apologize, Taylor. We make the decisions together. Sometimes she goes commando on me, but I wear her down. I’m the water. She’s the rock.”
A true artist’s answer.
“I made assumptions.”
“Don’t we all. You haven’t been around us enough to know how things are between us. They’re good. I’m happy. If I wasn’t, I would have walked long ago.”
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Taylor said.
“Which means you must have needed to have it.”
She snorted softly. “Maybe so.”
Only instead of making her situation clearer, Jess’s revelation muddied it further. And then to make things worse, she did a terrible thing—she started looking for jobs in Montana again. Just…looking.
She wasn’t that serious…or at least that was what she told herself. Cole hadn’t contacted her since she’d left—not that she’d contacted him, but she’d had the last word when she kissed him. The ball was in his court. And he hadn’t done anything with it. That was why the job search wasn’t that serious.
But she was curious. Were there options out there? Could she get different training? There were pluses to living in a more rural environment, after all, or there wouldn’t be so many people relocating to the state. There were definite financial pluses. The cost of living in the city was eating her alive.
The culmination of her craziness came when Carolyn dropped by and noticed the Montana job search she’d left up on the screen before answering the door.
“This is serious,” Carolyn said.
“Just curious.” Which was why she could feel herself blush a guilty pink.
“Uh-huh.” Carolyn picked up the laptop and carried it to the sofa while Taylor got the wine, cursing herself for not shutting the lid. “Most of these don’t pay that well.”
“I can rent an apartment for less than a zillion dollars a month.” Not that she was going to.
“Do you want to go back?”
“I just have to keep my options open in case the temp job doesn’t pan out. I’m looking for jobs here, too.”
“You know that if this job ends that you and Max can move in with me.”
Taylor’s eyebrows rose as she tried to imagine the two of them, plus one giant cat, maneuvering around Carolyn’s tiny studio. “I, uh…”
Carolyn grinned at her. “I’m moving in four months when my lease expires. I already have the new place nailed down. It took a lot of orchestration and luck, but I will soon have a lot more room.”
“Congratulations! Now you’ll have room for all your shoes.”
“I didn’t say that,” Carolyn said with a sniff. “But I’m serious about the offer. I’d thought about inviting Bradley to move in, and he’s kind of hinted at it, but…” Carolyn made a fluttering gesture with one hand.
“You’re not feeling it?”
Carolyn shook her head. “I’m feeling it, but for once in my life I’m not rushing it.”
“Good to know that I have a safety net.” Really good. But not enough to still the anxiety that simmered away just under the surface.
Carolyn adjusted the laptop so that they could both see it. “Now, let’s see what’s out there for you—or someone very much like you.”
They shared a bottle of wine as they filled out an application for a school district budget manager, and for the answers that had started out being silly, they’d gone back and changed to serious.
“Are you going to send it?” Carolyn asked as she topped off their glasses.
Taylor held up her finger, gave it a theatrical twirl, then stabbed the apply button. “Yes.”
Carolyn smiled. “Let’s see what else is out there. You never know…maybe there’s something for me in the great outdoors.”
“Uh, have you ever been outdoors?”
“The cruise to Alaska. We stood on deck many times.” Carolyn made a face at her, then continued scrolling through the sites on her tablet.
“You know that if I get called for an interview, I won’t take it.”
“Of course not,” Carolyn said. “We’re just doing this for fun.”
“Good.” Taylor took a long drink of wine. “I just wanted to make certain we’re on the same page.”
Carolyn slanted a sideways look at her. “Although…”
Taylor let out a sigh. “He hasn’t called or texted. It’s done.”
Carolyn pushed the hair back from her forehead. “And you feel…?”
“Like I made the only choice I could have made. The only logical choice. The choice I told him I would make before we started sleeping together. I was totally up front and he was good with it.”
“What happened?” Carolyn’s expression shifted as she connected the dots. “Oh, no…you didn’t tell him that stuff about compromise?”
Taylor closed her eyes and pulled in a breath. “I believed that stuff about compromise.”
“And now?”
“If it was true, I wouldn’t feel this miserable right now.”
* * *
TAYLOR WENT OUT for a run late Friday afternoon after getting off work, and when she got back, a message was waiting for her on her phone. Not her mother, as she’d expected, but Jancey. A simple “Call me.”
Taylor’s heart started to thump as she hit the redial. Had something happened to Cole? To Chucky? Jancey answered instantly.
“Taylor. Thanks for getting back to me.” The girl sounded stressed, but not Cole’s-in-the-hospital stressed.
“Not a problem. Is everything okay?” As in, did her heart need to be beating this rapidly?
“Cole’s talking about selling the ranch.”
Taylor almost dropped the phone. “No.”
“I know. I think he’s doing it to be with you.”
“Um…” Taylor sank down to the sofa as guilt washed over her. She’d told him to sell and now he was going to do it? “I’m not certain what to say.” Total understatement.
“There’s got to be another way, Taylor. I don’t want to lose the ranch.”
Taylor cleared her throat,
