Chapter 18
“Aren’t you supposed to be in another country right now?”
“I postponed the trip for a few more days.” Of course, Max Ruhland could not let that statement go.
“I see. So… Any particular reason?”
“Why does there have to be a reason?” The guy was too damn perceptive, and while Ian had only shared snippets about Katie, he’d made the mistake of telling Max that he and Katie had a history.
Yeah, big mistake on that one. Max knew about history, especially one that went sideways, like what happened between him and his wife.
They’d just been kids, but the breakup was bad.
Max had never gotten over her, but when they finally had an opportunity to be together again, he almost blew it.
“Look, I’m not big on giving advice, but don’t let pride get in the way. Take it from someone who was too stubborn to admit she owned my oxygen.”
Max was talking about Grace. “Pride has nothing to do with it. You can’t bury the truth, and then, when she finds out, claim you were doing it for her own good. That never sits well.” I never want to see you again. Go away. I will never forgive you.
“If it’s anything like my story, I wasn’t much different than you. Hid who I was, pretended I was somebody else, and didn’t trust her enough to believe what she said. All that gets you is misery, but I got another chance, and maybe you could too.”
Go away. Stay away. I will never forgive you. “Yeah, probably not.” Ian cleared his throat, pushed aside the words and images that had burned his soul. “Anyway, I’ll be heading out soon, and once I finish that project, we can talk about what’s next with you.”
“I’ve got some ideas, so whenever you’re ready…”
“If you want, you can send the ideas, and I’ll think about them, maybe come up with a few possibilities.
The Luxembourg project isn’t going to take all of my time, and I should be able to work on your stuff.
” It’s not as though he’d be partying like the old days.
He’d chosen this location because the company had been after him for two years, and he’d always turned them down.
Bad timing. Wrong project. Too long of a commitment.
But after the disaster with Katie, Ian needed to get away—a few continents away—so he didn’t do something stupid, like show up in Magdalena and beg her to forgive him.
Again. Wasn’t going to happen. Time to move on. As if that were even possible. As if–
“If you ever want to talk about it, I can tell you everything not to do, but the one right thing to do is don’t stop trying. Don’t be an idiot like I was.”
Who would have thought that a guy who had more money than he’d ever be able to spend, more street cred…more everything, only wanted one thing—a chance with the woman he’d never forgotten.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Max.”
“If things work out, you might want to consider a move to this part of the country. Sure, there’s snow and sleet, and you won’t see a movie star in every restaurant, but you don’t need a dog park to exercise your dog or a playground that’s three miles away for your kids.
You can just be yourself.” Pause and a quiet, “Real.”
Ian thought about his conversation with Max for the rest of the day.
He’d flown back to California last week, walked around his condo, and wished he were somewhere else.
The furniture was custom-built, many of the paintings were originals from local artists, the lighting high-end.
And the sound system? You could hold a concert in this place.
None of it mattered because all he could think about was the cabin in the woods…
Katie’s kitchen…her four-poster bed with the patchwork quilt…
the garden she’d planned to expand…the dark hair brushing her bare shoulders…
the full lips…the whiskey-colored eyes…the soft sighs and laughs…
That was all gone, and one day he’d have to find another way to put joy and peace in his life, but it would not be in this condo, living this life. He loved Katie, and there was no sense denying that would ever change.
Ian had just finished a run and was about to shower when Jack Finnegan called.
The man had avoided him during most of his stay in Magdalena, and the few times Dolly invited him to dinner, his “uncle’s” commentary had been limited to grunts with the occasional Yup and nope.
There’d been a sentence or two tossed in there, all having to do with the real reason Ian was in Magdalena.
The man had figured out Katie was at the center of it, and how someone who never gossiped or shared information would know, was straight-up bizarre.
Jack wouldn’t call him for idle chit chat.
Something was wrong. Ian grabbed his phone.
“Jack? Is everything okay? Is it Dolly?” Dolly had become a surrogate mother to him, as well as a confidante and a friend, and he did not want anything to happen to her.
She didn’t have the best diet, and her blood pressure was higher than it should be. And–
“No, everything ain’t okay, you fool, and it’s not Dolly, though why she would take you under her wing and protect you like you were a baby bird instead of a vulture, is something I’ll never understand. She sees something in you, and that something has caused a rift between us.”
Ian rubbed the back of his neck, half-wished he’d let the call go to voicemail. “I’m sorry, I don’t want there to be any problems between you and Dolly. Is there something I can do to help?” Ugh, it must be bad if the guy was calling him.
A snarl and then, “I’ll take care of my wife. I do know how to have a conversation when I need to, unlike some people who just ignore the obvious.”
Okay, he had no idea what the man was talking about. “Meaning?”
Big sigh, another snarl. “Meaning you and Katie. I suspected something was going on with you two ten years ago, but I hoped I was wrong. But when you came back to town and started sniffing around her? I knew my suspicions were right.” A muttered curse, followed by three more.
“The girl gave you her heart, and you broke it with your damn lies. Now I want to know what you’re going to do about it. ”
“Do about it? I’ve apologized, tried to talk to her, begged her to forgive me, and I don’t beg.”
“Figures you’d say something like that. You wouldn’t have to apologize or beg if you’d been truthful from the beginning.”
This wasn’t going to go anywhere. “Look, did she tell you everything?”
“Everything? You mean like how you put money in her business and never told her about it? Or that you acted like you didn’t know anything about the engineer who was coming, except you were the engineer?” Cold laugh, a snort. “Yeah, she told me about that.”
“But did she tell you the rest? About how my father threatened to come after her because she was living in his house without his knowledge or agreement? And he’d come after you, too.
” Ian cleared his throat, pushed out the truth.
“He said it could all go away if I gave her up. Stopped talking to her, blocked my phone, forgot the foolish ideas I had that we had a future together.”
The man’s silence forced Ian to share more truths. “I couldn’t do that to her, or to you. You were always decent to me, even if I didn’t appreciate it or want it. You stood for something. And Katie? I…” I loved her… I never stopped loving her.
“Well then. You sayin’ you loved her? You weren’t just using her until you got back to your fancy ways? You sayin’ you only stayed away to protect her?” The man’s voice cracked, turned hoarse. “To protect me?”
Ian bet there weren’t many times in Jack Finnegan’s life when emotion clogged his speech. “That’s what I’m saying.”
“I bought that house from your father years ago, and Katie bought it from me last year.” Suspicion clouded his next words. “Why’d you stay away? You could have come back and told her the truth, so why didn’t you?”
“I wanted to, but part of me believed I didn’t deserve her or that kind of happiness. And the other part? There were a few times I worked up the nerve, but then I found out she was involved with someone, and the last time I was ready to tell her everything? I heard she was engaged.”
“Those men were jokers, all of them. They had manners and a haircut and some even wore suits. Not the long-haired tattoo stuff you seem to like, but they wanted to change her, turn her into somebody else. She couldn’t do it.”
This time, Ian’s voice cracked. “Nobody should ever try to change her.”
“Damn straight on that one. So, if you ask me, there’s a predicament here. And don’t think I didn’t figure out my wife was the one feeding you all this information. We had a talk about that, and she knew I wasn’t happy. I’m not one for getting into other people’s business.”
“Dolly’s been good to me, and she’s treated me like one of her own kids. I never want to cause problems between the two of you.”
A laugh. “Problems? I can say whatever I want, but that woman has a mind of her own, and she’s the only person who could ever set me straight and call me on my BS.
When she doesn’t agree, she gives me the opportunity to see it her way.
If I don’t agree with her, then it’s on me.
Maybe she was right about you. She saw something in you that I didn’t see or didn’t want to see.
You reminded me too much of my son, Pete, and that boy caused me a lot of heartache for a lot of years.
You came to town when Pete was still living the life in California, and we weren’t talking.
Dolly needed you as much as you needed her.
I should have seen that, and I’m sorry I didn’t. ”
Was that an apology? Sure sounded like one. Jack Finnegan wasn’t as crusty as he liked people to believe. He loved his wife, and while he probably didn’t often admit it, he listened to her, he compromised. Like a partner. Who would have thought…?