Sweet Joymaker (Indigo Bay Christmas Romances #3) - Jean Oram Page 0,43
her miniature home out in the yard, but the idea of being alone in the cramped space felt as though it would only amplify what she was feeling right now.
She wanted to talk to Clint. She’d half expected him to come to the championship game, half expected him to show up at her door at some point. But he hadn’t, and there had been no texts, no calls.
Fiona was right. Maria had made it clear she didn’t have room for him in her life, and now he was respecting that by staying out of it.
It made her want to grab him and run away to Indigo Bay so they could return to that glorious bubble they’d created.
He was a wonderful man. His kisses divine. And she wasn’t going to kid herself any longer. Clint had been fun. He’d been exactly what she’d needed and had brought her so much joy. And to be honest, it had been refreshing having someone looking out for her for once.
Hearing the soft footfalls of sneakers, she waited for her youngest son, Ryan, to appear in the kitchen. He’d been spending more time on the ranch in the past few days, partly, she suspected, to distract himself from his own life and its ups and downs.
“Hey, Mom.” He sat at the long table. “What’s happening?”
She asked him about himself, his team, Carly, but it wasn’t long before he asked about Clint and Indigo Bay. Word of their time together had traveled quickly in Sweetheart Creek.
She dodged Ryan’s questions, giving him a “Clint and I are friends” response.
“He’s made it clear he’d like to be more than that.”
“Have you been talking to Levi?” She sat straighter and clutched her cup.
“You don’t like Clint?”
“He is a very thoughtful man who…” She clucked, catching herself. “You don’t want to hear about your mother’s love life.”
“You have a love life?”
She narrowed her eyes. No wonder so many of Ryan’s students came to him for advice. She’d seen it before and after football games, and now she understood why. He had a way about him.
“Tell me,” he said, reminding her of Clint.
“Why don’t you tell me about you and Carly instead?”
Ryan deftly tried to change the subject, just like she had. Her youngest kept his cards close to his chest, and usually was a distracted, fast-moving missile. He kept his hands in several projects at a time, his head always somewhere else. But right now he looked like he could use a cookie and a glass of milk. And maybe a hug, too.
Something had definitely happened with Carly. And seeing as the tractor was still around, she had a feeling his plan to help out the independent woman had fallen through.
Maria opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, knowing it was time to let her sons do more of their own problem solving. They were good at it.
Before she realized it, they were arguing mildly about whether men or women broke up more relationships.
“Women leave,” Ryan said.
Maria laughed. He was wrong.
She sobered quickly. Had Carly left him?
“Men leave. I guess women do, too,” she said finally. “People leave.”
Maybe it was truly that simple, just one of those facts of life. People were born. People died. Sometimes they left others. Sometimes they didn’t.
Clint hadn’t left Kay-Lynn. She’d left him.
And maybe sometimes women should leave, like Fiona, but they didn’t. Her friend kept hanging on to William, refusing to let him go, refusing to let his new attitude defeat them and their love.
“You gave it a shot with Clint, didn’t you?” Ryan asked.
“I tried, but he left,” Maria said absently, still sorting out her thoughts about Fiona and William.
“He left?” Ryan asked with a hint of incredulity.
She explained how he’d flown home early.
“So he up and went home?”
Before long they were talking about Brant and April, Cole and everyone under the sun, it seemed. Ryan reminded her so much of that little boy who’d once sought her advice. He hadn’t asked her for much in so long it broke her heart, thinking how independent her youngest had become.
Then suddenly, while she was putting her cup in the dishwasher, Ryan said, “You know he came home because Levi needed him to?”
He mentioned the tractor, but she knew that wasn’t the real reason Clint had returned. It didn’t add up. Clint had been like Fiona, steadfastly clinging to love and hope, and everything they’d built over those four days together. Plus the tractor was still out of commission, and if he’d come back