had been the opportunity to finally take care of herself. To make herself whole and right so she could move forward with her dreams. If she let herself get too involved with Josh and Claire, all her careful plans could slip through her fingers.
She might, once again, be left with nothing.
Regardless, she couldn’t stand to see either of them in this kind of pain.
“He didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said to Claire’s back as the girl grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
April walked in from the family room. “How was the shopping trip? Do I get a fashion show tonight?”
Claire slammed shut the fridge door and whirled. “I’d like to burn every single piece of clothing my jerk of a dad bought today.” She swiped at her cheeks, her desperate gaze swinging between Sara and April. “He’s wrong, you know. My mom loves me. She’s busy, but she loves me.”
“I know, honey,” Sara answered. “He knows it, too. You scared him in that dress.”
“I looked scary?” Claire’s voice rose to a squeak.
Sara pressed her palm to the girl’s face, smoothing away a tear. “You looked gorgeous and grown-up. That’s the scariest thing a father can face. It makes them a little crazy.”
“A crazy jerk,” Claire mumbled.
A door slammed at the front of the house. Claire looked around wildly. “I don’t want to see his friends tonight. I don’t want to see anyone.”
Sara glanced at April. “Are you making dinner?”
“Everyone is going into town. Ryan made reservations.”
“Ryan is entertaining a group of cowboys?”
April nodded. “He stopped by earlier, looking for you. He’s adamant that you be there, too. For moral support.”
“I’m staying here if Claire wants company.”
April stepped forward. “I’ll keep Claire company.” She smiled. “I made chicken soup and an apple crisp earlier. I happen to know there’s a Jane Austen marathon tonight. Emma and Sense and Sensibility, two of my favorites. Does that sound okay, Claire?”
The girl nodded then gave a tiny hiccup. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be down when everyone else is gone.”
She gave Sara a quick hug. “I had a good time with you. Sorry Dad ruined it for both of us.”
“I enjoyed the day, no matter what.”
“I’ll get fresh towels for you,” April said, and took Claire’s hand, leading her up the back stairs.
Sara braced her hands on the counter and leaned forward, dropping her head to stretch out some of the tension in her neck.
“Now I ruined the whole day?”
She looked up as Josh filled the doorway leading to the front hall. His broad shoulders looked as tense as hers felt.
“You need to apologize,” she answered.
“To Claire or to you?” He crossed his arms over his chest, his dark eyes unreadable in the shadows of the soft evening light.
“I’m not important here.” She straightened, wiping an imaginary crumb from the counter. “Your daughter is.”
“You’re important to me,” he said quietly.
“Don’t do that, Josh.”
“Do what?”
“Care.”
He took a step forward at the same moment the back door of the house burst open.
“Come on, you two,” Ryan said. “I’ve got the masses corralled into the Suburban. We need to make it to town before the poor vehicle implodes from the force of all that testosterone.”
Sara saw his eyebrows raise as he studied both Josh and her. “Whatever’s going on here can only be helped by a drink and some food. Let’s go.”
Before she could argue, Ryan took her hand and pulled her out into the night.
* * *
Josh emptied his second beer and set it on the table. He looked down to where Sara sat, Manny and Noah on either side of her. He made eye contact with the waitress and lifted his finger to order another round.
“Rough day with the girls?” Dave asked from his seat next to him.
“I’d rather spend an hour in the ring with the orneriest bull you can find than another minute shopping.”
“Amen to that,” his friend agreed. “But I sure do like the results.”
Josh followed Dave’s gaze to where Brandy did a quick two-step with young Bryson on the dance floor. She wore a short skirt and a colorful blouse that flowed as she spun to the music. “How do you two make it look so easy?” he grumbled.
“I’m smarter than you,” his friend told him sagely. “I keep my mouth shut unless I’m giving her a compliment.”
Josh’s laugh turned into a coughing fit as Noah leaned in close to whisper in Sara’s ear.
He started to stand but Dave cuffed him on the shoulder. “He’s doing it to get a rise out of you.”
“Looks more like he’s trying to get a rise out of himself.”
“It’s freaking him out being in town again, but we wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Neither of us planned on ever coming back to Crimson until we heard you’d settled here.”
“Wasn’t my plan either, but I’m going to make it work.”
“Have you seen Logan and Jake recently?”
Josh took a breath at the mention of his two brothers. “Jake was here for Mom’s funeral a couple of years ago. We both stayed less than twenty-four hours. Long enough to hire someone to clear out the old house and get it on the market. He flew off to whatever country needed doctors again after that. Logan...well, he couldn’t exactly get away at the time.”
“I’m sorry, man. About a lot of things.”
Josh did stand now. He wasn’t ready for this conversation. “I’m going to stretch my legs while doing my best to ignore your brother.”
He got his beer at the bar and tried not to watch his two so-called friends flirting with Sara. It wasn’t any business of his what she did with her time, but it still grated on his nerves.
His eyes strayed to the woman next to him, or at least to her hands, which were busily building some sort of structure out of a pile of matchbooks. “That’s quite a building you’ve got there,” he said, focusing all his wayward attention on the intricate display.
The
