With that undecipherable response, Trish felt the need to explain herself further. “I was with Wade. Out at that cabin? I think I got invited along by default.” Perhaps it’d been quicker to bring her along than explain to her why they shouldn’t.
Chet capped his cup with a lid. “You best be careful around Wade. He’s left more than one broken heart in his wake.”
Trish swallowed, unsure what to say to the ominous warning. Especially in this setting. No one had mentioned old girlfriends. Even though she’d brought up Henry multiple times, Wade had never done more than let her believe Kate was his wife. “He, uh, gets around?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
“He’s a solid guy. Just likes being on his own.” Chet nodded at her before he walked away with his guilty pleasure, leaving Trish frozen and unsure what to do with that bit of information.
* * *
Wade
The timing was all wrong.Wade couldn’t bring up Bill’s call now, as much as he wanted to. With any luck, Kate’s whole early labor thing would distract Grams and make her miss whatever short deadline she had to give him her decision. The books hadn’t looked great, but they hadn’t looked hopeless either. There were things they could do to make ends meet.
“Everything all right there?” Grams patted the hand he’d draped over the arm of the waiting room chair. “You seem a little distracted.”
“Fine.”
“It’s Trish, isn’t it?” A mischievous twinkle lit up her eyes.
“What? Grams . . . no.” Wade had to put an end to whatever matchmaking fantasy his grandma had cooked up. It didn’t matter that Trish made him smile when he wanted to be sour, or that she seemed to take to animals almost as well as he did, or even that the anticipation of another kiss made his pulse erratic.
He’d gotten too close to the edge of a cliff. Allen’s interruption had saved him from taking a plunge he couldn’t return from. Two more sunrises and she’d be gone for good, and it would get easier to forget she’d ever tempted him to lose himself completely. “Look, she’s a nice lady. But Grams, you have to stop this whole setup thing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Grams put a hand on her chest. “You were merely her chaperone this week. The cowboy inspiration for her next novel. I just helped bring that inspiration to life for her . . . throughyou.”
Wade let out a little laugh. Soon, they were both laughing so hard tears came to their eyes. “So, you admit it!”
“I didn’t draw those crayon hearts, though!” Lina teased.
“Yeah, found out that was Allen.”
“Look Wade, you can’t be afraid to open your heart. Yes, it hurts to someday have to let them go. But I wouldn’t change the time I had with your grandfather for anything. If I had been too afraid of losing him, you wouldn’t even be here right now.”
Wade squirmed uneasily in his seat. He wasn’t ready to have a conversation like this. “She goes home Sunday. Nothing changes that.” It didn’t matter how many times someone told him it was okay to let himself fall for someone, fall completely. For him, no reward outweighed the risk. Not after all the grief he’d witnessed in his lifetime. Grief caused by loving someone too much. If he was consumed with grief, who would run the ranch? Certainly not his greedy uncle.
Grams patted his hand again. “You could change that.”
It was time to change the subject, and Wade knew what would do that quicker and more successfully than anything. “I heard Bill wants to sell off the north pasture.”
The demeanor in Grams’ face changed immediately from light and heartfelt to cold and rigid. “Eavesdropping on my phone conversations, Wade?”
“Not intentionally, no.” But when the stern expression didn’t soften, Wade knew he had to come clean. “Bill called that day before the photoshoot. Told me all about his plan. I . . . may have forgotten to mention it.”
“Wade James Holbrook!” Lina clapped her hands against her legs. “This isn’t your decision to make. Or your information to keep from me.”
With a quick glance around the waiting area, hoping they hadn’t invited unwanted attention, Wade lowered his voice in reply. “Grams, I saw the books. You left them out.” His words started to tremble the more he spoke, so he stopped, hoping desperately that Grams would tell him he was wrong. That he saw something unfinished or miscalculated. “Things don’t look good.”
“Well, that’s because they aren’t.”
Wade’s stomach tangled at the confirmation of what he’d feared most. Here he’d been sinking all his extra cash into a cabin, toying with the idea of an addition, when all along he should have been using that money to help Grams. No point in fixing up a cabin on a piece of land they couldn’t afford to keep. “So, you’re going to sell it, then?”
“I haven’t made up my mind,” Grams said. “I have two more days.”
Wade felt an ounce of hope in that admission. Two days might just be enough to figure out an alternative.
“It’s a good offer. Double what I’d ever get for it otherwise. And if I don’t take it,” Grams added, “Bill says the offer’s off the table for good.”
Chapter 18
