Marry Me for Real, Cowboy - Valerie Comer Page 0,42
which, she’d miss seeing Dakota today. Riley’d always been on stall duty before this week.
“Yeah, she gets prickly, all right.”
“How’d you guys meet?” Riley held her breath. He was going to tell her it was none of her business, and he’d be right.
“She was a barrel racer in our high school gymkhanas, not that we went to public school. Kathryn taught us. But we still drove into Jewel Lake for sporting events or church activities. Youth groups.”
“Your dad took you?” Hopefully she’d kept the surprise out of her voice.
“Him or Kathryn. But then Adam got his license. And even before that, sometimes he or I would drive as far as the highway, and a friend would pick us up.”
Somehow Riley wasn’t too shocked to think of underage drivers on the ranch lane. She’d lived in rural Montana herself as a teen.
Travis had opened up more than she’d expected. Maybe she shouldn’t push it, but somehow she couldn’t help herself. “You still care about her?”
He pierced her with a cold glare. “This is your business how?”
“Not at all,” she replied glibly. “Just trying to get to know the dynamics, since I’m marrying into the family.”
Travis snorted. “Or you’re just nosy.”
She met his gaze, trying to read him. “Maybe?”
He rolled his eyes. “Nah, Dakota can date anyone she wants. No big deal, so long as she doesn’t try to separate me from Toby. Then there’d be war.”
“Kids benefit if their parents are together. One family.”
“What’s it to you? Your parents divorced? Because mine are. We survived just fine, thanks.”
“Because your dad married Kathryn?”
“Right.” His disgusted grunt belied the word. “She’d have been okay, I guess, if she hadn’t come with three brats of her own. But we were doing fine with Dad before she came.”
“How old were you when your parents split up?”
“Eleven. Your parents together?”
“Yeah, but they fight all the time, only not in public. There they put on a happy face for the world to see.” Riley’d sometimes wondered why Mom put up with Dad. Seemed she got something out of their weird relationship, too. Just another case of a couple using each other for their own gain.
“My parents, too. It was nasty at home. Even that huge house wasn’t big enough to keep from hearing them yell and listening to things crash. Turns out it was mostly my mother throwing things.”
Riley shuddered, imagining three little boys cowering in their closets.
“One day she up and disappeared. She left a note on the kitchen counter. I found it before Dad. Not much explanation, just that she’d had enough, and the divorce papers would be along shortly. Oh, and the postscript, telling Blake and Ryder and me that she loved us and wished us well.”
“Ouch.”
“Yup.”
“Have you ever heard from her?”
“Via the grapevine. The papers arrived. Dad signed them. Then we never mentioned her again, but Mrs. McDiarmid down at the church let it slip that Mom remarried a few weeks later and moved to Missoula. Just like that.”
“That’s gotta hurt.”
“And that’s why I couldn’t trust Dakota as far as I could throw her. It’s better for Toby to go back and forth than to have to suffer like I did when one parent walks out on him. There’s no way it would be me, though. I’d stick through anything to keep my family together.”
Ladybug plodded along beside Lancaster, but Riley doubted Travis saw the forest around them any more than she did. “You love her.”
Travis shrugged. “Doesn’t much matter how I feel, does it? She’s on her own path. And don’t go telling her we had this talk. I’ll deny every word.”
“Promise.” Not that Riley knew what to do with the information anyway. With any luck, she’d be away from Rockstead in just a few weeks. Then all these cowboys would just be a blip in her memory.
All those passionate kisses from Adam? She’d pack them up and keep them in a special box in her heart. Adam Cavanagh would be someone to measure future relationships by.
And that just made her want to cry.
Chapter Sixteen
“There was a message for you on the house phone.” Cook looked up as Adam passed through the kitchen. “A Mrs. Desjardins.”
Good news about Ace or bad? Adam closed his eyes for a minute. “Did she give any indication...?”
“All she said was ‘he’s gone,’ but I couldn’t make out what she meant. I did leave the message for you to listen to.”
He’s gone. Cook’s other words drifted away.
Adam felt the blow like a kick to his gut from