Holly Jolly Cowboy (The Wyoming Cowboy #7)(70)

ADAM: It’s a long story . . . and I’m sure she already told it to you.

CARSON: Yup.

CARSON: You hurt her feelings bad, you know. You let everyone laugh at her. It’s more than just the cake. It’s that you humiliated her in front of the town.

ADAM: I didn’t know it was going to be in front of the entire town!

CARSON: Am I wrong or were you the one that drove her?

ADAM: You’re not wrong. I should have said something, but what could I have said at that point?

CARSON: Try “Hi Holly, I added salt to your cake because I’m a childish idiot, don’t serve it to anyone”?

ADAM: Fine. I admit it. I messed up. That’s what you want to hear, right?

CARSON: Yup.

CARSON: She needs to hear it, too.

ADAM: I’ve tried. I’ve really tried. I keep trying to talk to her and she shuts me out. I don’t want to push too hard because I don’t want her to feel trapped, but she won’t even give me a chance.

CARSON: Would you give you a chance?

ADAM: Yes.

CARSON: Then you’re stupider than I thought.

ADAM: Is there a point to this conversation?

CARSON: Yeah. You still don’t get it.

Adam glared down at his phone. Why did Carson think he knew Holly better than Adam did? It was ridiculous . . . and it was starting to really irritate him. How could he fix what was wrong if no one would tell him the problem?

ADAM: What is it I don’t get, o wise expert?

CARSON: You said your ex-wife cheated on you, right?

ADAM: I don’t see what this has to do with anything.

CARSON: Hear me out. Where did you used to live?

ADAM: Norfolk, Virginia.

CARSON: So after you got out, why didn’t you stay there?

Adam gritted his teeth. Why, indeed? He hadn’t wanted to stay in Norfolk because everyone he knew was Navy. His entire social circle was Navy buddies, and the gym was full of Navy. He’d go to the damn supermarket and run into someone in uniform. And it got on his nerves after a while, because it was all a reminder of the fact that he’d been cheated on while serving his country. And when he’d run into the guy at a bar, he knew it was time to leave.

He was tired of being “that guy that got cheated on.” He was tired of the sympathetic looks everywhere he went, like he was some sort of idiot for not realizing Donna’s unhappiness earlier. So he’d left and gone as far away as he could.

But he wasn’t about to text all that shit to Carson, who was already acting smug and annoying.

ADAM: I had reasons.

CARSON: Yeah well, let’s think real hard about this. Holly grew up in this town. She hasn’t left. In everyone’s eyes, she’s still a dropout. She has to work twice as hard as everyone else to be taken seriously.

CARSON: And you shit all over that.

Hot guilt rushed through him. He hadn’t thought about Holly’s situation in town when he’d done it. To him, she was just that pretty but annoying waitress. Then again, he hadn’t grown up here. He knew that she was sensitive about being seen as a dropout. Becca had mentioned the same thing, so clearly it was on people’s minds. It was crazy, really. Couldn’t they see how smart she was? How driven? How caring?

ADAM: Why’s everyone hung up on her education? She did it to take care of her sister. You’d think she’d get a lot more credit for that.

CARSON: You’d think. But in a lot of people’s eyes, she’s nothing but a waitress. She feels like she’s got something to prove.

ADAM: And let me guess, all I proved is that what they think of her is right?

CARSON: I don’t think it, and you don’t think it, but everyone else thinks it.

ADAM: Then they’re all idiots.

CARSON: Agreed. So you’d better fix it. I don’t like her sad.

ADAM: You think I like it? She won’t even talk to me. How can I fix it if she won’t even talk to me?

CARSON: I don’t know, but you’d better figure it out.

Adam wanted to pitch the phone away in disgust. It was just like Carson to text him a long-ass lecture that ended with no useful information, just griping. Hadn’t he done that all month with the ranch? It was like he didn’t trust Adam to handle anything while he was gone. He knew it came from a good place, but . . . he also didn’t want to hear it.

He knew he’d hurt Holly. He knew she was embarrassed.

The question was . . . how did he fix it? That was the part he had no answer to.

All he knew was that he needed to have Holly back in his life again. He’d only been a few days without her and it felt like the longest year of his life already. There was no joy in a world without Holly’s bright laughter and sly wit. He was going to get her back, damn it. He just had to figure out how.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE





That evening, after he finished mucking the stalls in the barn, he headed for his cabin and collapsed on the bed. It had been another long day, and he felt like everything was getting away from him again. Jason had texted to check in on things, as he had several times over the last month, and Adam didn’t complain. What could he say? I need you to come back because the cattle are a real pain in my ass and doing cattle stuff? That number 34 is constantly having to get retrieved out of deep mud? That I have to keep caking them because there’s not enough protein in their shit and I can’t keep them at the weight they need to stay at in order for the calves to be fat and healthy for the spring? That one of the horses twisted a leg and the vet will be over tomorrow? That the fences keep falling down and the Gator needs maintenance and we’re low on hay bales and and and . . .