She nodded coolly, though he saw her swallow hard before she said, “If you aren’t interested in having me stay, then there’s no need to take this any further. All you have to do is say you’re happy here alone, and that you would just as soon I’d go back to the ranch.”
“Molly, you don’t want to stay here. Your family, your job, your home-they’re all in Texas. You would be miserable here.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You aren’t very good at this, are you? I asked you to convince me to stay, or tell me you want me to go. I did not say I need you to make my decisions for me.”
For some reason, he was beginning to get irritated. Maybe because it felt as if she was offering him just a glimpse of heaven-even though he couldn’t believe he would be allowed to enter. “This is ridiculous.”
She dropped her watch arm and nodded brusquely. “You’re not interested. Fine. That’s all I needed to know.”
She reached for her coat. Kyle reached out quickly to grab her wrist. “Wait.”
She looked at him with another tiny, telltale quiver in her lips. “Why?”
His tongue seemed to grow suddenly stiff and unco-operative. “Are you trying to tell me you want to stay?”
She shook her head stubbornly. “That’s not the deal, Kyle. If you want me, you’re going to have to take a few risks this time. You have to accept the possibility of rejection—or loss—or disappointment—or failure.”
“You think I haven’t dealt with all those things before?” he asked in disbelief.
Her voice gentled. “You’ve survived pain I can’t even imagine, and it breaks my heart for you. But that’s my point, Kyle. That’s life. What you’re doing here—keeping to yourself, staying uninvolved, protecting yourself from any more pain—that’s not living. Just as my staying with my parents and letting my family make all my decisions for me wasn’t really making the most of my life, either—as you pointed out, yourself.”
He looked down at his hand, which encircled her slender wrist so easily. Drawing a deep breath, he said, “I can’t go back to Texas with you. Jewel and Mack need me—they don’t have anyone else now. And, frankly, I need them, too. Mack pretty much saved my life in
Germany, when all I wanted to do was give up and join my lost friends. He and Jewel are as close as I’ve got to family now.”
“I would never try to take you away from them. Having met them, I can understand why they mean so much to you. What you all mean to each other.”
“And I know how much your family means to you.”
“I adore them,” she answered simply. “All of them. But they have their lives. I want my own.”
“Here,” he said skeptically. “With me?”
“That depends,” she replied, refusing to budge. “Tell me why I should stay here with you.”
“I don’t believe this.”
“You remember that advice Jewel gave me? It was for me to start making my own decisions. Examining all the facts and options for myself, and then making the choice that felt right for me. So that’s what I’m doing, Kyle. I want you to give me some reasons, if you have any, why I should stay here with you. After I’ve heard your arguments, I’ll decide for myself what’s right for me.”
She glanced pointedly at her watch. “You have two minutes.”
Kyle was still staring at her as though she had lost her mind. To be perfectly honest, she was beginning to wonder about that herself.
It had seemed like a good idea at the time she’d gotten on a plane in Dallas. She had started questioning her decision when she had climbed into a rental car and pointed it toward Kyle’s cabin. By the time she’d knocked on his door, she’d decided she was making a huge mistake—but since she was here, she’d figured she might as well go through with it.
She had needed to know once and for all if the reason Kyle had never asked her to come to Tennessee with him was because he hadn’t believed she would agree—or because he simply hadn’t wanted her.
She reminded herself that he hadn’t said the words that would have sent her on her way, brokenhearted but satisfied that she’d done everything she could to give them a chance. Of course, he hadn’t given her any reason to stay, either.
She cleared her throat. “Say something,” she prodded.
“I don’t know what to say,” he confessed. “I’m still having trouble believing you’re here.”
“I’m here. And I’m waiting.” She tapped her watch.
“You’re waiting for me to give you a reason to stay here with me—hours away from everyone you know and love. Away from your parents, your brother, your nieces, your aunts, uncles, cousins, even your horse.”
“Now you’re catching on,” she said in approval. “As you can imagine, it’s going to take a powerful argument.”