Chapter 13 #2
“I wasn’t meant for this, was never meant to be loved. I wasn’t raised with that genetic predisposition to give my heart away. Damn you. Damn you, Cade Covington,” she whispered to the empty room.
She’d been so cautious, so careful about their emotions, but what had been an unplanned fling had taken on a life of its own.
It revolved around him, around her winning his hard-earned laughter, digging out more frequent smiles, touching him deeply—and then destroying everything with notes that made it clear she’d had ulterior motives for the job.
It was all the proof he’d ever need to validate his original belief that Emma didn’t fit—not on the ranch, not in the community, not in the lifestyle and, above all, not in his life.
Worse, she was terrified it would be the last nail in the emotional coffin where he’d buried his belief in himself as a man of worth. For that, she’d never forgive herself.
She stood, intent on going to him at the same time as a sharp knock sounded. The reverberation had her racing, half-blinded by tears, for the front door. She yanked it open, his name already on her lips.
“No, ma’am. I’m sorry. My name is Alex. I’m with Sagebrush Limousine service. I was contracted to take you to the airport.”
She fought to keep her knees from buckling. The check hadn’t been Cade’s official goodbye.
This was.
CADE VIbrATED WITH unchecked fury as he watched the shuttle driver load Emma’s bags into the large SUV. Emma hadn’t mustered the nerve to come up here and defend herself.
After reading the notes and making a couple of calls to incoming guests, Eli had come to the same conclusion Cade had.
The guests had confirmed that Emma’s firm had solicited them for this event.
And that the firm was bidding on upcoming events for each respective company.
But the bids didn’t involve the ranch. Nor did they involve Emma.
Cade had insisted Eli ask. The clients had been working with her vice president, Michael Anderson.
The man had done the follow-up work on the Covington contract. All of it.
Cade had maintained it was possible Emma didn’t realize what had been done in her absence.
Eli had only scoffed. “This is corporate America, brother. She knew what she was doing long before she got on the plane at LaGuardia.”
“You left her a note, Cade. You told her we wanted her explanation, more specifically that you wanted her explanation, about what her notes meant.” Reagan glared at Eli. “You’re cynical, Eli. That doesn’t mean you have to be a bastard to the woman your brother loves.”
Eli went still even as Cade erupted off the couch. “I don’t love her!”
“Settle down, bro,” Ty said from his reclined position near the hearth, eyes closed and his fingers laced together over his lower abdomen.
He crossed one foot over the other and cracked his eyelids so only slits of his dark brown irises were visible.
“You’re a lot of things, but you’re not a liar.
Ever. Not even to...” He trailed off and he let his head loll to the side so he could look out the front window toward the single lit guest cabin.
“No, especially not to yourself. You’ve always taken the full brunt of the truth.
” He sat up and leaned his forearms on his knees as he faced Cade. “I never thanked you.”
Cade’s heart stopped beating. It must have, because he suddenly couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear over the rushing noise in his ears, couldn’t see past the black spots that dotted his vision.
He managed to croak out a single word. “What?” Feminine hands guided him to sit, but he gently slipped free of their grasp. “What did you just say, Tyson?”
His younger brother’s head dipped low. “You heard me.”
Cade rounded on his eldest brother. “You want to explain?”
Eli glanced at Reagan. She gave a short nod and left the room. Eli looked at Cade, his face traced with the unbearable weight of a burdened conscience. “I didn’t break your trust. He heard us last night, Caden.”
“Half the place heard you last night,” Ty muttered.
“Not helping,” Eli said to his younger brother softly before rising to face Cade. “Ty came to me, demanded answers.” The older man rolled his shoulders and looked away before speaking. “I can’t lie to him, Cade. Not even to salvage your misguided sense of honor.”
“Misguided?” Cade bit out. “You should have come to me, Tyson. I’m the one you heard spill his guts.
” Cade’s chest ached so bad he thought his heart was failing him.
“Why? Why go to Eli when he was never here?” He rubbed the heel of his hand over his heart hard enough to ball up his shirt and chafe skin.
“Hell, Cade. I didn’t—don’t—know how to go to you with this stuff.” Ty’s soft admission seemed painful.
Cade stepped forward and wrapped his little brother in his arms, holding him as they both shook with the effort to divert the tears.
In the end, it was pointless. Emotion overwhelmed the three brothers when Eli’s large hands lay gently on each man’s shoulder.
Wounds long scarred over were opened, memories Cade had buried were resurrected, branded and burned by the love these two men, his two brothers, had for him.
He watched out the picture window as the hired SUV drove away and carried in it the one chance he might have had at setting the rest of his life straight.
Had she come to him, he would have found a way.
Even in the midst of this unexpected heartbreak and renewal, he would have chosen her.
All he’d asked in the letter he’d left for her was that she allow love to be enough, that she make the choice to put him in front of her career.
But she hadn’t.