Free The Rancher And The RunawayBride: Part 2 by Susan Mallery Page B

problem is, I
     don’t want to settle for anything less.”
    She took a sip of her drink. “They sound like a tough act to follow.”
    “Exactly. I came close a couple of times.” He set his beer on the ground. “A few years
     ago a woman came to town. Alicia. She drove a bright red convertible. Not exactly
     what we’re used to around here.”
    “This is more truck country.”
    “Yeah. She’d taken the summer off to drive across the country. She wanted to learn
     how to ride a horse, so she came out to the ranch.” Brady still remembered the first
     time he’d seen her, all blond hair and blue eyes, with a smile bright enough to blind
     a man.
    “Pretty?” Rita asked.
    “Beautiful, like a model.”
    “Figures,” she muttered, then looked at him. “What happened?”
    “I fell hard and fast, without bothering to look at what I was doing. She didn’t fit
     in with the ranch at all, but I convinced myself it would work out. She hated the
     dirt, the dust, even the horses. She wasn’t much of a rider. But I was in love for
     the first time in my life and I refused to face the truth.” He thought back to that
     time, to his parents’ worried faces. They’d tried to warn him about Alicia, but when
     he wouldn’t listen, they’d left him alone to make his own mistakes.
    “She never talked about her past,” he continued. “That should have been my first clue.
     There were lots of secrets she kept. Once she disappeared for a couple of days and
     wouldn’t say where she’d been, but I didn’t want to pay attention to the signs. In
     my mind, we were meant for each other, just like my folks. I proposed and she accepted.”
    “You married her?”
    Something about Rita’s voice didn’t sound right, but when he looked at her, he couldn’t
     see anything odd in her expression.
    “Not exactly. We planned a quick wedding, nothing fancy. My parents weren’t happy,
     but they didn’t argue with me. Mom took care of all the details.”
    He leaned back against the bench. Those days were so clear to him. The conversations
     he’d had with Alicia, the watchful concern in his parents’ eyes. Everyone had guessed
     but him. Everyone had tried to warn him but he wouldn’t have any part of it. He wanted
     Alicia and he refused to listen to reason.
    “What happened?”
    “What everyone but me expected. She never showed up for the wedding. She left me standing
     at the altar, waiting like a fool. Eventually some kid brought a note she’d left.
     She told me she’d had a great summer, that she’d enjoyed her time with me. Apparently,
     the whole point of her trip was to make her rich boyfriend jealous. It had taken a
     while, but the trip had worked. Two days before our wedding, he’d flown out to propose
     and had taken her back with him. She said she hoped I understood and wished her happiness.”
     He heard the bitterness in his voice. “I wished her a lot of things, but happiness
     wasn’t one of them.”
    After all this time, he couldn’t let that go. He no longer hated Alicia or blamed
     himself. He understood what had happened. He’d been so determined to find something
     like his parents’ relationship that he’d thought he’d found a treasure where there
     was only fool’s gold. He didn’t hate her or himself, but he was disappointed that
     he’d chosen so poorly. The bitterness came, not from what he’d lost, but from what
     he’d never had.
    “What I resent the most is that she didn’t have the courage to tell me to my face,”
     he said. “She ran out on me like some kid runs away from home after breaking a lamp.
     The mistake was mine for thinking her an adult capable of acting responsibly.”
    He glanced at Rita. She stared at him openmouthed. Her stunned expression made him
     feel foolish. Had he exposed too much of his past?
    Before either of them could say anything, McGregor stuck his head out the window.
     “I thought I saw you two sittin’ out here in the dark. What’s