Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch (Gold Valley #13)(79)

“I never got to know him all that well,” Sammy said. “Not like the others. I mean, we know each other. But I didn’t know them before. He’s fun. But... There’s more to it than that.”

“Yeah,” Callie agreed. “I got to know him about eight years ago. I was sixteen. And I just thought... He was the best man I’d ever met. And he is. I...” She stumbled over the next few words. “I cared about him almost right away. He became my best friend. But I didn’t notice until recently that all that is just covering... He’s sad.” She looked up, meeting Iris’s gaze. “He’s really sad.”

She felt guilty, revealing him like that. She had never felt the urge to talk about her friend to anybody. And here she was, talking about him. Not because he was less of her friend, but because there was something she needed to work out, and he couldn’t help her do it. He wouldn’t help her do it. The space that they were standing in. That bridge that she’d realized they were on that night under the trees... That space between friendship and sex. This uncharted territory that she didn’t know how to map. That’s where they were.

“He just doesn’t like to talk about anything serious,” Sammy said. “He’s hard to know.”

Would she ever know him?

That ate at her.

Because she always felt like she had, but she didn’t in the process of realizing just how one-sided their friendship was in that way. He knew all her hopes and dreams. He’d up and left the rodeo without so much as talking to her. He’d started a ranch, when she hadn’t even realized he’d wanted that. So how good of friends were they really? He held her at a distance, and she hadn’t even noticed it.

“I want to do something for him,” she said. “But I don’t know what. I don’t know how to...”

She realized that they were all looking at her sympathetically. “What?”

“It’s like that, is it?” Sammy asked.

“Like what?”

“He’s... Important to you,” Pansy said slowly. “And maybe this isn’t as fake as it was in the beginning?”

She scowled. “I don’t know. Maybe. But he’s difficult.”

“Oh, that’s the Daniels family trait,” Sammy said.

The other women looked at her. “Hey,” Rose said.

“Sorry, but it is. You are all singularly pains in the ass.”

“If I recall right,” Iris said, “you broke Ryder’s heart.”

“He got better,” Sammy said, waving a hand.

“Still,” Pansy said. “Just be careful who you’re calling a pain in the ass.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t. But I’m just saying, it is hard to get to them when they decide to be problematic.”

“Problematic,” Rose muttered.

“He’s taking care of you,” Iris said. “Maybe it’s time for you to take care of him.”

“That’s the thing,” Callie said. “I want to. I want to take care of him. I just don’t know what he needs.”

“I do remember,” Pansy said, “that his mom used to make sugar cookies.”

“Oh, right,” she said. “He mentioned that.”

Rose looked edgy. “A word to the wise about attempting to reproduce cookie recipes without warning. Sometimes it doesn’t go over well.”

“Oh, right,” Pansy said, looking at her sister. “Logan got a little bit weird about that.”

Rose shrugged her shoulders. “It did work out in the end. So, I’m pro-cookie. I’m just saying... It’s gonna get a reaction.”

“That’s what I need,” Callie said. “I need a reaction. I feel like things happen with him, and then... He pulls away, and there’s nothing I can do to reach him. I considered throwing myself off a horse.”

“Baking cookies seems less extreme.”

“I’m actually more comfortable getting thrown off a horse than I am baking a cookie.”

“It’s simple,” Iris said, waving a hand. “I run a bakery. And actually, I know how to make those cookies. I make them in the shop.”

“You do?”

“I absolutely do,” Iris said. “I have the recipe. If you follow that, it’s not dramatic. I promise you.”

“Well, I haven’t got any other ideas,” she said. “So maybe I’ll bake some cookies.”

“You were warned,” Rose said.

She nodded. But she was ready. For whatever. Because she couldn’t keep going back and forth with him. She couldn’t continue on in this pattern. And their marriage was ending at the end of next month. Another few weeks, and the marriage would be over. All of the trust fund money would be transferred to her... And they wouldn’t need to be together anymore. So yeah, she would see what happened with this. She would just see.

Because she needed time. More than a few weeks.

And she didn’t know how else to get it.

“I’ve never really had a whole lot of girlfriends,” she said. “So this was really nice.”

“Well, if everything works out...” Sammy grinned. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of you.”

Callie held that close, but tried not to think it through too deeply.