and made himself comfortable as he typed.
How did the work at the house go?
Lots of banging and mess, but Mike says it’s all looking good so far
Awesome.
Kaiden’s thumbs paused over the keys. He wanted to tell her how the sight of his father’s face had scared him; how he’d got the sense that nothing would ever be the same again. But he didn’t have that right. She’d be expecting him to keep everything light.
I’ll be over soon to measure up the kitchen.
Cool.
There was a longer pause. He’d almost given up hope she was still there when another text appeared.
Are you really ok? I know when my dad started to struggle with his MS it hit me hard. He was always the strong one, you know? Like my rock? And suddenly, there he was in a hospital bed looking at me to make decisions for him. I was terrified.
Kaiden stared at the screen until the words blurred as he tried to make sense of how they made him feel. He pictured his dad’s face again and swallowed hard.
I wish I were with you right now, Kaiden.
For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating and that he’d typed the words on the screen rather than Julia.
Thanks
He winced at his own lameness. If he tried to explain how her words had hit him right in the feels, he would end up blubbering, and his dad would never allow that.
Kaiden, it’s okay if you want to share stuff with me. I won’t tell anyone, and I do totally get what you are going through.
He smiled at the screen. She got him, she really did, but that wasn’t an excuse for him to give in and spoil her evening as well as his own.
I appreciate that. He paused and then carried on typing. I really do.
Coward.
He frowned at the single word.
Where the hell did that come from?!!
You know.
Maybe I’m just trying to keep things in perspective here.
Sure you are.
Kaiden typed furiously. Maybe I’m better at explaining myself in person.
Dude, you’re worse in person. You just charm me and confuse me until I don’t remember up from down, and then you avoid discussing anything painful.
He liked the first half of her response, but wasn’t keen on the second. He reread the thread and considered what to say next. Part of him wanted to get in his truck, drive over there, and convince her of how wrong she was about everything. But, if she was right about his foot in the mouth syndrome, then he might just make things worse.
He let out a long, slow breath and replied.
Ok, you win. I suck. I’m going to bed now. Have a great night.
Will do.
He waited for a few seconds but she’d definitely signed off. From the shortness of her reply, he was pretty sure that she was as mad at him as he was with her, and hadn’t bought his passive-aggressive attempt to apologize at all.
He got off the bed and went into the bathroom with the unsettling feeling that he’d missed an opportunity. What was even worse was that he knew Julia would make damn sure she didn’t offer him the same chance again.
Chapter Eleven
Julia made quite certain that she was out when Kaiden texted her the next day to let her know he was coming up to the ranch. Her father was busy chatting to Mike and Bernie about the structure of the house and didn’t need her help, and she had errands to run in town.
The whole conversation the night before had left her torn between annoyance that Kaiden was still putting up barriers, and an instinctive understanding that if he had succumbed and shared his feelings she would have to admit how much she’d come to care for him. And she didn’t want to care. She was going back to San Francisco, and he would be staying in Morgan Valley, and that was the end of it regardless of how they might feel about each other.
She pulled into a diagonal parking spot in front of the post office and got out into the deceptively cool sunshine. It took a long time for Morgan Valley to emerge from the cold clasp of the winter months. Spring was short, and often rushed into summer far too quickly for Julia’s liking. She’d never been a fan of the scorching hot days when the creek almost ran dry and finding water for a ranch full of cattle became all-consuming.
Not that they had many cows right now as her father