Page 59 of Rocky Mountain Devil

Jeff glanced into the room as if making sure no one had overheard her bluntly spoken words before he turned back and nodded. “I think we both agree we needed to slow down. That’s all I intended. I’m sorry you misunderstood.”

Her brain was on overload. That most certainly wasn’t how she remembered things.

Had she been wrong?”

“Everything I did was because I cared for you,” he insisted.

“Dating Jessica was because you—?” No, definitely didn’t make sense.

“You made it clear you didn’t want me anymore.” He leaned forward. “I cared too much to hurt you more by forcing myself back into your life.”

A cold laugh escaped her. If he’d shown even a fraction of this much attention to her at the time, things might have turned out very different. “But you’re totally trying to force yourself back into my life now. So does that mean youdon’tcare about me anymore? I’m confused.”

Jeff let out a long sigh. “This isn’t helping. The details are too clouded by time, and what happened after isn’t what we need to try to remember.”

Strange—she might not have the same memories of their breakup as him, but she could remember what happened after like it was yesterday.

He didn’t give up. “I’d like it very much if we could wipe the slate clean. I’m going home today, but there’s a good chance I’ll be asked to return. If I come back, I’d like to know we’ll be friends.”

“And that’s all. Friends?”

A smile curled his lips. “I’d like more, but we should let it grow naturally out of our renewed friendship. I think we could be good together, but we can’t even start until we move beyond the past.”

On top of everything else, him totally ignoring the fact she and Rafe were together was rude and annoying.

Laurel folded her arms over her chest. One rude behaviour deserved another. “What happened with you and Jessica?”

He blinked. “Pardon?”

She shrugged. “I saw an engagement announcement, yet here you are, not married. Why?”

Jeff didn’t hesitate. “I called it off.”

Uh. “Why?”

His gaze danced over her face for a moment before he spoke. “You can’t marry someone when you’re in love with someone else.”

The hard knot of pain that formed in her stomach whenever he was around tightened even further. She didn’t want to listen to this. She didn’t want to think about him, or have to waste brain cells deciding if he was being honest, or the most spectacular liar on the face of the earth.

She’d spent two years getting to a new place in her life, and it wasbullshitthat he could march back in and effortlessly drag her emotions back to a darker time.

She got to her feet, and he rose, hope in his eyes.Hell, no—and she didn’t feel one bit blasphemous for thinking it.

“Thank you for telling me. But I really hope you decide the best way to be a true friend is to never step foot in Rocky Mountain House again.”

She turned on her heel and walked rapidly toward the kitchen.

“Laurel…”

She ignored his pleading call, because up until now she’d been polite. She’d been…proper. The sheer amount of control she’d displayed shocked even her.

No name-calling, no swearing, no planting her fists in his face.

But she’d reached the limit to what she could take. And the one thing she really needed was a dose of Rafe. Stat.

Laurel was pulling into the yard at the Angel Coleman’s before she even thought to call Rafe to warn him she was coming over.

She’d beat Dana Coleman home from church, and she hesitated for a moment before parking outside the barn where an oversized truck was awkwardly positioned at an angle.