“But you don’t love me and you never will.” Eve crossed her arms over her chest, holding herself together when hope was shattering into little pieces inside. But she forced herself to continue, to make him see. “I’m grateful that you married me, Hayden. I really am. But I can’t extend our divorce date indefinitely just because you’ve decided a marriage between friends suits you.”
Here. Here was the place to stop. But Eve couldn’t.
“I love you, Hayden. I’ve always loved you.” She gulped. “But if you can’t love me back, I will sign divorce papers in six months.” And then Eve capped off her completely foolish, out-of-control rant by wrapping her arms around Hayden and kissing him for all she was worth.
But love and kisses…they weren’t enough.
I’m not enough.
Eve had initiated a kiss with Hayden, and he didn’t kiss her in return.
She dropped back on her heels, but she couldn’t take those three words back. She could see that by the guarded look in his dark eyes. The walls were coming back up.
Eve walked stiffly around the back of the truck, got in the cab, and strapped herself in.
For what turned out to be a very quiet ride home.
Chapter Seventeen
She loves me?
Hayden came to bed late on Saturday night, long after Evie had gone upstairs. And he got up before the crack of dawn on Sunday morning, long before Evie stirred.
She loves me.
Hayden had mixed feelings about that. Oil-and-vinegar type of feelings.
Do I love her?
On the one hand, Hayden thought of Evie as found family. He respected her, enjoyed her company, and wanted to protect her from harm. Surely, that was a form of love. The kind of love he was comfortable with.
On the other hand, he’d spent the past ten years turning his back on deep emotions that led to scars to his heart. What did he know of love? The kind of love Evie claimed to have for him?
Where can we possibly go from here?
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Hayden bottle-fed Mike and fed the horses hay flakes. He cleaned stalls. He polished tack. He kept himself busy in the hopes that he could forget Evie’s words from the night before.
I love you, Hayden. I’ve always loved you.
“You’re polishing that bridle as if it’s done you wrong,” Roddy said when he found Hayden in the tack room a short time after sunrise. “Why don’t you head on over to the house and have a cup of coffee with that sweet wife of yours?”
“I’d rather start transporting livestock to the auction yard.” They had two more large stock trailer loads to go. Hayden finished wiping down the bridle and stood. “Are you ready?”
Roddy leaned against the door frame, a knowing smile on his wrinkled face. “Playing the avoidance game, are you? The way you did with Clyde? Only this time with the lady of the house?”
“No.” Hayden tried to deny it, but he felt the cowardice of his actions deep in his gut. “The cattle has to be moved, Roddy. We’re on a deadline. The auction is Tuesday.”
Roddy smacked his lips. “You’ve got a lover’s quarrel shadow about you. Might want to clear that up before we go.”
Hayden rolled his shoulders back. He felt the pull of Evie’s feelings for him. He felt them deep inside in a vulnerable place he’d sworn never to revisit. But he couldn’t bring himself to answer that call.
“You’re a wise man, Roddy,” Hayden allowed, walking toward the tack room. “But I have to set my feelings aside in order to put the Bennett house in order.” And he had to know if Evie was going to end their marriage today rather than a little over five months from now.
Roddy frowned, but he got out of Hayden’s way.
Only to reveal Rhett in the breezeway, holding a travel mug of coffee. “What’s this I hear about a lover’s quarrel?”
“Nothing.” Hayden tugged his hat brim down as he strode past, heading toward Red’s stall. “The less you know, the better.”