“Jake—” Brian tried to interrupt me.
“Maybe it’s time I accept reality and give up on having Julia here. And that means I might as well buy Harvey’s stallion and be done with it since Twister will never live on my ranch. What?” I barked when I finished talking, trying to figure out why Brian was gesturing frantically behind us. I spun around and came face to face with Julia.
She was no more than three feet away, plenty close to hear what I’d just said. The look on her face was hurt and horrified.
“Is that true?” her voice shook when she spoke. “Have you really been trying to get Twister by convincing me to make my home here? Oh, God, I’d thought you’d given in because you’d seen my point of view. I thought you’d changed your mind about what the ranch needed, but that was all a lie. You aren’t capable of change.”
She wrapped her arms around herself. “You were just biding your time and using me to get to my stallion. Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free, right, Jake?”
I considered lying to her, then I thought about apologizing and trying to make it better. But dammit, I wasn’t sorry. “Not using you, just considering what would be best for both of us. I thought it was a reasonable expectation that we’d be togetherhere—since the house is bigger and I have the larger operation—so, yes, Twister would live on my ranch.”
“And you’d have free access to him?”
“Right. Because you’d bemywife,” I said emphatically. That was what I’d wanted for weeks now, what I’d hoped I could convince her to accept. But she took a step back from me, almost stumbling. I reached for her, but she jerked away from me and held her hands up to ward me off.
“I’m sorry to upset you, but I won’t apologize for believing that we could have a good future together. Here.” I didn’t bring up potentially combining both properties instead of selling her place. I heard my mother ring the dinner bell. “Let’s go eat, and we can talk afterward.”
“No!” she said sharply. “I can’t sit down at the table and pretend in front of your family. I’m leaving.” She turned on her heel and headed for her truck.
I glanced at Brian, who jerked his thumb in her direction. Yeah, I had every intention of going after her, but I wasn’t sure she’d listen to anything I had to say. Inside it felt as though my world was crumbling around me. I wasn’t going to let it fall apart without a fight. Assuming she’d actually hold still long enough for me to talk to her.
THIRTY-TWO
JULIA
Istrode for my truck, keeping my focus aimed forward and refusing to look back. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Laura and the rest of Jake’s family gathered on the porch. Behind me, I could hear Jake’s footsteps. I picked up the pace. I needed to get home, where I could be alone, so I could calm down. If I stayed, I felt sure I’d say something I’d regret.
I almost had my hand on the door handle of my truck before Jake reached me.
“You need to stay, so we can figure this out.” Jake got between me and my means of escape.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I said. “Not now.” Maybe not ever. I’d never felt such rage and hurt. After all the work I’d done over the years to move past everything that had happened with Rodney, I couldn’t believe that I’d gone and done it again. Bought into the pretty little compliments. Believed that he wanted a partnership instead of… what? Another line on his assets list? I ignored every single red flag and that was on me.
“It has to be now,” he insisted.
“Why? So you can spin even more elaborate lies? I can’t listen to that. I won’t. I need to go home and think. And don’t you dare follow me.” I was looking toward the road, prepared to walk home if he kept blocking my truck.
“Julia, you can’t leave. Not like this.” The look on his face was pleading, but that didn’t take away from the harsh command in his voice. “We can go to my office in the barn where no one can hear us, but this has to be settled. Come on,” he said, reaching for my arm.
That was the last straw. I stepped away, staying out of his reach. “Fine. You want to have it out now? Let’s go. Here’s what I have to say to you. I’ve been holding on to the fact that you were flexible about Twister. I wanted to see that as proof that you valued what I said and listened to me. But you didn’t, not really. I was only fooling myself to think we could have something real. That I could trust you.”
I wanted to say that I’d started to care for him deeply and thought he felt the same about me. I held it in, though, not wanting to humiliate myself even further when he didn’t feel the same.
For Jake, this had only ever been about his ranch. He used our personal relationship to pursue his business plan. God, I was such a fool to fall for him. When would I learn?
Pain sliced through me, but I’d deal with it later. I could keep myself together by focusing on his deception and my anger. My grief could come later when I was alone. “You’re quite the actor. I was completely snowed, and all the while you were just biding your time until you got what you wanted.”
“Julia, that’s not true,” he argued. “I listened to you. I compromised.”
“Really?” I started ticking items off on my fingers. “We disagreed about the best way to breed horses. In the end, you got your way.”
“You didn’t have to accept my terms.”
“My alternative was to lose the revenue for Twister, which you know full well I need,” I said. “And that’s just part of the problem. When we go out, you pick where. The dance, the bar. Crowded, loud places that you know make me uncomfortable. The night you wanted to go to the Squeaky Wheel, I suggested stargazing, but you dismissed it before I could fully say anything.” He started to object, but I held up a third finger. “You’ve rejected every baby name I’ve suggested. You won’t even consider them. You just instantly say, ‘Hell no. Not my kid.’”
“I don’t want a kid named Louise.” His hands were on his hips now.
“That was my great-grandmother’s name, and I happen to like it,” I shot back. “Not that my opinioneverseems to matter to you. I should have known that day you carried me into the urgent care center when I told you I didn’t want to go, but I’ve been trying to tell myself that your intentions were good. That you were doing it because you cared about me. I did need to have my ankle seen to.”
