Chapter 35
ELLIE
“I heard he went back to New York,” Raleigh whispered to Kasey, glancing back at me and ducking her head sheepishly as she continued to rifle through the dresses in my shop.
“Because his girlfriend called,” Kasey hissed. “Apparently, he’s getting back together with her. They were engaged, and he broke things off with her because she cheated on him.”
“Figures he’d go back to her.” Raleigh looked over at me, a small frown pinching her face. It was almost as if she felt bad that she was gossiping about me.
Not that it mattered. Ryder and I weren’t together anymore, and while I thought it was strange that he would leave his practice so soon after setting it up, it didn’t really surprise me.
After all, there was nothing holding him here. I wasn’t sure he ever really wanted to be here. It had been two weeks since he left, and I hadn’t heard a word about him until today.
Considering the source, I couldn’t be sure any of it was true.
The bell chimed over the door, and Delaney rushed in, followed quickly by Josie.
“He’s back!” Delaney shouted, grabbing my arms as soon as she reached me, her eyes wide with excitement. “He just got into town, and he’s coming here!”
“What?” I asked, sure I had heard her wrong.
“He’s got flowers and chocolates,” Josie exclaimed.
“And a horse-drawn carriage!”
I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of what they were saying. “You guys have to stop listening to gossip,” I said, walking around the counter to busy myself and hide the shaking of my hands at the prospect of seeing him again.
But there was no point in believing any of it. I knew better than anyone how quickly gossip spread in this town.
“It’s not gossip!” Delaney gasped, grabbing me by the sleeve and practically pulling me over the counter. “He’s here, and he’s coming here right now!”
Her eyes quickly examined me, and then she flipped out. “Just look at you! Why didn’t you do your hair or makeup? You look like a hobo!”
“It’s not like she knew he was coming,” Josie said, running around the counter, grabbing my bag. “She must have something in here. We can do her hair or—”
Her hand stalled in the bag as the bell over the shop chimed again. I held my breath as I looked up right into the devastatingly handsome eyes of the man I was hopelessly in love with.
Unwanted tears filled my eyes the moment I saw him, and pain carved through my chest. Why did I have to feel so much for him when he would only break my heart?
“There’s nothing we can do now,” Josie hissed.
“Fix her hair!” Delaney whispered.
“He’s standing right there!” Josie slipped her a lipstick. “Here, put this on her.”
Delaney slinked in front of me, crouched down as her hand slowly rose up to my lips, smearing lipstick all over my face. “Shit! That didn’t work! Wipes! I need wipes!”
An amused grin slid over Ryder’s lips as he watched my best friends trying and failing to discreetly doll me up for him.
“Delaney!” I hissed, slapping her hand away as she tried to wipe my lips with a tissue from her crouched position.
“Sorry, but it’s everywhere!”
“What are you doing here?” I finally found the courage to ask.
His eyes flicked to Kasey and Raleigh, but he didn’t seem all that concerned that they were here.
“I came back for you.”
My lips parted, but words did not come out. Instead, I just stared at him, holding myself back from running into his arms. I had missed him so much over the past few weeks.
“New York isn’t for me,” I finally said.
“I’m not going back. I just had to finish a few things.” He dropped a bag I hadn’t seen on the floor, then strode toward me.
“Did you just get in?”
“Came right here from the airport.”
“So, no horse-drawn carriage,” Kasey smirked.
“My Ellie doesn’t need that stuff,” he said, his eyes locked on mine.
My Ellie.
Swoon. Not that I could show him how much his words soothed the crack in my chest that grew with every day he was gone.
“But I’d gladly give it to her if she wanted it.”
He took a step forward, and just that slight movement had my walls climbing higher than ever before. He was here, saying all the right things, but I wasn’t sure I could trust any of it. I didn’t want to go back to the way things were, and from everything I knew about him, he couldn’t offer me more.
“You look good, Ellie.”
I wanted to believe his words, but the truth was, I’d put on ten pounds since I broke things off with him. I was the most uncomfortable I’d ever been in my life, but the only way I’d found to comfort myself these past two weeks was through food and wine.
And I’d had a lot of it.
“You should leave,” I said, keeping my voice firm.
“I came here because I realized something.”
With every word, he came just a little closer. My heart rate kicked into overdrive. He couldn’t be here. He couldn’t keep doing this to me.
“Ryder, there’s nothing more to say.”
“I’m falling for you, Ellie.”
Several gasps came from around me, but it was the one that slipped past my lips that had the left corner of his mouth kicking up.
“I was stupid when I walked out on you. I thought that if I shared pieces of myself with you, that you’d end up just like her, working your way under my skin until I couldn’t see straight. So I refused to give you all of me, and in the end, it made you hate me.”
Except I could never hate him. Not really.
“Say something.”
I struggled to find the words, to think of anything besides how hard my heart was pounding in my ears, making me dizzy. I couldn’t give in to him. Not just because he said he was falling for me.
“These are all just pretty words,” I finally said, spinning away from him, pressing my hand to my stomach as it revolted from the very idea of turning him away.
“I don’t get along with my father. We’ve pretty much never gotten along.
He wanted me to work the ranch, and I wanted to escape, to have a different life than the one he always planned for me.
And with every day that passed, he grew angrier with me.
You already know I planned to escape with Krista.
That was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for him.
When I left for college, he pretty much wrote me off.
“And my mother has always defended him, so I don’t really get along well with her either. They came out to visit me one time in New York, and my father made it perfectly clear that he thought I was wasting my life. That’s when I introduced them to Bianca, my girlfriend at the time.”
I could no longer pretend I wasn’t hanging on his every word. I spun and waited for every morsel of information he would give me, and so did everyone else in the shop.
“I met her in London on a work trip. We fell in love, and when I asked her to come to New York, she agreed. And for a long time, it felt like everything was perfect. What I couldn’t see was that she was using me for what I could give her.”
“What a bitch,” Delaney muttered.
“She had a way of manipulating me. All she had to do was bat those pretty eyes at me, and I would give her anything she wanted. And it would have continued to work if my boss hadn’t asked me to defend a rapist.”
“He didn’t!” Josie shouted.
“You told him no, right?” Delaney asked. “I mean, of course you did, because you ended up here. That’s why you were fired. It all makes sense now.”
Josie chimed in excitedly. “He stood on his principles, and that’s why he was fired. I knew it had to be something like that.”
“The town wasn’t that far off,” Delaney agreed.
“You didn’t do it,” I whispered, finally breathing for the first time since he walked into the shop.
“I couldn’t. No matter what I had done as a lawyer, that was pushing it too far.”
“And Bianca didn’t like that, did she?” Delaney scoffed.
“Well, of course not. She wanted all the pretty things.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting a man to support you,” Kasey sniped at Josie.
“There is when you’re using him for money instead of supporting him when he’s clearly doing what he feels is right!”
“That’s why you didn’t want to get close to me,” I whispered, taking a step toward the counter, hating myself for putting this barrier between us.
It didn’t matter. He moved quickly until he was just on the other side.
“I was stupid to think you could ever be like her. And I swear, if you—”
I pushed up onto the counter and flung myself into his arms, kissing him hard. Delaney and Josie cheered, letting out loud whoops, which I was positive would attract the attention of every single person on the street.
When I pulled back and looked into Ryder’s eyes, I saw relief and love matching my own feelings. God, it had been hell without him.
“So, this is over, right?”
His smile dropped and he took a step back. “But I thought…”
“No! I mean, the distance. You staying away and me pretending I want you to.”
“Oh, thank God,” he breathed, dropping his head. “I thought you were telling me to leave, which would be really shitty after you kissed me like that.”
“I’m not letting you go anywhere,” I whispered.
Kasey and Raleigh stormed out of the shop in disgust, no doubt about to spread gossip and rumors around town just to make my life difficult. But I suddenly didn’t care what anyone else said. I had Ryder, and that was all that mattered.
“Josie, I need you to watch the shop for me,” I said, not taking my eyes off Ryder as he tugged me off the counter and scooped me up into his arms.
“Go get ‘em, Tiger!” she cheered. “I mean, something a lot more sexual and less like a baseball reference!” she shouted.
Ryder pushed the door open and stepped out into the bright sunlight, and waiting outside was a horse-drawn carriage with flowers and chocolates.
“I may have fibbed about getting you all that stuff.”
Giggling, I buried my face in his neck, embarrassed as people started coming out of the shops, staring at us.
“You didn’t have to.”
His chocolate eyes met mine in earnest. “You deserve it, and everything else I can give you.”
When he kissed me, I blocked out all the whistles and cheers. I didn’t expect it to end like this, or to ever find a man as good as Ryder, but now that I had him, I was never letting him go.
“They don’t make men like you anymore,” I said, grinning up at him.
“That’s because God made me special for you.”
I pretended to gag at his cocky expression, but before I could chastise him for his horrible pickup line, he carried me over to the carriage and set me inside.
“How about a ride around town, Ms. May?”
“And where are we going?”
“To see the site of the new Wild West theme park.”
He took the reins and cracked the whip, getting the horses moving.
“Are you serious?”
“It was Jeff’s idea. I’m just helping out.”
Wrapping my arm through his, I laughed, resting my head on his shoulder. “Sure you are.”