Chapter 15 #2
But now that the spinning had stopped, she knew she still wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
Her skin felt too tight in Manhattan, her opportunities too small.
She was one of more than a thousand advertising firms her size.
Her creativity was stifled. In order for clients to truly value her, she had to have the space to be unique.
Maybe after the wedding she’d scope out opportunities in the Southwest, set herself up as a very small firm doing the kind of one-on-one work with clients whose companies she could really get behind—small accounts that would reach large markets.
Clever advertisements that made a company’s name stick.
Things she’d dreamed of doing before her parents pushed her to be more, always more.
She understood now that it wasn’t settling to be happy. It was settling if she wasn’t.
Yes, Emma would make a clean break after the wedding and seize the chance to open a new chapter in her life. It was terrifying, but if the past few months had taught her anything, it was that memories were cold bed partners.
EMMA COMES BACK to the Bar C today. It was all Cade had been able to think about, counting down the days to her arrival once Reagan had gotten her to agree to return. And today, the moment Emma stepped foot on the ranch, he would experience his emotional ground zero.
He’d been recalcitrant about having someone else pick her up, but Reagan had put her foot down. No one was going to pick Emma up. She wanted the chance to get her bearings, and a rental car would give her an element of safety while she was here.
“Like a rental car’s going to save her,” he muttered to himself, rinsing his soapy hands and drying them on a dishcloth.
But Reagan, who sat at the little desk off the breakfast nook, heard him, anyway. Tired of the administrative work, she’d insisted they get someone to handle the dude ranch’s books so she could focus on her vet practice again. To a man, no one had objected but had, instead, supported her request.
The response he received was accompanied by a withering stare. “You’re a smart man, Cade. Try to put yourself in her shoes. Coming out here at all took a heck of a lot of guts on her part. She needs to feel like she can get away from all of us, particularly you, if things go badly.”
Tyson, who’d been lying prone on the sofa, hat covering his face, chuckled. “That’s a funny image—you in her shoes. I personally liked the red stilettos, but her boots were pretty hot, too. You could pull off either, bro. Just work the walk.”
Too wound up to take much teasing, Cade reached over and, with the dishtowel he’d been using, popped Ty on his T-shirted stomach.
His little brother yelped and fell off the sofa, dragging an authentic laugh from somewhere deep in Cade’s chest. Even to him, the sound was rusty.
The look on Reagan’s face, one of surprised joy, only made him more self-conscious. “What? I laugh.”
“Not in months,” she said, pulling him down for a quick kiss to the cheek. “And never enough.”
Heat suffused his face and he fled for the kitchen, but not before an empty plastic soda bottle bounced off his head.
“Be glad I didn’t have something heavier,” Ty called.
“Like what?” Cade answered without slowing. “Morals?”
“Hey, you’re the one who jumped the guest on the way home from the airport, brother.” The smile in Ty’s voice rendered the words teasing, not biting. “You set a new bar for me. I leap and I leap, but so far I can’t clear that bar.”
“Shut up,” Cade ground out, heat spreading and deepening across his face until he was now flushed a healthy red.
“Sir, yes, sir,” Ty all but shouted. “I’ll be out at the barn if she shows up and you can’t handle her.”
Cade put the dishes away with minimal conversation, doing his best to keep from staring at the office clock and watching the hands snap by.
He hated the way the red second arm clicked forward and shuddered enough it seemed to settle back before advancing again.
Time couldn’t move backward, so it shouldn’t appear that it did.
“What’re you scowling at?” Eli asked, wandering into the kitchen. He grabbed the orange juice from the fridge and plucked a glass Cade had just washed from the drying rack.
“You do dishes next.”
Eli arched a brow. “I’m smart. I use the dishwasher.”
“Not this one, you don’t.” One corner of Cade’s mouth lifted up. “Burned up last night. Reagan’s researching and ordering a new one now. I’ll go into Clayton to pick it up as soon as possible.”
“Speaking of the hottest vet in the country,” Eli murmured, moving toward Reagan as if she was his homing beacon, his safe harbor, his everything.
Reaching her, Cade watched as Eli swept her hair aside and laid a gentle kiss against the side of her neck.
“Anything in particular you want, my bride? The possibilities are endless.”
She tilted her head aside to give him better access. “Sure, now that you’re finally awake.”
Eli buried his face in her hair and breathed in. “Not my fault you found me irresistible—over and over—last night.”
“And, on that note, I’ll be vacating the premises to preserve my sense of healthy sexual boundaries.” Cade grabbed his hat and sunglasses, then slipped his feet into his boots. “House is yours until we see you open the front curtains.”
“You don’t have to go, Cade,” Reagan called.
“Yes. Yes, he does.” Eli’s statement elicited a very feminine shriek of delight as Cade started down the hall.
Cade shut the front door behind him gently, fighting the unexpected pang of jealousy.
He didn’t covet his brother’s soon-to-be wife, but he undeniably longed for what the man had found with his woman.
Cade wanted the same chance to shower Emma with open PDA, to tell her everything she’d meant to him and how her leaving without a goodbye had carved him up like a jack-o’-lantern.
Morbidly, he wondered what the pattern would have shown about him and who he’d become.