“You like him, though, right?” Ginger asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Emma said. “I didn’t tell him about Missy, and it’s a huge elephant between us.”
“So just go over there and shoo the wildlife out of the room.”
Emma smiled and shook her head. Ginger’s phone went off, and she got distracted by her device. “There’s a problem in the stables.”
“Go,” Emma said, smiling.
Ginger looked at her, her eyebrows up. “You sure?”
“You have a problem with a horse, Ginger, and they’re your babies.” Emma gave a light laugh, though she wasn’t sure what she had to laugh about. “Go.”
Ginger got up and hugged Emma, and then she went. Emma sighed and leaned back into her pillows, her thoughts wandering through the next few days of getting the cabin ready for her daughter, packing the things she had here, and trying to keep up with her work on the ranch.
She didn’t see Ted in the stables the next morning or evening. They didn’t walk down the lane hand-in-hand. She left on Saturday morning with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand and her purse in the other.
Ginger gave her a hug, and Jess told her to drive safe. Hannah and Michelle promised to have lunch ready when she got back, and Emma cast a glance at the Annex when she walked to her car. She wished Ted were sitting on the front steps, the four dogs who had adopted him surrounding him.
He wasn’t.
She hadn’t been able to work up the courage to text him or go next door and talk to him.
“Maybe he just needs time,” she told herself as she went over the bridge and left the ranch. She knew exactly what that felt like, and he’d given her a pass several times from having to explain anything to him.
“And now he knows,” she said. He’d said he didn’t care, that it didn’t matter that she had a daughter with Robert Knight. But his silence said otherwise.
Emma sighed, and she knew the sound of love when she heard it. She dismissed the notion immediately—she was not in love with Ted. She sure did miss him, though, and the hole he’d left in her life gaped, grew wider, and got harder with every day that passed.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ted stood in the kitchen next to the refrigerator, hoping to stay out of the way during this luncheon. He’d tried to get out of coming, but Nate had deliberately come out to the river to get him, saying, “You can’t avoid her forever.”
“I’m not avoiding her,” Ted had said without looking at his best friend. “How did you find me?”
“I brought Ursula.”
Ted looked down at the German shepherd, and Ursula looked up at him. “Traitor,” he said, and Ursula whined.
He looked at Nate, who’d raised his eyebrows. “Fine,” Ted said. “But I’m only staying for ten minutes. She doesn’t want me there.”
“Yes, she does.”
Ted didn’t want to argue with Nate. They’d had this conversation at least daily for the past five days, and Ted didn’t have the energy to do it again. So he’d walked back to the West Wing with Nate. He’d accepted a bottle of water from Ginger. He’d put a smile on his face.
And he’d been waiting for Emma to show up with her daughter for fifteen minutes.
Five more minutes, he told himself, and then he was leaving. In the very next moment, the back door opened, and voices preceded Emma into the kitchen.
She entered first, her eyes full of apprehension. She brought a little girl behind her, their hands pressed together. “Hey, everyone,” Emma said. She glanced around the room, smiling at the group gathered there.
Another couple entered after them, and Emma edged out of the way and drew in a big breath. “So this is Missy. She’s my daughter.” She beamed at the little girl, and the girl beamed at her. They clearly loved each other, and the bond between them was palpable.
She looked at the couple, and they seemed well-dressed and sophisticated. “And this is Fran and Matt Black. They’ve been taking care of Missy for me for…they’ve been taking care of Missy. They’re her mom and dad.”
“Oh, no,” Fran said, shaking her head.
“Yes,” Emma said, meeting Fran’s eye. They had a special friendship too, Ted could tell. “So Missy, come meet everyone.” She started taking her around to all the women who lived in the West Wing and introducing her to the cowboys who worked the ranch.
Ted tried not to track her, and he tried to get himself to leave before it was his turn to meet the dark-haired girl who looked so much like Emma.
“And this is Ted,” Emma said, finally getting to him.
“Oh, he’s the one with all the dogs.” She looked up at Emma and then Ted. “Can I meet them?”
“The dogs?” Ted asked.
“Yes, sir.”
He grinned at her. “Sure thing. Let’s go.” He reached for her hand, and Missy slipped her fingers into his. He looked at Emma, so much he wanted to say. The words felt trapped though, and he didn’t know how to let them come out.
“She wants to see the horses too,” Emma said, her voice a type of forced casual Ted didn’t like. He needed to figure out how to talk to her. How to tell her how he really felt, and that he wanted to take her out again, that it really didn’t matter to him what had happened a decade ago.
Yes, he’d wanted her to be truthful with him. She’d struggled with that, but he’d pushed her hard in a short amount of time.
And she’d called him when she needed help.
They’d been dancing again for the past several days, and he was still trying to find some sort of solid ground to stand on with her.
“So let’s go see the horses,” Ted said. “I have a couple of favorites I can introduce you to.”
He glanced at Emma again as he walked away, and he couldn’t judge how she felt about him going
