The phone was ringing when Rilee looked up to see Shae at the back door later the next day.
‘Are you going to answer that?’
‘No.’
‘Okay…What are you doing?’ Shae asked as she followed Rilee down the hall and saw the suitcase on the bed.
‘Packing.’
‘I can see that. Why?’
‘I’m going away for a few days.’
‘What about Dan? What does he think about it?’
‘Dan isn’t talking to me at the moment. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t much care what I do.’
‘I hardly think that’s true.’
‘I tried to talk to him. He’s not interested in hearing what I have to say.’
‘He’s just under a lot of pressure from everyone at the moment: his dad being sick, his mother leaning on him, not to mention he feels like he’s let you down about the cattle.’
Rilee stopped throwing in clothes to look up at her friend. ‘So you’ve talked to him?’ Of course she would have. Mark was Dan’s friend; he would have known he could go to them and drown his sorrows.
‘He’s a mess,’ Shae said quietly.
‘Really?’ Rilee snapped sarcastically. ‘And I’m not?’
‘You just need to give each other some time—’ Shae started before Rilee cut her off.
‘What we need is to get away from his parents breathing down our necks and the whole town judging me.’
‘This will blow over. And it’s not the whole town, it’s just a few troublemakers stirring up gossip. When nothing much happens around town, people tend to blow small things out of proportion…This thing with you and Dan is just typical newlyweds settling in to marriage.’
‘I didn’t expect my husband to turn his back on me at the first sign of trouble. Maybe I misjudged him…us…Maybe his parents were right and getting married was a big mistake.’
‘It wasn’t a mistake,’ Shae said firmly. ‘I’ve never seen two people more in love or more suited to each other.’
‘Yeah, well, maybe love isn’t enough in this case.’
‘Don’t give up on him, Ri. He spent the night at our place and I heard how much pain he’s in. That man loves you. He’s hurting about a lot of things right now.’
‘Then why is he telling everyone else but me? Why won’t he come home and talk to me about it?’
‘Because these men are as stubborn and proud as they are loyal. Last night he just needed to get his head straight—get rid of some of his frustration so he can sit down and have a rational discussion. He needed a night drinking with his mate. Fellas do that.’
‘Well, I don’t understand that at all,’ Rilee snapped. Just one more thing about people out here that she didn’t get. Her list was growing with each passing day. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed, getting back to her packing. ‘I still need a break from all of this. I’m tired of being the one who has to adapt to everything, and I swear if I hear “That’s just the way we do things here” one more time, I’m going to freakin’ lose it.’
She saw Shae’s lips twitch slightly.
‘I’m serious, Shae. I’ve been trying so hard, from day one, to fit in, but nothing I do is ever enough. They’re never going to accept me and I’m always going to be that city woman who keeps trying to change things.’
‘They will accept you, it just takes—’
‘Time. Yes, I know. That’s what I keep hearing,’ Rilee said with a frustrated sigh.
‘Maybe you’re right. Maybe going away for a few days is a good idea,’ Shae said after a moment of silence. ‘Just don’t throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for, okay?’
She needed to get some perspective and she couldn’t do that here with Kincaids glaring at her everywhere she went. There was only one place she could go where she knew she wouldn’t be judged.
It was time to go home again.