up the back porch and then through the charming, busy rooms, giving Annabelle hardly enough time to take it all in.
Ro stopped for nothing. She smiled at guests but didn’t pause to chat. She waved away a dozen staffers with questions until finally they reached a newly built wing, separated from the public areas by a small hall and a door.
“Our quiet, private Garwood haven,” Ro said, putting her hand on the doorknob. “Although I’m not sure you can call a place ‘quiet’ when both Alec and a newborn live in it.”
Annabelle pulled up, shocked. “A newborn? Is it...?” She began to smile. “Oh, Ro! You and Dallas had a baby?”
Rowena laughed as she flung the door open. “Well, frankly, I think I did all the work, but yeah. We named her Moira, after my mother. Moira Rose. Rosie for short. She’s gorgeous, but she’s a pistol. She’s almost two months old now, and she’s got us all wrapped around her fussy little fingers.” She paused. “Didn’t Mitch tell you?”
Annabelle shook her head. “We didn’t talk about anything but—well, we argued, mostly.”
Rowena groaned. “Oh, Mitch. You idiot.”
“He’s so angry, Ro.” Annabelle could hear the fear in her voice. Fear that, this time, his anger might never go away. “He’s angry because I never told him the truth. Because I left him.”
“Oh, heaven spare me from Garwoods,” Rowena growled. “They are the most stubborn men on the planet. Anyone with half a brain could figure out you only left Mitch to protect him.”
Annabelle inhaled sharply, as if she could truly breathe for the first time in months. Rowena understood. Rowena loved Dallas, probably just as much as Annabelle loved Mitch. So she knew how impossible it would be to think you’d put the man you loved in danger. She knew you’d give up anything, even your chance at happiness, just to keep him safe.
“He doesn’t see it that way,” Annabelle said. “He thinks— I don’t know. He’s taking it personally, as if I underrated him. As if I didn’t see him as man enough to trust in a crisis.”
Rowena’s green eyes flashed as she thought that through. “Yeah, that sounds like Mitch. Idiot.” But her tone was affectionate. “And you’ve come back to see if you can change his mind?”
“Yes.” Annabelle was grateful Rowena made it all so easy to explain. “I’ve come to Silverdell to stay, and...if you’ll have me back, I’d like to work here, at the ranch. I’ll do anything, and I wouldn’t want any pay. I just want to be here. I’ll need chances to talk to him. To show him. And maybe I can...maybe he’ll see...”
She let the words dwindle off, realizing how naive they sounded. How half-baked this plan truly was. It wasn’t even a plan. It was the flailing of a drowning person, trying to splash her way back to shore.
But apparently the idea didn’t sound dumb to Rowena. She narrowed her sparkling eyes and nodded. “Excellent. Okay, I’ll have to think. We’ll have to see what kind of work we can find. Can you start today?”
“Today?”
“Of course. In fact, yesterday would have been better.” Rowena tugged Annabelle into the room and closed the door firmly behind them. Annabelle got a general impression of warm elegance, blues and creams and flowers everywhere. But she couldn’t focus on anything except the female pillar of determination and grit in front of her.
Rowena was a force to be reckoned with—and, Annabelle realized with sudden gratitude, she would be a terrific ally. Ro put her hands on her hips, a sure sign she was ready to go to battle, and studied Annabelle, her eyes focused fiercely.
“Look, Bonnie. Or Annabelle. What do you want to be called?”
“Annabelle, I suppose,” she said slowly. She’d thought about this a lot. She didn’t want Mitch to think she was still playing games. “Or Belle. Our gardener, one of my closest friends growing up, always called me BonnyBelle. I guess that’s where I came up with Bonnie in the first place.”
Rowena absorbed that a moment, then, with her usual pragmatism, moved on. “Fine. Belle works. So anyhow, Belle, I suspect you’re not going to want to hear this, but there’s a lawyer lady over in Grand Junction who’s been hanging around Mitch for the past couple of months.”
Annabelle steadied her nerves. “Well, I knew he would date. I didn’t expect him to be—”
“This isn’t just dating. Indiana Dunchik is her name. She’s gorgeous, and she’s ambitious, and she helped him patent one of his goofy inventions. A jacket that has magical properties or something.”
Annabelle’s mouth opened. “The chore jacket? Oh, that’s wonderful, Rowena! I knew that one was a winner!”
“No, it is not wonderful.” Rowena shook her head, as if she were talking to a child. “Focus, Belle. Believe me, I know Ms. Dunchik’s type. She’s trying to corral him, pure and simple. She wants to saddle him up and ride him all the way to the altar.”
The altar? Annabelle’s heart took slow dragging paces, as if it had hit an unexpected patch of molasses. She felt momentarily light-headed. The altar.
Had she waited too long?
“But surely Mitch isn’t... He won’t...”
“He might.” Rowena shook her head again, but Annabelle glimpsed a soft gleam of understanding behind her eyes. “He doesn’t love her, but she’s clever. She knows he’s wounded. And like any predator, she recognizes when it’s time to close in for the kill.”
Rowena sighed, as if the thought hurt her, too—or maybe she just knew how much it would hurt Belle.
“Anyhow,” she said, rallying. “What I’m saying is...if you really want that idiot man back, there isn’t a minute to lose.”
* * *
MITCH KNEW THE dinner date was in trouble when he found himself playing the anti-Bonnie game. The game’s rules were simple: every time he noticed something that was the opposite of Bonnie O’Mara, he took a swig of iced tea.
He’d played the game on every date for months right after Bonnie left, but he’d given it up a while back, finally recognizing that even the anti-Bonnie game was just one more way of obsessing about her.
Here he was, though, doing it again. By the time the bill came, he was on his fourth glass, and the waiter was looking at him funny. But Indiana made it so easy. The differences were endless. She was the epitome of the anti-Bonnie.
She wore three-inch heels, where Bonnie refused to be uncomfortable and always went for flats. Drink. She wore all kinds of expensive jewelry, including those ridiculous dangly earrings, where Bonnie had one pair of pearl studs she never took off, even to shower. Drink. She ordered the most expensive thing on offer, where Bonnie always shopped from the right side of the menu. Drink.
Indiana laughed at his dumb jokes, but she made refined chuckle noises through pursed lips, where Bonnie had found him so funny she sometimes had to cover her mouth to keep from spitting her tea everywhere. Drink.
The waiter smothered a sigh and strode over to refill his
