Coming Home to Texas Read Online Free

kitchen table. “I meant what I said about you being the only nice thing that happened that day.” Not to mention the nicest thing she’d had to look at in nearly a thousand miles. He had brownish-red hair with a ruddy coloring that would have made him look boyish were it not for the severe features that made up his face. She got the impression he was a tough guy squelching a soft edge—or a caring man who’d had the tough shell forced upon him. Given his profession, it could easily be either.
    â€œYou really drove all the way here from Atlanta in one day?”
    â€œYeah, well, that’s how badly I wanted to get out of town. After my little...discovery...I stumbled around for the rest of the week claiming ‘sick days,’ but by Friday I knew I didn’t want to spend another hour listening to my friends whisper about how my fiancé had gotten caught snuggled up against the croutons with someone I thought was my best friend.” Ellie shrugged off the lingering sting of that statement. “Two emails, three suitcases and a triple-shot latte later, I was on the road.”
    Nash raised an eyebrow. “Croutons?”
    â€œDerek is a chef. Katie works for the same restaurant chain I do—did. I’m not entirely sure I’ll want the job waiting for me when I go back. The big breakup was alarmingly...public at a St. Patrick’s Day event involving the whole company.”
    â€œOuch. And no one could muster up an ‘I’m sorry’?”
    He’d remembered what she’d said last night. That stuck somewhere deep—she’d felt so dismissed and invisible since that whole drama. How she could feel so overlooked after such a public scene still stumped her.
    â€œThe St. Patrick’s Day Fest is a big event involving all our restaurants, so there were rushing people and chaos and even cameras everywhere—Derek is a bit of a celebrity. Thankfully, there weren’t any cameras nearby at that particular moment. I would have thought he was swamped with work—he certainly didn’t seem to have time for me that day—but clearly he had time for...other people. When I confronted him, he just sort of shut down into chef mode, shouting about food details and telling me there just wasn’t time for personal drama.”
    Nash’s jaw worked. It was gratifying to see a perfect stranger horrified by Derek’s behavior—proof she wasn’t some oversensitive victim. “No time? Really? I hope you gave it to him anyway.”
    Ellie swallowed the lump in her throat, remembering the “it couldn’t be helped” shrug Derek had given her as he wiped the last of Katie’s lipstick from his chin. The lack of shock or even regret stung worst of all. How could she have so blind to the growing indifference Derek had been showing her? She’d put his distance down to stress, but his cooling toward her had been only because Derek was heating it up with her so-called best friend. Who knew “lukewarm” could burn so much?
    â€œI told him—” she didn’t bite back the bitter edge she gave the words “—that if he had time to cheat on me with my best friend, he could make the time to man up and apologize for it.”
    Nash took a swallow of coffee and nodded. “I wouldn’t have been half that kind.”
    â€œThanks.” She meant it. Ellie needed people to take her side. The number of people at GoodEats who had looked at her with a sad sort of “didn’t you see this coming?” expression was one of the reasons she’d packed her car and fled to the ranch.
    â€œWhat are you going to do now?”
    She didn’t have a real answer. “Eat. Bake. Knit. Restore my faith in human nature. Maybe make yarn.”
    â€œKnit?”
    â€œIt’s what I do to calm down or feel...” She reached for a way to explain what the steady click of the needles over the yarn did