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“They’re in love.” Charlotte made a rude noise, making Elaine laugh. “Don’t you want to be part of that love? Part of their lives? Do you really not want to know your own grandchildren?”
“Is she pregnant already?” she asked, afraid of how little she knew.
“No.” Elaine laughed again. “She’s too busy planning the wedding.” Elaine reached for her hand. “It’s time to let the past go and look to the future. You aren’t going to want to miss this next part. You’ve been angry long enough.” She squeezed her hand. “Let it go. Come to Tilly’s wedding. It’s just that easy.”
“She doesn’t want me there.”
“Charlotte, you know better than that. Just one small step. That’s all it will take.”
“Holden will be there.”
“Of course he will,” her friend said, releasing her hand. “And you’ll be all dressed up with a whole new attitude.”
She laughed. “You really are a dreamer.” For a moment she studied Elaine’s pretty face. “Why have you never married?”
“Really?” She chuckled. “My life has always been so full at the ranch. I’ve never considered leaving.”
“You’re in love with Holden,” Charlotte said, voicing something she’d known in her heart for years.
“Isn’t everyone?” Elaine said, smiling. “But he’s in love with you and always has been.”
She huffed. “That’s why he keeps marrying someone else. Can you believe he married Lulabelle Braden?”
“That was definitely a mistake, but he was young and foolish, making one mistake on top of another. He’d never make that mistake again and hasn’t. I think he’s realized that he’d rather be alone than be with the wrong woman.”
“He was happy with Margie.”
Elaine nodded. “But Margie knew that she wasn’t his first choice. She did her best to make him happy. The woman was a saint,” she added with a laugh.
“Don’t I know it and I’m nothing like her.” When her friend said nothing, she added, “You could argue the point.”
“When we both know it’s true?”
They laughed, then stood in companionable silence, the approaching snowstorm darkening the sky over the bare-limbed cottonwoods to throw shadows over them.
“Was there a reason you needed to see me?” Elaine asked. “Other than for me to try to talk sense into you?”
Charlotte smiled in spite of herself. “It’s always good to see you. I feel as if I have alienated everyone, especially my family, and been an example to CJ of how to act badly. Now he blames me for the way he is and he’s probably right.”
“CJ is a grown man. It’s his choice how he lives his life.”
She studied Elaine again, hearing something in her tone. “What? Have you heard something?”
“Nothing specific. Those two men the gas company hired for security were seen coming from your ranch recently.”
“That’s because CJ hired CH4 to drill another well.”
“And they sent their security men out first? Have you seen them? They’re trouble, Charlotte. I just worry about Oakley after what happened to her before.”
On the ride back, she felt a wave of shame wash over her at the memory of her argument with her daughter. She had blamed Oakley for the shooting because she’d been so afraid CJ would go to prison. A part of her knew he wouldn’t survive in that kind of setting. Or maybe he would thrive, she thought, remembering her recent concerns about him.
She felt a chill that had nothing to do with the approaching storm.
THESHERIFFOPENEDhis eyes to find two state police standing over him. Through the fog of both sleep and drugs, he told himself that he’d never seen either of them before. He had no idea what they were even doing here.
Here, though, he realized, was a hospital room. He glanced down, seeing bandages on his arms, shoulders and chest. Everything came back at rocket speed. He tried to sit up.
“Let me help you with that,” the larger of the two police officers said, moving to the end of the bed to crank up the top portion so Stuart was in a sitting position.
