Western Romance: A Sweet Cowboy Romance (Cowboys of Aspen Valley Book 3) by Carolyne Aarsen

Author:Carolyne Aarsen [Aarsen, Carolyne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Misty Ridge Publishing
Published: 2022-03-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

As Heather noted John’s shocked expression, her mind raced.

Should she have told him? Should she have kept her feelings to herself, when she knew she would be leaving?

But at the same time, she felt as if a load she’d been carrying too long was finally lifted from her shoulders. The past few days she had spent with him reminded her how much she respected John and how dearly she wanted his forgiveness for the mistakes she had made in her life. She wanted to clear things up between them and remove the shadows on their friendship before she moved on.

Is that the only reason? Could it also have something to do with that photo of you he still has?

She pushed the question away even as her heartbeat quickened. Under John’s scrutiny, she felt as if the ground beneath her had shifted, setting her on another path.

“So why did you?” he asked. “Why did you break up with me? Was it because of our fight?”

She had started this, Heather reminded herself. She had to finish it.

She folded her hands in her lap and gathered her thoughts. “You need to know where I was at, how I was feeling. I’m not trying to excuse my behavior, but explain it to you.”

His silence was unnerving but she forced herself to continue.

“I had just gotten my midterm grades for my second year,” she said, “And I had failed. Badly. I was so depressed. I knew I wasn’t going to pass, which meant I would never be a teacher. I felt useless. Through my parents, I had heard about Samantha. How well she was doing and that she was graduating top of her class. That made me feel even more ashamed. Then out of the blue Mitch called me up. There was a career fair that weekend at the college and Mitch said he would be there representing the modeling agency he was interning for. He encouraged me to check it out. So I did. The guy he was with told me that I could have a great career as a model. I didn’t tell you at the time, but Mitch and he flew me to New York to meet with the guy’s boss the following week. He was excited. Said I could have a stellar career.” She released a harsh laugh. “After not feeling stellar at anything, it was balm to my bruised ego. I felt like modeling was something that I could do. Something I might finally be good at.”

“And that’s when you signed on with him.”

“And that’s when you and I had our big fight.”

John sighed, pushing his hand through his hair as if he still remembered the awful words they had thrown at each other.

“I’m sorry—”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t be. You were right. I should have figured out a way around my problem instead of listening to Mitch. Trouble was, what he offered seemed so much easier than studying harder and asking for extra help, like you suggested. I was afraid if I did what you said, I would fail even more, and I couldn’t face that.

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