The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(13)

“Jared was dependent on you,” Griffin said.

Mallory closed her eyes. “You know, I would love to believe that. I mean, I would really love to just let myself feel that. To be angry with him, and with the fact that he sponged off of me financially for as long as he did. Because he did. But it’s not that simple, Griffin. I needed something from him. And I have to figure out what that was.”

As soon as she said it, she realized it was true.

She wasn’t stupid.

She had a good family.

But somehow she’d let one mistake, one horrible, traumatic event determine how she lived her life. She’d committed herself to a relationship that didn’t grow and change with her. So she’d tied herself into knots until she was a shape she hadn’t recognized.

And she had to find the shape of Mallory.

Without all the weird baggage she’d tangled herself up in back home. Without Jared and her parents and everything else.

“I have to figure out what’s next,” she said. “And I’m hurt. That’s the thing that gets me the most. That I’m really hurt by all of it. Even though I feel like... The visit up here, it was the beginning of me really seeing him. He wasn’t polite to any of you. He was so obnoxious about the town. We were staying in this gorgeous little bed-and-breakfast, and he hated it. Because he didn’t want to have to get up early to eat the breakfast. It was like being with a teenage boy.”

She pushed her fingers through her hair—they stopped abruptly at a snarl because her curls would not be tamed—and started to pace the room.

“And I can see all that. I could see it then. I’m still hurt that he betrayed me. I still don’t know what to make of my life now that he’s not in it. Because he’s not. He’s really not. I’m done. For good. But the fact that it...” She swallowed. She didn’t want to say it, because she felt like it was too easy to use these words, and she also felt like she didn’t really lay claim to them, given all the pain that Griffin had been through. But it was really the only thing she had to describe it. “My heart is broken.”

Her heart had been broken for fifteen years. And only Jared knew why. He hadn’t done it. But he hadn’t truly helped her heal.

“It’s going to take time for me to figure out how to put it back together. How to put myself... Together. For the first time. As a grown woman.”

A woman who was free.

She thought again of her handsome cowboy with the electric eyes, and then made herself stop that right away.

This had nothing to do with him.

“I just need to stand on my own feet. I need to be strong. For myself. Not for someone else.”

Griffin made his way across the room and pulled her in for a hug. “You’re perfect, Mallory. You just need someone who will see that.”

She felt uncomfortable with that. It made her eyes feel like they’d been scrubbed with a cactus.

She didn’t know how to respond to that so she didn’t.

She spent the day with her brother and Iris. Iris made bread. Griffin grilled steak. They talked and laughed and she felt so free. She could stay as long as she liked. She didn’t have to worry about Jared being bored.

She didn’t make her move to leave until around ten at night.

“Hey,” Iris said, as she was about to go. “Do you have plans Sunday? If not, you should come to my family dinner.”



CHAPTER THREE


MONDAY WOULD BE the last day in the motel, the last day before she went to her new house. And she didn’t really know what she was doing going to this... Big get-together.

You’re doing something new. It’s part of the new life.

Yes. The new life. The new life which was... Well, she was looking forward to it. She was. It had been so nice to see Griffin and Iris so happy at their house. And she was just thrilled that she was going to be an aunt again. She was just thrilled that her brother had found so much happiness during this time.

And as for getting accepted into the whole extended Daniels family...

Well, she loved Iris. And Griffin had assured her that his in-laws were basically the best people in the entire world. They’d been through tough stuff, which was something that made Iris even more perfect for Griffin. She knew how to live. Even after everything she’d been through, she’d known how to live. And she’d been able to show Griffin the way back.

Maybe knowing them would... Maybe it would help her too.

She pulled her car up into the dirt driveway, beneath the sign that said: Hope Springs Ranch.

The road wound on a little ways until she got to the ranch house itself, which was eclectic—that much was clear even from the outside. There were muddy boots on the porch, along with a Bohemian rug and wind chimes. A bear that looked like it had been carved out of a log by a chain saw. A collision of country and hippie rolled into one.

Her brother’s truck was already there. She had made sure to come a little bit late so that she wouldn’t be coming up on a place full of strangers all by herself. She got out of the car and was greeted by an opening door and a passel of dogs. They were barking and wiggling, and Mallory backed up against the side of the car. “Oh,” she said, looking down at the animals. “Hi. Hello.”

“Mallory!”

She heard her sister-in-law’s voice and looked up, to see Iris standing there with a beautiful blonde woman, who was clearly responsible for the Bohemian element at the place.