by Jennie Marts
Until about twenty minutes ago, when she’d finally hit a wall and begged off for the night. She’d left them in the lobby, shaking her head and calling good night even as Mike suggested they hit the hotel restaurant and order some midnight nachos.
She pushed up from the bed, summoning the last of her energy to wash her face and brush her teeth. But as she pulled her pajamas from her suitcase, the iron rose Mack had made for her slipped out and fell across her clothes. She’d forgotten she’d wrapped it in the pajama top to keep it safe.
Touching the gorgeously crafted petals, she choked back tears. The flower was beautiful, but the iron was as cold as Mack’s reaction to her had been that morning. Grabbing her toiletry case and pajamas, she slammed the lid of the suitcase back down. She was too tired, and her heart was too tender, to think about Mack right now.
After completing her nighttime routine, she got out her charger and plugged it into the bedside outlet. Digging her phone from her purse, she plugged it in and was surprised to see a text from Gram which had come in hours earlier. Her phone had been buried in her bag, and she must not have heard it buzz. Call me later, the message read.
Jocelyn was dying to tell Gram the details of the afternoon and evening. It had all gone so well. She’d really connected with the Carlsons and was so excited about the prospect of the new job. But it was too late to call her grandmother now, and the message hadn’t seemed urgent.
She also had a notification she’d been tagged in a post on Facebook. It was from the Harmony Ranch page, so she was sure it was probably something to do with the concert. There was no way she was clicking that. Not tonight.
She’d already committed to plans with Mike and Julia for the following day. They’d begged her to show them some of the sights around Denver. She couldn’t face the reminder that she was missing the concert she and Mack had worked so hard on.
Turning her phone upside down, she placed it on the bedside table and turned out the light. She was so exhausted, she figured she’d be asleep before her head hit the pillow, but her brain wouldn’t shut off as it replayed the events of the day. She lay awake for hours as her heart and mind debated the decisions she’d made and argued over which ones had been the right thing to do.
The next morning, Jocelyn’s head was fuzzy from lack of sleep as she woke to the sound of her phone buzzing. Her eyes fluttered and she let out a groan as she reached for the phone, but still ended up missing the call. Squinting at the screen, she saw it was the third time her grandmother had tried to call.
She pushed herself up, scrubbing a hand through her hair as she redialed her grandmother. “Hi Gram. You all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Are you? I’ve called you three times already.”
“Sorry. Late night. But a good one.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I hung out with the new clients most of the day, and night, yesterday. And I really like them. They’ve got some fun ideas, and they’re really motivated to open a shop in Colorado. I think they’ll be great to work with.”
“You don’t have to work so hard to convince me. I already know why you were so fired up to leave yesterday and to take this job.”
“What do you mean?”
“Peaches found a copy of the contract on the floor last night.”
“Who’s Peaches?”
“One of the little strays.”
“Oh. You found the owner?” Jocelyn’s heart sank with disappointment. Not that she wasn’t happy for the dog and the owner, obviously. But she’d gotten used to the cute little mutt, and wasn’t ready to lose one more thing.
“Yeah, you’re talking to her. No one has called about either of the dogs, so we’re keeping this one. We’ve already bonded. But I think she misses you. She keeps going back to your bedroom and wandering through it like she’s checking to see if you’re back yet.”
“Aww. That’s so sweet.” And heartbreaking.
“You know, you can come back.”
“I wish I could.”
“Do you really wish that? Because you can. That’s what I’m calling to tell you. We saw the contract, and I know about the signing bonus they offered you. And I know that’s the reason you feel like you have to take this job.”
“What do you mean by we saw the contract? Who is ‘we’?”
“Me and Mack. But that’s beside the point.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Mack saw the contract? What did he say?”
“He was just as surprised as I was that you hadn’t told either of us.”
Jocelyn let out a frustrated sigh. “I tried to tell him, but he kept cutting me off.”
“That’s what he said. Now quit trying to change the subject and listen to your grandma. I’m trying to tell you that you don’t have to take this job.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Not for me, you don’t.”
Jocelyn leaned her head back against the pillow and wished she’d made a cup of coffee before starting this conversation. This was exactly what she’d worried would happen. “Quit looking a gift bonus in the mouth, Gram. That money is the answer to all our problems—it’s just what we need to save the ranch.”
“The ranch is my problem, not yours.”
“Good try, Gram. I love that place almost as much as you do.”
“Be that as it may, I’m not letting you pay off the loan with that bonus.”
“I don’t know that we’ll have that choice.”
“We always have a choice. Especially in this instance. You have a lot riding on this decision. And you keep saying you have to take this job, but I haven’t once heard you say you want it.”
Was that true? She’d worked so hard to get this account, of course she wanted it. Didn’t she?
“It’s not that simple. I love my job, and I’ve had so much fun working on this account. Plus, I really like the people I just met and feel like we’d have such a great working relationship.”
“But is that the relationship you really want?”
An image of Mack laughing as they competed in the obstacle course filled her mind, and she could almost feel his strong arm wrapped around her waist. An ache settled in her chest. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Let me ask you this,” Gram said. “If it weren’t for the bonus, would you still be as fired up to leave the ranch and take the job?”
“That’s the question I’ve been avoiding asking myself.”
“Okay, so I’m asking you now.”
“If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would have said this promotion was everything I’ve wanted. I’ve spent the last several months working relentlessly to get it.”
“But now?”
She buried her head in her hands. “But now I’m not so sure.”
“Because…?”
“Because there is something I think I want even more.”
“Something or someone?”
“Have you ever heard the term ‘leading the witness’?”
“Ha. I knew it. It’s Mack, right?”
“Of course it’s Mack. It’s always been Mack. I’ve never stopped caring about him and wishing things had gone differently for us. But it wasn’t until the last few weeks when I’ve been back and hanging out with him again that I realized how much I still care about him.” Her voice dropped to a whisper again. “How much I still love him.”
“Well girl, it’s taken you long enough to figure that out.”
“I know. But I think Mom might have had something to do with that.” She told her grandmother about the letters she and Mack both claimed they’d written to each other yet neither had ever received.
“I’m sad to say it, but that sounds like just the kind of thing your mother would do. She was determined to cut all your ties with this place. Don’t be too angry with her. She just wanted you to have the kind of chanc
es in life that she felt she never got. And she was terrified you would waste your life in this small town instead of getting to see the world like she’d wanted to.”
“But that was my choice to make, not hers.”
“That’s true. Although it seems like you have a choice to make now.”
“But I don’t. There isn’t a choice. I have to do this.”
Gram blew out an exasperated sigh. “Not for me, you don’t. Jocelyn, I would rather lose everything than have you risk losing your chance at finally finding happiness with the man you love.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Her grandmother’s voice softened. “But honey, it is. Take the ranch and the bonus out of the equation and just think about having a future with Mack in Colorado or a future with your company in New York. Which do you want more?”
That question had plagued her half the night. “My heart seems to be telling me the answer, but my head keeps fighting it.”
“When is the last time you let your heart decide?”
She swallowed. “Never.”
“Maybe it’s time you gave your heart a chance.”
There were a few obstacles in the way of that decision. “But I’ve already met the clients and prepared this whole campaign for them.”
“So what? There will be other clients and other campaigns. If you want this job with everything in you, then by all means choose the job. But this past week I’ve heard you laugh more than I have in years. Don’t worry about me. I will be fine. No matter what happens. But you have your whole life ahead of you. And I want you to make the choice of how you plan to spend it. Not me, not Mack, and certainly not your mother. Think about what you want that will make you happy.”
“I thought it was this promotion. But now I’m not so sure.” Glancing toward her suitcase, she spied the end of the iron-forged rose sticking out the side. Jocelyn knew what she really wanted. But was she willing to make the sacrifices to get it?
“I’ve given up so much to get this promotion, and now that it’s within my grasp, it’s hard to imagine letting it go.”
“What’s harder to imagine losing—the job or Mack?”
That question hit her like an arrow to the sternum. “Mack. Now that he’s back in my life, I’m struggling to leave him again.”
“That tells you something right there. And I’m not trying to sway your decision…”
Yeah, right.
“But I need to say one more thing. For Mack. If you decide it’s him you want, you need to be all in. That man hasn’t had an easy time of it when it comes to trusting women. So far, all the women in his life have left him. His mom, then you, then Ashley. And now you again. He needs someone to make him believe he’s worth fighting for—worth staying for. So if you decide you want him, you need to prove it to him. Show him you’re back for good.”
She took a shuddering breath, her heart aching for the hurts Mack had experienced. “I hear you.”
“Good. Because I think Mack still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Have you checked Facebook this morning?”
“Facebook? No. I only woke up to answer your call.”
“You might want to check it out. What you see just might factor into your decision.”
What was she talking about?
“Go get some coffee, then take a look. I love you, honey, and I’ll stand by whatever decision you make.”
Her grandmother was being awfully cryptic. But Jocelyn’s curiosity was piqued. What could be on Facebook that could possibly help in this situation? “Thanks, Gram. For everything. I love you too. I’ll call you later.”
She clicked off the call and tapped the Facebook app. The first thing to come up was a post for the ranch’s page that had a video attached to it. A post that she hadn’t created.
Squinting at the screen, she recognized a blurry image of the pond but could recognize nothing beyond that. Her gaze went immediately to the likes and comments, and her eyes widened.
Over a thousand likes? And the video had been viewed several hundred times.
She read the first few lines of the post, her heart racing.
“Bring your appetite and your dancing shoes down to Harmony Creek Ranch this Saturday for Fiddles and Vittles—a benefit concert to help rescue Harmony Ranch. Special guest appearance by Chase Dalton. #PopUpConcert.”
Wait. Chase Dalton? Was going to be at their concert? What the heck? How had Mack pulled that off? And when had he learned how to hashtag?
She kept reading, and her heart went from racing to melting.
“Jocelyn—this is for you. Forget everything I said yesterday and please come back. We’ll figure it out. I love you. My heart has always been your home.”
She couldn’t believe Mack had posted something so personal. And she was floored at how many likes and comments his post had received.
She touched the video and the strains of “My Heart is Your Home” began to play as the camera shakily moved as if it were being set down. Two people moved into view. She gasped. It wasn’t a camera, it was a phone. Mack’s phone. And it was her and Mack on the screen.
She watched, mesmerized, as he took her in his arms and pulled her close. They swayed to the music, their bodies fitting together as if they were made for each other—like magnets, but instead of repelling each other, they were drawn together as if by a powerful force.
Her chest ached as she watched the two of them smile at each other and then laugh easily at a shared joke. Even though she remembered everything about those stolen moments by the pond, she still held her breath, waiting to see what happened next.
In the soft light of dusk, with the candles flickering off the water, Mack gazed into her eyes. Just as she had the night it happened, she felt the intensity and the promise in that gaze. Tears welled in her eyes as she watched him pull her into his embrace and tenderly hold her in his arms as they slow-danced to the song that meant so much to them.
The video came to an end and she swallowed, her throat dry.
Wiping a lone tear from her cheek, she tapped the screen and watched it again.
When it was over, she stared at her phone, remembering the night so vividly—the smell of the pond, the magic of the twinkling lights of the luminaries, and the feel of Mack’s arms around her.
She was so tempted to call him, the need to hear his voice almost overwhelming, but he’d always said actions speak louder than words. So now was the time for her to act.
She closed Facebook and opened her contacts. She had an important call to make. One that could change everything.
She hoped.
Chewing the inside of her cheek, she tapped the number, then smoothed her pajama pants down as she listened to the ring.
Her boss answered on the first ring and immediately started to gush. “Jocelyn, you totally nailed it. The Carlsons have already called me, and they loved you.”
Jocelyn lifted her chin as she pushed her shoulders back. “I loved them too. That’s what makes this call so hard.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jocelyn hung up the phone, her chest already feeling lighter. The call hadn’t necessarily gone well, but at least it was over.
Andrea had at first been stunned when she’d told her she was staying in Colorado. Then her voice had turned icy and she hadn’t said much beyond, “I’m sorry to hear that” and “I guess you have to do what you have to do.”
She’d tried to ask if there was a way she could work from Colorado, but Andrea cut her off with a statement about how disappointed the clients, and the firm, would be. And how she wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to them.
Jocelyn had told her she was meeting the clients for brunch, and she’d let them know her decision. Pushing up from the bed, she headed for the shower to get ready for one of the hardest meetings of her career.
Or what was left of
her career.
That night, Mack paced the area behind the stage as one of the local bands finished up their last song. His boots kicked up dust with each step, and he snuck a quick glance at the guy leaning casually against the side of the stage, his hand resting on the neck of his guitar.
Mack tapped his fingers against his leg. He was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. How was he supposed to walk out there and introduce Chase Dalton? The guy had played at the Grand Ole Opry, and Mack was supposed to welcome him out to a stage cobbled together from hay bales and the flatbed of Frank Ferguson’s semi trailer.
At least his nerves were keeping his thoughts on the crazy busyness of the concert instead of letting him wallow in thoughts of Joss.
“I suppose you don’t get nervous anymore,” Mack said to the country star.
“Oh, sure I do. You should’ve seen me a few years back when they asked me to sing the national anthem at a Broncos game in Denver,” Chase told him. “It was a good thing I decided to wear my Manning jersey, because I sweated clear through my t-shirt. I was sure my voice would crack. Then right before I walked out onto the field, Peyton Manning himself clapped me on the back and said ‘You got this, Chase.’ Then my nerves settled right down. I figured if the guy who had to go out in front of tens of thousands of fans and win a football game could take the time to offer me encouragement, I could sure go out and sing a song to get that game started off on the right foot.” He winked. “Pun intended.”
Mack laughed, a little in awe of the story. “I can totally see Manning doing that. That guy is the greatest.”
“You bet he is.”
“Tens of thousands of people, huh?” Mack shook his head. “I guess after that, there’d be no reason to worry about playing a small-time deal like this.”
Chase craned his neck to see over the top of the trailer. “That crowd seems to be growing by the second. And I think you’d be surprised at what kind of small-time deals I’ve played. Remember the first time you saw me? I was singing at a county fair. I’ve done my share of fairs, baseball games, and rinky-dink bars when I was working my way up in the business. A particular favorite was the night I played an entire show to an empty house except for one guy asleep at the bar, and the bartender. Not one other patron came in the whole two hours I was on stage.”
