Chapter 19
Jo barely remembers the drive home from Paige’s cabin.
One second she is slamming the truck into reverse, and the next she’s crunching to a stop on her gravel driveway.
Inside, she finds Kayleigh, a sweet college girl from town who occasionally babysits for them, in the den watching videos on her phone.
Jo nods as Kayleigh tell her about what Kody ate for dinner and her bedtime antics, hands Kayleigh three twenties, and waves as the young woman’s car drives off.
When she closes the door, she stands there for a moment with her head pressed up against its cool, smooth surface.
The scene at Paige’s house plays over and over against her closed eyelids.
Had she been too harsh? No. Paige should have come to her immediately the moment she’d suspected anything was amiss.
And, most importantly, Paige should have stayed the fuck away from Shayne as soon as she even suspected he might have it out for Jo’s family.
Jo didn’t buy for a second that Paige had been thinking of Jo’s best interests.
Paige had been blinded by a good set of abs and an easy smile.
What had Paige been thinking? Did she honestly expect Jo to be thankful?
That she could sit across from her and rip apart everything Jo held to be true about her marriage, and then they’d what?
Have some pizza and wine and casually chat about what happens next?
It had been the opposite. The more Paige spoke, the more obvious it became how wrong Paige was about everything.
It had all been a scam. The past week and a half had been hell—all because of those fucking letters.
Jo wasn’t sure why she’d been so ready to believe the letters.
Why she’d been so quick to accept that Andy had done something wrong.
She’d been a surprisingly easy target, considering how great their relationship had been these past six years.
Their finances were fine. Not great, but fine.
Andy took the stress of it all in strides, like he was born to be a rancher.
Unlike Jo, who actually had been born to be a rancher.
She internally fretted over every single thing, the big and the small decisions.
He balanced her out. So why had notes from a faceless stranger thrown all she knew about her husband out the window?
It wasn’t until Paige started spouting off that Jo realized how wrong it all was.
Andy would never. She’d been a fool to doubt him.
There was an explanation for everything.
So Andy may have sang karaoke with Shayne’s sister, who had coincidentally lost a ring that was similar to Jo’s ring.
They had no proof it was the same ring…Did they?
Some of the details of their conversation were starting to get murky.
How can you be with someone who stole your wedding ring from the girl he was screwing? Why had Paige been so sure?
Shayne has to go. Jo is so disappointed she hadn’t suspected him in the first place.
Everything went to shit once he came to town.
He’d cleverly hid behind being—she hated to admit it—a dream employee.
He’d taken on responsibilities that far outweighed what he’d originally signed on for.
Honestly, he’d made Jo’s life much easier than it should have been with her husband holed up in a hospital for over a week.
But that didn’t mean shit if all his hard work was to cover up that he was running around behind her back, snooping and delivering notes meant to make her suspect Andy of wrongdoing.
God, but to what end? None of the notes had actually asked for anything other than Andy’s confession.
Was that all Shayne wanted? To ruin their happiness?
Did he think her wedding ring was some priceless heirloom he could pawn after he’d taken it from them?
To be fair, he’d never asked for the ring, but that had to be where this had been all headed.
He’d obviously claimed the ring was his sister’s in the hopes of an easy payday.
The weight of all this unknowing was too much. Jo grabs her phone, scrolls her contacts until she finds Shayne’s number, and hits call.
“Hello?” Shayne answers on the second ring, his voice heavy with sleep. Jo checks her watch; it is just past eleven.
“Shayne. It’s Jo.”
Shayne clears his throat. “Did something happen at the barn?”
“No. But something has come to light, and I’m going to need to ask you to be out by the morning.”
She hears him take in a breath. “I understand. I’ll pack up and be out as soon as possible.” It’s infuriating that he sounds like he’d expected this.
“You’re not going to ask why?”
“Jo, I trust your judgment. If you think this is what’s best for your operation, then it’s not my place to question it.”
Jo narrows her eyes, hating how calm and rational he sounds.
“Listen, asshole, I know it was you. I know what you did, and just so you know, it didn’t work.
I trust my husband. Stop sending us those pathetic notes, or I’ll…
” Jo didn’t actually know what she would do.
She wanted to burn his house down (it was actually her house, so she wouldn’t do that just yet) or slash his tires.
She opts for something more official sounding.
“I’ll get a restraining order. I know you fed Paige some sob story about your sister, but I don’t buy it.
My husband loves me. He’s a good man, and he would never, ever betray us.
You picked the wrong family to fuck with. ”
When Shayne speaks, Jo hears the sadness in his voice.
“Jo, I’m sorry you’re going through hell right now, and I wish I had something to say to make this easier but think long and hard about the man you married.
My sister, Lila, deserved better. You deserve better, too.
It’s been a pleasure getting to know you. ”
The line goes dead. The audacity. How dare he act like he knows her husband better than she does!
She’s known Andy for nearly her entire life.
He’d grown so much from the insecure boy she knew in high school.
He made sure that she and Kody had whatever they needed.
He was a hard worker. Loyal. Hell, Andy was obsessed with her—to this day, he still calls her his dream girl.
She knew who had the power in their relationship. It was her.
Jo pushes away from the door and storms down the hall into her bedroom.
She and Andy have a safe in their bedroom closet where they store all of their documents and the few pieces of jewelry Jo owns, her wedding ring included.
Jo had never been much of a jewelry person.
If she did wear jewelry, she preferred it to be simple and understated.
Nothing that she would worry about snagging, as she spent so much time working with her hands.
The safe opens with a soft click. Jo shuffles through paperwork, searching for the small velvet jewelry bag.
She finds it at the back of the safe, tucked under their passports.
It’s a small bag, holding a couple pieces she’d inherited from her mother and her own wedding ring.
She tips the bag over into her palm, separating the emerald ring from a tangled gold chain.
It’s a unique-looking piece of jewelry. The band is comprised of two twisted strands of gold that separate into four prongs that hold a deep green emerald in place.
When Andy asked Jo to marry him, the words rushed out of his mouth so quickly Jo had to ask him to repeat himself.
They had just started seeing each other again after years spent apart.
A positive pregnancy test sat on the counter between them, so Jo responded with the only answer she could think of.
“Yes, you idiot. What other choice to do I have?” Not the most romantic statement but she’d never been one for fluffy love stuff. Andy didn’t mind. He always said her prickles were what he loved best about her.
“Jo, I promise you, I’ll buy you a diamond as big as your head.”
“You absolutely will not. Any ring like that is likely to get caught when I’m working and I’ll lose a finger.
” Jo made Andy promise no jewelry would be exchanged.
Which is why it was so surprising when she found the emerald ring in Andy’s car days before their wedding.
She was digging under the driver seat for Kody’s lost pacifier when she found it.
When she brought it inside and showed it to Andy, who was bouncing a fussy Kody, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
“Shit,” he swore, scraping his free hand over his face.
“What is this Andy? Where did it come from?”
“It’s your wedding ring, baby. It was supposed to be a surprise,” Andy replied, reaching for her.
“Why was it underneath the seat in your truck?”
“Because I’m an ass. I didn’t get a ring box.”
Andy slipped the ring on her and kissed her on the forehead.
Jo remembers not enjoying the way the ring felt on her finger, but she wore it on their wedding day and then immediately put it in the safe after the reception was over.
She’s worn it a handful of times since then, but it has never felt like her ring.
Maybe there’s a reason for that…This thought fills her with such dread that she dumps the jewelry back into the bag and then slams the safe door shut again.
She can’t help it, but she wishes she hadn’t stormed away from Paige’s before looking at those damned photos.
She’s going to be up all night wondering what was in them.
She decides to take a shower to wash off the horrors of the day before attempting sleep.
Tomorrow, she knew, was going to be especially painful, too.
Andy and his parents would arrive in the morning, and she’d be on her feet all day, catering to everyone’s needs—not to mention making sure everything that needed to happen on the ranch happened. With one less pair of hands no less.