Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
“ W hat do you mean, she’s gone?” Weston stared at Cindy.
“She handed off her notes to me right after breakfast and said she didn’t know when she’d be back.”
“No.” Weston rubbed his temples as he stared at Paisley’s second-in-command. He hadn’t seen Paisley yet today, so he’d headed to the small office she shared with Cindy. He’d fully expected to see her neck deep in planning out the next week of activities. Or making phone calls to the vendors or performers for Independence Day.
He had not expected to find her missing. Had he scared her off last night by kissing her?
She’d sent him away.
He’d gone.
He shouldn’t have walked away. He should have known she’d do something rash. Even for Paisley, though, this was crazy. Reckless. It was like she’d caught him as a joke and now needed to run to escape an actual relationship .
But her mother. She wouldn’t have made that situation up, would she?
No. Not Paisley. She might be a bit scatterbrained, but she wasn’t devious. She wouldn’t lead a guy on, not after all the effort she’d put into catching his attention in the first place.
Maybe she’d taken a closer look at him and realized what a relationship risk he was. Rayna hadn’t said goodbye, either. She’d just waltzed out of his life and resurfaced weeks later in California, if the grapevine were to be believed.
If there was anything Weston hated, it was history repeating itself.
“I don’t know what to do !”
With a start, Weston realized he still stood in the family activities office doorway. Cindy didn’t know what to do? Yeah, well, neither did he. At least Cindy hadn’t had her heart stomped on in the process.
“We’ve got a lot of activities on the public-facing calendar for the next few weeks. Should I just cancel those and focus on the Fourth of July? But I don’t even know what to do there. I’m sure Paisley has the stuff on the computer here somewhere, but she doesn’t organize her files the way I would. I have no clue where to look.”
This was what Grandfather had feared, that Cindy couldn’t run the whole programming herself and finish the details for the festival.
Oh… had Paisley asked for time off, and Grandfather hadn’t mentioned it to Weston when they talked earlier? Or had she gone in afterward? Maybe Weston should head back to the office for damage control.
He huffed a not-so-amused laugh at himself. Since when could he mitigate someone else’s problems? Since never.
Not Weston, king of getting by and staying in the shadows.
He eyed Cindy. “You’ve got a couple of other workers, right? Put one of them on the celebration?”
“Just one, Sabrina. And it takes two of us to run any of the programs. I really can’t do it all without Paisley. She might be a bit – you know – but she always manages to pull things together.”
Weston ought to walk away. After all, Paisley had walked first. He should just let the department suffer. Let Paisley take the fall for her impulsive decision to leave without even telling him. Or — he was almost certain — without talking to Grandfather or Tate. Wait. She’d probably talked to Tate. He was acting CEO, after all. Grandfather was just a figurehead these days.
Weston should have gone to his cousin earlier, not his grandfather. He still could.
Although, that bit about walking away was still tempting. So very tempting.
The old Weston would have done that without a backward glance. Cut his losses, much the way Paisley seemed to be doing.
The new Weston had three relationships the old one had never had. He’d come to know Jesus better. Instead of just a vague God who lived way out there and didn’t particularly care one way or another, Weston now knew Jesus as a personal friend.
He also had an extended family that he’d never had before. He had a grandfather who took an interest in him. He had uncles and aunts and cousins in abundance, and they had sort of grown on him. As part of Sullivan Enterprises — even in an insignificant role nearly anyone could fill — he couldn’t let the whole situation crumble if he could save it.
Because, third, he loved Paisley Teele. The realization blindsided him, and he rocked against the door jamb. Seriously? Love? What did he know about love? A whole lot more than he had last year at this time. He’d had practice letting God’s love in, letting a family’s love in, and now, yes, a woman’s.
A woman who’d abandoned him.
But he loved her. How could that even be? He’d been so careful to lock away his heart ever since Rayna, but Paisley — wild, persistent, spontaneous Paisley — had wormed her way in.
And then left him high and dry.
But what if she hadn’t? Would she pick up his calls or answer his texts? He hadn’t tried. She’d been so distraught last night that he’d waited for her cue.
He shouldn’t have left her on the beach when she told him to, but how was a guy to know? Women were a mystery. Paisley was an enigma… and one he still wanted to solve, if only to figure out what it was about him that made women feign interest and then leave him.
Weston was over Rayna, but maybe he wasn’t over what she’d done to him. He wasn’t giving up so easily with Paisley, not until he was absolutely certain she’d left him for good. Hadn’t she said she’d be back? But would she still have a job when she did return? Because Weston could see Grandfather’s point, too.
And Cindy’s. The woman stared at him like he flummoxed her. Welcome to the club.
“It’s Saturday.”
She nodded and huffed a laugh. “Brilliant, cowboy.”
“Let me see what I can figure out for you.” Tate took weekends off, but that didn’t mean Weston couldn’t find him. The house he’d built for his small family wasn’t far from the resort’s hub. “I’ll get back to you by Monday at the latest, okay?”
“What’s it to you?”
Her question didn’t sound impertinent. “Because I think I can help.”
“Right. Because you’re a Sullivan.”
“That, too.” He pivoted away from the door. “Meanwhile, just keep doing the stuff you’ve got scheduled.”
“Not much else I can do, cowboy,” she muttered.
He glanced at the clock in the dining room as he walked through. 10:48 already. It was his weekend off, so Darrell would be managing the stables today and tomorrow with a couple of the other staff members.
“Weston?”
He turned to see his mother coming around the end of the long serving counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. “Hey, Mom.”
“Have you talked to Paisley today?”
“No, not since last night.” Not that Mom needed the details. “Why?”
“I had breakfast with her.” Mom frowned. “ I’ve never seen her so discouraged. I didn’t even know what to say, but I thought you might know what’s going on.”
Weston blinked. “Why?”
“Because I know you two like each other.” Mom’s eyebrows peaked. “Right?”
“Well, uh, yeah. Kind of. But Cindy said she’d left the ranch.”
“I was afraid that might happen. Did she tell you about her mother?”
Weston nodded. But why had Paisley confided to his mom about hers? Not that he was unwilling to share the only person who’d always believed in him.
Mom sidled closer and lowered her voice. “Are you going to go get her?”
Paisley shoved her backpack into the overhead bin. She’d scored the last seat on a direct flight to Phoenix with minutes to spare.
No doubt she’d be second-guessing herself all day — all week — but she was committed now. She texted Kait her ETA and turned off her phone.
There’d been no texts or missed calls from Weston. Why would there be? They were barely an item, despite those kisses last night. He’d move on quickly enough now that she’d proved to him how flaky she was beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Which was absolutely not what she wanted, but it seemed she couldn’t have everything she wanted. She’d pretended she could for the past several years. Pretended she loved the excitement of seasonal work and the swing from being a ski instructor in Colorado to offering activities for families at the Montana ranch.
She did kind of thrive on the stimulation, but she’d thought she was ready for a different sort of challenge, the kind where she figured out how to stick to one job — one man — for a lifetime.
But she wasn’t that sort of person. Not with the mess her family life was. Weston may have lost his dad a few years back, but he had a stable mother and brother. Now that they’d connected with their extended family, the cowboy was set for life. No guy like him would want to be saddled with a mess like her when he had all the money and connections and security that anyone could dream of. Now that he was out of his shell, he’d have all kinds of great women throwing themselves at him.
He had her to thank for that. Yay, her. She dashed tears away with the back of her hand, hoping her two seat mates wouldn’t notice. The suit by the window already had his ear plugs in and his laptop out. He was tapping away at whatever was important in his life.
But the middle-aged woman in the aisle seat leaned closer. “Are you all right, dear?”
Paisley tried for a smile, but it was probably more like a grimace. “I will be.”
“Did he break your heart?”
What? Why was the woman still talking? “No.” But the word ended on a hiccup. So not convincing.
“There’s a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
“I don’t have any brothers.” Paisley was not in the mood to be preached at. She’d said she’d pray about the situation, but she hadn’t had time. Fine. She hadn’t taken time, because what she ought to do had been so clear.
Right. She knew she had to run off from the best job she’d ever had, from the only guy she might have fallen in love with, both without a word? Well, she wasn’t due back into the office until Monday morning, so she had time to contact Mr. Sullivan. She had no such excuse for leaving Weston.
“The brother I’m talking about isn’t a sibling. It’s Jesus. He invites us into His family, and then He never leaves us. It’s amazing, really.”
“I know Him.” Paisley thumbed on her phone. It might not be able to send or receive signal in flight, but she had games she could play to while away the hours. Maybe the woman would finally clue in that she didn’t want to talk.
“Oh, I didn’t know we were sisters!” The woman patted Paisley’s arm.
Paisley shifted slightly away, but she also didn’t want to bump her other seatmate and draw his attention. One side was more than enough. Why were airline seats so narrow?
She forced a smile at the woman. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me,” the woman confided. “I was so determined to do life my own way, if you know what I mean. But I was miserable and lost. Life had no purpose. Oh, I’d think I’d found it here and there, but then I realized I’d latched onto yet another worldly thing that could never satisfy. More parties. More drinking. A better job. A better husband.” She grimaced.
Sounded like Mom, other than the husband part. Mom stuck with temporary hookups and never even pretended otherwise.
Paisley would bet her bottom dollar Mom had ADHD, too, and that was rather terrifying. Paisley had gone down some rabbit trails on TikTok and discovered all kinds of fascinating things she probably didn’t want or need to know.
“You’re not running from anything, are you?” the woman persisted. “Because Psalm 139 says we can’t run from God. ‘Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there!If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morningand dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,and your right hand shall hold me.’”
Was Paisley running from God? She didn’t think so. She knew He would never leave her or forsake her. She was running from hard things. She was also running to them, but that wasn’t anything this stranger needed to know.
Still, maybe if she turned to her Bible app instead of Woodoku, the woman would think she’d won and leave her alone. Couldn’t hurt to give that a shot. Psalm 139, she’d mentioned?
Paisley’s eyes blurred over verse 17: How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!How vast is the sum of them! And then there were the final two verses: Search me, O God, and know my heart!Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting!
Did she want God to test her heart? No… but also, yes, because she knew He loved her. Knew she wanted that ‘way ev erlasting.’
Had she possibly been too hasty in her decision this morning?
That was like asking if Jane was her middle name. Like asking if she had ADHD.
Like asking if she’d fallen for Weston Kline.
Yes, yes, and more yes.
Jane was too plain a label for a girl like Paisley. Impulsive might as well be her middle name. She’d done it again, and this time… would there be a do-over? Would her boss give her another chance? Would Weston?
But she still needed to see her mother for herself.