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  Although she tried, Bethanne’s mind wasn’t on business. An hour later, when her phone rang, she automatically reached for it.

  “This is Bethanne,” she said.

  “Hi, it’s Lauren.”

  Bethanne sat up straighter. Max had been deeply concerned about Rooster. Something had happened between the newlyweds that had caused them to split. From what Max had said, Rooster refused to discuss it. Concerned for his friend, Max had asked Bethanne if she’d had a chance to speak to Lauren. She hadn’t. After some thought and discussion, they decided to wait until Lauren reached out to Bethanne. This was the first time she’d heard from the other woman.

  “Lauren, it’s good to hear from you.”

  “Can we meet for coffee?” Lauren asked.

  “Of course. When?”

  “Is this afternoon too soon?”

  “Not at all.” Bethanne knew Max would be relieved.

  They set a time, after work, and agreed to link up at The French Cafe. As soon as she was off the phone, Bethanne reached for her cell and sent Max a text.

  Meeting Lauren this afternoon.

  It didn’t take long to get a reply: Excellent.

  The rest of the day passed quickly, and Bethanne and Lauren arrived at the cafe at about the same time. They each ordered coffee and sat at a table in the corner that offered them privacy.

  Bethanne studied her friend. Lauren looked sad and beaten down. Rather than make eye contact, she stared down at her coffee as if she were reading tea leaves broadcasting her future. Bethanne waited for Lauren to speak; after all, she was the one who had asked for this meeting.

  It took a few moments before Lauren asked, “Have you talked to Rooster lately?”

  “No,” Bethanne told her. “Have you?”

  “No.”

  Which was the crux of the matter, Bethanne knew, and she boldly asked, “Why not?”

  Lauren’s thin shoulder lifted with a shrug. “Most everyone tells me I made a terrible mistake rushing into this marriage.”

  “Is that what you feel?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what I feel any longer. I’m confused and miserable. I feel like I’ve made a terrible mess of my life.”

  “From what Max tells me, Rooster shares your misery.”

  Her head came up, and it looked for an instant as if Lauren was about to break into tears. Sadness radiated off her like summer heat off asphalt.

  “Whatever it is, it’ll work itself out,” Bethanne assured her, and at the same time realized she was speaking to herself as much as her friend.

  “Did you know Rooster had been married before?” Lauren asked, sitting up straighter now.

  “No.” This was news to Bethanne. Not that it mattered one way or the other. “That upsets you?” she asked, wanting to be clear.

  “Not in itself … It’s just that Rooster never told me. I don’t know that I can be married to a man who keeps secrets like that. It makes me wonder what else he might be hiding.”

  Bethanne took the first sip of her coffee while she gave this matter some thought.

  “What does that say about our future together?” Lauren asked her. “What else might he choose not to tell me down the road? On the outside it might seem like a small thing, but my fear is that this could be indicative of his nature … and I can’t deal with that.”

  Bethanne’s hands cupped her mug. “I can’t tell you why Rooster chose not to tell you. The marriage must have been years ago. Max has known Rooster for a long time and never mentioned it.”

  “He said he was young and immature,” Lauren volunteered.

  “Did he give you a reason for not telling you?”

  “Not really … and he didn’t seem to have any regrets about keeping it a secret. He did admit that he probably should have told me—but he didn’t offer an apology.”

  “Isn’t this something the two of you can work out?” Bethanne pressed. From what Max had said, the newlyweds hadn’t spoken in almost two weeks. More and more, this situation reminded her of what was happening between her and Annie.

  “I’d like to square matters between us,” Lauren agreed, “but … it’s more than not knowing about his first marriage.”

  “Oh?”

  “People who have met the two of us claim that Rooster is all wrong for me. That we’re too different, and while the attraction might be there now, it will wear off in time.”

  Unable to hold back her amusement, Bethanne smiled. “Oh, Lauren, I heard all those negative voices, too. Look at Max and me. When we first met he was riding his motorcycle aimlessly across the country and I was on a road trip with family. As far as I knew, he didn’t have steady employment, and from all outside appearances, he was nothing more than a drifter.”

  Frowning, Lauren studied her closely.

  “And here I was,” Bethanne continued, “falling hopelessly in love with him. Max followed me to a couple of cities. At the time, I was trying to decide if I should get back together with my ex-husband. Well, you can imagine what my family and friends thought about Max.”

  “But he’s partners with Rooster in the wine-distribution company,” Lauren said.

  “Yes, but at the time I didn’t know it.”

  Lauren didn’t say anything for a long time. Nor had she tasted her coffee. “I know I sound pathetic and silly to listen to what anyone else has to say about Rooster and me.”

  “What does your heart tell you?” Bethanne asked.

  A look of sheer misery came over her. “I don’t know what my heart wants. I thought I knew … I was so certain marrying Rooster was the right thing, and then all these doubts came at me like a major-league pitcher in the last game of the World Series.”

  Bethanne grinned at the mental image. “I know how you’re feeling, Lauren, I do, because I went through many of the same emotions you’re feeling now.”

  “But you weren’t already married to Max.”

  “You’re right, I wasn’t. Still, I had a major decision to make, and I chose to marry Max despite what my daughter felt, despite Grant’s desperate attempts to win me back, despite what my friends told me. I had to listen to my heart.” She paused long enough to press her hand over her chest. “I married Max, and not once, for even an instant, have I regretted that decision.”

  Again, Lauren grew silent. “I wish I could say the same thing.”

  Regrets so soon? It broke Bethanne’s heart to see Lauren filled with these doubts. “I will tell you that while I haven’t known Rooster for a long time, I have always known him to be decent, and honorable and fair. I’ve never known him to lie.”

  “He lied to me … a lie of omission.”

  “Perhaps,” she agreed. “Let me tell you about my first introduction to Rooster Wayne.”

  “Okay.” She glanced up and looked eager to hear the story.

  “As I mentioned earlier, I was traveling across the country with my ex-mother-in-law and Annie. We were somewhere in Nevada and stopped at a diner for lunch. The owner was beside herself. Her staff had all come down with the flu, so she was the only one there, cooking, serving, cleaning off the tables. She was completely stressed out because the diner was on the bus route.

  “An entire busload of travelers was about to descend on the restaurant, and she would be forced to do everything on her own. When we heard her predicament, the three of us decided to help. I was appointed waitress because I’d had a job waiting on tables when I was in high school. Can you picture the scene?”

  Lauren smiled and reached for her coffee. “Like a movie.”

  “Then four guys rode up to the diner on their motorcycles. They’d been on the road several days, and they looked like it. Dressed in leather, road weary, and hungry.”

  “Max and Rooster?”

  “Plus a couple of their friends.” Bethanne smiled at the memory. “I didn’t know what to think. I was nervous and wary.” She’d actually trembled when she approached the table to take their orders.

  “I can imagin
e,” Lauren murmured.

  “I took their orders, and then the bus arrived and in a matter of minutes the place was packed. The four of us were running about, doing the best that we could. I got the order of a man who took up an entire booth on his own. He could have sat at the counter, but instead he chose to sit in a booth.”

  “That says a lot all on its own.”

  “Exactly,” Bethanne concurred. “From the moment I approached him, he was rude, arrogant, and demanding. His coffee wasn’t hot enough, and when I brought him another cup he had complaints about that, too. Nothing I did satisfied him.”

  “So what happened?”

  A warm feeling came over her. “Rooster happened.”

  “Rooster?”

  “Yes. He slid out of the booth, walked over to where that troublemaker sat, and leaned against the tabletop until his face was mere inches from the other man’s. Then he looked this pipsqueak in the eye and told him his demands were delaying his lunch. Then Rooster said when he got overly hungry, he got real cranky.”

  Lauren smiled for the first time since they’d met that afternoon. “Did that shut the troublemaker up?”

  “Oh, big-time. Rooster was several inches taller, and he looked mean enough to rip the guy a new face. I didn’t hear a word of complaint from that moment forward.”

  “I bet you didn’t,” Lauren said.

  Bethanne reached across the space and placed her hand on Lauren’s. “Eventually, you’re going to need to make up your own mind when it comes to Rooster and your marriage,” Bethanne said gently. “The best advice I can give you is to stop listening to everyone else and listen to yourself.”

  “I wish it was that easy,” Lauren whispered.

  “But it is, it really is,” Bethanne promised. “You’ll know. Do your best to drown out all those other voices and tune in to what your head and your heart are trying to tell you. Can you do that?”

  Lauren was quiet for a moment and then nodded. “I’m certainly going to try.”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Talking to Bethanne had helped Lauren immensely. Her friend was right. She had to stop listening to anyone else and follow her instincts when it came to her relationship with Rooster.

  Lauren woke up Saturday morning with a bad case of cramps. While a pregnancy would certainly have been an added complication, she found herself deeply disappointed. A baby would have given her a legitimate excuse to reach out to Rooster, to seek a resolution to this impasse.

  Even though she wasn’t feeling well, she was scheduled to work a half-day on Saturday from noon to closing. Sitting at the breakfast table, she sipped her morning coffee and checked her cellphone.

  Her heart clenched when she saw a text message from Rooster. It was only a few words, but it spoke volumes.

  R U pregnant?

  The message had come in at three a.m., which told her he’d been awake, wondering, thinking of her. She’d spent many a sleepless night herself in the last two miserable weeks. She found it embarrassingly comforting to know this hadn’t been an easy time for him, either.

  How long she sat debating on her response, Lauren didn’t know. In the end she decided on one word.

  No.

  Even as she pushed the “send” button, she was left to speculate whether he’d feel the same mix of emotions she had. Would he be relieved or be filled with a deep sense of disappointment the way she had?

  For several minutes she waited for a response, but none came.

  As she showered and readied for work, Lauren was filled with doubts and misgivings over her text to Rooster. She feared she might have sounded abrupt and dismissive. The problem was that she hadn’t known what else to say.

  What she should have done, she realized in retrospect, was reach out and talk to him. She had toyed with the idea and then decided against it because he’d asked her to contact him once she’d made a decision. If she had phoned, what would there have been to say? Lauren simply had nothing more to tell him … not yet, at any rate.

  For all she knew, Rooster could have written her off as another mistake. If he had feelings for her, if he genuinely loved her, it made sense that he would contact her and offer reassurances. He hadn’t. By the same token, she hadn’t reached out to him, either.

  Follow her instincts. Listen to her heart. But the messages coming from her heart were mixed with doubts and fears. One minute she was convinced she couldn’t live without Rooster, and the next she was sure the marriage had been a complete blunder on both their parts.

  It would help if she’d felt like she could discuss this dilemma with her parents, get their advice. But she hadn’t reached out to either her mother or her father. The only person she’d told was Bethanne. Lauren was too embarrassed to admit that she might have one of the shortest marriages in their entire family history. Her parents and her sister didn’t have a clue what she was going through, and for now that was what she wanted.

  Once at John Michael Jewelers, Lauren was swamped with customers. She didn’t have time to think about Rooster. Saturday afternoons were often their busiest time of the week. A good portion of the early part of the afternoon was spent with a young couple who came in to look at engagement rings.

  Lauren noticed how they had eyes only for each other. At one time it’d been like that with her and Rooster, too. As she helped them with their selection, she learned Jason was home on leave from Fort Lewis and would be shipping out soon for Afghanistan. Shelly, the young woman who would be his wife, looked at him with such love and tenderness that Lauren could barely concentrate.

  As she showed the couple a selection of rings in their price range, the answer she’d been seeking came to Lauren. Beyond a doubt and without question, she knew her husband loved her and that she loved him. It was in that instant when her heart spoke and she was able to listen. She belonged with Rooster. Instantly, a sense of joy and freedom came over her. Her doubts fled, and her fears evaporated.

  As Lauren rang up Jason and Shelly’s purchase, she knew what she had to do. No matter what it took, she would go to Rooster and insist they talk. Then, together, they would find a way to make their marriage one that would last a lifetime.

  Not long after the engaged couple left, another customer arrived.

  Todd.

  “Hello, Todd,” Lauren said, when he stepped up to the counter directly in front of her.

  “Hi, Lauren.” His eyes held on to her for an extra few moments. “I heard from Elisa.”

  Lauren glanced over her shoulder. She couldn’t imagine what her friend would have to say to Todd.

  “What did she tell you?” she asked, frankly curious. Elisa had never been a fan of the newscaster. It shocked Lauren that Elisa would reach out to Todd.

  “Elisa didn’t want to break your confidence, but she implied that matters haven’t gone smoothly between you and Rooster.”

  A chill went down Lauren’s spine.

  “I won’t talk about my personal life while on the job,” she said pointedly. “If you’re interested in making a purchase, then I’ll be happy to help you, but if not, then I suggest you wait for a more appropriate time.”

  Elisa sent her a frantic, apologetic look. Lauren couldn’t believe the woman she considered her best friend would betray her like this. She stiffened and looked away. This was a matter she’d bring up with Elisa later.

  “As it happens, I am interested in buying something,” Todd told her, and glanced down at the display of engagement and wedding bands. “My inheritance came through, and I’m in a better financial position.”

  Lauren would gladly have turned him over to another of the sales associates, but they were all busy with other customers.

  “What would you like to see?” she asked, doing her best to keep all emotion out of her voice and sound professional. She trained her gaze at a point directly behind Todd and avoided eye contact.

  “A diamond ring,” Todd said.

  “For a man or a woman?” she asked, thinking she must sound akin t
o a robot.

  “A woman’s diamond ring. A beautiful one. The best you’ve got.”

  Unable to stop herself, Lauren’s gaze shot to him. “A woman’s?”

  “Yes.” He sat on the plush upholstered stool reserved for customers and stared down at the diamond rings on display.

  “What price range?” she asked, doing her best to hide her surprise.

  “Twenty thousand.”

  A high-end diamond. Interesting, to say the least. “You should be able to find a lovely ring for that price,” she continued, in the same robotlike tone.

  Todd scanned the wide selection of engagement and wedding rings, taking his time, giving each ring serious consideration.

  “Would the young lady prefer white gold?” Lauren asked.

  He glanced up. “Yes, I believe she would.”

  Lauren was growing more confused by the moment. Had Todd come into the store to gloat? Their breakup had taken place only a few weeks earlier, so it didn’t seem that he’d found someone else this quickly. But then, she had, so it was a possibility. Apparently, it was true, which only verified what she’d told him at the time of their breakup. If Todd had genuinely loved her, they would have married long ago. It seemed he’d found that woman, and, frankly, she was pleased for him.

  Afraid to ask too many questions, Lauren brought out a second tray of diamond rings for him to review.

  “What do you think?” he asked, looking up at her, his gaze warm and gentle.

  “Think?” she asked, perplexed. “Well, yes, seeing that I’m buying the diamond engagement ring for you, I’d like your input.”

  Lauren gasped and slapped her hand against her chest. “Me?”

  “Yes, my love, the diamond ring is for you. I made the biggest mistake of my life letting you go. You know how I feel about you. I was a fool. You made a mistake, too. It’s time we set all these mistakes right. I’m asking you to marry me.”