“Uh, of course we can. You okay, Bree?”
&n
bsp; More silence.
“Come on, talk to me. What’s goin’ on?”
“I’ve given this a lot of thought…”
Jace felt sick to his stomach. Was she really about to say what he thought she was?
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Jace, please, hear me out.”
“What’s happened, Bree? I thought we were both workin’ out our shit so we could see what might happen between us. You tellin’ me I was wrong about that?”
“Here we go, Jace. Do you realize what you’re doing?”
“What am I doing, Bree?” Sarcasm dripped from each word he spoke.
“Forget it. Why do I need to say anything at all? As usual, you’ve got it all figured out. Have a great life, Jace. Maybe we’ll bump into each other over the holidays.”
This time Jace recognized the silence for what it was. Bree had disconnected the call.
That hadn’t gone the way she’d wanted it to at all. She’d wanted to explain that she’d given it a lot of thought and realized how little they had in common. If she’d had the chance to explain, maybe he would’ve understood. Then again, maybe not.
The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them. It was a quote from Maya Angelou, and this wasn’t the only time she was reminded of it. When she met Jace, he was overbearing, unwilling to listen to the opinions of those around him, and generally, a pain in the ass. Just the way he’d been a few minutes ago.
“I gotta get out of here,” Jace said to Tucker.
“Hold up a minute.” Tucker had Cochran in his arms, and the baby was almost asleep. He handed him to Blythe.
“What’s goin’ on?” Tucker asked.
“I’ve been spending some time with Bree. You know, Blythe’s sister.”
Tucker nodded his head.
“I think she just dumped me.”
“Ya think?”
“Nah. I don’t think. I know. Shit.”
Tucker’s head was down. “You wanna run.”
“Yeah, I do. Not far though. I just gotta get away from all these babies and all this damn…happiness.”
Tucker laughed. “Come on, bro. Let’s ride instead.”
Jace followed Tucker to the barn. “You think we should ask somebody before we take one of their horses?”
“We’re takin’ two. And no, we’re good.”
They didn’t talk for most of the ride. When they did, Jace spoke first.
“I brought Irene out here on a day that she was fixin’ to run herself.” He laughed. “I got dumped that day too.”