“I can’t say she was selfish,” he said, his voice rough. “I can’t say she did anything wrong.”
“What about my mother? God knows she had it hard, Joshua. I can’t imagine having a baby at fourteen. It’s hard enough having one at twenty-two. She has a lot of excuses. And they’re valid. She went through hell, but the fact of the matter is she’s choosing to go through it at this point. She has spent her whole life searching for the kind of love that either one of her children would have given her for nothing. I couldn’t have loved her more. Riley is a baby, completely and totally dependent on whoever might take care of him. Could we have loved her more? Could we have made her stay?”
“That’s different.”
She stamped her foot again. “It is fucking not!”
He didn’t bother to yell at her about them being in a church again. “I understand that all of this is new to you,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “And honestly? It feels good, selfishly good, to know you see all this in me. It’s tempting to lie to you, Danielle. But I can’t do that. What I offered you is the beginning and end of what I have. Either you accept our partnership or you walk away.”
She wouldn’t.
She needed him too much. That was the part that made him a monster.
He knew he had all the power here, and he knew she would ultimately see things his way. She would have to.
And then what? Would she wither away living with him? Wanting something that he refused to give her?
The situation looked too familiar.
He tightened his jaw, steeling himself for her response.
What he didn’t expect was to find a bouquet of flowers tossed at him. He caught them, and her petite shoulders lifted up, then lowered as she let out a shuddering breath. “I guess you’re the next one to get married, then. Congratulations. You caught the flowers.”
“Of course I damn well am,” he said, tightening his fist around the roses, ignoring the thorn that bit into his palm. “Our wedding is in an hour.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head. Then she turned and ran out of the room, pausing only to kick her shoes off and leave them lying on the floor like she was Cinderella.
And he just stood there, holding on to the flowers, a trickle of blood from the thorn dripping down his wrist as he watched the first ray of light, the first bit of hope he’d had in years, disappear from his life.
Of course, her exit didn’t stop him from standing at the altar and waiting. Didn’t stop him from acting like the wedding would continue without a hitch.
He knew she hadn’t gone far, mostly because Janine was still at the church with Riley, and while Danielle’s actions were painful and mystifying at the moment, he knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going to leave without Riley.
But the music began to play and no bride materialized.
There he was, a giant dick in a suit, waiting for a woman who wasn’t going to come.
His family looked at each other, trading expressions filled with a mix of pity and anger. But it was his father who spoke up. “What in hell did you do, boy?”
A damned good question.
Unfortunately, he knew the answer to it.
“Why are you blaming him?” Faith asked, his younger sister defending him to the bitter end, even when he didn’t deserve it.
“Because that girl loves him,” his father said, his tone full of confidence, “and she wouldn’t have left him standing there if he hadn’t done something.”
Pastor John raised his hands, the gesture clearly meant to placate. “If there are any doubts about a marriage, it’s definitely best to stop and consider those doubts, as it is a union meant for life.”
“And she was certain,” Joshua’s father said. “Which means he messed it up.”
“When two people love each other...” The rest of Pastor John’s words were swallowed up by Joshua’s family, but those first six hit Joshua and pierced him right in the chest.
When two people love each other.
Two people. Loving each other.
Love going both ways. Giving and taking.
And he understood then. He really understood.
Why she couldn’t submit to living in a relationship that she thought might be one-sided. Because she had already endured it once. Because she’d already lived it with her mother.
Danielle was willing to walk away from everything he’d offered her. From the house, from the money, from the security. Even from his family. Because for some reason his love meant that much to her.
That realization nearly brought him to his knees.
He had thought his love insufficient. Had thought it destructive. And as she had stood there, pleading with him to love her back, he had thought his love unimportant.
But to her, it was everything.
How dare he question her feelings for him? Love, to Danielle, was more than a ranch and good sex. And she had proved it, because she was clearly willing to sacrifice the ranch and the sex to have him return her love.
“It was my fault,” he said, his voice sounding like a stranger’s as it echoed through the room. “She said she loved me. And I told her I couldn’t love her back.”
“Well,” Faith said, “not even I can defend you now, dumbass.”
His mother looked stricken, his father angry. His brothers seemed completely unsurprised.
“You do love her, though,” his father said, his tone steady. “So why did
