The Rancher Meets His Match (The Millers of Morgan Valley #4) - Kate Pearce Page 0,103

head-on. “I’ve let you both down, and I know I can’t apologize enough to make it right.”

“Go and enjoy your party, Silver,” Julia said gently. “When it comes down to it, the only people responsible for this mess are Kaiden and I. So don’t beat yourself up about it.”

Silver nodded, but there were tears in her eyes as she left. Julia wished she had the energy to be angrier with Kaiden’s sister-in-law, but what was the point? The moment Julia had starting speaking, Kaiden had leapt to his own conclusions, and things had gone downhill from there. She’d had so much to tell him about what had happened at work, and the Evans deal. Now, nothing really mattered because when it came down to it, he couldn’t bring himself to trust her.

She forced herself to reapply her lipstick and mascara in the mirror before she ventured into the fray again.

She’d been in love with a mirage, not a man, and that mistake was definitely on her.

Chapter Twenty

Kaiden paced the lobby, his gaze occasionally checking the entrance to the women’s restrooms in case Julia reemerged. Eventually, Nancy came out and headed straight for him. Her hair was in red and white spikes with candy-striped ribbons on them that matched the pattern of her short dress.

She poked him hard in the chest. “You’re an idiot.”

Before he could answer, she turned around and marched away again.

“Like I didn’t know that,” Kaiden muttered to himself.

How had everything gone so spectacularly pear shaped? He’d ended up losing his temper, hurting Julia, and getting shit wrong. Now, he’d lost the ability to regroup, and ask all the questions he should have started with before jumping in with both feet and accusing her of selling out her own father. As soon as he’d started talking and seen her horrified expression, he’d known he’d gotten it completely backward.

As his temper took hold of him, he’d merrily kept digging his own grave. He just wasn’t good at this serious stuff. It scared him. He always screwed it up because he was afraid of getting too deep and personal, so he self-destructed.

Silver came out of the restroom looking like she was about to burst into tears. She didn’t even see Kaiden, but headed straight toward Ben, who immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Kaiden was so busy watching his brother that he almost missed Julia emerging.

She’d definitely seen him, though. At first, she looked like she’d rather talk to a skunk. But he watched as she raised her chin and looked him up and down just like she’d done when he’d first turned up at Garcia Ranch and found she’d come home.

“Julia.” He hurried toward her. “Look—l know I’m the last person you want to talk to right now, but I can’t leave things like this. I messed up.”

“Yes, you did.”

“I know you probably won’t believe me, but I want to make things right, I need—”

She held up one finger. “Actually, Kaiden, I don’t care what you need right now when I’m barely holding myself together. I just want to crawl into my bed and cry myself to sleep, okay? So, why don’t you go home and try and work out where you went wrong. Maybe, just maybe, in a couple of years when I’ve calmed down and rebuilt my shattered heart, I might be ready to speak to you again?”

“Your heart?” Kaiden stuttered as everything suddenly got a thousand times worse.

She blinked and looked away from him. “Yes, I was hoping we could talk about that, but I guess I made a mistake about everything.”

He reached out an imploring hand. “You didn’t, I should’ve—”

“Please stop talking.”

“I can do that,” Kaiden said cautiously.

“Then, can you leave?” She held herself like a queen. “You really suck.”

“I know that, too.” He nodded. “But—”

Her manicured finger came up again and this time pressed hard into his chest. “No buts right now. I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with them.”

“Understandable.” He blew out a harried breath and looked her right in the eye. “I’m sorry I lost my temper. I fucked up.”

“Finally.” She inclined her head an icy inch. “That’s a way better apology than anything followed by a qualifier.” She stepped away from him. “I need to find my father.”

He, too, took a step back, even though he didn’t want to. “Okay, I’ll be in touch.”

She gave him her best haughty lawyer’s smile. “No, thanks.”

“You can bet on it. I’m going to make this right, Julia, I promise