The Rancher Rejects Her Heart
Chapter One
‘YOU’RE GOING TO LOVEFoxtown,’Lady Geena signs to me, and I’m nodding, smiling, pretending my heart isn’t shattered into a million pieces.
This ring was supposed to mean forever.
But I was wrong.
I put the ring in my other pocket before signing back my reply.‘It’s fine.’
I don’t think any other answer is inappropriate. And anyway, Iamfine. Or I know I will be, even if I can still feel myself fragmenting into a thousand pieces.
But I’m good at this. I’m good at holding it together. I’m good at being professional and capable and invisible until it’s safe to fall apart.
So I smile, accept the water glass from the flight attendant, and buckle my seatbelt while pretending that my world isn’t ending as the jet engines start to roar.
Lady Hampton is talking to the pilot. I can see them through the open cockpit door, and she’s using her voice, which means she’s comfortable with him, which means he probably knows sign language too.
But even as I try to focus on their exchange, I’m also tryingnotto think about how Joseph’s probably boarding his own flight right now.
Does he know I saw?
Does Glenda?
Do they care?
I press my palms against my thighs and focus on my breathing.In for four counts. Hold for four counts. Out for four counts.It’s a technique Dorcas taught me, something about calming the vagus nerve, and I’m doing it now because if I don’t calm down I’m going to have a full panic attack on this beautiful private jet.
In for four counts. Hold for four counts. Out for four counts.
The jet starts moving. We’re taxiing toward the runway, and through the window I can see the terminal getting smaller, and somewhere in that terminal is Joseph, and somewhere in that terminal is my cousin, and somewhere in that terminal is the life I thought I was going to have.
But I’m here. On this jet. Flying toward something unknown with a stranger who showed me more kindness in five minutes than my fiancé had in...
Oh God.
I can’t even remember the last time Joseph was kind to me.
When did that happen? When did I stop noticing? When did I start accepting crumbs and calling it love?
My fingers curl into fists against my lap as I strive to recall the best memories we shared as a couple. But all I remember now was Joseph telling me three years ago that I was boring...and how a part of me had just shrunk in shame because I believed him. He was popular, after all. So of course he’d recognize someone who wasn’t like him?
The engines roar louder, and we’re picking up speed, and my stomach drops as we lift off the ground, and I’m watching New York disappear beneath us, and—
Oh.
Lady Hampton catches my eye from across the aisle. She’s watching me with that same gentle concern, and for a moment I think she’s going to ask if I’m okay, but she doesn’t.
She just offers me a small, understanding smile.
And somehow that’s worse.
Because it means she knows.
She knows I’m breaking.
And that underneath the professional exterior, I’m a complete mess.
