Kenzie swallowed the cotton that had taken up residence in her throat. Tucker wanted her gone bad enough he’d called his manager.
There’d be no working any of this out.
“The car will take you to your mother’s condo in Vail. I’m getting a charter flight there now. We can figure out the rest this afternoon.”
Kenzie looked to Lori.
Lori was wrong.
Leah had her back, Tucker wasn’t coming around, and Kenzie wouldn’t open herself up to someone again.
“That’d be great,” she heard herself say the words, but inside she felt numb.
Numb was better than pain. Numb was a good place to be.
A weight had fallen on her life, like the winter storm dumping a foot of snow on the mountains. The difference was, for her, the weight wouldn’t melt away when spring came.
Her career was probably over. She wasn’t coming back from the last box office disaster. The man she’d started to fall for would likely never speak to her again.
She’d made an epic mess of things.
And now, it was time to figure out what came next.
* * *
Tucker had gone for a drive.The back road, country Christmas kind—long and winding. And it did nothing to clear his head.
He pulled up to the ranch.
His father sat in one of the rocking chairs Jenny had placed outside the door, whittling a piece of wood. The pile of shavings at his boots said he’d been at it awhile.
“Where in the hell have you been?” he asked, not looking up from the knife and the hunk of pine.
“Getting away. Same as you.” Tucker dropped to the other rocking chair.
Dad whistled out a breath. “Boy, you are an idiot.”
“Say what?”
“Thought you were smarter than this.”
“I didn’t know what she was up to.”
“Not that. The lettingthatdetermine your future. She was taking care of herself. That’s all she’s ever known.”
“I don’t think you understand the ramifications of what she tried to get me roped into.”
“Would it have ended with you two together?”
“Maybe.”
“Then I don’t figure the rest matters.” A thick wood shaving fell at their feet.
“She lied to me.”
His father kept his focus on the wood, smoothing a bit with the pad of his thumb. “When you asked her if she did it, the girl didn’t hedge. She admitted it and tried to explain.”
“You left first,” Tucker pointed out.
