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“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your mother found out and felt like she would always be my second choice. Probably because that was how I treated her.” He shook his head. “I was wrong. I should have been thankful for what I had, instead of longing for what I didn’t.” He glanced at Rome. “And maybe I was wrong to fight so hard to get full custody of you boys. I used every powerful connection I had and hired the best lawyers I could find to keep you boys here on the ranch with me. That was selfish. I should have let you spend time with your mama.”
“She could have fought for that time too, Daddy, and she didn’t.”
“People make mistakes, Rome. She called and tried to fix that mistake. You wouldn’t let her.”
It was true. He had refused to even talk to his mom. He’d done the same thing to Emily. She was the one in the wrong—the one who had given up—so she could just go to hell. But now he realized that there were two sides to every story. Both his mother and Emily had their sides. He had to wonder if they were as similar as his and his father’s. Sam hadn’t loved Glorieta enough and Rome hadn’t loved Emily enough either. He had married her because that’s what Sam had wanted him to do. But she had always come second to the ranch.
He’d proven that by letting her go without a fight.
Just like his father had done with his mother.
And just like his mother had done with Rome and Casey.
If you love someone—truly love them—you never give up on them. You go after them and do whatever you have to do to keep them.
He got up and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” his father asked.
“To figure out how to get my wife back.”
Chapter Nineteen
No one said a word to Cloe about moving back home. The one time Daddy mentioned Rome, Mama gave him a look that shut him up in a hurry. Cloe was thankful. Just the mention of Rome’s name brought tears to her eyes and a shaft of pain to her heart. She had thought she was upset when Brandon had broken up with her, but that pain was nothing compared to the pain she lived with now.
Mimi seemed to know Cloe needed something to keep her mind occupied. The morning after she moved back, she plopped one of her gardening hats on her head and pushed her outside to help plant the vegetable garden. They’d spent the last week working side by side in the fertile earth planting lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, carrots, peas, beets, peppers, okra, and pumpkins—even though they probably wouldn’t be there to reap the rewards.
On Friday, Sweetie came over. All her sisters knew what had happened. Like everyone else, they were upset about losing the ranch, but steered away from the subject of Rome and Cloe. Sweetie didn’t mention Rome either, but she did pull Cloe into her arms and hold her much longer than usual.
“You okay, Clo?”
Cloe pushed back the tears and nodded against her shoulder. “I’m fine. It was a fake marriage, after all.”
But there was nothing fake about Sweetie’s marriage. She looked happier than Cloe had ever seen her. Once they were seated in the living room with Mama and Mimi, she talked nonstop about everything she and Decker had done while they were in Nashville. Not only the sightseeing, but also the meeting she’d had with the executives of a large recording company that wanted to buy some of the songs Sweetie had written.
“They’re going to buy twenty-three of them.” Sweetie beamed with pride. As depressed as she felt, Cloe couldn’t help being happy for her sister. She knew how hard Sweetie had worked to achieve her dream of succeeding in the music business.
“But enough about Nashville,” Sweetie said as she opened the huge photo album she’d brought. “I brought the wedding pictures and I can’t wait for y’all to see them.”
The wedding photographs had turned out great. The big red barn was the perfect backdrop for Sweetie in their mama’s wedding dress and Decker in his western tux.
“And wait until you see the group pictures,” Sweetie said as she flipped to the photographs of the wedding party.
Cloe’s heart tightened. Rome looked breathtakingly handsome in his tuxedo and Stetson. For once in her life, Cloe didn’t look like a pale ghost with a forced smile. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes twinkled and her smile actually looked real. In one photograph, she was out-and-out laughing. Rome wasn’t looking at the camera in that picture. He was looking at her, his hand on her waist and his head bent so that his cowboy hat shaded her face.
They looked like a couple.
A couple in love.
Just that quickly tears sprang to Cloe’s eyes. A few escaped and trickled down her cheek before she quickly brushed them away. She thought no one had noticed. But as soon as they were through looking at the album, Sweetie got up from the couch and held out her hand to Cloe.
“Come on, Clo. Let’s go out on the porch and catch up.”
The entire front porch was decorated for St. Patrick’s Day, which had been yesterday. Leprechauns holding pots of gold peeked out of the flowers in the garden. Green ribbon wrapped around the porch bannister and railing. And a large wreath filled with glittery shamrocks and little leprechauns’ hats hung from the door.
“Looks like Mama is not letting the sale of the ranch keep her from her holiday decorating,” Sweetie said as they took a seat in the swing.
“I don’t think anything will keep her from that,” Cloe said. “I’m hoping we’ll be able to find us a place to live with a front porch. Even a small one.”
