Can’t Hurry Love by Nadine Millard (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📗

want to live. What sort of man I really want to be. And — and I know who I really want to be with. I truly hope you find the same thing.”

To Josh’s shock, she laughed, but the sound was harsh.

“You’re not telling me that you’re leaving me for some country bumpkin who lives over a bakery? Don’t be foolish, Josh. I don’t know what this town has done to you, but the sooner you get back to reality, the better.”

Josh could only stare at her. Out of the two of them, he wasn’t the one vacationing outside of reality. He felt a spurt of anger at her dismissal of Beth. Elaine would never be half the person Beth was. He didn’t know a soul alive who was her equal in any way.

“Her name is Beth, and she’s the woman I love,” he said firmly. “She doesn’t live above a bakery. She owns Big Sky Ranch with her family. And even if she didn’t, I’d still love her more than anyone or anything in my life.”

He stood from the table, not wanting to lose his temper with her.

“I’m getting in the shower. Your parents will be here in the morning to take you home. And that will be the last time we’ll speak, Elaine. I want you out of my life. And I want out of yours.”

He walked down the hallway, resisting the urge to slam the door behind him. And although he wouldn’t feel properly calm until Elaine was in the care of her parents and on the way home, something inside of him felt whole again. Though he wouldn’t have wished this situation on any of them, he was actually glad he’d gotten the chance to sit down with his ex-wife and say the things that needed to be said.

A weight had been removed from his shoulders, and he was more certain than ever that the man he’d been and the life he’d had were behind him for good.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Beth flicked through Seth’s Netflix account, looking for something to watch. Her own was too full of romance to be good for her right then. She needed something filled with guns and explosions, not hearts and flowers.

Her phone was beside her on the chair, filled with missed calls and voicemails and texts from Josh. She was going to hear him out, she’d told Zoe earlier. But then Zoe had called to say that his ex-wife had come into the bakery for dessert for their ”romantic catch-up dinner,” and Beth felt as if a knife had twisted in her heart at the news.

“It mightn’t mean what we think,” Zoe had said but Beth had heard the doubt in her friend’s voice.

There weren’t many ways to misinterpret romantic catch-up dinner.

Beth figured that he’d resisted a relationship between them because he was being a faithful husband. Maybe a year of celibacy was too much for him. Maybe he’d decided to take what she’d been throwing at him, not caring about her or his wife.

She flung the remote to the seat and dropped her chin into her hands.

That just didn’t match with the man she knew. Even though the evidence was pretty damning, she just couldn’t get her head around Josh treating her that way.

And what about him saying he wasn’t staying in Rocky Valley, a voice that sounded weirdly like Brooke’s no-nonsense tone piped up. He obviously never meant to stay in Rocky Valley forever. There has to be a reason for that.

Beth had assumed it was just the change between being a hotshot hospital consultant and a country MD that had him rattled. And she’d stupidly let herself think that maybe with things going so well between them, he was starting to change his mind about leaving.

She was an idiot.

If he was really through with that woman, if she was out of his life, he’d have sent her packing. She wouldn’t be walking around Rocky Valley planning romantic meals for her husband.

Beth felt her eyes smarting. She’d cried enough to flood the valley between last night and today. And if she dehydrated, she couldn’t exactly seek medical help from Dr. Larson, could she?

She had to admit that her years of obsessively reading and watching over-the-top romance had bitten her in the butt. She’d turned her and Josh into a fairy tale in her mind, when in reality, he was nothing more than a dirty cheat, and she was the other woman. She’d helped him cheat on his wife!

All day Paige, Brooke, Zoe, Jenna, and Tara had been calling and texting offering her a shoulder to cry on. Well, Brooke offered to help her smash things to get her anger out.

But she didn’t feel angry, not really. She just felt desperately sad. She’d turned down their offers of support, she’d avoided mealtimes with her brothers who, thankfully, hadn’t set the kitchen on fire fending for themselves.

She just wanted to be alone to wallow.

There was nothing else for it. Only Air Supply could help her now. Dragging herself off the couch, she put on the sound system. All Out of Love blasted through the speakers.

The only men she could rely on in life were her brothers and Air Supply, she decided tearfully.

Well, them and Ben & Jerry.

She was about to grab a pint of chocolate healing from the freezer when a set of headlights lit up the darkened windows, and Beth froze.

Had Josh driven out here? She’d half expected it, and even though it was idiotic, she’d actually felt disappointed when he hadn’t.

Frowning, she watched the car speed up the driveway. Whoever it was, he was driving way too quickly. Nobody would drive like that unless there was something wrong. Worried now, she rushed over to open the front door and out to the porch.

It was Josh’s car, she saw with a painful thump of her heart.

What was he doing driving like a maniac? He’d get himself killed!

The engine cut out, plunging them into silence and darkness, and she opened her mouth