“Thanks. Bye.”
She hung up and tucked her phone into her pocket, then smiled at Lucy. “So it’s about dinnertime. Any interest in eating?”
Lucy looked at her for a couple of seconds before offering a quick meow, which could have meant anything but which Ryleigh decided to interpret as a very interested yes.
She carefully lifted the cat off her lap, then went into the kitchen. Lucy followed. Ryleigh didn’t expect her to eat for a day or so but even a few bites would be a good sign.
She dished out half of the small can, then set it on the floor next to the water dish. Lucy sniffed it a couple of times, then started eating. Ryleigh stayed where she was, afraid to move or make a sound. After a few minutes, Lucy had cleaned her plate. She walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room where she began to groom.
“Wow,” Ryleigh murmured, rinsing out the cat dish. “That went well.”
She capped the can and put it in the refrigerator, then looked at what she had for her own dinner. She’d just pulled out a bag ofsalad and some cut up chicken when she heard her phone chime with an incoming message. She glanced at the screen, expecting to have heard from her sister or one of her friends from work. Instead there was a message from Dustin.
Are you seeing someone else? Is that what went wrong?
She crossed to the table and sank into one of the chairs. After rereading the message three times, she put her phone on the table and shook her head.
In the weeks since she’d turned down his proposal there hadn’t been even a whisper of contact between them. Not a call or an email or a text—until today. Until he’d decided to basically accuse her of cheating on him. Another guy? Is that what he thought of her?
Sadness and fury battled. She sucked in a breath and told herself it was always better to take the higher ground.
No. Of course not.
She hit Send, then hoped he didn’t ask her why she’d turned him down, because she didn’t have a good answer. The truth—that she hadn’t been as in love with him as she’d thought—seemed mean-spirited, albeit true.
She glanced back at her phone and watched the three dots disappear.
I thought it might be Alex.
“What?” she said out loud. “Alex? What is that crap? I can’t be friends with Alex because he has a penis? No, it’s not Alex. It’s not anyone.”
She picked up her phone, then put it back down. “Breathe,” she told herself. “Breathe and think.” Because whatever shetexted back would live forever and she didn’t want to say something she would later regret.
Alex and I have only ever been friends, which you know. I’m sad and disappointed that you would think so little of me. If you want to talk, we can do that, but I don’t want to continue to have what is an important conversation via text.
He answered almost immediately.
I don’t want to talk. I just wondered.
She waited but there wasn’t anything else. After a few minutes, she left her phone on the table and retreated to the sofa. While she knew she should probably eat something, she wasn’t hungry anymore. She knew that she’d hurt Dustin and felt bad about that. She’d been so sure that they could make it. But having him think she would cheat on him made her wonder if they’d ever known each other at all.
She settled in a corner to think and possibly sulk, but before she could figure out which she wanted to do, Lucy jumped up and walked over to her. She circled around in her lap a few times, then curled up with her front paws on Ryleigh’s stomach and began making biscuits, all the while purring loudly.
The warm little body, the comforting purr and the way the cat gazed at her with soft, affectionate eyes, eased the worst of her hurt.
“I like you, too,” she said, scratching Lucy under her chin. “We’re going to make this work, you and I. Thanks for being here.”
Lucy offered a slow blink.
At least she’d gotten this right, Ryleigh thought. She’d taken the first step in fixing her life. Now all she had to do was figure out the next one and then make it happen.
“Make her stop, Mom,” Xandersaid as he walked into the bookstore. He dropped his backpack on the floor, then held out his arms as he walked close and hugged her. “I’m tired of her talking about the wedding all the time.”
Jax held on as long as he would let her, then reached for her daughter.
“I can’t help it.” Gentry smiled up at her. “Shawna texted to tell me she and Dad have set the date. They’re getting married the Saturday after the Fourth of July next summer.”
“Are they,” Jax murmured, not sure which was more dismaying—Shawna and her daughter texting or the fact that Shawna was moving forward with a wedding Jax was fairly sure wasn’t going to happen.
