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“Tess, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, because you were out with Lee Cooper.” Tess’s smile said she’d already been in on the town gossip.
“It was just dinner,” Rosalie said. She wasn’t going to throw more fuel on the flames of the Sweet Water Falls rumor mill. Tess didn’t need to know Lee had then taken her across the street to that park, and they’d fed the ducks and geese, watched the sun set and the stars come out, walked and talked and talked and talked, held hands, and then finally went back to his truck.
She should’ve known how late it was by how empty the parking lot at Montague’s was. She should’ve known to look at her phone and check the time. Rosalie had been lost inside the magic that Lee put off, and she shivered now, thinking about going back to her house without him.
“Come in,” Tess said, stepping back. “She’s just here on the couch.”
Rosalie collected Autumn into her arms, who woke for only a moment and then promptly laid back down against Rosalie’s shoulder. She couldn’t carry the girl for long, but she made it home and down the hall to Autumn’s bedroom. Thumper hopped ahead of them, and once Rosalie had her daughter tucked in bed, she found the white rabbit on the bean bag in the corner. “No stomping,” she told him, then left the room, pulling the door almost all the way closed as she went.
She exhaled slowly as she made her way into her bedroom, her mind replaying the whole evening as she removed her makeup, her clothes, her jewelry, and all of the different pieces she’d put together to look amazing for the date. She caught sight of herself without any adornment, and she paused, the lights in the bathroom so harsh.
“Why didn’t you want to kiss him?” she whisper-asked herself. The truth was, Rosalie would happily kiss Lee, but there was a small piece of her heart that still belonged to James. She’d panicked less than a half an hour ago at the thought of kissing Lee, because she was married to someone else.
“You’re not,” she told herself, her shoulders coming up in her wispy pajamas. “You can kiss whoever you want.” With that, she left the bathroom and turned off the light behind her. In the warm safety of her bed, she closed her eyes and fantasized about what it would’ve been like to feel Lee’s strong mouth against hers.
Definitely like a fairy tale, she thought just before she drifted to sleep.
* * *
“Rose!”
She turned from the back door, where she’d been standing as she watched Autumn lay in the back yard with Thumper. Natasha came barreling toward her, and the two sisters laughed as they hugged.
“How was the drive?” Rosalie asked as she stepped back. “Where’s Mom? Did you leave her out in the driveway to get all the luggage?”
“No,” their mother said, entering the house. Rosalie had taken down the gate in anticipation of their arrival, and she’d banished Thumper to the back yard so he wouldn’t escape. “I left it for later.”
“Mom.” Rosalie wasn’t sure why her emotions surged up her throat at the sight of her mom. She hugged her tightly, trying to hold on to everything raging through her. She hadn’t told anyone about Lee yet, and she wasn’t going to. The cowboy hadn’t called her yet, and Rosalie knew that with every passing hour, she lost more and more ground with him.
She’d told herself all day yesterday that he was busy. That he owned a huge cattle operation, as well as a farm. He had a lot to manage. He was a single dad, and she couldn’t expect him to call her first thing in the morning.
Or at lunchtime. Or dinnertime. Or before bed.
This morning, she’d reminded herself that she’d told him her sister and mother were coming for the weekend, and of course he wouldn’t call and disturb their visit. That put her to Monday, and if he didn’t call then… Rosalie wasn’t sure what excuse she’d make for him then.
She also wasn’t sure if she was making excuses for him or for herself. She’d enjoyed their date, and she’d thought he had too. He’d acted like he was going to kiss her—and then she’d rejected him. Deep down, she knew that rejection was why Lee hadn’t called her yet.
She’d probably humiliated him, and for a man as proud and in control as Lee wouldn’t like that.
“Are you okay, dear?” Her mom peered at her with curiosity in her expression, and Rosalie shook herself out of her thoughts.
“Of course,” she said. “Autumn is in the back yard. Let’s get her and go to lunch. I’m starving.” She turned to get her daughter, noting that the sliding door had been pushed open wide. Nat had gone back there. Rosalie stepped over to the door and slid it shut, because she didn’t need to be cooling the whole neighborhood.
She smiled at the scene in the back yard, because it was what slow, country mid-mornings should be like. Her sister had laid down on the ground beside Autumn, the white rabbit cuddled into her chest. Thumper adored Nat, and she was the only one who could get him to calm down when he was in the throes of a stomping fit.
“Look at them,” Rosalie said.
Her mom came to stand beside her. “Let’s leave them for a few minutes,” she said. “Nat’s been talking incessantly, and I could use five minutes of silence.”
Rosalie looked at her mother, a strange mix of laughter and helplessness combining inside her. “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said, sliding her arm around her mom’s waist and squeezing her.
“It’s fine,” her mom said. “But let’s just leave them for a few minutes.”
“Yeah.” Rosalie watched as Autumn tipped up onto one side, her face full of animation. She was probably asking Nat about something she’d seen on TV that Rosalie wouldn’t let her watch. Nat loved reality TV and the sports channels that showed cheerleading competitions, band march-offs, and colorguard shows. When she wasn’t working part-time at the shoe store their neighbors owned, Nat could be found singing at the top of her lungs or watching TV.
Rosalie turned away from the glass doors when her mom did and followed her the few steps into the kitchen. “How are you, dear?” her mom asked.
