he didn’t have to get out to the fields that day. He had no reason why he couldn’t accompany Jill to breakfast and then spend the rest of the day with her too.
No reason except the fear pounding through his bloodstream at the very thought of walking into the West Wing and eating breakfast with everyone on the ranch.
Chapter Two
Jill Kyle shimmied into the pale blue bridesmaid dress, frustrated at herself for the extra few pounds she carried. A month ago, she hadn’t had the extra curve in her hip, but she’d had a very trying couple of weeks, and she’d been coping with her stress by eating.
Her kryptonite was ice cream and potato chips, and she’d been drinking a protein shake for lunch while carrying a bag of chips at the same time.
“You’re stunning,” Hannah said, and Jill turned toward her.
“You’re joking,” she said, taking in Hannah’s much taller frame and much trimmer waistline. “I can’t even zip this thing up.”
“I can.” Hannah stepped over to her, bringing the soft scent of a rosy perfume that Bill had given her. The zipper went right up, and Jill could still breathe. That was a win in her book, and she had something to put in her gratitude journal that night.
Jess and Dallas were getting married today, so she should probably put something like, I got to watch one of my best friends marry the man she loves, in her gratitude journal. She was grateful for that, and she decided to save the zipper for a day when she literally couldn’t find anything to express her gratitude.
Hannah wrapped her in a hug, and Jill turned to return the embrace. “How are you today?” Hannah asked.
She searched her emotions, and thankfully, she’d found some stable ground. “I’m okay,” Jill said honestly. She wasn’t alone, and that helped immensely. She lived about twenty-five minutes away from where her parents did, and Ginger had been more than accommodating with Jill’s requests to be there when her mom went to her doctor’s appointments, and when she got home from the first round of chemotherapy.
Daddy was taking good care of her, and Jill’s youngest sibling, McKenna, lived in Sugar Hill, so she’d been able to help a lot too. Haven, the oldest, lived thirty minutes in the opposite direction of Jill, and she’d been present at everything Jill was. Probably more, because Haven was the most perfect at everything.
Their brother had come to what he could, but he lived in Oklahoma now, and he had a wife and family there, along with an important job he couldn’t just leave whenever he wanted.
“We better get going,” Hannah said. “We don’t want to be late.” She slipped out of Jill’s bedroom and down the hall to hers while Jill moved over to the closet to find her shoes.
Jess and Dallas were getting married in their back yard, and they were having the most traditional ceremony of anyone who’d been married in the past year. Jess was still going to ride her horse down the aisle, but then they’d have a traditional wedding dinner and dance following the nuptials.
Her parents had been in town for a week, and Jill already missed her sassy and strong presence around the ranch while she’d been off entertaining them and finalizing details for the wedding. She and her dad had come to the West Wing yesterday, and together, the two of them had cleaned out the bedroom where she’d lived for twice as long as Jill had been at the ranch.
Jess was still going to work at Hope Eternal Ranch, so Jill would get to see her. She knew it wouldn’t be the same, because when change happened, things simply weren’t the same anymore.
She put on her shoes, wishing it was as easy to slip on a smile. Stopping in front of the mirror mounted to the back of her closet door, Jill tried on her smile. It looked surprisingly real, and she paid attention to how it pulled, and how her muscles in her face felt. If she could just get through the next few hours with this smile in place, she could retreat to the safety of her bedroom and text her father to find out how Mama was doing.
She met Hannah and Michelle in the hallway, and the three of them walked into the kitchen one after the other. Jill remembered she couldn’t go anywhere without Chapstick and detoured over to the drawer beneath the microwave, where they kept several