Page 20

She could imagine that man not communicating with...anyone.

“Well, he is here. And I’m sorry that I didn’t realize that that might be shocking information.”

“It isn’t your fault. My brother is thirty-one years old. He can certainly manage himself if he wants to. He’s been to war. He’s just... I don’t know. I’m hoping that it all gets better now that he’s here. And maybe he needed a few days to accept the fact that he’s back and people will be reporting on his movements. Just like old times.”

“The local girls practically put out APBs on him. Tracking his every move.” She tried to lighten the conversation because Lydia was upset and Rory hated that.

Lydia looked at her for a little too long. They had a pact not to ever mention The Diary Incident, and Rory stared back as if daring her to break the pact.

Lydia looked away. “Yeah. Basically.”

“You’re worried about him.”

“Of course I am,” said Lydia.

They ordered; Lydia got a steak, while Rory opted for a hamburger. It didn’t benefit you to get crazy at a small-town diner. Best to stick with the basics. That was something else that Rory would enjoy about Boston. The food possibilities. In that brief moment she had lived in the city when she’d gone to college, she had discovered so much food. It had been her absolute favorite thing. She and her sisters were foodies by nature. They baked, they made preserves, they grew their own food. It was part of who they were.

But she had limited exposure to broad varieties of food, food from other countries, fusion foods, modern cuisine...

Here they had one diner. And you could order a hamburger.

But she put her focus back on Lydia.

“I can keep an eye on him. Make sure that he’s okay. I mean, he’s going to be at the ranch until even after I leave. I can always...treat him a little bit special.”

If it would make Lydia feel better, she was all for it.

It has nothing to do with you fixating on him?she asked herself.

No.

She wasn’t fixating. She was...getting ready for a whole different life, she wasn’t going to backslide all the way to a crush on Gideon Payne.

But the truth was she cared about him. She always had. He had been there for her when she needed him. If she had the chance to be there for him now, why wouldn’t she be?

“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?”

“Since he left the hospital. After that, everything with him and Cass fell apart and...and then he kind of ghosted everyone.”

“Do you know what happened?”

Rory didn’t personally put a ton of stock in marriage. And she could admit that that was part of why she hadn’t applied some deep meaning to the fact that he had gotten divorced. People got divorced. All the time. It didn’t mean anyone was evil.

It was funny she felt that way. Because her sisters were in marriages that would most definitely last. She had no doubt about it. They were uniquely suited to each other. And all around Four Corners that was the case. Her sister Alaina’s best friend, Elsie, was married, and Rory couldn’t imagine Elsie and Hunter with anyone but each other. Ditto for the other couples on Four Corners Ranch.

But happy endings were only really guaranteed in books. And Rory wasn’t foolish enough to believe they were commonplace outside of them.

“I’m sorry,” Rory said. “I think I’m a little bit cynical about marriage because of my parents. But your parents were married until...”

“Yeah. Until my dad died. And they would’ve been married so much longer if he hadn’t gotten sick. They were forever kind of people. And I know it never occurred to Gideon that he wouldn’t be. I mean, that’s why you get married. He could’ve slept around. He could have had any woman he wanted. He pretty much did when he lived here. And I think did for a while when he was in the military. Not that I want to think about that, but you know...”

“Yes. They made it impossible for you not to think about it.”

“Yes. Anyway. It’s that exactly. But yeah, I think it devastated him. The end with Cassidy. And... I just don’t even know what all his problems are. Because he closed us out completely. And now he’s coming back. Almost like nothing happened.”

“Maybe to him it didn’t.” She thought about her dad. The way he called them periodically as if he hadn’t abandoned them. As if they didn’t have very good reasons for being angry with him. He liked to act like nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t cheated on their mother. He hadn’t left them when they were vulnerable teenage girls.

Hadn’t nearly broken poor Quinn. Hadn’t tormented their mother with his infidelity to the point where she’d become so impossible to live with that Fia had run away for a while.