The Bridal Path: Ashley (13 page)

It was now well past nightfall, and she was beginning to worry that he’d taken off for good. She couldn’t help wondering if he’d simply gotten what he wanted from her and seen no reason to hang around any longer. That would certainly be par for the course with the downhill skid of the rest of her life these days.

How could she have foolishly gotten the idea that there was something special between them? Maybe Dillon was just like everyone else in the world, after all, eager to grab whatever was offered without any thought to giving anything back.

Her snake of an agent had certainly operated under that particular code of ethics, if you could call it ethical to bad-mouth a client the minute there was a dip in the demand for her services.

For all she knew, Dillon was just like him. What did she really know about the man he’d become? Nothing. She didn’t even know exactly why he’d come to the cabin in the first place or why he had hung around after discovering her there. His hints about stress could have meant anything.

Ignoring the glimmer of hurt she had detected in his eyes, she was swept away once more by confusion. All her doubts about his past surged to life again, along with even deeper uncertainties about his motives toward her. He might have been hanging around just to irritate her. Or maybe he had no place else to go.

Despite his denial that he was in trouble with the law, she had no idea if he was in the sort of trouble he used to thrive on getting into. Maybe he’d never broken any major laws, but he’d certainly wandered into some gray areas. Since he was disgustingly silent on the subject of his life, she had to wonder what he wasn’t telling her. At the same time, he seemed perfectly content to let her think whatever she wanted to about him.

As lonely and bereft as she’d felt when she’d fled to Wyoming, she’d been all too grateful for his presence. She got some credit for asking pointed questions, but clearly lost when it came to accepting evasive answers. It was possible that she had been incredibly foolish. She’d been so quick to look forward to their lazy walks and late-into-the-night conversations that she’d pushed aside her doubts about him.

Now that she thought about it, she realized they had rarely talked about anything of consequence. Arguments about the most romantic destinations in the world were about as heavy as the conversations had gotten. Dillon had traveled to an impressive number of exotic places for a man who’d left Riverton with little more than the clothes on his back.

Sitting all alone in the bed they had just shared, she let her imagination run wild. Perversely, thinking of him as some sort of international art or jewel thief gave her an odd thrill. She’d always wanted to do something totally rebellious. Maybe she was finally living on the edge of danger. If he’d only talked about his exploits, she could have experienced his world vicariously.

At least thinking about Dillon’s potential list of sins had kept her from having to do any serious soul-searching about her own life. Even if he never came back, she supposed she owed him for providing that distraction.

At the sound of an engine, her spirits quickly soared. So much for listening to her head’s doubts rather than her heart’s certainties. All that really mattered, it seemed, was that he had come back, after all. The past hour’s moping had been over nothing. Clearly, she was losing it if she couldn’t even spend a few minutes alone without thinking the worst.

Hopping out of bed and yanking on a robe, she forced herself not to race for the door. In the living room, she chose a spot in front of the fire to wait, listening for the sound of his footsteps on the porch.

His approach, though, was astonishingly quiet, his tread surprisingly light. When an equally light, rapid tap came on the door, her heart leapt into her throat. So, it wasn’t Dillon after all.

Biting back disappointment, she opened the door to find Dani standing there, her expression a mix of relief and concern. She gave a quick nod of satisfaction. “So you are here. I thought as much. May I come in?”

Ashley sighed and reluctantly stepped out of her sister’s way. “How did you find me?”

“Process of elimination. I started in New York and worked my way west.” She studied Ashley with a big sister’s quick but thorough appraisal. “Your agent says you fired him. Care to tell me what that’s all about? Or why you’re moping around here in your bathrobe at five in the afternoon?”

A blush crept up her cheeks. “No,” Ashley declared firmly on both counts. “Would you like some tea?”

“I’d prefer some answers, actually.”

“Dani, I love you dearly, but you are my sister, not my mother. Stop fussing over me.”

Dani sighed heavily. “Is that why you left Three-Stars, because I was hovering? That’s what Sara said. She told me I drove you away with all my questions. I’m sorry if I was responsible for you leaving.”

Ashley smiled ruefully. “You don’t have to feel guilty. Actually, I left because you’re clairvoyant. You see straight through me.”

“I see. What is it you didn’t want me to figure out?”

She knew her sister well enough to realize that this was only the beginning. Despite her momentary contrition, Dani would nag and push until she learned all Ashley’s secrets. Ashley’s only hope was to delay the process.

“Could we talk about this later?” she pleaded. “I’m starved. Even if you don’t want some tea, I do. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” She headed for the kitchen, leaving Dani to trail along after her.

Once she’d convinced her sister that there would be no conversation without food, Dani’s nurturing nature kicked in. She stepped in and took over, briskly putting together thick sandwiches and brewing a pot of herbal tea while Ashley retreated to the table.

This was the way it had always been among the three sisters, Ashley recalled, relaxing at last. Dani’s maternal instincts had made her the mother hen. Sara and Ashley had balked at the perceived interference, yet they had loved their big sister for caring so passionately.

It was about time Dani had a brood of her own to flutter over, Ashley decided.

“Heard anything from Daddy?” she asked, rather than bringing up what she really wanted to discuss–her sister’s marital status. Dani caught enough grief on that subject from their father. He’d been trying to marry her off to some rancher friend of his for years. Balking at that had been the most sensible thing Dani had ever done, even if it had cost her the kids she wanted so desperately to have.

“He’s cut a wide swath through Phoenix and Scottsdale,” Dani said as she put their food on the table. “He says there’s no one there except a bunch of people sitting in the sun and waiting to die.”

“I thought that was why he went there,” Ashley said. “I thought that was his idea of relaxing.”

“No, actually when he left he said he wanted to kick up his heels. I expect him to venture to L.A. or Vegas one of these days and come home with some twenty-five-year-old with a cowboy fixation.”

“God forbid,” Ashley said with heartfelt horror.

“We can’t make choices for the ones we love,” Dani pointed out dutifully.

“I’m glad you said that,” Ashley chimed in. “Maybe that philosophy will keep your nose out of my business.”

“Nice try,” her sister said briskly. “But I’m not so easily dissuaded, especially when you’re hiding out up here in a place you always claimed to abhor.”

“No, that was you. I don’t even give this cabin much thought.”

“But it was the first place you could think of to run to. Why is that?”

“Because I figured no one would think to look for me here,” she said pointedly. “Especially you, given the way you shudder at the mention of it. I wanted to be alone.”

Danielle Marie Wilde was not used to taking hints. It seemed unlikely she would start now. The grim, determined set of her lips confirmed that.

“When you give me the answers I want, then you can be alone,” she said. “Sometimes it actually does help to talk, you know.”

Ashley scowled at her. “Fine, let’s talk, then. I swore just two minutes ago that I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I can’t help it. When are you going to find yourself some decent, loving man and have a passel of kids to worry about?”

Dani merely smiled at that. “Do you honestly think that will get me off your case?”

“I can always hope.”

“It won’t,” she assured her. “Being born my baby sister came with a guarantee. You get a lifetime of me worrying about you. That won’t stop no matter how many kids I have, not that there’s time left for me to have too many.”

“Dani, you are barely thirty years old. You can have all the kids you want. You just have to find the right man.”

“Riverton is not exactly crawling with candidates,” she said with an air of resignation. “Look, can we stick to the subject? We were talking about you.”

“You were,” Ashley reminded her. “I was talking about you. I don’t like that despondent tone I heard in your voice. Since when do you give up?”

“Hold your questions, little sister. I’m older. I get to go first. Why did you fire your agent?”

Ashley gave up. Keeping the whole thing bottled up inside hadn’t accomplished anything. Nor had the flirtation with Dillon distracted her permanently from her own problems. Maybe telling Dani would help. At least she could be certain of a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.

Maybe it was time she had someone in her corner, someone who was blindly loyal or who, at the very least, would sugarcoat the truth so it was bearable.

She drew in a deep breath, then blurted, “I fired him because he said I was too fat for him to get me work.”

Dani’s mouth gaped with satisfying incredulity. “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”

“I am not kidding,” Ashley assured her flatly.

“You, fat? You could eat nothing but cheesecake for a solid month and still not be fat.”

Ashley’s eyes swam with tears. “Thank you for saying that.”

“I am not just saying it,” Dani insisted, jumping up and beginning to pace. It was a sure sign of her level of agitation.

“It’s the truth,” she swore. “Of all the most ridiculous, addlepated notions I have ever heard, this one surely takes the cake. You shouldn’t have fired the jerk. You should have shot him.”

She said it so fiercely, Ashley was glad that her agent was safely tucked away in New York. She would have hated to see her sister jailed for killing the man. He wasn’t worth it.

“Look, it’s no big thing,” she swore, grasping for a positive spin to settle her sister down. “There are other agents. And I’ll probably lose these couple of extra pounds with a little effort. I’ll be back in the business in no time.”

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic about the prospect,” Dani observed, cutting right to the heart of Ashley’s dilemma.

Ashley’s bravado wilted. “That’s just it. It doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore. But who am I, if I’m not Ashley Wilde, world-famous cover model?”

Dani’s expression turned thoughtful. “It’s a funny thing about expectations, isn’t it?” she said quietly. “We grow up with one set and the next thing you know they’re in tatters and we’re left floundering around for some new role for ourselves.”

There was no mistaking the fact that the comment had as much to do with her own life as it did with Ashley’s. Nor was there any mistaking the sadness in her brown eyes. It was so rare to see her older sister anything but cheerful and determined that Ashley was taken aback. Dani always presented such a serene front to the world that it was difficult to realize she was susceptible to bouts of depression, too.

Ashley rushed over to hug her tightly. “It’s going to work out for both of us,” she promised.

Dani hugged her back fiercely and managed a watery grin. “Some job of cheering you up, huh? The next thing I know, you’re wiping away my tears. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“Don’t worry about it. At least you didn’t let Daddy see you all teary-eyed. He’d call the preacher and force you to marry old Roger or Wayne or some other ancient geezer with whom he’d struck up a conversation in Arizona.”

Suddenly Dani’s expression brightened almost imperceptibly. “Speaking of marriage and men, whose shirt is that?” she asked, gesturing across the room.

Ashley swallowed hard and gazed quickly around the living room for telltale evidence of Dillon’s presence. “What shirt?” she inquired blithely, though the T-shirt was unmistakable.

“The faded, well-worn black one, tossed over the chair. I’ve certainly never seen you in black, unless it was some skimpy little designer dress in a magazine ad. Besides, this one looks much too large to be yours, and you tend to toss things out before they ever fade that badly.”

“I bought it a long time ago to use as a nightshirt,” Ashley suggested, frantically grasping at straws.

Dani rolled her gaze heavenward at the blatant fib. She strolled over and picked it up. After a quick sniff, she said, “You’re wearing men’s cologne now, too? You might be able to fool somebody else with that fiddle-faddle, but not me. Whose is it?”

“Let’s just say it belongs to a friend and leave it at that,” Ashley pleaded.

“Is this friend helping you to put things into perspective?”

Ashley thought of Dillon’s ability to turn her emotions upside down, but she nodded anyway. An analysis of her relationship with Dillon was the last thing she needed right now.

“He’s helping,” she assured her older sister.

Apparently satisfied with the response, Dani relented. “Then I’ll leave it alone for now. Bring him by for a visit when you decide you’ve had enough of this place, okay?”

Dani glanced around the very masculine cabin and shuddered visibly. “I’ve already been here longer than I vowed to be ever again.”

“Then run along before I suggest we go fishing,” Ashley teased. Her expression sobered. “Thanks for coming, though. Talking helped.”

“If you came to town, we could do even more of it.”

This time Ashley shuddered. “Sorry, big sister. It didn’t help that much.”

“Whatever decision you reach, you won’t leave town without saying goodbye, will you?”

“No, absolutely not.”

Dani hugged her, her expression fiercely protective. “I love you. So do Daddy and Sara. Maybe it’s time you learned to love yourself.”