Return to Promise: A Best Selling Western Holiday Romance by Debbie Macomber

Author:Debbie Macomber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Western, General, Small Town & Rural
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2017-11-13T05:10:42+00:00

Chapter Six

Cal couldn’t believe this was happening. Okay, so his wife had reason to be upset. He probably should’ve mentioned that Nicole Nelson had brought him a meal. The only reason he hadn’t was that he was hoping to avoid yet another argument. He knew how much their disagreements distressed her, and she’d been through so much lately. He’d just been trying to protect her!

Without a word to him, Jane had gone to bed. Cal gave her a few minutes to cool down before he ventured into the bedroom. The lights were off, but he knew she wasn’t asleep.

“Honey,” he said, and sat on the edge of the bed. Jane had her back to him and was so far over on her side of the bed it was a wonder she hadn’t tumbled out. “Can we talk about this?” he asked, willing to take his punishment, and be done with it.

“No.”

“You’re right, I should’ve told you Nicole came to the ranch, but I swear she wasn’t here more than fifteen minutes. If that. She dropped off the casserole and that was it.”

Jane flopped over onto her back. “Are you sure, or is there something else you’re conveniently forgetting to mention?”

Cal could live without the sarcasm, but let it drop. “I thought we’d decided to put this behind us.” He could always hope tonight’s installment of their ongoing argument would be quickly settled. The constant tension between them had worn his patience thin.

Jane suddenly bolted upright in bed. She reached for the lamp beside her bed and flipped the switch, casting a warm light about the room. “You have a very bad habit of keeping things from me.”

That was unfair! Cal thought. He took a deep calming breath before responding. “It’s true I didn’t tell you Nicole fixed me dinner, but—”

“You didn’t so much as mention her name!”

“Okay…but when was I supposed to do that? You were in California, remember?”

“We talked on the phone nearly every night,” Jane said, crossing her arms. “Now that I think about it, you kept the conversations short and sweet, didn’t you? Was there a reason for that?”

Again, Cal resented the implication, but again he swallowed his annoyance and said, “You know I’m not much of a conversationalist.” Chatting on the phone had always felt awkward to him. Jane knew that.

“What else haven’t you told me about you and Nicole Nelson? How many other times have you two met without my knowing? When she brought you dinner, did she make a point of joining you? Did you accidentally bump into each other in town a couple of times?”

“No,” he answered from between gritted teeth.

“You’re sure?”

“Dammit, Jane, you make it sound like I’m having an affair with her! I’ve done nothing wrong, not a damn thing!”

“Tell me why I should believe you, seeing how you habitually conceal things from me.”

“You think I purposely hid the truth?” Their marriage was in sad shape if she made such assumptions. Jane was his partner in life; he’d shared every aspect of his business, his home and his ranch with her, fathered two children with her.

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