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His mother was speaking in concerned tones. “Carson told me last night he didn’t want a long-distance relationship with Olivia. He seemed pretty sure about it.”
Olivia froze. Her heart stuttered to a stop.
“Well,” Mr. Clark said, more pragmatic, “We’ll just have to see what happens. At this point, he doesn’t even know if he’ll stay in Denver. He might come back and then it won’t matter.”
Olivia was still frozen, still trying to process the words. Carson had told his mother he didn’t want a long-distance relationship?
Why hadn’t he told Olivia as much?
Maybe he was hedging his bets, keeping a hold of their relationship in case things didn’t work out with the Broncos. Or—just as likely—maybe he hadn’t wanted to see her burst into tears. This way was easier. Drive off and slowly let things end between them. Her gaze fell on the bracelet again, this time seeing it in a different way. This wasn’t a token that said he loved her. This was a payment to ease his guilt. It was a consolation prize so she wouldn’t feel like he’d used her.
Before Olivia had even decided what to do, her feet were retracing her steps, taking her back outside. She couldn’t face his parents right now. They would look at her pityingly.
She went around the front of the house, came in the front door, and headed straight to the attic to pack. As she threw things in her suitcase, she reminded herself that their relationship wasn’t over yet. Mrs. Clark hadn’t said Carson was planning to break up with her. She’d only said that Carson didn’t want a long-distance relationship. And his father, ever the reasonable voice, had said they would have to wait and see what happened. If Carson was cut from the team, he’d come back to Lark Springs. Olivia still had a chance with him. Things could still work out.
Despite her earlier resolve not to bargain with God, the entire time she drove back to her apartment, she did just that.
* * *
Olivia didn’t tellher roommates what she’d overheard Mrs. Clark say. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to. Maybe she didn’t want to admit that all of Riley’s warnings about Carson might be right. Maybe she was hoping that they weren’t.
She also didn’t tell them about the bracelet. If she showed it to them, they would give their opinions about what it meant. They would have expectations. She put it in her jewelry box and over the next week took it out once a day to stare at it, as if it could tell her something about her future. She idly wondered what Carson had done with the Lark Springs High wristband. It was probably shoved, forgotten in a drawer somewhere.
Carson called Olivia frequently to check in. He always seemed like his normal self, not an emotionally-pulling-away-from-her version of himself. Mostly he was tired and worried he wasn’t up to speed still. He’d have to make it through three rounds of cuts in August before finding out if he had his place on the team back. Olivia always gave him encouraging words, although she really wanted to say: Would it be such a terrible thing if you had to move back to Lark Springs?
The crew finished work on the cabin the day before the Gordons were scheduled to come. Olivia, Carson’s parents, and an interior designer Carson had hired moved furniture in and styled the rooms.
The place looked amazing, like something out of a magazine spread. Say what you would about the too-cold winters, Montana rivaled any location for sweeping green beauty in the summer. The trees and the mountains in the distance—anyone would want to live here. Olivia wanted to live here. She was positive the Gordons would love it.
The next day, while Olivia was making dinner, she called Carson and asked what he’d heard from the Gordons.
He grunted. “Mrs. Gordon doesn’t want to buy it after all. Apparently, Megan cried on the trip back to Denver, and Mrs. Gordon spent the entire trip comforting her. Now the cabin has a bad association for her. She doesn’t think she could spend time there without considering it a place of broken relationships.”
So, Megan had managed to sabotage the sale, just like she threatened to do.
Olivia chopped cauliflower with more force than the task needed. “But her husband is okay about breaking his agreement with you after you poured all of that money into installing their upgrades? Doesn’t he see you every day?”
“Now that I’m back practicing with the team, he feels less responsibility for buying it. He told me he’d see if he could throw some extra bonuses my way for my trouble.”
How magnanimous. Olivia had many things to say about the Gordons. None of them good.
“My dad is contacting a realtor,” Carson said. “We’ll put it up for sale this week.”
She’d known that this was the plan all along but had somehow hoped that if the Gordons didn’t buy it, Carson would keep it. If he played for the NFL again, he could afford it. “You could always rent it for now and live there after you retire.” He’d been the one to tell her that most football players’ careers were short.
“When I retire,” he said in a matter-of-fact way, “it won’t be in a remote cabin.”
“Oh?” She pretended that hearing those words didn’t hurt. “Where do you plan on retiring?
“I don’t know. I like traveling, so I want to end up somewhere that has an airport.”
Not Lark Springs. Not the place she lived. Another indication he didn’t really see the two of them together long-term. She dumped the cauliflower into a bowl where it lay in a heap of crumbles.
“Hopefully I won’t have to figure those things out yet,” he said. “I’ve got to concentrate on getting back on the team before I worry about what to do later.”
He talked for a while about the practice schedule—six days a week—then said, “Can you come out to Denver for a visit before you start school? I wouldn’t get to see you during the day, but we could still go out to dinner. You could explore Denver or sketch while I’m at practice.”
He was asking her to come. That was a good sign. She hated to turn him down. “I’m going to my grandmother’s in a couple of days, remember? I’ve got to help my aunt and my mom go through her stuff.”
