Blame it on Texas Read Free

as quickly as possible, but she would love to see her two long-ago friends finally find happiness.
    “Swing by my office tomorrow afternoon.” He handed her a business card. “Say about three?”
    Shelby nodded reluctantly. What choice did she have? She’d book the hotel room for one more night. One more day in Texas was worth the freedom at the end.
    “And you—” Craig pointed to Ritt. “I’ll see you at two at Harris’s.”
     
     
    Ritt hated the mall. But he had promised Craig, and he kept his promises. Unlike some people he knew.
    Visions of long, tanned legs flitted through his mind, and he pushed them away. After all these years, Shelby wanted a divorce.
    He strolled into the bridal shop and tried not to itch. These places gave him the creeps.
    Long white dresses that looked like they were made from moonbeams and stars. They were nothing but expectations, and unrealistic ones at that. Look at him and Shel. They should have made it, but too many things had been stacked against them.
    He walked to the counter and gave the black-clad attendant his name. In minutes he was in a dressing room, trying on his best man’s tux.
    God, he hated these things. Why couldn’t people just get married? Why did it have to include all the hype and drama? It only made it hurt all the more when it ended.
    He shook away the negative thought. Craig and Delilah would make it. They were older now. They had gotten their problems out of the way. The big ones anyway. School, family. Delilah had even married someone else; though Ritt thought she only did it to get back at Craig for focusing on his education instead of her. He pulled a face. Women.
    Ritt stepped from the dressing room and headed for the three-way mirrors with the small risers in front.
    Craig was already there.
    “You clean up nice, bait man.”
    Ritt shot him a look. “Let’s get this over with.”
    The seamstresses bustled around, making marks here and there to fit the tux. Jacket shoulders, arm lengths, hems. Ritt stood as patiently as possible when he really wanted to run and duck for cover. Seeing Shelby again had been like a knife to the heart. Everything he had wanted, everything he hadn’t gotten in his life all rolled up into one.
    “So Shelby’s back.”
    Ritt snorted. “For a day.”
    “She said she’d come to the wedding.”
    Ritt shrugged.
    The seamstress frowned and pulled on the shoulders of his jacket.
    “Sorry,” Ritt murmured.
    “You know you don’t have to make this so difficult.” Craig’s voice was patient and understanding. But how could he know what Ritt was feeling?
    “Why should I make this easy on her?”
    “Well, you love her for one.”
    Ritt stifled a snort. “That was a long time ago, buddy.”
    “Then let her go. She’s made good for herself, you know.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Facebook.”
    “That’s just what she needs.” Respectability. That was the one thing that Shelby cared most about. With a mother like hers, who could blame her?
    “She owns a bakery. Cupcakes and designer cakes. That kind of thing.”
    “Shelby?” he scoffed. “Shelby Patterson?”
    “Shelby McCoy,” Craig corrected.
    Ritt shook his head. “Shelby can’t cook.”
    “Evidently she learned.”
    “You know this how?”
    “Google. You really got to get out more.”
    “So that’s how you spent the afternoon, Googling my wife?”
    Craig made a face. “That sounds dirty, but yeah… And looking over the papers.”
    “You told her that you couldn’t get to them till tomorrow.”
    “You know I’m going to have to draw up new ones.”
    Ritt nodded. “I suppose.”
    The seamstress tugged on his hem one last time. “All done, sir.”
    Ritt turned to look at himself in the mirror. Monkey suit. Pomp and circumstance. All this wedding jive. Yet he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d done all this for Shelby if maybe she would have stayed.
    No, the voice inside him whispered. They were doomed from the beginning. An unplanned