Page 84 of With This Ring

“It’s nice that you came to her shower,” she said. “Does that mean you’ve changed your opinion on the marriage?”

He glanced back toward the house, confirming none of the bridal shower guests were within earshot, and faced her again. “Honestly? No, I still think she’s too young and not ready for this.”

“Hold on, Hud.” She rested her sandals on the deck, stopping the glider. “That’s just an excuse. What’s the real reason you’re against the marriage?”

He shook his head and looked out toward the backyard. She didn’t want to hear the truth, or maybe he wasn’t ready to share it.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

He pressed his lips together. “She was a mess in high school.” His voice was low and close to her ear.

“What do you mean?”

“She got mixed up with the wrong crowd and was expelled for fighting.”

“Fighting?” Dakota cupped her hand to her mouth before angling herself closer to him. “I can’t even imagine that.”

He fiddled with a loose sliver of wood on the arm of the glider. “I couldn’t understand it. She was failing classes, skipping school, and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. I knew how gossip spread in this town, so Aunt Trudy and I kept it as private as we could. Only her school counselor knew the details of what was going on.”

“If I had known, I could have tried to help her.”

He gave her a look of disbelief. Why would his ex-fiancée help his sister?

“Hud, I adore Layla. When we were together, she was like the little sister I never had.”

He continued to watch her, warmed by her admission. Had she truly loved him and his family? If so, why had she done what she did?

She shifted away from him on the glider.

“Aunt Trudy was going out of her mind, and I was in New YorkCity,” he explained. As he spoke, all of the worry and helplessness he remembered crashed over him again. “I was brand-new at the company and had no personal time off to use, not to mention the money to travel home to help. So I did what I could from afar. We talked to the guidance counselor so often, I had her number memorized. We got Layla in with the school psychologist, which helped, and signed her up for summer school to make up the work she missed so she wouldn’t be held back.”

“That had to be horrible, Hud. I’m so sorry.”

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I’d never been so stressed out before, but we got her through it.”

“But she’s doing great now. I can tell she’s gotten her act together.”

Hudson’s brow wrinkled.

“What else am I missing, Hud?”

“I can’t trust her decisions.”

“Because of her past?”

He stared out toward the fence line, and when Dakota touched his bicep, he almost jumped.

“Hey,” she said. When he turned and met her gaze, he was struck by the softness in her eyes. “Learn to trust her to make her own decisions, Hud. She’s not a little girl anymore.”

“She’ll always be little to me.”

“I know how much you care about her. I really do. But she’s a young woman now. What’s the real reason you don’t want her to get married? You’re still making excuses. What’s thetruth, Hud?”

“The truth is that this marriage is a mistake, Dakota.” He pointed toward the flowerbeds. “Sure, Shane is talented, but he needs to work harder and start making some real money.”

“Is money all you care about?” She clucked her tongue. “If so, you’re not the same man I fell in love with in high school. You’re different now.”

Her words felt like a spike to his heart, and he shielded his hurt with a scoff. “Is that what you think?”Is that why you dumped me?