Kissin' Tell (Rough Riders #13)(109)

Stephanie thoughtfully stirred her drink. “I’m usually the first to point out there’s no wrong way to grieve, but the way your father handled RJ’s death? Was the wrong way. Many families implode after that type of event. Yours is no exception. It’s always seemed to you that your dad chose Deck over you. I can’t speak to the logic of that, except to point out that if your father had kicked Deck to the curb, would you have pitched in and helped him with the hog farm?”


Georgia wrinkled her nose. “No.”


“Your dad, who was grieving, threw himself into a new enterprise to take his mind off his loss and pain. He needed help, but he didn’t get it from his wife or his daughter. Who was the one person that did support him?”


“Deck.”


“Yes, Deck. His son-in-law, the man you married, the guy he considered part of his family. That’s natural, Georgia. Maybe it wasn’t natural for you to leave and Deck to stay, but that’s how it played out. And wishing it was different won’t change anything.”


“Never crossed my mind to ask Deck to come with me, because it was him I wanted to get away from.” She winced. “I wasn’t exactly a good wife.”


“You were too young to be saddled with the responsibility of marriage. Add in the other stuff… I’m surprised you lasted two years. You bailed only a few months after your mother. Didn’t change the fact your dad still needed help. Deck stood by him. I highly doubt your father agreed with Deck’s treatment of you.”


Hadn’t her father tried to explain, in his gruff way, that a woman leaving a man makes the man do stupid things? Strange to think her dad hadn’t been talking about Deck and her. He’d meant that he hadn’t been thinking straight when his wife had left him.


How could Stephanie be turning this issue on its head and making Georgia sympathetic toward her father?


Maybe you’re finally growing up and putting those perceived slights in the proper context. Seeing it from your dad’s point of view. Seeing that the tragedy of RJ’s death made everyone act irrationally. Including you.


“His only option was to somehow make it up to you. When it came time for you to spread your wings, he wanted you to have a safe landing, so he brought in Barbara.”


“But isn’t that controlling and manipulative?” Georgia asked.


Stephanie sighed. “Only if he told you he’d brought Barbara in especially for you and expected you’d take the job offer no matter what it was, because refusing it would ruin their friendship, and he’d gone to all the trouble for you, so you’d better fall in line.


“But he didn’t tell you he’d set it up, probably because you’d refuse a great opportunity on principle. Yes, you scored the interview because of him, but you scored the job on your own. And sweetie, you’re really na?ve if you think that type of nepotism doesn’t happen all the time, in every corner of business.”


“What about this summer rodeo gig? He basically set that up too.”


Stephanie rolled her eyes. “Yes, you’re having such a lousy time in Wyoming. Not stuck in a stuffy office. Reconnecting with old friends. Proving yourself in sales and event management. Having fun. Acting your age for a change.” She leaned closer. “Need I point out that you’ve fallen in love with Tell McKay?”


“No. It’s scary, these feeling I have for him. But whatever he might’ve felt for me? I destroyed by lying to him. I saw it on his face, Stephanie. Distrust, disbelief and disgust.” Georgia briefly closed her eyes, trying to blink away that image. “Him washing his hands of me is probably for the best.”


“The best for who? You’re the happiest you’ve ever been—or you were up until today. You can just snap your fingers and forget all that, like it never was?”


Georgia shrank back in the booth. “God no.”


“But you expect Tell can forget it? And he will?”


“That’s not a fair comparison.”


“It is fair, because it’s true. Tell loves you. I could see it that night at the reunion regardless if he was ready to admit it yet. You’re so worried about everyone making decisions for you that you don’t realize by walking away you’re doing the same thing to him.”


That stunned her. “What am I supposed to do?”


“Take control of your life. Nothing is predestined, Georgia. People make major changes in their lives every day.”


“But my job is in Dallas. My life is there.”


Stephanie smacked her hand on the table. “Can you please admit that you only really started living your life when you returned to Wyoming?”


That stung, but didn’t make it any less true. She’d been going through the motions in Dallas. Work. Sleep. Weekends that she largely spent by herself. Living in limbo. Waiting for…what?


A man like Tell to come into her life?


No. She didn’t need a man to make her complete.


If that was true, why had she felt so hollow? So incomplete? Didn’t she have what every college grad wanted—a job, a decent place to live and a little money in the bank?