earth moved. How could he have been so passionate and loving but then turn so cold in the span of hours? How could it have meant nothing to him?”
“Have you considered that it didn’t mean nothing to him?”
“But the note…”
“The note doesn’t really matter. You’ve said already that he was honest with you from the outset that he wasn’t in a place to have a relationship right now.”
“I know. I just never expected him to be so cruel.”
“I understand,” Melanie said. “Bryce is not a cruel man, which makes me think something else might be going on here.”
“He’s not his father,” I said. “None of us thinks he is.”
“That’s true. But have you considered that maybe he thinks he is? And he’s trying to keep you at arm’s length because he’s afraid?”
I cocked my head. “You know, he’s been letting his mother pretty much care for Henry twenty-four-seven since everything went down. He says it’s because his mom needs Henry right now, but maybe…”
“Maybe Bryce is afraid to be close to Henry. Afraid of what he might become.”
“That’s silly.”
