to know he went through that. What it must take to decide to go on. That’s not second-rate love, Iris. That is brave, first-rate love. That is deep. He must love you an awful lot.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she couldn’t stop them. She felt so afraid. Like she was trembling inside. “Maybe I’m not worth it, though. I mean, maybe that’s it, Ryder? Maybe I’m not worth that. He should find somebody else. He should find somebody that’s better. He should find somebody that’s not so...”
“Not so what?”
“Me,” she exploded. “Someone who’s not me.” She took in a shaky breath. “There is nothing about me that is special. There is nothing about me that’s up to... Up to this. And I won’t be able to be enough. And then he’s going to realize that...”
“Iris, let me tell you something. Whatever you felt before. Whatever Mom made you feel. You don’t earn love. Not real love. It can’t be bought. It can’t be borrowed. You can’t work for it like you’re hoeing the yard. It can only be given. And all you can do is accept it. That’s it.”
“No,” she said. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“It just is. It’s the way of it. The way of things. Maybe it doesn’t make sense. Maybe it seems too good to be true. But that’s just the thing. When you find someone that seems too good to be true, and they stand in front of you and they say they love you, you take it.”
“But what if...”
“There’s no what-if. You’re already living the what-if, kiddo. You don’t have them. You’re broken. You’re not safe.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I bet this is my eviction notice.” She tore the top off the envelope, and with shaking hands pulled the papers out that were inside.
But it wasn’t an eviction notice. Instead, it was the title to the building. With a place for her to sign.
“Griffin...”
“What?”
“He... He’s signing the building over to me.”
“I knew I liked that guy.”
“But I don’t deserve it. Not after everything I said to him. Not after how... How many ridiculous things I’ve thrown in front of him just admitting that I don’t think I’m good enough. All the things I said to him...”
“That’s love. You can’t earn it or buy it, and you can’t chase it away all that easy either. Remember how I was when Sammy left? I was a mess. I went to find her, didn’t I? And all was forgiven. On both our ends. Because we chose love over fear. Or anger. Or anything else. A man who sends that out... Well, I bet you he’s willing to do the same.”
Iris sat with that for a long time. And then at four o’clock, two hours early, she turned her sign, got into her car and began to drive toward Griffin’s place. She didn’t know what she was going to say. She didn’t know what she was going to do. But she just needed him. She needed him.
And when she got up to the top of the mountain, she saw that his truck wasn’t there.
Looked around. She couldn’t hear the sound of his hammer.
She ran up to the front porch, walked into the cabin, which of course wasn’t locked. The icebox stood open and empty, the bedding on the mattress gone.
There were no boots by the door. Panicked, she ran down the steps, down the trail toward the horses.
And saw that they were gone too.
Griffin was gone.
And he might have left her a bakery, but he had taken her heart.
And she didn’t think that she would ever get it back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
IT HAD BEEN a long damned time since he had peach cobbler. He wished he could enjoy it more. He sat at the kitchen table of his childhood home, and looked up at his mother, who was staring him down. His father was beside her, leaning against the countertop, holding a mug of coffee. Mallory sat next to him at the kitchen table, with her own bowl of cobbler, a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over the top.
Jared was lying on the couch in his parents’ living room, and he could hear the sound of whatever stupid game he was playing on his phone filtering through.
“I’m going to go in there and crush that thing,” he muttered.
“His phone?”
“His head.”
“You’re mean,” Mallory said, looking at him with eyes that were an identical color to his own. “You’ve only been here for a day, and you’re already being mean.”
“Not to say