Third Time Lucky. Allison Leigh

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      Meredith handed her a tissue and Charlene pressed it against the tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.

      “Why did you say no when he asked you to marry him?” Felicity sounded more curious than sympathetic. “You’re obviously miserable.”

      She was miserable. But she also wished the town of Red Rock didn’t have such an active grapevine. The only one she’d told about Dane’s proposal had been—strangely enough—Emily Fortune. Now the whole town seemed to know, though she had a hard time believing that the cultured Emily would have gossiped. Not when she’d clearly loathed people gossiping about her.

      Charlene knew Dane wouldn’t have talked, either. But that was Red Rock. Talk always got around.

      Charlene crumpled the tissue in her fist and got up. “Because that’s what smart, capable women do when they’re entirely incompatible with someone.”

      At least, that’s what she told herself every night when she went to bed alone.

      “Incompatible shmatible,” Meredith tsked. “The man is rockin’ hot.”

      Privately, Charlene agreed on that particular point. “Did you bring the chocolates?” she asked Felicity.

      The young woman nodded and pulled several pretty aqua boxes out of the shopping bag by her side. “As promised.”

      Charlene flipped open one of the boxes. Nestled inside was an assortment of Felicity’s beautiful handmade confections. She’d bartered the large order in exchange for the expensive sweater Felicity had picked out a few weeks ago for her roommate.

      Even though the chocolates were intended for the boutique’s clients during the holiday season, Charlene pulled out a truffle and shoved it into her mouth.

      The dark chocolate melted on her tongue. Music didn’t soothe the savage beast. Felicity’s chocolates did…though not even they could fill the hollowness inside Charlene.

      “It’s too late, anyway. I told him we were too different,” she said huskily.

      Rather than let the others see the tears still burning her eyes, she turned to fiddle with the sparkling costume jewelry hanging like icicles from the white Christmas tree.

      “I was raised on a ranch and I hated it,” she said suddenly. “I’m allergic to hay and I cried whenever it was time to work the cattle.” When she’d been little, Dane had always teased her for being such a baby; he’d called her prissy for liking her ruffles and frills.

      As an adult, though, he hadn’t seemed so averse to her affinity for all things feminine—particularly the frilly things that slid off her body before they made love.

      She ruthlessly pushed aside the memories and pulled a necklace from the tree, turning to face the two women again. “To this day, my mother goes out and works alongside my dad, just as hard as he does, and when she’s done she still puts a supper on the table every night that would make Martha Stewart proud. Dane’s mother is exactly the same. He expects a wife like them.” The bangles around her wrist jangled softly as she held the necklace to her neck. Light from the front windows glinted off the oversize crystals. “Not someone like me.”

       Chapter Five

      “Oh, Charlene. If Dane didn’t want someone like you as his wife, why’d he propose to you?” When she didn’t answer, Felicity patted the blue sweater before setting it inside her bag. “I’m going to give this sweater to Sarah-Jane and I’ll bet you a year’s supply of truffles that she’ll think it’s too bright and fancy for her.” Her gaze travelled between Charlene and Meredith. “And we all know she’s going to look fabulous in it. Right?”

      “Definitely.” Charlene had helped Felicity select the sweater because the surplice cut would set off her roommate’s curvaceous figure beautifully.

      Felicity shrugged. “Maybe you’re just as wrong about Dane as Sarah-Jane is about herself.”

      Meredith’s head bobbed in agreement.

      “I turned him down,” Charlene reminded. “I know him. I know his pride. He won’t ask again.” When she’d returned from California and started up her boutique in Red Rock, it had been a whole year before Dane had given her so much as the time of day, despite the long-standing friendship between their families.

      And it’d been another three months after that before he’d asked her out.

      They’d driven to San Antonio. And hadn’t come home for two days.

      She hadn’t expected being with him to be so wondrous. But it had been.

      Nor had she expected anything serious to develop. But it had. By summer, he’d proposed. And she’d panicked.

      “And I don’t want him to ask me again,” she pre-empted before they could question her about it. “Our friends have been families since my mother and his were schoolgirls together. Better to have a romance that went nowhere than a divorce that tears everyone apart. Turning him down was the right thing to do. We never could have made a marriage work. It was better to say no.”

      Felicity looked unconvinced. “I can’t get a man to even think of me and marriage in the same sentence. Dane Dalton has wanted to marry you for more ‘n a decade. For a romance going nowhere, that’s a long time. What if it did work between you?”

      “I can’t let myself wonder things like that,” Charlene returned, as much for herself as for them. She was already going crazy second-guessing herself.

      Unfortunately, the two younger women weren’t so quick to agree. “But what if you’re wrong,” Meredith persisted. Her eyes were practically starry. “What if you and Dane are fated to be together? Felicity’s right. He’s wanted to marry you for all these years! Don’t you think that’s romantic?”

      Charlene pinched the bridge of her nose, willing away the pain there. But the headache from her unshed tears was nothing compared to the ache she’d been carrying for months now. She dropped her hand, reaching for another truffle. “Dane’s all about tradition. The only reason he asked me to marry him the first time was so he’d have a clear conscience when he got me into bed with him.” Something that ironically hadn’t occurred until nine months ago. When Charlene had quickly realized that nothing she’d felt with any other man compared to the feelings Dane roused in her.

      “Back then, he wanted me barefoot and pregnant and stuck in Red Rock for the rest of my life,” she finished abruptly, trying not to dwell on how badly she still missed him now. “He even joked about it.”

      Meredith’s mouth rounded. “Stuck? I love

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