“What are you talking about?”
“You came to the hospital. I think I was an ass. Chased you away.”
She couldn’t believe he remembered. He’d been so out of it, almost incoherent with pain.
“I owe you an apology.”
“You don’t.”
“I said things I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s fine,” she said finally, her insides on fire because it was.
She hadn’t minded that he’d been short-tempered. She hadn’t minded his pain. What she’d objected to was the bull stomping on his hip and driving his head and horns into Rory’s chest.
That was what she minded.
“You went to get the nurse,” he added quietly, “and you never came back.”
She struggled to smile, a professional smile, the kind she’d give clients who walked into the real estate office enquiring about a listing. “You didn’t need me there.”
“I don’t know about that, darlin’.”
Part of her burned, while another part of her raged.
It was too late.
All of this was too damn late.
Face hot, body cold, Sadie reached into her coat pocket for the keys, not wanting to do this with him, not now. Possibly not ever. Watching him nearly die in front of her had changed her, but she’d finally woken up, thank God.
She flashed him another tight, hard smile. “I’m supposed to let you in, show you around, and answer any questions you might have about Marietta, but since you’re from here, I can’t imagine you’ll have many questions.”
“I do have one.”
Her gaze met his.
“Why did you show up to all those tour events and never come talk to me?”
A fresh wave of heartache and heat surged through her, the heat knotting in her chest while the rest of her remained frozen. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does to me.”
She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin. “I liked to make sure you were okay.”
“I kept waiting for you to come back.”
“You shouldn’t have returned to the circuit.”
“Now you sound like my sister.”
“She loves you. Just like everyone else in this town—” Sadie broke off, eyes stinging, a lump filling her throat, making it impossible to finish her thought. But then, he didn’t need her to finish anyway. He knew all this and more. The last thing any of them needed was her trying to insert herself into his life when she couldn’t even manage her own.
Turning to the door, she blinked back tears she’d never let him see. Crazy to think she’d been standing here waiting for him. How impossible, how implausible to be back here in Marietta waiting for Rory Douglas?
And just when she’d finally given him up, he appeared.
It wasn’t fair, but then, life wasn’t supposed to be fair. Life was just life, and capricious as all heck.
“Let’s get you inside,” she said, trying to slide the key into the dead bolt. “It should be warm inside. I turned the heater on when I first got here. It’s an efficient heater and a small space, but I think you’ll like it. You’re a little far to walk downtown from here, but there is a small convenience store and liquor store just a block over.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t help it.
When she’d left the Fresno hospital, she’d been hurt, and confused, but she hadn’t planned on leaving him behind. But weeks later her mother died and then her world came crashing in, and Sadie realized it was time to stop chasing false dreams. She wasn’t a girl anymore. She was thirty-five and single and absolutely alone, and she’d always be alone if she didn’t find someone real, and someone dependable, to love.
Only Rory had been part of her heart so long that it’d hurt to let him go. It’d hollowed what was left of her heart, and she knew she had no one to blame but herself.
“Need a hand?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He didn’t return to Marietta. McKenna said he avoided his hometown at all costs. And yet he stood tall and solid just behind her, his thick sheepskin accenting his broad shoulders and the width of his muscular chest.
*
Rory stood silently as he watched Sadie struggle with the key. Her hand was trembling, and he wasn’t sure if she was nervous or simply cold. She’d been waiting for over forty minutes. She had to be frozen through. He’d tried calling to say that he’d be late, due to an accident outside of Billings that had shut all traffic down, but his call to Marietta Properties had gone straight to voicemail.
“Have you worked for Marietta Properties long?” he asked, as she tried a different key.
“Just since the end of September,” she answered, shooting him a swift glance over her shoulder. Even in a thick puffy coat with a gray knit cap on her head, she looked heart-stoppingly pretty. “And I’m not sure why the lock is sticking. It opened right up before. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.”
“I’m happy to try,” he said easily, aware as she went back to the first key.
She was becoming increasingly flustered, but there was no hurry. He was happy just to look at her. When she’d walked out of his hospital room in Fresno, he knew he’d see her again, his gut told him he’d see her, but it’d never crossed his mind that he’d find her in Marietta.
As far as he knew, there were no angels in Marietta. All the angels around here had already gone to heaven.
“It’s my job to do this,” she muttered, trying the first key again. “How difficult can it be to unlock a door?”
“You said you did it before.”
She threw him a swift glance, frustration and a nameless emotion darkening her eyes. “Exactly!” And then with a shake of her head, she turned to face him, her long ponytail sliding across her shoulder in a bright gleam of copper. “Okay. I’ll give you a shot before we both freeze to death.”
She handed him the small key ring, her fingers brushing his and he felt a crackle of energy, flashing back to the hospital and how she’d lightly touched his bicep, the only place not bandaged. Even broken and sore, he’d relished her warmth and softness. The touch had meant to comfort, but instead it stirred something in him that he couldn’t define and didn’t know how to answer.
He wasn’t a man that settled down, and yet she made him yearn for a life he hadn’t lived or known.
It was a shame he wasn’t younger and less scarred.
It was a shame he’d lost his trust and innocence as a sixteen-year-old.
Eyes narrowed, he slid the key into the lock and turned. The door opened easily.
Sadie groaned behind him. “You made that look so easy.”
He felt his lips quirk and he glanced back at her, taking in the high cheekbones, the angle of her jaw, the fullness of her mouth. She was so beautiful. One in a million, this angel girl.
“After you,” he said, pushing the door open.
She stepped into the house, turning on lights as she crossed the threshold. “It’s not very big,” she said, “but it’s got everything. You’ll be comfortable.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he knew, that the house was his and he’d placed it with Marietta Properties to manage for him, but somehow he knew it’d just end up flustering her. Far better to let her do her job and then sometime, another time, he could tell her when she wasn’t all pins and needles.