She walked past him then, without another word. He wanted to reach for her, pull her into his arms and never let go. But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. She was already gone.
He’d lost.
* * *
Amanda and Nathan gave Mia a ride to Alex’s house. Thankfully, her friends didn’t ask any questions. The gate guard at Pine Valley let Mia into the house and when she was alone in what had once been her home, she gave in to the tears strangling her.
All the silly, foolish hope she’d been hanging on to for weeks dissolved in that flood of sorrow. By the following morning, Mia was still miserable, and looked every inch of it.
She forced herself to get up and on with her life, because even though her heart hurt and her eyes were still red and swollen from crying, she had to keep moving. If she surrendered to her misery, she’d never leave Alex’s house again.
A glance out the front window let her know that Dave had had her new car delivered. Had he brought it himself and left without seeing her? Had he had one of the ranch hands deliver it instead so he wouldn’t have to risk seeing her? Did it matter?
She looked at the shiny new car in the driveway and Alice’s words came back to her. He gave you a car because he loves you. Mia would like to believe that, but unless he actually said the words, she couldn’t.
Her purse and clothes were all in the SUV, carefully packed in her suitcases. She carted everything inside and once she’d unpacked, she realized that she had better go grocery shopping. Delores wasn’t around to spoil her anymore. She was on her own again and she better get used to it.
In town, she stopped in at the diner to thank Amanda for the ride home and found the whole coffee shop buzzing. People seemed angry, confused, as they gathered in groups to talk. Mia took a seat at the counter and when Amanda poured her a cup of coffee, she asked, “What’s going on?”
“You haven’t heard yet? The whole town’s talking about it. I got the story from Nathan, of course, and I just could hardly believe it.” Amanda bit her lip, shook her head and said, “It’s the day-care center at the TCC.”
Mia had a bad feeling about this. “What happened?”
“Someone broke in last night and vandalized it.”
This wasn’t the first time someone had tampered with the day-care center, Mia knew. But this sounded far worse than before.
“Oh, no! But it was so beautiful. And ready to open.” She hated thinking about the loving care that had been brought to that space only to be destroyed.
“They broke all the tables and chairs and spray painted the walls with some really ugly graffiti.” Amanda set the coffeepot down and placed both hands protectively on her rounded belly. “They even went in and destroyed Kiley’s office. Ruined her computer, broke the printer. It’s just a mess. The whole place.”
“But who would’ve done such a terrible thing?”
Amanda looked around the diner, her gaze flicking across all of the familiar faces there before coming back to meet Mia’s eyes. “To tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue.”
Mia winced. “Beau Hacket?”
Amanda nodded. “I’m sure he and his friends, like the Gordon brothers or Paul Windsor, are right at the top of the list. I know lots of people in town were against this, but I just can’t picture someone I’ve known my whole life being so vicious.”
“They’ll still open the day care though, won’t they?” Mia asked, hating to think that the wonderful place would never welcome children.
“You bet they will,” Amanda told her. “Those of us who support the center are going to make sure of it.” She took a breath and said, “Anyway, how’re you doing this morning?”
“Not good,” Mia admitted.
“Yeah. I, um, noticed you’re not wearing your ring….”
She looked at her own naked finger, then dropped her left hand into her lap. “No, I gave it back to Dave last night.”
“Aw, sweetie, I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” Mia said with a tight grimace she hoped would pass as a smile. “Me, too.”
“You need sugar. Cinnamon roll. On the house.”
Mia didn’t think she could eat anything, since for the first time in forever, food held no appeal. But she appreciated the gesture. “Thanks, Amanda.”
Her friend patted Mia’s hand and gave her a supportive smile. “It’ll get better, sweetie.”
“It has to,” Mia said. Because she was so far down, there was nowhere to go but up.