“Understandable.”
“I’m an old woman,” she continues. “I don’t have all the time in the world left on this earth, but if God could grant me one dying wish, I’d wish for my granddaughter’s happiness. Someone to love and someone to love her back. And none of this sports-car-driving-big-diamond-giving-slick-suited-artificial kind of love either. She needs the real deal.” Joyce puts an IV’d hand over her heart. “Like what I had with my sweet John. Now that was love.”
She glances up toward the ceiling, stuck in a memory for a moment.
“Promise me something, River,” she says, reaching for my hand. I place mine in hers. “If you ever decide you love my Leighton, love her with everything you have, even when it seems impossible. Can you promise me that?”
“I promise.”
“Good morning.” A woman with long blonde hair in a white lab coat enters. “I’m Doctor Gannon, filling in for Doctor Peja. How are you feeling this morning, Joyce?”
I excuse myself, stepping out to the hall and heading to the waiting room where Leighton is flipping through an issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine that has clearly seen better days.
“That was quick.” She peers up, folding the magazine and placing it on the table next to her. “What’d she want?”
“I think she wanted to get a few things off her chest.” I reach for her hand, pulling her to a standing position. “The doctor’s in there now if you want to head back and talk to her?”
“You’re not going to tell me what she said?” Leighton nudges me.
“It’s probably nothing that you don’t already know.” I kiss her forehead. “She just wants you to be happy.”
“She didn’t threaten to chop your balls off?”
I almost choke on my spit. Joyce is a sassy old woman, but I can’t imagine those kinds of words coming out of her mouth.
“She threatened to chop Grant’s balls off once,” Leighton says. “And I fully believe that if she could right now, she’d totally do it.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Leighton
“How was Kansas City?” Molly adjusts her ponytail as River’s dog runs circles around us. River’s getting caught up on field work tonight, so I thought I’d take the truck and pick up the dog from the Fasthorses. “Is your grandmother okay?”
“Yes, thank goodness. She gave us a good scare.”
“Glad to hear it.” Molly follows me to the truck, opening the lift gate for me and whistling for the dog to hop in. “Everything going okay with the two of you? That’s an awful lot of time to spend together, close quarters and all.”
“Molly …” I groan. “You’re killing me.”
She grins. “I can’t help myself. Back in high school, I was known as the Queen of Matchmaking. Three-fourths of the couples I set up went on to get married. I have a gift. I see people, and I just know when it’s right.”
“I like him, okay?” I blurt out. “I like him a lot. More than I thought I would. And I don’t know what to think.”
Molly’s eyes widen and she does a little jump. “I knew it!”
“But how much of this is forced proximity?” I ask. “Maybe it’s a convenience thing. I’m a woman, about his age, living in his house … he’s lonely … I’m right there …”
“Stop. Stop it right now. Don’t second-guess this. It’s real. Trust me, if he didn’t like you, you’d know. And you’d probably be staying at Edna Greenfield’s cat-infested bed and breakfast.”
“Did I tell you I stayed there? My first night?”
“You didn’t …”
“Found out the next day that I’m allergic to cats.”
Molly covers her mouth, subduing a laugh.
“Anyway,” she says. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself here. I’ve got to get back inside. Got some tomatoes stewing on the stove. Let me know if you ever want to experience the joys of canning.”
I give her a wave and climb into the cab of River’s truck, dropping off the dog before driving to town to get some groceries. River lives off frozen dinners and frozen … everything … and yet somehow his body looks like he walked off the cover of Men’s Fitness.
That’s a rancher for you.
Pulling into the Green Diamond Food Mart, I grab a cart and pull up the list I made on my phone. Pushing past the sliding automatic doors, I spot Karly up ahead, inspecting avocados before choosing the perfect one.
“Karly,” I stop beside her. “Hi.”
It takes her a second for my face to register. “Leighton! What are you doing here? I mean, duh. You’re grocery shopping. Sorry.” She shakes her head. “Wasn’t expecting to run into you. I’m used to bumping into the same old mugs.”
“River’s getting low on groceries. Thought I’d wean him off that processed junk he lives off of and show him how to eat like a yuppie health freak.”
“River?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Oh, I could’ve sworn I told you? I’m staying with River McCray. He lives in my old house. I didn’t tell you that?”
Her smile fades. “River McCray, huh? That’s a name you don’t hear too much anymore.”
“You know him?”
Her brows rise. “Of course I know him. Everyone around here knows River. Or they know of him.”
“How do you know him? He’s older than us. We didn’t go to school with him.”
“The McCrays went to our church,” she says. “I always had a crush on River growing up. Seth too. They were both drop-dead gorgeous … the kind of boys you stare at when you’re tuning out a boring Sunday sermon.” She chuckles. “Anyway, River was always so dark and mysterious to me. He was friendly, but he didn’t make rounds the way Seth did. He always kept a careful distance. Had a smile that could make a girl weak in the knees though. I’d never forget a smile like that.”
My heart warms when I think of River, and how I hope to see more of that smile someday soon.
“Anyway, I’m rambling.” Karly wags her hand. “He was always so nice until about twelve years ago. Something happened and it changed him. It was actually right around the time you guys moved. He was never the same after that. He stopped making eye contact, stopped smiling altogether. It’s like someone flipped a switch and he put this wall up, even bigger than the one before. Of course, I was just a young girl. Maybe that was just my perception of things.”
“He’s really nice,” I say. “He took me in when he didn’t have to and gave me a place to stay.”
Shock registers across her face. “That’s, um, that’s interesting. I know a lot of people said he kind of pulled into his shell after his family was killed in that car accident. So sad … I’m assuming you know about that?”
“I do.”
“Well, after Allison died, he was never the same. At least from what I hear. I’ve seen him around town a few times, but I haven’t talked to him.” She chews her lip. “I am curious though about what happened twelve years ago. That’s something I never did figure out, and it always bothered me because I didn’t know if I was imagining it or not. And it was right around the time you lost your dad, so maybe I was just projecting.”