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He nodded. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”
After Ryan and I helped our mother clean up, our folks took Liliana on a stroll in her wagon while Ryan and I headed over to the guest house, which would soon be my new home. It was a two-bedroom, two-bath ranch-style cottage. It had been remodeled a few years back. It was the second house built on the ranch. The first was a log cabin that was now part of the dude ranch cabins.
“What’s going on with you and Miranda?” I asked, unlocking and stepping into the cottage. I smiled when I looked around at the pristine house. “Lord, she had it cleaned. It’s like she knew!”
“Had it cleaned?” Ryan said with a laugh. “Hell, she’s been in here for a week getting it ready for you.”
I shook my head and made my way over to the kitchen. The cottage was adorable and had always been one of my favorite places on the ranch. The open floorplan was my favorite part of the place. The living room sat to the right side when you walked in. A wood-burning fireplace sat in the corner with the large black metal pipe jutting up to the ceiling. To the left was the dining area, big enough for a table of six. The large wooden table had been made by my father years ago. On the other side of the house was the kitchen. It was an L-shape that went along the walls of the cabin. I gasped when I saw there was now a farm sink with updated faucets.
“This is amazing!” I said, looking at the freshly painted white cabinets. Along the back corner was a built-in bar with four stools. The floors were made of large oak planks that had been repurposed when my grandfather tore apart a barn that had collapsed in a storm.
“What made Mom paint the cabinets white?” I asked.
Ryan shrugged and I leaned against the counter.
“So? Miranda?”
He pulled out a stool and sat down. “She wants to get married. I don’t.”
“Is there a reason you don’t want to?”
His eyes turned serious. “Yes. I honestly can’t see myself having a future with her. Things were great when we first started dating. Now, well, now she’s talking about moving to New York. She hates the ranch. She hates my job.”
“New York!” I gasped.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, some marketing firm wants to hire her. It’s great for her and I’m happy, but I have no interest in going. She hates it here, this isn’t the life she wants, so honestly, I don’t see a future for us. She won’t accept it, though, and lately she’s been bossing me the fuck around and I’m getting really tired of it.”
I nodded. “If it’s over, then tell her it is. Let her move on with her life and you move on with yours.”
He sighed. “I was going to. Tonight.”
“Ah, so you’re using me as an excuse to put it off.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Pretty much. Just so you know, I’ve already been through the cottage, everything is working fine.”
“I know, Daddy told me you had. I figured you needed an excuse to talk to someone.”
“Thanks. I was going to tell her before dinner, but didn’t get the chance.”
“Take it from me, don’t settle, ever. If your gut is telling you something is off, listen to it. I sure as hell wished I’d listened to mine. I simply saw someone whom I thought could…”
I let my words fade away. I had never told anyone about how Truitt had broken my heart. My entire senior year I planned how I would escape Boerne. Each time Truitt came back from college and I’d run into him or see him somewhere, I attempted to ignore him, the ache in my chest never truly fading. The way he would look at me, though…it confused me. So in my mind, Tim had been my knight in shining armor. The man who would sweep me away from my first broken heart.
“Who you thought could what?” Ryan asked.
I shrugged. “Heal a broken heart.”
With that, my brother frowned but didn’t say anything else.
“You ever going to want to get married again?” he finally asked.
With a soft smile, I nodded. “Of course. Maybe not anytime soon. I want to enjoy my time with Liliana.”
“Mom will be upset about that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Truthfully, I need a break from guys. Tim wore me out with his lies and games. It’s going to be hard for me to trust again.”
Ryan slipped off the stool and made his way over to me. He placed his hands on my upper arms and smiled. “Saryn, not all guys are dickheads.”
“I know, but most are.”
He chuckled. “I won’t argue with that. Listen, don’t let one guy ruin it for someone else. He wasn’t the one, but you got Liliana out of the deal.”
