The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(12)

Actually, seeing Griffin and Iris together was one of the things that had started making her relationship with Jared feel... Wrong. And after that visit up here...

“So what exactly are you doing here?”

“Well. I broke up with Jared.”

“Right.”

He didn’t look shocked at all.

“I broke up with him,” she repeated.

“Yeah,” Griffin said.

“No, I really broke up with him,” she replied. “I mean, for good. I did it. He didn’t leave—I kicked him out.”

“Okay.”

“He cheated on me,” Mallory said.

That made her brother stop where he was, and his expression went fierce. “Really?”

“Really. And that’s it. We’re done.”

There was a slight pause.

“You better mean it,” Griffin said.

Iris suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think that’s the response people usually get when they say they’ve broken up with someone...”

“You’ve never broken up with anyone,” he said. “How would you know?”

“You wanna test that?” Iris asked, smiling sweetly.

“I’d win you back and we both know it.”

Mallory cleared her throat and kept staring at him until he shifted, his expression getting defensive.

“Yeah, well, you remember him,” he said to Iris.

“I do,” Iris said, patiently.

“And you know how I feel about him.”

Iris rolled her eyes. “Everyone in a two-mile radius of the two of you was well aware of exactly how you felt about him. The only person who wasn’t, was the person in question, since I don’t think he much paid attention to what anyone thought. And even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared. No offense,” Iris said, directing that last part at Mallory.

“None taken. I’ve been fully marinating in what a selfish asshole he is for weeks.” And doing her best to eliminate memories of all the good and hard times they’d shared. She was working on making him as one-dimensional as her brother saw him, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be hassled about it. “But yes, I would expect a little bit more... Of a reaction over us breaking up.”

“You two have broken up a hundred times, Mallory. He’s been with other women during those times.”

“Yes, but it was different. He’d leave first. This time he was...he was still living with me.”

“What the hell difference does it make?” Griffin asked.

“It makes a ton of difference to me,” she said. “I thought everything was good. I thought he and I were good.”

But as soon as she said it, all the sharp, bruised places inside of her lit up. Because it had always hurt. And she had always taken him back for some reason. Because she had spent fifteen years being wholly devoted to him mind and body, never kissing another man, never touching another man, and there had been... Oh, there had been other women. Because Jared was handsome, even if he was... That sort of easy that didn’t grow, change or achieve. But he was fun to be with. And it was that... That thing that had always done something for her. She was so desperate to prove herself all the time, and he so deeply didn’t care what anyone thought. He also knew how to make her laugh when she wanted to cry, and knew how to drag her out of a spiral when she was worried about what someone else might think of her.

But she wasn’t going to focus on any of that.

Every time he’d decided to move out in the past, he’d always found another woman’s bed to sleep in. God knew he could never seem to afford his own.

Now you have, though. Now you’ve had Mystery Cowboy. And he was better than Jared could ever be, and the sex was surely better than any he’d had with a random bar hookup.

Because it was better than just about any sex ever. It had to be.

“Okay. I’m sorry. Judgment put on pause. You broke up with him, and...?”

“I sold my condo. And I’m moving here.”

“Well hell,” Griffin said. “Why didn’t you say that?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say. But, breakup news. Baby news. There was other news.”

Griffin’s whole bearing changed. “That’s great, Mal. I’m thrilled to have you here. We are thrilled to have you here.”

“Yes,” Iris said. “Especially now.”

“I have... I’m taking over a clinic here. I’m... I’m thrilled.”

“Well, I wish I would’ve had it ready, but you know we have a guest room. And we can get the cabin prepared for habitation as soon as possible.”

“I don’t need it,” she said.

“You don’t need it?”

“No. I’ve got a place to rent already.” She could only hope it was a decent place. She’d gone back and forth with the rental management company, but the info had been sparse. Rentals were thin on the ground in Gold Valley, it turned out.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I did. I mean, I sank most of the money from my condo into the birthing center. But, not all of it. And I wanted to have my own place. My own space.” She looked up at Griffin. “I haven’t lived on my own. Not for more than a month or so at a time. I... I’ve always been with someone. I’ve always been dependent in some way on someone.”