Amber glanced at his friends like she wanted their input first. Then she looked at Colt with pity clouding her eyes. “The thing is, when you were still passed out this morning, I took it upon myself to drive up to cabin B42. I was being nosy because you seemed upset, and wondered if there was something I could do to help you out.”
“I’m sure Avery loved that, having you butt in that way.” Colt snorted, adding that to the list of things he had to apologize for.
“Well, that’s the thing, Colt. Perhaps she would have, if she had been there. But she’s not,” Amber stated.
His heart stopped in his chest. “What do you mean? Is she all right? Was she out hiking?”
The four of them looked at each other, and it was Duncan who finally replied. “She’s gone, man.”
“Gone? As in dead?” The room spun.
“No. As in she left the ranch, brother. The cabin was empty, apart from this.” Amber handed over two envelopes.
She’d left him. Left the ranch. It was what he had wanted, right? Never to see her again, never touch her, or save her from danger. He looked at the envelopes she had left behind as if they were rattlers waiting to strike him down.
Amber arched a brow.
Colt’s heart thumped madly in his chest as he reached out and took them from his sister. On the white envelope, in Avery’s penmanship, it said:
Payment for cabin rental and groceries.
He raised the flap and glanced inside. There was a full stack of hundred dollar bills. He swallowed, his throat dry.
“It’s all there and then some for the cost of the rental, Colt,” Amber murmured.
There was a buzzing in his ears as he looked at the second envelope. It was one of those fancy, thick-papered envelopes. It had just his name scrawled across the front. He opened it and drew out an elegant invitation. He scanned it.
The Morgan Science Foundation cordially invites you to attend our Annual Charity Auction in support of STEM training for Middle School Children in underprivileged school districts…
The invitation continued with the date, time, and place, but Colt was too stunned to continue reading. He looked up at his friends and sister. “I don’t understand.”
He feared he had made the biggest mistake of his life.
Amber sat beside him on the couch. “I think what it means, Colt, is that she wasn’t with you for your money. Looks to me like she has money herself.”
“But what do you want?” Maverick asked him.
What did he want? A time machine to rewind the last few days as if they had never happened. “She hates me. After the way I—”
“What did you do?” Lincoln questioned.
Colt lifted his gaze. Duncan, Maverick, and Lincoln all grimaced and shook their heads. Amber said, “I don’t get it. What did you do?”
“Your brother slept with her and then broke things off,” Lincoln said with a derisive stare.
“Oh, Colt, you didn’t, did you?” Amber asked.
Colt nodded. “I did. And the things I said to her afterward… She’ll never forgive me.”
“Well, you won’t know until you grow a pair and go after her,” Amber said. “It will mean groveling on your part, with a big, huge apology.”
“But what if she doesn’t forgive me?” Because Colt knew he had hurt her. As long as he lived, he would never forget that final look on her face, the pain and fury, the way her bottom lip had quivered and she’d tried to hide it.
“At least you’ll know,” Duncan stated.
Colt looked at his sister and said, “But she’s not coming back here. She was heading to Bermuda for a while. And before everything went sideways, she asked me to join her.”
Amber laid a hand on his shoulder. “Do you love her?”
“Yes.” More than he ever thought it possible for him to love someone. It hadn’t even been twenty-fours since he’d left the cabin, and he was lost without her.
“Then go. And if she takes you back, we’ll manage around here. I’m an Anderson, after all, and have been picking up all your slack already.”
“But—”
“No buts. You know where she’s going to be on Saturday night. It’s Wednesday. I figure we can spend tomorrow going over everything for the ranch. Then Friday, you fly down to Vegas, stay the night and, if you end up going with her, just call and let me know.”
“And if she shoots you down, you can always come back and drown your sorrows. Perhaps see if Maribella would take pity on you,” Lincoln stated with a grin, only for Amber to shoot him an arched look.
Colt wiped a frustrated, terrified hand over his face and said, “Well, I guess I need to get a flight and a room at that hotel booked now, don’t I?”
Amber smiled. “I’ll help.”
“You just want me to leave so you can take over.”
“Amongst other things. But what I really want is for you to be happy, Colt. And the truth is, I’ve never seen you this happy. If Avery is what makes you that way, neither I, nor Mom and Dad would want to keep you here when what you want is out there,” Amber said.
Colt glanced at the group. They were minus Emmett, Noah, and Tanner, who were likely working and holding down the ranch while they had come to talk to him.
“She is what I want. It doesn’t mean I don’t love this place, or that it won’t be a place I come back to.” But without Avery, nothing else really mattered.
“We know that. And we’ll miss you.” His sister hugged him from the side.
“I won’t, he was always demanding and bossy,” Lincoln said.
“And what makes you think I won’t be even bossier?” Amber rose and challenged Lincoln. Colt wondered if they would come to blows right in the living room. Lincoln glared at his sister like he wanted to wring her neck. And Amber appeared like she could defeat the heavyweight champion of the world, and would be only too happy to take Lincoln on.
His friends took that as their cue to skedaddle.
“We’ll just get back to work,” Maverick said.
“We’ve got the ranch covered, you get stuff set up to go get your woman,” Duncan added. Lincoln retreated without saying a word. He just nodded at Colt, turned on his heel, and headed out.
“Appreciate it. Amber, I need some coffee and aspirin, and then we can start going over ranch details.” Colt rose feeling steadier and more resolved than he had been in a long time.
17
“I really want to meet that young man of yours, honey. He sounds like a dreamboat,” her grandma Gertie said, her voice on speaker phone while Avery add the finishing touches to her appearance for the gala.
She hadn’t the heart to tell her grandma that he’d broken their relationship off. That he didn’t love her. That she had been wrong once again. It was hard, because her grandparents, and even her parents before their deaths, had married the great loves of their lives.
She seemed to be the defective Morgan in the family tree. With her voice light, giving no hint of her inner turmoil, she said, “We’ll have to see, Grandma. He owns a ranch and is very busy.”
“Well, I still insist on meeting him at some point. Perhaps after the two of you get back from Bermuda. I’m planning on heading to the States later on this fall. I was thinking you and I should spend the holidays together. Maybe we could do that on your young man’s ranch.”