When she wasn’t thinking about Dylan, she’d been worrying about her friend.
“He called the other day. He said she’s doing well and that he’d let us know when we could visit.”
“It’s so hard to stay away. She must be so lonely.”
“I’ll take you to see her on the weekend,” Dylan told her. “Remember, you can’t talk about any of this to anyone. Including Dare.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
“In the meantime, I’ll try my best to keep you distracted.”
“Hmm, I like the sound of that,” she said as he ran his hand down her body.
***
A week later, Tilly gathered up the mail from the mailbox. She’d just had her first counseling session and she was feeling rather vulnerable and raw. She wished now that she’d taken Dylan up on his offer to take her. But she’d thought she wanted to do this alone.
She’d forgotten how hard it was to open up to a stranger. Her old counselor had moved out of town, so she’d had to start all over with a new one.
She emptied the mailbox, pulling out the two envelopes and a box addressed to her. She walked toward the house. Dare had left three days ago. Thank God. He’d been trying to convince them to take him to Dylan’s nightclub and he’d been growing really suspicious at their refusal. They were going to have to tell her family what sort of nightclub it was eventually. But not before Dylan had her father’s permission to marry her.
They planned to head back to the ranch in a few weeks. She guessed Dylan planned to approach her father again then.
Dylan pulled up the driveway. Tilly paused and smiled at him as he climbed out of his truck and strode over to her. She clasped him tight around the waist as he took her into his arms. She held on when he would have pulled back and after a brief moment he wrapped her up in his arms again. His injured arm had almost completely healed now, and he said it only gave him the occasional moment of discomfit.
“Tough appointment with the counselor?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m feeling a lot better now, though.”
“You should have let me come,” he scolded gently.
“I know. I didn’t realize how tough it would be. Now I
know.” She smiled up at him, desperately trying to keep the tears away, she’d cried enough today.
She let him steer her up the stairs to the house. He unlocked the door and gestured for her to enter. After he’d turned off the alarm, she moved through to the kitchen and grabbed a knife to slice open the tape on the box. The item inside was well protected with bubble wrap. She tore off the bubble wrap to find a jewelry box.
Dylan came up beside her. “What’s that? Who is it from?”
“I don’t know. There was no return address.”
She opened the box, her jaw dropping as she spotted her grandmother’s ring within.
“What? How?” She gaped up at Dylan, who just shook his head as he studied the ring with a grim expression. He pulled his cell out of his pocket.
He tapped at it then held it to his ear. “Rogan. Did you send Tilly a parcel?” He listened for a moment and then hung up.
“Well?” she asked.
“He’s going to call me back in a minute.”
“These stones are fake, right? He had someone make a replica of the ring.” That was the only explanation. Rogan had given her grandmother’s ring to Iker.
Dylan’s phone rang and he answered it. His face grew even more serious.
“Are you serious?” he asked sharply. “And you sent it through the mail? Are you mad?”
There was a pause while she tried to calm her nervous stomach.