“Fine. Ten thirty.”
Cheyenne gave him a big hug. “Thank you, Daddy.” She drew back. “But what about you? You need to start dating too.”
He could just see his daughter’s brain working, trying to come up with the perfect woman for him to ask out. But there was only woman he wanted to date. Even if the chances of her wanting to see him again were slim to none, he wasgoing to give it his best shot.
“Actually, I already have started dating.”
Cheyenne’s eyes widened. “You started dating? Who? When?”
“Jolene Applegate. A few weeks ago.”
“But you two have nothing in common.”
“Sometimes you don’t have to have a lot in common to make a love connection,” he said. Although Cal now knew that he and Jolene had quite a lot in common. They had both grown up here in Simple and had small town values and beliefs. They were both hard workers and business owners. And they both enjoyed cuddling up next to a fire and talking until the embers burned low. He missed that. He missed it so damn much.
“You love her?” Cheyenne’s voice cut into his thoughts.
He nodded. “I love her a lot. But I let my pride get the best of me and said some hurtful things to Jolene. And she kicked me out of her office.”
“Daaad-dy!”
“I know. I’m an idiot.”
“Occasionally.” She grinned. “But you always come around. So just apologize to her.”
“I don’t think a simple apology is going to work, honey.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Pretty bad.”
They sat there for a moment before Cheyenne perked up. “Emma hurt Boone pretty bad, but she came up with a great plan to get him back. She painted signs all over town telling him how much she loved him.”
Cal shook his head. “I’m not paintingCal Loves Joleneall over the town. I’m not the kind of person who does things like that.”
Cheyenne sent him an annoyed look. “If you want Jolene back, then maybe you need to become one.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Merry Christmas!”Jolene smiled and waved at the tellers as they headed out the front door. Once they were gone, her happy expression drooped to reflect her mood.
She had known this was going to be a depressing Christmas with Charlotte still in Hawaii. But she didn’t realize how depressing it would be. Of course, most of her sadness didn’t have to do with her sister. It had to do with a certain stubborn mechanic who she’d fallen more deeply for than she’d ever thought possible. She had thought she’d loved Kyle. But when he’d broken their engagement, she hadn’t felt like this.
She felt empty. Like all the joy had been sucked out of her life, leaving a hollow, aching shell. The pain was mixed with a heavy dose of self-loathing. How could she have been so stupid as to fall in love with a man who never had any intention of loving her back? She had gone into the relationship with her eyes wide open. She’d known Cal was against marriage and still hurting from his ex-wife. She’d known that all he’d wanted was sexual gratification and maybe a little salve for hiswounded heart. But knowing wasn’t the same as feeling. Your heart doesn’t have a rational brain. It just knows what it feels. And her heart felt warm and full when she was with Cal and cold and empty when she wasn’t.
Before she closed the security gate, she couldn’t help peeking out the door and looking up and down the street for a black Stetson. There were numerous ones, but none with Cal beneath. She finished locking up.
“Everything secure?”
She startled and turned to find her father standing in the doorway of his office. They’d been avoiding each other since he kicked her out of his house. Hanna had helped her pack up her things and cried when she’d left. Her father had hid away in his study and Jolene had caught only a glimpse of him standing at the window as she drove away. At the bank, he always arrived before she did and left well after.
It was a sad, lonely existence.
One she no longer wanted to be part of.
Her heart was broken, but that didn’t mean she was going to hide away like her father. She liked working at the bank—it was part of her family’s history, and she liked loaning people money to follow their dreams. But it was a job. Just a job. There was so much more to life. Cal had given her a taste of what she could have and she couldn’t go back to being a dutiful daughter who spent all her time working. She wanted to live.
And she wanted to love.
