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“Then Grandma said she wanted to see me happy and settled down with someone. I couldn’t imagine that someone being anyone but you. So yes, I had an ulterior motive to asking you to be my girlfriend. Everything I told you was true, though. Grandma loves you. I couldn’t see asking anyone else to do this because I couldn’t imagine even pretending to be interested in another woman. I thought if this didn’t work then I’d give up. If this didn’t work nothing would.”

“Well, it worked. Enough to get me into bed, anyway.” That wasn’t quite fair or even accurate. But she didn’t care. At this point she was so hurt and angry everything seemed like Nate’s fault. Damn it, he’d made her fall in love with him. Even now, knowing what she knew, knowing the whole thing was a ploy, she still loved him. What was wrong with her?

“You know it wasn’t all about sex. Damn it, Damaris, I love you. I want to make love to you. Not just get it on with you.”

She brushed that aside as if it didn’t matter. “You never intended to come clean, did you?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. Maybe if you hadn’t flipped out when I told you I loved you. But there’s no point in thinking about that now, is there?”

She wanted to cry and there was no way she would allow herself to do that in front of Nate. “We’re done here. I’m leaving. Please don’t come by or call me. You’ll have to think of something to tell Grandma K on your own. That’s your problem, not mine.”

He stared at her while she finished getting dressed. “I don’t believe this.”

“Believe it.”

“You’re breaking up with me?”

“No. You can’t break up a fake relationship. I’m calling a halt to this charade.”

“I love you. That’s not a charade. It’s as real as you can get. But you don’t want to believe it, do you? You’re too scared to admit that what we have is real.”

Her throat hurt from holding back tears. Why did he have to say it? Why couldn’t they have gone on the way they were? “Goodbye, Nate.” She walked out the door.

She managed to get in her truck and drive far enough to be out of Nate’s sight before she broke down. She pulled over to the side of the road and let the tears come. She wasn’t close to being finished when someone rapped on her window. Raising her head, she saw Ginny Clayborne. Great. Now the cops are out to get me.

Damaris rolled down her window. “Did I do something wrong, Officer?”

Officer Ginny Clayborne had short, reddish-brown hair, a dusting of freckles, and classic features. She was probably around Damaris’s age, medium height, slim, and looked like the girl next door but Damaris had heard that the woman was a crack shot and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Officer Clayborne had come to Whiskey River from the Dallas police department a few months before, so Damaris knew her but not well.

Embarrassed to be caught not simply crying but bawling her eyes out, Damaris wished she’d waited until she was on the ranch to have her breakdown.

“No, not a thing. Can I help? I wondered if you were having car problems.”

“Oh. No. I’m uh—oh, hell.” She sniffed and wished she had a tissue. There was a rag she used to wipe the windshield in the side pocket of the truck. It would have to do. Belatedly remembering what not to do when a cop pulled you over she said, “Can I get this rag out of the pocket here so I can blow my nose?”

“Sure.”

She did so, hoping the rag wasn’t dirty enough to leave grease or something on her face. Couldn’t be helped, though. What was a little grease compared to a humiliating breakdown? “I’m okay. I was upset so I pulled over.”

She nodded. “Very wise. I wish more people did that instead of driving badly. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help you?”

“Not unless you know what to do to a totally infuriating man who broke your heart.”

She smiled sympathetically. “Afraid not. But if you figure it out let me know.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nate had a free day the following Monday. He’d been putting off seeing his grandma because he knew he was going to disappoint her when he told her what had happened. But he couldn’t avoid her forever.

“I was hoping you’d bring Damaris with you,” Grandma said when he showed up. “Is she working?”

“I don’t know.” He set the food—burgers from the Diner along with their signature sweet tea—down on the table and went to get setups for both of them.

Grandma peered at him when he returned. “Are you all right, Nate?”

“No.” He might as well tell her the truth. Obviously it had been a stupid idea from the get-go. “Damaris and I broke up.”

“Oh, no!” She put down her hamburger and placed a gnarled hand on his forearm. “Why? You’re crazy about each other.”