“Mother isn’t going to decide what I do anymore,” she said. “It’s taken far too long for me to get to this place at all.” She turned to look at Cayden, intending to tell him she loved him. She’d said the words before to another man. She knew how they felt in her mouth, and she knew how they sounded in her voice.
Their eyes met, and Ginny offered him a smile. “I love you, Cayden.”
Before she’d even finished saying those four words, he started shaking his head. “No,” he said, standing up. He paced away from her, and that so wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting.
“What?” she asked.
“I’m not going to come between you and Sweet Rose,” he said. “I’m so stupid.” His cowboy boots clunked against the floor as he strode into the kitchen. “We’restupid. This isn’t some little game. This is a hundred-billion-dollar business thatyourun. That you’ve ran fortwo decades.”
He came back into the living room and knelt right in front of her. “No. You’re not giving that up.”
“It’s out of my hands,” she said. “I made my choice. I always knew Mother would follow through.”
“This is insane,” he said. “Are you even listening to yourself?” His eyes harbored a wild edge Ginny didn’t like. “I’m not worth giving anything up.”
Her heart started to pound, mostly because it sounded like he was going to break up with her. “Cayden, my brothers will give it back to me once Mother dies.”
“In what? Five years? Ten? Fifteen? She’s only seventy-seven, Ginny. She could live fortwentymore years. Then what? You’ll run a whiskey distillery, event center, and a dozen annual events whenyou’realmost seventy?”
He shook his head and straightened again. “No. No, no, no.” He paced away from her again, and Ginny got to her feet too.
“What are you saying?” she asked.
He stopped, his back to her. She watched those powerful, sexy shoulders lift as he drew in a breath. Pause as he held it. Lower and deflate as he released the air in his lungs. He turned back to her, his face a carefully arranged mask she could not see through.
“It’s not only your choice,” he said, his voice strong and steady. “I’m going to do what your mother asked me to.”
“Cayden,” she said, true fear pinching her lungs. “Don’t do that.”
“You’re not losing everything because of me. It’s idiotic. It’s not smart business.” He shook his head, the emotion sliding away as easily as if he’d shaken it off. “I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
“No,” she said, just as he had. “No, that’s not going to work for me.”
He simply looked at her, and Ginny found herself grasping for straws. “I have to come to the vow renewal. I’m in charge of all the cakes.”
“I can ask my mother—”
“No,” she said again, louder this time. “No. I’m going to do it. Beth ordered from Whiskey Cakes because it’s my brother’s company. I’m going to pick up those mini bundt cakes tomorrow night, and I’m going to make sure they’re beautiful for that vow renewal on Saturday.”
Cayden looked away, and Ginny wanted to rage at him. How could he give up on them, especially after what she’d said to him only five minutes ago?
How?
“If you’d like to break up with me, can you please have the decency to wait until Saturday, after the vow renewal?”
“I don’twantto break up with you.”
“Then don’t.”
“Some things are bigger than a relationship,” he said.
“No, they’re not,” she said. “You used the wrong word, Cay. It’s not a relationship. It’s love. Nothing is bigger than love. Sweet Rose is not more important than love.”
He dropped his chin to his chest, his cowboy hat coming between them. He stayed quiet for so long, Ginny was sure he’d changed his mind. He finally shook his head and said, “I can’t do it, Ginny. I’m sorry.”
He started for the front door, and shock had rooted Ginny’s feet to the floor and rendered her voice silent.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, and that got her to thaw.