Cal wasn’t really worried, though. Savannah—sensitive and kind, the complete opposite of Richard—would never say anything to ruin another person’s happiness. She’d never cheat Ellie out of the pleasure of spreading the news herself.

“Which one of us is going to be next?” Cal asked, although he already had his suspicions. Grady. He’d seen the way his friend’s eyes followed Caroline Daniels at the Cattlemen’s dance. Later, when she’d asked him to dance during the ladies’ choice, Grady had been so thrilled he’d nearly stumbled all over himself. Not that he’d let on, but Cal knew. Yup, it’d be Grady for sure.

First Glen and then Grady. Soon all his friends would be married, and he’d be living on the ranch alone. The picture that formed in his mind was a desolate one but preferable to the thought of letting another Jennifer Healy into his life.

The sound of a vehicle barreling up the driveway caught Cal’s attention.

“Glen?” Grady asked.

“I didn’t expect him back so soon.” Cal set his tumbler aside.

“You think everything went all right, don’t you?”

“Don’t know why it wouldn’t.” But Cal was beginning to feel some doubts, considering the speed at which Glen had been driving.

The slam of the truck door echoed through the quiet evening.

“I don’t like the look of this,” Grady said in a low voice.

Cal didn’t, either. He dashed down the porch when he saw Glen moving toward the barn. “I wonder what happened,” he said. “I’d better find out. Be back in a couple of minutes.”

Cal didn’t want to think about what might have gone wrong, but clearly something had. He opened the barn door and searched the dim interior. It took his eyes a moment to adjust, and when he did finally see Glen, his uneasiness intensified. His brother was pitching hay like a man possessed.

“I take it things didn’t go so well between you and Ellie,” Cal said, hoping he sounded casual.

“You could say that.” Glen’s shoulders heaved with exertion. “What’s Grady doing here?”

“We’re...” He almost slipped and said they were celebrating Glen’s engagement. “We’re just shootin’ the breeze.”

Silence.

“You did talk to Ellie?”

Glen stopped midmotion, the pitchfork full of hay. “We talked.”

Cal wondered how to proceed. “Did she like the ring?” he asked, and realized immediately it was probably a tactless question.

“She didn’t say.”

“I see.”

“I doubt it.” Glen stabbed the fork into the ground, breathing hard, his face red from exertion.

“Do you want to tell me about it or would you rather work this out on your own?”

Glen took a couple of moments to think it over. “I...I don’t know,” he mumbled.

Another silence. Cal knew it was up to Glen to talk or not.

“I owe you an apology,” Glen surprised him by saying next.

“Me? What for?”

Glen looked him full in the eye. “When Jennifer walked out on you, I was secretly glad. As far as I was concerned, you got a lucky break. I thought she wasn’t the right woman for you. I didn’t stop to consider how you must have felt, how damn hard her leaving was on you.”

Cal didn’t quite understand how all this talk about Jennifer applied to the current situation, but he didn’t want to interrupt Glen.

“Hurt like hell, didn’t it?”

Cal wasn’t going to deny it. “At the time it did. I don’t think about it much anymore.”

Glen reached into his pocket for the diamond that had once belonged to Cal’s ex-fiancée. He stared at it for several seconds. “I wonder how long it’ll take me to forget Ellie,” he said, sounding as if he was speaking to himself. He raised his head as he handed Cal back the ring, and the look in his eyes spoke of blinding pain.

“Ellie’s decided to marry Richard Weston.”

***

Not once had Ellie said she’d accepted Richard Weston’s proposal, but that was what Glen had immediately assumed. It hurt that he’d actually believe she would marry anyone else when it should be clear as creek water that she was in love with him!

She let herself into her house and slumped down on the sofa, discouraged and depressed. She’d always known that Glen wasn’t much of a romantic, but she’d hoped he could at least propose marriage without making it sound like an insult. He’d said all the wrong things. He’d talked about an obligation to “take care” of her; well, no thanks, she could take care of herself. He’d said it was “time” he got married—so what did that have to do with her? He’d referred to her “excellent qualities” as though he was interviewing her for a job! Perhaps worst of all, he’d half admitted that his sudden desire to propose had been prompted by his effort to outdo Richard Weston.

The one thing he’d never said was that he loved her.

Crossing her arms, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. It was at times like this that she missed her father most. He always seemed to know what to do, and Ellie feared that in her anger she’d badly bungled her relationship with Glen. She feared that nothing would ever be the same again.

She knew about the lottery at Billy D’s and all the Texas two-step jokes. She hated the idea of being in the middle of some stupid male rivalry, and everything Glen said only reinforced that. It bothered her, too, that he’d come to her with a used engagement ring, a leftover from his brother’s failed romance. She’d drawn the only sensible conclusion, which was that he’d been in such a rush to get to her before Richard proposed, he hadn’t taken the time to buy his own ring.

Now she didn’t know what to do. She loved Glen and wanted more than anything to be his wife, but at the same time she needed to feel that she was more to him than a trophy, a way of triumphing over Richard. Deciding to marry someone wasn’t like switching dance partners—even in the Texas two-step!

She needed Glen to acknowledge that he loved her, and she needed to understand that his feelings for her had nothing to do with Richard. She wanted Glen to look into his heart.

But she worried he wouldn’t be able to see beyond his own disappointments.

***

Glen sat at the breakfast table and stared glumly at the kitchen wall, sipping his coffee. It was barely five and he was already on his third cup.

Cal ambled down the stairs, yawning loudly. “You’re up early,” he muttered as he headed for the coffeepot.

Glen didn’t tell his brother that he hadn’t been to sleep yet. He’d gone to bed and closed his eyes, but it’d done no good. He’d finally gotten up at three-thirty and sat waiting for the tightness in his chest to go away so he could breathe without this pain.

“You feeling all right?” Cal asked.

His brother was more awake than Glen had given him credit for. “I’m fine.”

Cal leaned against the kitchen counter, holding his coffee mug with both hands, and studied Glen.

“I said I was fine,” Glen said a bit more gruffly than he intended. He wasn’t up to talking. In time the details would come out, the same way they had when Jennifer canceled the wedding. Cal had been tight-lipped for weeks, then gradually, bit by bit, Glen had pieced it all together until he had a fairly accurate picture of the events that led up to the final scene.

Cal’s face seemed to darken. “It doesn’t seem either one of us is the marrying kind,” he said, then pushed away from the counter and left the house.

His eyes burning from lack of sleep, Glen toyed with the idea of taking the day off, but instinctively realized that would be his worst choice. He needed to stay busy. Otherwise thoughts of Ellie and Richard would drive him crazy.

Downing the last of his coffee, he followed Cal.

The day dragged. Glen had never felt wearier in body and spirit. By late afternoon he knew the only way to find peace was to seek out Richard Weston and congratulate him. Then he’d talk to Ellie and wish her and Richard every happiness. He was sincere about that; he loved her enough to want her to have a good life.