Page 57 of Hometown Cowboy
“She’s okay. Healthy enough apart from the dementia.”
“It’s getting worse?” he asked quietly.
Belle bit her lip and nodded.
“I’m sorry, kid.”
She shrugged awkwardly. “Don’t be. It’s one of those things, you know?”
He nodded and glanced out at the lake. “What about your studies? You still doing that sommelier stuff?”
His subject change had the desired effect. Her face brightened. “How on earth did you remember that?”
Ryan shifted the boxes in his arms and followed her around the corner to the council car park.
“Oh, come on! Surely you haven’t forgotten the conversation you, me and Dante had that night at The Cow? I’ve only lost that six months, not my entire life,” he joked.
She laughed and placed her boxes on the bonnet of her old Corolla hatchback. “Of course not. Epic conversation, and the wine wasn’t too bad either.” She winked. Her father’s vineyard supplied wine to Max on a weekly basis. “Wasn’t that the night Emma turned up with Darby for the first time?”
Ryan waited until she popped the hatch and placed his boxes inside. “You know what? I believe it was.”
The night his best friend had fallen head over heels for the new girl in town. He’d set up that ridiculous bet, which to be honest was only for a bit of a lark and luckily Emma also saw it for what it was; and the one man who wasn’t in on it ended up married to her.
Belle placed her boxes next to the ones he’d set down.
“How is Dante? I haven’t seen him in a while,” he asked.
“Yeah, good. He recently did a course in Sydney at the Wine Academy.”
Ryan grinned and tried to hide it behind his hand, turning it into a jaw-rub. Belle and Dante had been thick as thieves since they could walk, their mothers having been best friends most of their lives, living across the road at rival vineyards. You hardly ever saw one without the other.
What he was pretty sure Belledidn’tsee was the way Dante looked at her when she wasn’t paying attention.
It was a familiar expression, one he’d felt on his own face over the years when looking at Darby.
He could sympathise with Dante. Taking that step from friends to lovers would either enhance, or completely break their friendship. If indeed Belle was receptive—and he thought perhaps she was more than a bit interested—Dante would have to kick his butt into gear, or he could find himself left behind.
Ryan almost laughed out loud. If only he could apply some of that so-called wisdom to his own situation, he’d be set.
“Well, say hi for me, will you?”
Belle nodded. “Will do. You take care of yourself, you hear?”
“Always.” He closed her hatch and patted the metal. “Catch you later.”
Belle hopped into her car and he turned to find his own, parked not far away. He slid in and leaned his head against the rest.
Movement to his left caught his attention. Darby appeared from behind the back door of the bakery, garbage bag in hand. He watched while she tossed it into the skip bin. Pressure in his chest had him rubbing it to make it go away.
Darby glanced up and her gaze caught his. A smile flickered at the edges of her mouth. She straightened. Ryan raised some fingers from his hand’s position on the steering wheel.
Darby nodded and turned, disappearing into the shop.
“Dammit.” He sighed and closed his eyes.
He’d never thought there’d come a day they’d be in such an estranged situation.
He’d never thought he’d be in a position to get her pregnant, either.