“I can’t keep doing this. I’m going to have to quit my job and leave Dry Gulch.”
“So much more sensible than admitting you were wrong and begging her to come back to you,” Cordell said. “It isn’t like you’d give her a thought once you left town and settled somewhere else. When are you going to admit that you love her and want to be with her come hell or high water?”
“It’s not that easy.”
His brother laughed. “Since when has love been easy? Look at me and Josie. I had to prove to her that I was worthy of her love. Or I could have gotten my back up and made us both miserable because of my huge ego.”
Max shot his brother a warning look. “It’s not about my ego.”
Cordell laughed. “Keep telling yourself that. You broke up with her, telling yourself you were taking the high road. How could she want to make a life with the likes of you? The stepson of an abusive psycho killer?”
“He wasn’t legally our stepfather.”
As if ignoring the interruption, his brother continued. “Then you blamed your job. What if, because of your dangerous job, you got killed or put her in danger again? Come on, Max, you could be hit by a little red sports car speeding through town and die. I could have a beam fall on me during construction over at the hotel.”
He took a sip of the coffee, made a face and said nothing.
“When you broke up with her, you thought you were doing her a favor. Instead, all you did was make you both miserable.”
“She doesn’t seem all that miserable with Donovan Cole,” Max said stubbornly.
Cordell shook his head. “Take the real high road. Admit your mistake. Make it right. Marry the woman.”
“It’s too late. I should have stopped her from selling the café.”
“The only way you could have done it was to admit how you feel about her and give her the one thing she’d always wanted,” Cordell said. “She waited years for you to ask her to marry you only for you to break it off. She’s hurt and with good reason.” He shook his head. “You’re going to need a huge gesture to get her to trust you again, and brother, that’s going to involve a ring.”
“What if she really has moved on?”
“Well, give it enough time and she will,” his brother said. “You don’t believe you deserve to be happy. Seems you got that from our mother.”
“Not the same thing at all,” Max snapped.
“Isn’t it? She married our abusive so-called stepfather and let him almost kill us because she believed she’d made her bed and had to lie in it. Same ridiculous excuse.”
Max took another sip of the strong black coffee, hating that his brother might be right. Their mother had dug her heels in even when she could see what a terrible mistake she’d made.
At the sound of a sports car pulling back up in front of the hotel, he felt a wave of relief. Goldie had come back.
“At least think about what I said,” Cordell said and finished his beer. “I have to go. Josie’s waiting for me.”
Now partially sober, Max couldn’t think about anything but Goldie being in danger. He had to find out what both Donovan and Arnie were up to and how Malcolm Mandeville was involved. He had to save Goldie—if it wasn’t too late.
Even then it was going to take a miracle. He couldn’t imagine a gesture amazing enough to get Goldie back. He felt as if he’d already lost her.
But his brother was right. He had to try to not just save her—but save the two of them. Maybe their story wasn’t over, he thought, feeling the first ray of hope he’d felt in months.
LOLLYMANDEVILLE KNEWsomething was wrong when she returned home the next morning. She found her brother, Bobby, at the dining room table having breakfast alone. She took a seat and helped herself to coffee, then thought of the baby and helped herself to some of the scrambled eggs and a Danish.
Bobby looked nervous so she knew something had had happened in her absence. “I know you listen at Dad’s office door, don’t pretend with me. What is his interest in Dry Gulch?” She knew there was more to it if Luca was excited about it. “Bobby,” she said in warning as she waved her fork at him.
It never took too much persuading to get the truth out of her brother, fortunately. But that was also why she worried he’d never be able to keep her secret.
“Arnie left. Dad bought him a café in some town in Montana. That’s all I know.”
She realized she hadn’t even noticed that Arnie was gone. It wasn’t like she ever went into the kitchen. Clearly someone was cooking back there, she thought, as she started to take a bite of her eggs. “Why would our father do that?”
Bobby shrugged. “Maybe he’ll tell you. He said he wanted to see you as soon as you returned.”
