Only His (Fool's Gold #6)(42)

“We all are.” Annabelle gazed longingly at the dressing she’d ordered on the side, then ignored it as she speared a piece of lettuce. “Relationships with men are never easy. If I were to make a list of all the mistakes I’ve made and line them up, I could reach China.”

Heidi looked intrigued. “Any you want to share?”

Annabelle shook her head. “Let’s just say I wasn’t always the quiet librarian I am now. I used to be…different.”

“Men can be real bastards,” Heidi said with a sigh.

“You got that right,” Charlie muttered, taking another French fry.

Nevada thought about how her heart had been broken in a single night. While she would lay part of the blame at Tucker’s feet, she knew she had some culpability, too.

“Relationships are never easy,” she admitted.

“No, but your boss is yummy,” Heidi said with a grin. “Please tell me being around him makes you tingle. I can’t remember the last time I felt a tingle.”

“We work together.” Nevada knew she sounded prim but was afraid they would guess how he tempted her.

“You don’t have to grab the merchandise, but you have to be looking.” Heidi raised her eyebrows. “Have you seen his butt?”

“He does have a good butt,” Charlie told her. “I hate nearly all men and even I’ve noticed that.”

Annabelle nodded. “I agree. Your brother Ethan is pretty hot, too. I say that in a respectful way. He’s married and obviously crazy in love with his wife.” She sighed. “Despite everything, I find myself wanting to find the right guy. Still.”

“Not me,” Charlie grumbled. “There is no right guy.”

“You can’t really believe that,” Heidi told her. “While I’m not interested in someone for myself, I can understand the longing. I used to feel that way. Until I had my hopes and dreams crushed.” She speared some of her salad on her fork. “Now I live with my grandfather and raise goats. Who says life doesn’t have a sense of humor?”

“There are still great guys out there,” Nevada said. “Both my sisters are happy and in love.”

“True,” Heidi admitted.

“Annoying.” Charlie rolled her eyes. “Your sisters got lucky. I’ll admit that. There are—” She paused. “Is that your mom?”

Nevada turned and saw her mother standing in the center of the bar. When Denise spotted Nevada, she hurried over.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she began.

Nevada was already on her feet. Her mother’s face was pale, her eyes red. It was obvious she was upset and had been crying.

Nevada grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the table. “What’s wrong? What happened? Is someone hurt?” A million possibilities, each one worse than the one before, passed through her mind.

“It’s not that.” Tears filled her mother’s eyes. “I wanted to let you know, I’m selling the house and moving out of town.”

Nevada stared at her. There was no way she’d heard that correctly. “What are you talking about? What are you saying?”

“I have to leave right away.”

“Why?”

“Max wants to marry me.”

“I SHOULD HAVE BEEN an orphan,” Nevada announced.

Tucker looked up from his computer, her words pulling him away from the schedule he’d been revising. “You love your family.”

“Most of the time, but every now and then I think it would be nice to go it alone.” She glanced at him. “My mother is threatening to sell the house and move.”

“Why?”

“She’s hysterical. Max wants to marry her. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to marry him, although getting her to talk in complete sentences that make sense is tough. All she keeps saying is that she has to leave Fool’s Gold and she’s never coming back. I’m meeting my sisters at the house later. We’re going to try to get this cleared up.”

Too much information, he thought, trying to figure out which problem he should address first.

“She doesn’t want to move,” he told her. “This is her town.” He frowned. “I thought she liked Max.”

“Me, too. They’re crazy about each other. We had that family dinner to meet him and we all thought he was great. Even me.”

He guessed the “even me” part was more about Nevada’s having seen the man naked and having sex than her being unwilling to accept her mother’s new boyfriend.

“I thought all women wanted to get married.”

“Cliché much?” she asked sharply, then slapped her hands on the desk. “Sorry. I’m snippy. This just isn’t like my mom and it’s weird to have her unsettled. Whenever something happened when we were kids, she was a rock. Dad died and she was crushed, but she kept moving forward. So to fall apart like this because Max declares his love and wants to marry her doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re talking to her in the morning. You’ll get it straightened out then.”

“I hope so. Sometimes relationships are complicated.”

“Agreed.” The main reason he avoided them.

“Look at Jo and Will.”