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“No, go ahead,” said Carly, gesturing at the empty wicker chair.
Rose sat, giving Carly a long look. “What’s wrong, honey?”
Carly’s eyes stung and her throat thickened. What was it about that question that always got to her? “Dean and I . . .” She trailed off and shrugged.
“You had a fight?”
“Something like that.”
Rose patted her hand reassuringly. “I’m sure you’ll work it out. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
Carly’s heart caught in her throat. “And how’s that?”
“Like your happiness is what makes him happy. Like you’re the most extraordinary creature he’s ever seen. Like he’s completely lost in you.” Rose nodded knowingly. “That, my dear, is a man in love.”
Carly couldn’t stop the bitter laugh from escaping her lips. “No, he’s not.” He was an idiot, but surely he wasn’t such a fool that he’d let her walk away if he actually loved her.
“Trust me. I’ve lived through a World War, more recessions than I can count, and lost two wonderful husbands along the way. I’ve learned a few things in all my decades on this planet, and one of them is what a man in love looks like.”
Carly nibbled at her pastry, and decided to come clean. “We’re not really a couple, just friends. We were only pretending because Mike is my ex-boyfriend, and so that Dean’s family wouldn’t harp on him about his reputation with women.”
Rose leaned back in her chair, sipping on her tea. “Ah. Well, you certainly had me fooled.”
“We were pretending . . . until we weren’t. Things got real, and I told him I wanted to keep dating when we got home. He didn’t want the same thing.”
Rose took another sip of her tea. “He does. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because what comes easy doesn’t last. It’s the things you fight for that endure. And it sounds like you’ve got a fight on your hands, my dear.”
“I put it all out there, and he turned me down.” She glanced up at Rose. “He thinks he’ll hurt me, that he doesn’t know how to be what I need.”
“Well, isn’t that a lovely load of horseshit?”
Carly laughed despite her low mood. “That’s basically what I said.”
“He’ll come around. Don’t lose hope.”
Carly nodded, but she wasn’t sure how she could hope for something that wasn’t even real. Right now, she didn’t have room for anything except how much she hurt.
* * *
“You know, for someone who just got back from Mexico, you sure are in a shitty mood.” Haley, one of the servers at the Tipsy Bison shot Carly a pointed glare as she set her tray down on the bar.
“No,” said Carly defensively, filling Haley’s tray with bottles of Snake River and Bud Light. She set one of the bottles down too hard, causing it to foam over. “Shit. Sorry, hang on.” She grabbed a rag from behind the bar and mopped up the mess she’d made before replacing the overflowing bottle with a fresh one. “Okay, so maybe I’m a teeny bit grumpy,” she conceded, wiping up a few stray drops of beer from the bar.
“You wanna talk about it?”
Carly smiled and then shook her head. “No. Thanks, though.”
Since they’d returned a few days ago, Carly had been doing her best to stay out of Dean’s path at work. After the way he’d rejected her, she didn’t know what to say to him. She was hoping that with time, maybe she’d figure out a way to salvage their friendship. If there was anything left to salvage. She’d fallen for him, put her heart on the line, and he’d rejected her. She wasn’t sure there was a way to bounce back from that. And given that he wasn’t exactly talking to her either, the odds of anything happening weren’t good.
A part of her wanted to hang on to Rose’s words, about Dean being in love with her and just needing time, about not losing hope, but what if Rose was wrong? And if Rose wasn’t wrong, how did Carly make him see all of that when he was so determined to be alone?
“Okay . . .” Haley hesitated, then picked up her tray and started to move away, but then just as quickly, turned back around and set it down again. “Did something happen? With you and Dean?”
Carly felt her cheeks heat. “No,” she said, her voice just a little too loud. “Why . . . I mean, like, why would you think that?”
