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“The right man.” She laughed, but there was no joy in it.
“You don’t sound very positive, Lucky. Just because you wasted a lot of years on the wrong guy, doesn’t mean you should give up.”
She turned her head to look at him. “And what about you? You gave up.”
“I’m different.”
“How so?”
Maybe it was the defeated look in her eyes. Or maybe it was the need to finally put his feelings into words. But whatever the reason, he told her something he’d never told another soul.
“The difference is that you still believe in love. I don’t. Love didn’t keep Emily from leaving. And it sure as hell didn’t keep my mama from walking out on her husband and two sons. Therefore, I’m not willing to waste my time searching for something as fickle and untrustworthy as love.”
When she didn’t say anything, he glanced over to find her looking at him with eyes that glimmered like the ice crystals sticking to the windshield.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
A fist tightened around his heart and again he had the strong desire to reach out and touch her. Instead, he looked back at the highway. “Me too.”
They didn’t talk after that. When he pulled into the garage, he glanced over to find her fast asleep. Her hair was even more curly from the humidity and looked like a wild lion’s mane. Her glasses had slid down her nose and precariously hung from the tip. And her mouth was slightly open, a soft snore huffing out. He got out and walked around to her side. He thought opening the door and unbuckling her seat belt would wake her, but she slept right through it. If she’d been like him, she’d gotten very little sleep the night before.
He slid her glasses up on her nose before he gently lifted her out of the seat. She barely weighed more than a couple fifty-pound bags of horse feed. He bumped the truck door closed with his shoulder before he carried her toward the laundry room door. As he was stepping over the threshold, a memory filtered into his mind. A memory of another wedding night where he carried his bride over the threshold. But Emily had been awake and they’d been kissing as he’d carried her up the stairs to their bed.
Tonight, there would be no kissing tonight.
No lovemaking.
No their bed.
He planned to sleep on a blow-up mattress he’d bought on Amazon in the room connected to the master suite. His father had given him the suite after he’d married Emily. When Rome was born, Sam had enlarged the master bathroom and added a door that led to Rome’s nursery. He had hoped Rome and Emily would use it as a nursery too. Instead, Rome had turned it into an office.
Now it would be his room for the next few months.
Suddenly, his joy at having a woman in the house dimmed.
“She sleeping?”
Casey stood at the top of the stairs.
Rome nodded as he climbed the last step. “It’s been a tough day.”
“I bet.” Casey hurried ahead of him down the hallway and opened Rome’s bedroom door.
Rome carried Cloe in and carefully laid her on the large king-sized bed. He slipped off her snow boots, and then covered her with the fuzzy throw blanket he kept on the end. She didn’t rouse at all. Not even when he removed her glasses and set them on the nightstand.
“I guess your honeymoon will have to wait.”
He turned to see Casey standing in the doorway. He wasn’t smiling. His expression was serious.
“Or will there be a honeymoon?”
Rome tucked the blanket more securely around Cloe before he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Since his father’s room was just down the hall and he didn’t want Sam overhearing their conversation, he motioned for Casey to follow him to his office. Once there, he sat down in the chair behind the desk and ran his hands over his face.
“I wanted the land and Mimi wouldn’t sell it otherwise.”
“I figured as much. So the wily old woman’s plan worked.”
Rome glanced up to see Casey grinning like a Cheshire cat. He couldn’t help laughing. “I guess it did. Did you know she owns the ranch?”
