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      “Congratulations! Now you’ll have room for all your shoes.”

      “I didn’t say that,” Carolyn said with a sniff. “But I’m serious about the offer. I’d thought about inviting Bradley to move in, and he’s kind of hinted at it, but…” Carolyn made a fluttering gesture with one hand.

      “You’re not feeling it?”

      Carolyn shook her head. “I’m feeling it, but for once in my life I’m not rushing it.”

      “Good to know that I have a safety net.” Really good. But not enough to still the anxiety that simmered away just under the surface.

      Carolyn adjusted the laptop so that they could both see it. “Now, let’s see what’s out there for you—or someone very much like you.”

      They shared a bottle of wine as they filled out an application for a school district budget manager, and for the answers that had started out being silly, they’d gone back and changed to serious.

      “Are you going to send it?” Carolyn asked as she topped off their glasses.

      Taylor held up her finger, gave it a theatrical twirl, then stabbed the apply button. “Yes.”

      Carolyn smiled. “Let’s see what else is out there. You never know…maybe there’s something for me in the great outdoors.”

      “Uh, have you ever been outdoors?”

      “The cruise to Alaska. We stood on deck many times.” Carolyn made a face at her, then continued scrolling through the sites on her tablet.

      “You know that if I get called for an interview, I won’t take it.”

      “Of course not,” Carolyn said. “We’re just doing this for fun.”

      “Good.” Taylor took a long drink of wine. “I just wanted to make certain we’re on the same page.”

      Carolyn slanted a sideways look at her. “Although…”

      Taylor let out a sigh. “He hasn’t called or texted. It’s done.”

      Carolyn pushed the hair back from her forehead. “And you feel…?”

      “Like I made the only choice I could have made. The only logical choice. The choice I told him I would make before we started sleeping together. I was totally up front and he was good with it.”

      “What happened?” Carolyn’s expression shifted as she connected the dots. “Oh, no…you didn’t tell him that stuff about compromise?”

      Taylor closed her eyes and pulled in a breath. “I believed that stuff about compromise.”

      “And now?”

      “If it was true, I wouldn’t feel this miserable right now.”

      * * *

      TAYLOR WENT OUT for a run late Friday afternoon after getting off work, and when she got back, a message was waiting for her on her phone. Not her mother, as she’d expected, but Jancey. A simple “Call me.”

      Taylor’s heart started to thump as she hit the redial. Had something happened to Cole? To Chucky? Jancey answered instantly.

      “Taylor. Thanks for getting back to me.” The girl sounded stressed, but not Cole’s-in-the-hospital stressed.

      “Not a problem. Is everything okay?” As in, did her heart need to be beating this rapidly?

      “Cole’s talking about selling the ranch.”

      Taylor almost dropped the phone. “No.”

      “I know. I think he’s doing it to be with you.”

      “Um…” Taylor sank down to the sofa as guilt washed over her. She’d told him to sell and now he was going to do it? “I’m not certain what to say.” Total understatement.

      “There’s got to be another way, Taylor. I don’t want to lose the ranch.”

      Taylor cleared her throat, then leaned forward to rest one elbow on her knee and prop her forehead with her hand as she stared down at the floor. “What reason did he give for wanting to sell?”

      “He said that it’ll keep Miranda from being able to use the land for the working ranch packages. I guess she’s making a lot of money from those, and this would stop her.”

      “That means you guys are making money, too.”

      “I guess.”

      “He said he wanted to sell.” Taylor was still having trouble wrapping her mind around that.

      “Can you talk to him? Please, Taylor. Let him know that it isn’t the ranch keeping you guys apart.”

      “I’ll, uh, see what I can do.”

      “I would really appreciate it.” Jancey’s voice cracked, making Taylor’s heart squeeze. The girl loved her ranch.

      Taylor ended the call and slumped backward without asking how Max was doing. Cole was talking about selling the ranch. Whatever the reason was, it was his business. Totally his business…except that she’d suggested it to him, and now Jancey was beside herself.

      Regardless of what Jancey thought, she couldn’t just shove her nose back into Cole’s business. She’d lost that right. She would call once she felt ready—it wasn’t as if he’d sell the ranch overnight—and maybe together they could come up with a way to help Jancey deal with whatever decision he made.

      Jancey is never going to be okay with the decision. It’ll be a regret she harbors forever…and maybe Cole will feel the same.

      Not her fault, but she had a finger in this.

      Call. Get it over with. Do what you promised and move on.

      She started to search for Cole’s number, then put the phone down again.

      She wasn’t ready to hear his voice. Wasn’t ready to be dismissed.

      She had unknowingly lost a big part of herself when she’d walked away. Returned to what she thought she’d wanted—the city and the lifestyle that, by all rights, should have made her feel exactly the way it had before she’d taken refuge on her grandfather’s farm.

      You love Cole and it’s tearing you apart.

      Oh, yeah. No argument there.

      Taylor paced to the window. The view wasn’t as beautiful as the one from her former apartment building, where her name had already moved two spots up the list, but it should have brought on a similar feeling of contentment. Instead she had the oddest feeling that she no longer belonged. Her city was rejecting her.

      So where did that leave her?

      With a very short weekend to do what she had to do.

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