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Holly threw her head back and laughed. “Take it as a compliment. Rooster Cogburn has more personality than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Tate chuckled. Holly always had a knack for making him laugh.
“I need to tell you something.” His voice turned serious.
“I’m listening. Go ahead.”
Tate steeled himself. If there was one thing Holly valued more than anything it was honesty. He hadn’t done the right thing yesterday and it had been eating him up inside all day.
“I didn’t tell you the truth,” he admitted, his eyes flicking from his sister’s face down to the ground. “Cassidy did ask about you. She wanted to know how you were doing.”
Holly’s mouth swung open. Her eyes narrowed and she shot him a look of disgust.
“Why did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t want you being pulled in by her and getting hurt again.”
“That’s not your choice to make!” she exploded. “The last time I checked I’m a grown woman.”
He nodded curtly. “I know, but old habits die hard. I’ve spent most of my life watching out for you. If I saw a Mack truck speeding toward you, I’d pull you out of the way, wouldn’t I?”
Holly threw her hands in the air. “It’s not about me anymore. It’s about you. You and your relationship with Cassidy.”
He bristled. “There’s nothing between me and Cassidy. That ended a long time ago.”
Holly arched an eyebrow. “But you never really closed the door on it.” She cocked her head to the side. “All these years and you’ve barely looked at another woman.”
Tate snorted. What was Holly talking about? He’d dated Kit Saunders, a local attorney, for almost two years. Since their breakup two years ago he’d been fixed up on dozens of blind dates by his friends.
“Kit and I were in a long-term relationship.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “Seemed more like convenience than romance.”
“I’ll have you know I’ve been on plenty of dates since then!” he protested.
“How many of ’em were second dates?”
Second dates? He hadn’t even thought of second dates. Until now. Why haven’t I had any second dates? “I’m town Sheriff. I live a busy lifestyle, and my work comes first. When the time is right I’ll fall in love, settle down and have a few babies you can sing lullabies to at night. I’m more than ready to move on.”
Holly looked at him, a somber expression etched on her face. “I don’t think you’ll be able to move on until you forgive Cassidy.”
“It’s not easy to forgive someone who—”
“Who what? Broke your heart? Called off your wedding? Put me in this chair?”
Tate shot Holly a fierce look. “You know it’s way more complicated than that. When I look at you in that wheelchair—”
Tears glistened in Holly’s eyes. She furiously blinked them away. “Don’t you dare hide behind me, Tate. If you want to hate her for the rest of your life, then do it. But don’t you dare pretend that it’s all for my benefit.” She huffed noisily. “Because we both know that’s the biggest lie of all.”
Without a word of goodbye, Holly turned from him and wheeled away.
First Doc. Now Holly. Both of them had given him a reality check. He couldn’t ignore the truth when it was staring him straight in the face. His bitterness wasn’t about the accident. It was about the way she’d treated him—the way she’d left him high and dry, dreaming of a future that would never come to pass. It was about his embarrassment, his shame, his feeling like a prize fool in front of the entire town. It was about losing someone that once meant the world to him. It was about loss.
Tate raked his hands through his hair and let out a deep shudder. Love. It was such a simple word for such a complicated emotion. When he’d fallen in love with the pastor’s daughter, it had all seemed so uncomplicated. Effortless. It had felt like such a blessing to meet his soul mate at such a young age. Their future had looked so promising. But in one fell swoop everything had been taken away from him. And every time he thought about it, he burned up inside.
Truth to be told, he missed being in love. He ached to feel that rush again, to feel so at one with another person that he didn’t know where he began and she ended. He missed imagining what their kids would look like and dreaming of growing old together. He missed belonging to someone.
Not just someone, he realized with a sinking feeling in his gut. Try as he might to deny it, he missed belonging to Cassidy.
