He’d gone straight to her mama’s house, only to have Helen tell him she’d not seen her daughter since the graduation party. Jace had gotten a knot in his stomach as he’d rushed to the home of Janine, her best friend at the time.
“All I know is that she said she wanted to see you, and now you’ve obviously run her off.” Janine had glared accusingly at Jace. “What the hell did you do, Jace? Did you hurt her? What did you do?”
“Nothing! I’d never hurt her,” he’d shot back angrily. “I…” But he couldn’t finish. If he’d told Janine how he’d turned a drunken Lily Mae over his knee for the spanking she’d needed for years, he’d just be accused of being a woman beater. So he’d turned away.
It was weeks later when Jace heard through a friend that Lily Mae had gone straight to the train station and used the money she’d been given on graduation night to buy a bus ticket to California. He’d immediately rushed to the station, and was at the ticket window when the voice of reason had talked him out of it. The drunken girl he’d spanked and fucked the night before was right, even though it all but killed him to admit it. She was a legal adult and had the right to make her own choices.
She hadn’t wanted him. He had been sure she’d felt the same, but obviously she hadn’t. What’s more, she hadn’t understood if she thought the spanking he’d given her meant he saw her as a child. Of course he saw her as a woman, but one who needed guidance. But that was apparently something she hadn’t wanted.
An independent woman.
Somewhere along the way, she’d grown into the role. He ducked into an alley between the diner and another building, watching as Lily Mae walked gracefully on her heels back to a midsized SUV with California plates. She was just about to get in when she stopped, opened her purse, and pulled out a cell phone. Jace wondered who she was talking to as she got into her vehicle. A handsome boyfriend back in L.A.? The thought made him jealous, although he had no reason to be.
“Get over yourself,” his inner voice chided, but he continued to stare as she got into the SUV, one toned leg resting outside for a moment as she finished her conversation. Then she pulled it inside and shut the door, and Jace turned away and walked down the alley to the parking lot behind the diner.
They were living different lives now, he thought as he approached his dust-coated Dodge truck with its farm tag on the back. Creosote posts stuck partway out of the bed, wedged tight against a spool of barbed wire he knew he’d be stringing at that moment if he’d not come across Helen Slater’s death notice in the paper.
He’d left his own phone on the seat and could see now that there were several text messages from his ranch foreman, Lyle. Jace cranked the truck, letting the air conditioner fill the cab with cool air as he read the messages.
“Great.” Jace rubbed his square jaw with one hand before sighing in exasperation. It wasn’t good news. The new auger Jace just bought had a busted pin, halting the work of drilling postholes for the pastureland he and his ranch hands were planning to fence in by the weekend.
So instead of turning right when he pulled out of the diner parking lot, he headed left to Mason’s Hardware for the part he needed. Jace flipped the visor down as he drove. Even with the AC running full blast, the heat beating through his windshield made him feel flushed. His mind drifted back to Lily Mae, looking cool and elegant in her black dress and heels.
Probably better that you didn’t see her, he thought. She’s probably running in classy circles. What would she want with a rancher?
Had he made the right choice by coming back to run the ranch after his father died? He wondered now. It was his leaving that had caused the best and worst night of his life.
“You never cared about me, Jace Whitaker…” He could still hear the accusation in her voice, slurred from too much drink. “If you had, you wouldn’t have up and left…”
The words had hurt, partly because he’d felt so guilty for leaving for college. A couple of times, the rumors of her wild behavior had almost had him buying a train ticket home to straighten her out. Even his father had said time and time again that what ailed Lily Mae Slater wasn’t anything a good licking couldn’t cure. And his pa had been right.