He wanted space to think. And he didn’t need to be around his family, inflicting his bad mood on them. What was wrong with Hannah? She said she liked the ranch. She had no reason to lie, so it must be true. Yet she refused to do the sensible thing and move here. His stomach knotted and twisted and turned sour as he thought of her remaining in town. Unless she could be persuaded to visit again, he’d have to go to town to see her, and how often could he do that? Not often enough to satisfy the emptiness inside him at the thought of not seeing her for weeks on end. He guessed every day wouldn’t be enough. Something about that gal got under his skin and refused to let go. In a way he sort of liked. No, the idea of seeing her at most once a week, knowing she was in town trying to fix and run that hotel on her own, just sliced along his nerves like a sliver under his fingernail. The hotel was the cause of this trouble between them.
