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“You did a wonderful job, Granddad.”
He nodded. “I have to agree with you. Though a lot of credit goes to my parents. Without their help, I’m not sure if the results would be the same. But all that time, I kept telling myself, next year. Or the year after that. When the kids are older I’ll find myself someone who’ll put up with me. Someone to spend my life with. It never happened. The time was never right. Now, here I am. A stove up cowboy who no woman is going to look at twice.”
“Granddad.” She reached for his hand.
“I got no one to blame but myself. And I’ve made my peace with it.” He took a sip of coffee. “But your father isn’t me. Your father is like his grandmother. He has a big heart and when he loves, he loves fiercely. Your father isn’t the type of man who can spend the next thirty or forty years by himself. When your mother died, Godrest her soul, he planned on being alone for the rest of his life. And if he hadn’t met Ember, maybe he would’ve. But he wouldn’t have been happy doing it.”
Sage blink back her tears and wiped at one running down her cheek. “I’ve been really selfish, huh?”
“You’ve been a little selfish, yeah.”
“I just…”
“I know. You’ve been trying to protect your mother’s memory. But your father is never going to forget her or what they had together. He sees her every time he looks at you or your brothers. You are all a constant reminder of his love for her.” He sipped more coffee. “Rachel and I had several conversations that last year. And most of them ended with her asking me to look out for Jake. She knew you kids would be fine. She knew what a good father he was. But she worried about him, and she asked me repeatedly to make sure he didn’t spend his life mourning her.”
Sage stood and hugged Jacob. “I love you Granddad.”
“I love you too. Everything is going to be all right. Ember’s a good woman. Look what she did to protect your father when he first came back. She set her feelings aside to let him figure things out on his own. I imagine it was pretty damn hard on her.”
“Impossibly hard.”
He looked up at her. “So, will you give her achance?”
Sage nodded. “Yes, Granddad. You’re right, Dad deserves to be happy.”
He took her hand and patted it. “Good girl.”
She went to her purse and took out the credit card. “I paid for the cake today. It’s really pretty.”
“Betty does a good job.”
“It wasn’t Betty. It’s some man who’s filling in for her. Some really annoying man.”
Jacob smiled. “What’s this annoying man’s name?”
“Xander something.”
“Hutchins?”
“Yes. You know him?”
“He’s Betty’s nephew. Hutchins is her maiden name. I remember meeting him when he was a kid. Him and his older brother. In fact they came to the ranch a couple of times to ride. I never found him to be annoying.
“Maybe you caught him on a good day.”
He laughed. “Or maybe you caught him on a bad one.”
“I suppose. He did do a lovely job with the cake. So maybe bakery stuff runs in the family.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
She kissed Jacob on the cheek. “I’m going to go see Dad. I think he’s in the barn.”
Jacob picked up his cup. “I’ll see you at dinner, honey.”
Sage put her coat back on and went out the back door. The wind had died down a little, butit was still blowing plenty hard, and the rain still hadn’t arrived.
She hurried to the barn to get out of the wind and when she went inside, Jake was tossing hay to the horses. He glanced at her when she came up beside him.
