AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He smiled and filled his plate, taking an extra helping of potatoes. “I thought me getting out in the world and learning everything I could was what you wanted.”
“Well, it was,” Grace said. “But I didn’t mean for you to be gone ten years!”
He laughed and tucked into his food, eating half of what was on the plate before stopping again. He wiped his mouth and glanced at Rafe and Grace. “I hadn’t meant to be gone so long either but I didn’t want to come back to Willow Creek and be a burden to either of you.”
“You’ll never be a burden,” Rafe said. “This is your home as much as it is mine.”
“I know but you don’t need me underfoot. If I had more time, I’d fix up that old line shack down by the creek and live there.”
“You always said you were going to.” Rafe sat up straighter in his chair. “Why don’t you have time?”
Jesse took another bite and washed it down before saying, “I’m heading out with Holden on his cattle drive.”
Grace made a strange noise in the back of her throat. “But you just got back.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you leaving?”
He didn’t tell her it was because of Alex but it wouldn’t take long for anyone to figure it out, especially when the knowledge of Hugh and Alex’s engagement was common knowledge.
“He needs help,” Jesse lied, lowering his gaze. “Those cowboys he hired are so green they’ll be lucky to make it to market with half the herd so I asked Holden if he needed another man to go with them.”
“Are you coming back?”
Something in Grace’s voice said she knew he wasn’t. Jesse looked up at her and could see the same sadness he’d seen in her eyes the day he showed up at their door two weeks ago.
She’d lost a lot since he’d been gone, according to Rafe. The years of unsuccessfully trying to have a baby had taken its toll on their marriage and the one time she finally did conceive, they’d lost it a short time later.
Grace had been beautiful when she arrived in Willow Creek, all those years ago. She still was, but lines of worry bracketed her eyes now and creased her forehead. Her once luminous skin was dulled by despair. The one thing she wanted most, to become a mother, wasn’t meant to be and it showed. A perpetual sense of melancholy surrounded her. She smiled and laughed but the shadows in her eyes were haunting.
He smiled and locked eyes with her, reaching out to take her hand. “I never said I wasn’t coming back, Grace.”
“You didn’t have to say it. I can see it on your face.” She squeezed his hand then pulled away, glancing over at Rafe before pushing the food around on her plate. She sighed and shook her head. “You certainly have changed since you left for school.”
“That was the point, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but you didn’t change the right way.”
He grinned in hopes to lighten the mood. “And what was the right way?”
She dropped her fork and met his gaze with steely determination. “You were supposed to become the sort of man Alexandra Avery would want for a husband. That’s why you agreed to go to Boston, isn’t it? It’s why you stayed away so long, right?” Her face was red, her voice rising with every word. “But here you are, tucking tail and running away like a scared little boy at the first sign of complication.”
He opened his mouth to set her straight but held his tongue. She wasn’t wrong. He’d found work after his schooling was finished in order to learn everything he could about the ranching business and had enough cash tucked away in the bank to buy a spread the size of the Avery’s ranch with money to spare. Everything was exactly as he imaged it would be except Alex wasn’t sitting around daydreaming about him like he did so often of her. She’d moved on with her life. Had he really thought she’d just be sitting around waiting for him to return?
Foolishly, he had.
He blew out a breath and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “If she’s agreed to marry Hugh, there’s not much I can do about that, now is there?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “For one thing, she’ll never agree to marry Hugh. She doesn’t love him.”
“What does love have to do with marriage? People get married all the time without love. Hell, you came all the way from Boston to marry me and love was the furthest thing from my mind.”
Rafe laughed. “No, you wanted to marry for clean clothes and a hot cooked meal.”
Jesse grinned and looked his way. “Shut up.”
“That’s beside the point,” Grace said. “My agreeing to marry sight-unseen was a completely different circumstance than this is. Everyone knows you and Alex are meant to be together. You just have to get her to realize the same.”
