Talon isn’t here. He left a little while ago as well. I have no idea where he went, and I didn’t ask. Not my business.
Brianna finally leaves, and the house is empty. Darla apparently has Sundays off, so only Jade and I are around. I have no idea where she is. She hugged and cried and waved Brianna off, and then she disappeared.
Tomorrow I begin my internship.
Tomorrow I work with Dale.
Still his voice haunts me—colors my whole existence, literally.
He’s so close, just at the guesthouse. A short walk from the main house.
But he doesn’t want to see me. He probably thinks I fucked Brock last night. Not that I owe him any explanation, but I want to explain. Need to explain that I didn’t do anything. I let him kiss me, but I stopped it. It went no further.
I don’t want to kiss Brock.
I only want to kiss Dale.
Maybe it’s time we have it out. I put on my running shoes. I’ll just jog the half mile to the guesthouse. If Dale isn’t there, I’ll go to the vineyards. I have a car to use. Talon and Jade gave me the use of one of theirs while I’m here. They’ve been great.
I head to the kitchen to leave by the back door—
“Hey, Ashley.” Jade is sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee.
“Oh. I didn’t realize you were in here.”
“I need a little more caffeine,” she says.
I nod. “I hear you’re the coffee connoisseur around here.”
“Oh, yeah.” She laughs. “When I first came here, Marjorie told me the Steels made such amazing coffee. It was like brown water! I educated them quickly. I’m in charge of all coffee for the Steel family.”
“Marjorie is Talon’s sister, right?”
“Yeah. I’m sure it’s hard to keep everything straight.” She cocks her head. “Funny, I was your age when I came here. Marj and I were best friends all during college. I came here the summer after I finished law school.” She closes her eyes. “Wow. I haven’t thought about this in years.”
“My age, huh?”
“Yeah. Sit, please. You want some coffee?”
“I don’t drink coffee.”
“What?” Jade drops her mouth into an O in mock surprise.
I can’t help but laugh. She’s so sweet and likable, just like Diana. “Never did like the stuff. I’ll get some juice.”
I may as well sit with Dale’s mom for a few minutes. Maybe I’ll learn something. I grab the pitcher of juice out of the refrigerator and pour myself a glass. They’ve made me feel so at home that I think nothing of helping myself after being here only two days. I sit down at the table next to Jade and take a sip of the tangy beverage.
“I look at you,” Jade says, “and I see myself twenty-five years ago. Except you haven’t been left at the altar, I hope.”
My eyes shoot open. “Left at the altar?”
“Yes. I was supposed to get married that summer, but my fiancé didn’t show up to the wedding.”
“But you’re…you.”
She smiles. “He had his own issues, and obviously it turned out for the best. Marj invited me to spend the summer here on the ranch. I actually stayed in the same room you’re staying in.”
“Dale’s room,” I say more to myself than to her.
“Yes, it was Dale’s room when he lived here. Now it’s a guest room again.”
“So you came here and met Talon?”
“Yes. Quite a shocker after being humiliated on my wedding day.”
“A shocker?”
“Oh, yes. Everything turned out great in the end, but Talon and I had a rocky start.”
“Really?”
“Really,” she says. “Talon was…difficult to reach at first.”
I’m not sure what to say to that, so I take a drink of juice.
“I was so young, like you are. I’d been dumped in the worst way possible, and on top of that, I was waiting for my bar exam results, which any lawyer will tell you is nerve-racking. Then, right into the middle of my turmoil walks this amazing, beautiful, troubled man.”
Troubled? Am I supposed to ask for clarification there?
But Jade continues, “He was like wildfire, and I was the moth drawn to the flame.”
I so get it. “You were my age, huh?”
“Yes. And Talon was ten years older.”
“Thirty-five.” Again, more to myself than to Jade.
Dale’s age. Dale and I are the same ages as Jade and Talon were when they met.
She smiles. “And now here you are. Diana’s friend. Twenty-five years old. Funny how things come full circle.”
Again, I’m not sure what to say.
She sighs and then takes a sip of coffee. “I haven’t thought about those days in a long time, but seeing you brings it all back as if it were yesterday. It’s almost like history’s repeating itself.”
“Repeating itself?”
“Oh,” she laughs. “I know you weren’t left at the altar. You’re not running away from anything by coming here. You’re running toward something. Your internship. Your career. And you’re not meeting a young Talon Steel.”