“You should have called,” she said. “I’d have told you on the phone. But you’re welcome to stay for a little bit.”
“What?”
“We have a vacancy. I can book you into a room for a few days. You can get a look at the life that you chose not to have. And then you can go back home. Don’t you have a girlfriend?”
“Well…”
“Did you break up with her?”
“I…” She snorted as she typed on the computer, checking him into a room even though he hadn’t confirmed that he was staying yet. “Not yet.”
“Hedging your bets,” she said.
She wasnotdoing that. She had maybe lost both of the men who had ever been in her life in the span of two days.
Forever.
And she would do it every time, because demanding love from Cody was the best thing for her. And telling Aiden no, when she knew that she could love someone else more, better, more fully, was what was best for both of them.
“Are you going to stay or not?”
“I… sure.”
“Great. Might I suggest you go get some baked goods from your sister? I think you guys have some talking to do.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
She could see that Aiden didn’t fully believe that she was booking him into a hotel and also denying him a chance of them ever getting back together. But he would realize it. Before the end of the day, he would realize it.
When she went up to her room later that night, all she could do was laugh and then cry.
Aiden had come for her. And she wasn’t happy about it. Even funnier, it basically didn’t matter. It was an irritation.
Because what she felt for him wasn’t love. Maybe it hadn’t been for a long time.
But what she felt for Cody was real.
So real that it had fundamentally changed the deepest parts of her.
“But if it’s not the same for him, you can’t go back.”
He had turned her into this. This woman who wasn’t going to take crumbs. Not ever again.
This woman who wasn’t going to take less than absolutely everything, a herd of wild mustangs.
She could only hope that in the end, he decided he was a man who wanted everything more than he wanted his fear.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cody was in a bad mood, and everyone in his family had noticed. But when Lila slyly mentioned during dinner that an Aiden Davis was staying at the Painted Ridge resort, his eyes almost shot out of his head.
“Excuse me?”
“Yep. He’s on the registry. And I saw it and thought… Isn’t that the name of Marlowe’s husband?”
Cody glared pointy daggers at his sister. “You and your little steel trap memory.”
“Plus, you seem in a bad mood. She didn’t leave you for him, did she?”
