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CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Rosalie’s attention tore in two when the timer on her brownies went off at the same time her phone rang. She reached to silence the timer, then twisted to pick up the phone from the counter behind her.
James.
A sigh pulled through her whole body, but she swiped on the call from her ex-husband. “Hey,” she said, already opening the oven. She slid on the oven mitt and pulled the square pan out.
“Rose,” James said, his voice tight and stuck somewhere in his throat.
She slid the brownies onto the stovetop and stared at the crinkly, crackly top. They were done, but she couldn’t move. “What?” she finally said. She’d heard the man on the other end of the line speak in that voice before. He usually said something she wanted to believe but had learned to think through first.
“I guess I’ll just say it,” he said, and he sounded authoritative and nervous at the same time. “I want you and Autumn to come here.”
Rosalie blinked, the words tumbling into one ear and out the other. “What?” She laughed, and she heard the incredulity in her tone.
“I’m serious,” he said, none too happy with her reaction.
Rosalie cut off the laughter. “I don’t—I can’t just pick up and move to California.” Her heart raced through her whole body at the thought.
“Why not?” James challenged.
She spun away from the stove, suddenly angry. “Why not?Why not?Because we’re not married, for one.”
“I made a mistake,” he said.
“Two years ago,” Rosalie said. “You made this mistake two years ago, James, after I begged you not to leave. After I said I didn’t care about the injury, and that I loved you and would take care of you, no matter what.” She didn’t mean to hurl the words at him, but they came out rapidly, without any compassion in them. “You’rethe one who broke us, James. Not me.”
He said nothing, which was fairly typical for James. Of course, Rosalie rarely stood up to him. His job had moved them around until they’d landed in Sweet Water Falls. It was supposed to be a three-year assignment, but James had been injured inside the first twelve months. He’d filed for divorce only six months after that, and Rosalie didn’t have to face a future of moving every few years for her husband’s job.
Lee owned his family farm, and it had been in his family for generations. He wasn’t going anywhere, ever.
“I miss you,” James said softly. “I miss my daughter. Having her here last month was amazing.”
Rosalie wanted to once again remind him of allhe’dchosen. He could’ve stayed here in Sweet Water Falls to be near Autumn. He could’ve found another job outside the military. He could’ve done so many things in his life that kept him near his daughter.
She said nothing, her heartbeat screaming through her body and her mind loud with voices, all of them clamoring at her about what she should or shouldn’t do.
“Momma,” Autumn said, and her eyes flew toward the sliding glass door. She was soaked from head to toe, standing there without a towel. She grinned at Rosalie, who offered a shaky smile back. “I need a towel.”
“Is that her?” James asked. “Can I talk to her?”
“You can talk to her anytime,” Rosalie whispered. She moved quickly toward Autumn, the phone held out in front of her. “It’s your daddy. Go sit on the step, and I’ll get you a towel, baby.”
Autumn’s face lit up when Rosalie told her her dad was on the other end of the line, and she grabbed the phone and skipped toward the back step. Rosalie’s eyes filled with tears. Perhaps she should go to California so Autumn and James could be closer to one another. They’d always adored each other, and she couldn’t stand the thought of making her daughter unhappy.
He chose, Rosalie thought.He made all of his choices.
She turned away from her daughter and her dripping, dark hair. As she went to get a towel, she reminded herself of why she was making the cookie dough brownies.
For Lee.
Her boyfriend and the man she’d steadily been falling in love with for almost four months now. He’d planned “something special” for their four-month anniversary in a couple of days, and Rosalie wasn’t going to break the date so she could fly to California for a man who’d given up his wife and child because he was embarrassed of his injury.
She was not.
“James doesn’t get to choose for you anymore, Rose,” she told herself firmly as she pulled a towel from the linen closet.
When Lee had asked her about tonight’s schedule, he’d said he wanted to talk to her about something. She hoped it was something about the two of them building a family together, and she’d called her mother to arrange a visit to Dallas. Nat’s birthday was coming up, and Rosalie had asked if she could bring Lee to introduce him to her parents and sister.
