Unending Devotion (Michigan Brides #1)(75)

Maybe he could use the money Dad had given him to buy Frankie’s rescue. “I’ll do my best to get Frankie out. But I can’t stay here.”

“You could if you found some other way to earn a living.”

His gaze snapped up to hers. “I can’t do that, Lily.”

“Why not?” She kneeled on the edge of the love seat. “You’re a talented man. You could do anything you wanted.”

“I already told you that lumbering is all I’ve ever known.”

“But after everything that’s happened lately, I thought you were beginning to see the problems and you’d be ready to leave them behind.”

He scrambled to make sense of what she was saying. “Yes, I can admit there are some aspects to the business that aren’t the best—”

“Aren’t the best?” Her voice rose an octave. “How can you see anything good, especially after all that’s happened with Daisy and Frankie?”

“Now, that’s unfair, Lily.”

“You know as well as I do that lumbering lays waste to the land and feeds an appetite for lust and greed among the men for money, whiskey, and women.”

“Aren’t you being judgmental? It’s an industry like any other—like salt works that line the river or the commercial fishing out in the bay.”

“I’ve witnessed for myself just how depraved the lumber industry is. And you can’t convince me otherwise.”

He stifled a groan of frustration. “Look, I don’t want to get into another argument with you over this today. McCormick Lumber is in my blood. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. I can’t just walk away from it.”

“You can’t? Or won’t?” Her voice turned low.

Uneasiness lodged in his gut. “If I walked away from it, I’d have to turn my back on my family—and my dad. I can’t do that.”

“And you know after all that’s happened that I can’t go back to the debauchery, especially not with Daisy.” Her eyes flashed with determination.

His stomach rolled. He wanted to defend himself, to remind her of all that he’d already done to stand up to Carr, the risks he’d taken to help in Daisy’s rescue. But he clamped his jaw. He had the feeling all the defense in the world wouldn’t satisfy her. She’d only want more sacrifices from him than he could give.

Her jaw was set with a firmness that indicated the strength of her passion in the issue. Her passion was one of the things he loved about her. How could he ask her to change who she was for him? And what right did she have to expect him to give up everything that was important to him?

“Maybe we’re just too different,” she finally said. “Maybe we’re destined to live two separate lives.”

He nodded. He didn’t want to agree with her, but he couldn’t add up the situation any other way. He couldn’t stay in Bay City, and she couldn’t live with him among the lumber camps.

“It’s probably best for us to just go our own ways.”

Her words sliced his heart.

For a long moment, she gazed at him with wide expectation, almost as if she wanted him to contradict her.

But how could he disagree? They were as different as summer and winter.

He didn’t say anything.

A shadow fell across her features, and he turned away from her before he could read the disappointment in her eyes.

“Good-bye, Connell.” The finality in her voice pierced his heart again.

“Good-bye,” he whispered through a tight throat.

And when the swish of her satiny skirt moved away from him out of the room, he ached to run after her and fight for her, fight for them and what they could have had together.

But he lowered his head and let her walk out of his life.





Chapter

22



The ache in Lily’s heart pressed against her lungs and made breathing difficult. She had no desire to speak past the constriction in her throat.

Thankfully, Daisy was in one of her talkative moods and hadn’t noticed how quiet she’d been all morning.

Lily stretched out next to Daisy on the bed and stroked a silver-handled brush through the girl’s hair. The curls turned into waves under her deft hand, just the way they always had when Daisy was younger.

Lily’s toes grazed the large flat stone at the end of the bed. Even with the heating stone and the thick quilt for warmth, she couldn’t keep from shivering.

Or from thinking about Connell.

“I’ve never seen lovelier gowns than those Maggie purchased for all the girls,” Daisy said, lying on her side and staring at the flames in the marble fireplace. “The dresses were always gorgeous colors.”

Lily slid a hand over the satiny fabric of the garnet gown Mrs. McCormick had so generously presented to her earlier in the morning. Connell’s eyes had lit up when he’d seen her in it, just the way she’d hoped.

“And Maggie sure knew how to fix our hair.” Daisy’s voice was wistful.

“Sounds almost like you’re fond of Carr’s wife,” Lily said, swallowing past the ache and trying to push aside all the pain raging through her heart.

Connell had told her he didn’t want to live without her, but when faced with the choice to return to his work in Harrison or stay with her, he’d chosen his work, the family business, the success of McCormick Lumber.