Page 51 of Texas Made
“Then what’s wrong?”
“We broke up. Now you know, so can you shut the hell up?”
“Why did you break up?” Chase continued, ignoring him again. “You two are crazy about each other.”
“Because Jaclyn is being completely unreasonable.” Chase waited. Marshall knew his brother wouldn’t go away until he’d spilled his guts. He told him what had gone down, ending with, “Jaclyn’s done. We’re done. Nothing more to say.”
“You’re just going to accept that? You’re totally in love with her. You can’t just give up.”
“I never said anything about being in love.”
Chase laughed, as if Marshall had said the funniest thing ever. He wanted to slug him but it would take too much effort.
“You didn’t have to say it. You’ve been crazy in love with her for weeks. Everyone on the ranch and most of the people in town know it. Besides, I know the symptoms.”
Chase and Ella were great together now but they’d had a lot of problems to overcome. Obviously, though, both of them had wanted to overcome their issues. Not so with Jaclyn.
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. She wanted to break up. Said it was the best thing for us.”
“Why?”
Exasperated, he shoved a hand through his hair. “I told you. She’s tired of doing the long-distance thing. Partly because it seems like she’s the only one traveling. Well, hell, she is the only one traveling, at least recently. She doesn’t believe it will get any better. And since neither of us can move, that’s that. Over.Finito.Stick a fork in it.”
“It’s not like you to give up so easily when you want something.”
“What the hell do you expect me to do, Chase? Even if I wanted to, I can’t move to Dallas. And her company is in Dallas.”
“Why couldn’t she move here? She managed to keep the company running while she was down here for months,” Chase pointed out.
“I know. But she says it’s too hard and she can’t continue to work by Skype or Zoom or whatever the hell it is she chats with.” Brooding, he finished his beer. “She had an ex who she did the long-distance thing with and it was a disaster. I can’t expect her to move when I can’t.”
“There’s bound to be a solution.”
“Like what? Don’t you think both of us have tried to find one?”
“You could buy Damaris and me out and start over somewhere around Dallas.”
Marshall looked at him like he was crazy, which he was if he thought that would work. “No, I couldn’t. First off, I can’t afford it. Second, do you remember what a bitch starting Walker Paints was? And there were two of us plus other family to help. Plus we already had the land, a barn, and some pastures. Trying to do this anywhere else would be suicidal. Hell, the cost of the land around Dallas alone would break richer people than me.”
Chase rubbed his chin. “You have a point.”
“And what about you? You’re just getting started with your bucking horses. If I left you, Ella, and Damaris to deal with everything here…” He shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t be right. Both operations might go under.”
“It would be a hardship, but we could work it out. We could hire more help.”
“Which would eat up any profits you managed to make. Besides, you’ve already had to hire more help.”
“If that’s what it takes—”
“No. I’m not doing that to y’all. Not to go too woo-woo but maybe Jaclyn and I just aren’t meant to be.” If they couldn’t work things out, and it sure as shit looked like they couldn’t, maybe Jaclyn was right and the best thing for them was to break up and move on.
“Do you really believe that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe. It is what it is.” The only thing for him to do was get used to being without her. Move on. Too bad that was the last thing he wanted to do.
*
Who would havethought she’d miss Marshall so much after just a week? It wasn’t as if they hadn’t gone longer than that not seeing each other in person, but at least in the past they’d talked and video-chatted with each other regularly. The difference was this time was for good. She might never see him again. If she and Damaris wanted to get together, it wouldn’t be at the ranch. That would be too hard.
