career.
Because every time she’d been with Natalie and Dutch, she’d had to pretend she was fine, happy in her own life.
And not going crazy with her unrequited love for Dutch and her emotional betrayal of Natalie.
She shoved the gearshift into Drive and left her parents’ circular driveway. Memories of that last spring in Dovetail, before college, washed over her. She’d played the victim so well when she’d returned from her weekend away and found out about Dutch and Natalie.
One memory remained intact no matter how many years had gone by. She’d ignored it for so long, but the hurt ran deep. The self-recriminations hadn’t gone away.
It was the memory of how she’d let Dutch go first, before his night with Natalie. She’d backed off from him that last semester of high school. She’d felt he was too possessive, too needy, and he didn’t want to even talk about her college plans. She didn’t understand why he wasn’t equally excited about her decision to go far away to college. He was brilliant and could’ve gone anywhere. But when he was accepted by a college close enough to commute back to Dovetail on the weekends, he’d jumped at it.
Yes, she’d let the relationship go. When she went on an overnight trip her senior year, she and Dutch had all but broken up.
By the time Dutch got together with Natalie the weekend Claire was out of town, his only attachment to her was one of habit. They’d been together so long, grown up side by side, that they’d left things as they were. No big fight, no messy breakup.
Until Dutch had wound up in Natalie’s arms, Natalie in his. It was almost a natural evolution; they were all changing so much, so quickly, back then. And Tom’s fatal accident had pushed Dutch and Natalie over the edge, to each other.
All the justification, all the rationales in the world, hadn’t kept the truth from devastating Claire when she came back that weekend. Dutch and Natalie had sat down with her and they’d faced one another in complete honesty. Natalie couldn’t hide anything from her best friend, and Dutch would rather Claire found out from them than from gossip or rumors.
Claire knew the story by heart. Intellectually she understood what had happened. Much of it hadn’t been personal, just part of a tough year in high school.
But Claire had still ended up with a broken heart.
A heart she’d come back to Dovetail to mend. She turned into her driveway and paused in front of the cottage that came with her property. She was going to use it as a shop, a place to sell her llama fiber. Like the farmhouse, the barn and this cottage, building her heart wasn’t going to happen without a lot of hard work.
CHAPTER SIX
D UTCH GRITTED his teeth as Sasha went on and on about Claire, still excited about their visits to the llama farm that had happened almost a week ago.
“She’s nice, Daddy. I don’t see why you’re so upset about me wanting to go back to see Claire.”
“You’re too busy with school, dance and 4-H. And did I mention your dad has a job to do, as well?”
Sasha shot him one of her knowing smiles. When had she started doing that—making adult expressions with her child’s face?
“I could get a ride from Aunt Ginny, or you could drop me off. Claire said she’d help me with my 4-H project if I want to do it with the crias or about llamas.”
“Let’s keep the focus on getting your math homework done and dinner on the table, okay? Besides, we have to get used to not having Aunt Ginny around. You’re losing your chauffeur, kid.”
“Humph.” Sasha turned back to her open math book while Dutch stirred the spaghetti sauce he’d pulled from the freezer.
Dutch recognized her posture, her attitude. It had been Natalie’s whenever she felt she knew more about something than Dutch did.
“Dad!” Sasha’s concentration on her figures had lasted all of ten seconds. “You can sign a permission slip for me to get off the bus at the last stop—it’s at
Because every time she’d been with Natalie and Dutch, she’d had to pretend she was fine, happy in her own life.
And not going crazy with her unrequited love for Dutch and her emotional betrayal of Natalie.
She shoved the gearshift into Drive and left her parents’ circular driveway. Memories of that last spring in Dovetail, before college, washed over her. She’d played the victim so well when she’d returned from her weekend away and found out about Dutch and Natalie.
One memory remained intact no matter how many years had gone by. She’d ignored it for so long, but the hurt ran deep. The self-recriminations hadn’t gone away.
It was the memory of how she’d let Dutch go first, before his night with Natalie. She’d backed off from him that last semester of high school. She’d felt he was too possessive, too needy, and he didn’t want to even talk about her college plans. She didn’t understand why he wasn’t equally excited about her decision to go far away to college. He was brilliant and could’ve gone anywhere. But when he was accepted by a college close enough to commute back to Dovetail on the weekends, he’d jumped at it.
Yes, she’d let the relationship go. When she went on an overnight trip her senior year, she and Dutch had all but broken up.
By the time Dutch got together with Natalie the weekend Claire was out of town, his only attachment to her was one of habit. They’d been together so long, grown up side by side, that they’d left things as they were. No big fight, no messy breakup.
Until Dutch had wound up in Natalie’s arms, Natalie in his. It was almost a natural evolution; they were all changing so much, so quickly, back then. And Tom’s fatal accident had pushed Dutch and Natalie over the edge, to each other.
All the justification, all the rationales in the world, hadn’t kept the truth from devastating Claire when she came back that weekend. Dutch and Natalie had sat down with her and they’d faced one another in complete honesty. Natalie couldn’t hide anything from her best friend, and Dutch would rather Claire found out from them than from gossip or rumors.
Claire knew the story by heart. Intellectually she understood what had happened. Much of it hadn’t been personal, just part of a tough year in high school.
But Claire had still ended up with a broken heart.
A heart she’d come back to Dovetail to mend. She turned into her driveway and paused in front of the cottage that came with her property. She was going to use it as a shop, a place to sell her llama fiber. Like the farmhouse, the barn and this cottage, building her heart wasn’t going to happen without a lot of hard work.
CHAPTER SIX
D UTCH GRITTED his teeth as Sasha went on and on about Claire, still excited about their visits to the llama farm that had happened almost a week ago.
“She’s nice, Daddy. I don’t see why you’re so upset about me wanting to go back to see Claire.”
“You’re too busy with school, dance and 4-H. And did I mention your dad has a job to do, as well?”
Sasha shot him one of her knowing smiles. When had she started doing that—making adult expressions with her child’s face?
“I could get a ride from Aunt Ginny, or you could drop me off. Claire said she’d help me with my 4-H project if I want to do it with the crias or about llamas.”
“Let’s keep the focus on getting your math homework done and dinner on the table, okay? Besides, we have to get used to not having Aunt Ginny around. You’re losing your chauffeur, kid.”
“Humph.” Sasha turned back to her open math book while Dutch stirred the spaghetti sauce he’d pulled from the freezer.
Dutch recognized her posture, her attitude. It had been Natalie’s whenever she felt she knew more about something than Dutch did.
“Dad!” Sasha’s concentration on her figures had lasted all of ten seconds. “You can sign a permission slip for me to get off the bus at the last stop—it’s at
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