This was awful, and emotional, and heartbreaking, and obviously Joe wanted no part of it, and to be honest, she didn’t want it, either.
She wanted what they’d agreed to—practical.
Unemotional.
Safe.
Love wasn’t safe. Love was intense and confusing and awful.
Crying, Sophie began to pack, shoving her clothes and shoes into her oversized suitcases. She didn’t know where she would go. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She did have work in a little less than two hours, and she debated calling in sick, but that didn’t seem fair to Amanda, so no, she’d go to Marietta, and work, and then she’d try to figure out what she was going to do both in the short-term and the long-term.
Sophie carried her things downstairs, wondering if she bumped into in any of the Wyatt family, but the downstairs was quiet, most of the rooms dark. She suspected that Granddad was already out in the barn, and Summer must still be in bed. Summer tended to sleep in in the mornings, probably because she stayed up late each night.
She poured herself a cup of the coffee that had been made, doctored it so that it was the way she liked it, and shushing the dogs, carried her things out to the car. It required two trips, and then a third for her coffee mug.
She’d have to get the mug and the car back to Joe.
She’d have to get her heart back, too, but she didn’t know when that would happen.
Hot tears burned her eyes. She blinked hard, hating the lump filling her throat.
Sophie climbed behind the steering wheel and started the engine. She glanced up at the two-story log cabin house and saw a curtain move in the room on the far right. Summer’s room.
Sophie’s chest squeezed tightly. Had Summer seen her load the car with her things?
Fighting fresh tears, she reversed the small SUV even as she kept an eye on the dogs, and then she shifted into drive and accelerated, leaving the Wyatt ranch behind.
*
“You look really rough,” Amanda said later that morning, as she stopped by the reception desk in the salon to say hello to Sophie.
“I feel pretty rough,” Sophie admitted.
“Let me guess. First fight with Joe?”
And just like that the sting of tears returned. “Close. It’s my last fight with Joe.” Sophie’s voice cracked. “I’ve left the ranch; have moved out of the Wyatt’s house.”
“Why?”
“I realized I can’t do this… can’t pretend I don’t want more, or need more, when I do.”
“So you’re… done? You’re just leaving him?”
Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, but even then, she could see Joe, and feel him, and feel how much she loved him. She didn’t want to leave him, and she couldn’t imagine being without him now. In six weeks, his world had become her world, and his family had become her family, and she’d come to love Montana.
And Joe.
How she loved Joe.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Sophie confessed. “I just… I’m… hurt. Really hurt, and really angry. And most of all, confused. I never thought he’d do this.”
“What did he do?”
“He disappeared. He just… left, moving into the bunkhouse. I don’t understand. Why would he just shut me out?”
“That’s not like Joe. Something must have happened.”
“We made love and then he disappeared.”
“Okay, something happened. What happened?”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears. “I cried after.”
“You cried, sometimes women do that after sex.”
“But I didn’t stop crying for a long time.”
“Oh.”
Sophie nodded and chewed on the inside of her lip. “I need to talk to him.”
“I agree, but don’t you think that’s a conversation you should have with him face-to-face?”
“Yes.” Sophie rubbed beneath her eyes. “I hate that I packed my things. I hate that I left.”
“No one knows you left. He probably doesn’t know you’ve left yet. Go home and talk to him. It might be hard but isn’t he worth it?”
“Absolutely.”
Amanda glanced at her watch. “Do you want to leave now? We can manage without you. We survived for a week without a receptionist before you started.”
“I’m not ready to go back yet. I think having a little break is good for me, but what if I head back after lunch? So I’ll stick around and work half day?”
“Sounds good, but if you need to leave sooner, you can.”
Sophie was busy restocking shampoos and conditioners and styling products into the glass display when she glanced out the front window and spotted a familiar person slowly heading up the sidewalk to the salon’s front door.
Joe’s mom was here.
Sophie froze for a moment before she came back to life, rushing to the door to open it for her mother-in-law. “What are you doing here? Do you have an appointment?” Sophie asked, feeling stupid and confused all over again.
“No. I just came to see you.”
“Did Granddad bring you?”
“No.”
“Joe?”
“No.”
A lump filled Sophie’s throat and she swallowed hard. “How did you get here then?”
“I borrowed Joe’s truck.”
Sophie suddenly felt faint. “You’re joking.”
“It was the only vehicle available.” She grimaced. “It was very difficult getting into it, and I almost fell getting out of it, but no matter. I’m here. I didn’t die, although driving, there was a moment where I swerved and almost hit a tree—”
“Summer, you’re terrifying me.”
“Me as well. It’s not that easy of a truck to drive.”
“No, I guess not.” Sophie took her by the elbow. “Should we go sit down? Would you like a cup of coffee, or tea? There might be some bubbly water in the refrigerator.”
“I would like to sit and rest.”
“I think we both should sit. I’m about to have a heart attack just listening to your adventures getting here.” She walked Joe’s mom down the small hall and out the back to a small covered porch filled with white wicker furniture and pink and green pillows. “I’ll get us some water, and I’ll be right back.”
Sophie grabbed her phone, sent Joe a text. “Your mom is here in Marietta. She came in your truck.” And then she took two bottles of chilled water from the refrigerator and hurried out to the porch where Summer was waiting for her in a wicker rocking chair.
Sophie removed the lid from one water and handed it to her mother-in-law.
“Isn’t this delightful?” Summer said, her gaze sweeping the porch and the little garden beyond. “So pretty and feminine. I didn’t get the appeal of a pink salon but I might be changing my mind.”
Sophie sat down across from her and leaned forward. “Summer, does anyone know you’re here?”
“No.”
“So you just took Joe’s truck and came here?” Sophie didn’t mean for her voice to rise but she felt beyond panicked and anxious. Hopefully Joe would see her text soon. He didn’t want everyone worried, and they would worry when they discovered Summer gone.