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The last time she’d tried, her daddy had patted her arm briskly and kissed her cheek.“I’m sorry things didn’t work out between the two of you, sweetheart, but I’m sure you’ll learn to live with each other’s decision to break things off. You’ll see. You might even become friends in time. He might not be the perfect fiancé, but he’s one of my most loyal men. He’s not so bad.”
Of course West wasn’t. He was stuck. Stuck! Why couldn’t she free him?
Her arms wrapped around her middle. Distantly, she heard Mr. Gionet ask about her favorite pastimes.
Milking cows. Taking care of a soft and fussy baby one, to be exact.
Eva cleared her throat. “Shopping,” she answered and let out a light laugh that she was so not feeling. “I like buying clothes for men who don’t know how to dress.”
Mr. Gionet appeared surprised. His perfect forehead creased.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You’re safe. I can tell by the way that you trim your beard that you buy all your clothes at Sandbarrel.”
She winced. Why was this conversation turning so lame?
West lowered his head, hiding a laugh.
Jerk. He’d always been so snide in the face of this imprisonment.
She couldn’t take it anymore. “Daddy.” She tried to get his attention with a little wave. “I’m not feeling well. Can I be excused?”
Nothing was sure to cause more of a commotion than this dire announcement. The men stood, all of them exclaiming at once their apologies over her ill health—all of them except West, who watched her with the probing look of a man who’d escaped more than his share of family dinners by playing similar tricks.
It fell on Eva to feign enough illness to get out of this dull evening, but not too much or she’d never get a moment of peace.
Finally her daddy let her go when Mr. Bobbin (or the guy who had some name like that) secured his attention with talk of Saudi Arabia.
Eva set down her napkin. “Oh, please sit,” she told Mr. Gionet. She waved him down as she retreated from the room as fast as she could.
She just wanted to be alone.
Breathing a sigh of relief out in the hallway, she was disturbed that it was also wracked with torment. Part of the shock had been at seeing West so soon after his momma passed. That man hid his sorrows well. He looked more or less the same.
She’d never been able to help him.
Retreating to her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, staring at the decorations from Tiffany’s, the soft blankets and pillows strewn over her bed and the sofas in her cute sitting room. This place used to be her solace, especially after her momma had left when Eva was only twelve, when she was still trying to grasp what it meant to be a woman.
Despite all the fancy décor, the suite felt pretty empty to her now. She should get a puppy.
Eva began to slide out of her sequined red dress, realizing as she did so that her shoulders were shaking and she kept tearing up.
She missed Cole!
Why did she have to be away from the happiest, most perfect person in her life? Couldn’t she just sneak back to Harvest Ranch? It would feel so nice to throw her arms around him and hug him so tightly so that every bad thing would go away.
But it was too late. She’d deserted him when he needed her most!
A light knock sounded on the door. Tempted to tell whoever it was to leave, she threw on the rest of her PJs and ripped the door open. She stepped back when she saw West on the other side.
“You going to cry yourself to sleep, you drama queen?”
She rolled her eyes and turned from him. “What do you want?”
“I keep telling you that we need to talk.”
“No, no.” She chopped her hand through the air, as she walked away. “I don’t want tohearabout how I’m not good enough for Cole and how if I get near him that I’m going to drag him down and… and…”—she swiveled on her heel to face him—“…to marryyouinstead! Because if I did that, well… I don’t want to destroy him… because that would, you know! He does care about me. He does.” She burst into more tears. “But–but maybe if I just keep a real quiet profile then he’ll forget about me and everything that wewere… and–and yeah, I’ll be the most miserable girl in existence after that. I’ll hit the social media channels again because I’ll have nothing… nothing…” She choked on a sob because she was crying so hard.
“Breathe,” West said. He laughed with amusement.
