What’s the matter, Opal?” Allen said as Opal came out of her room and reached for her coat.

She glanced at the clock and realized she needed to hurry. She wasn’t positive that Bernard would show up to watch the Olympics like they’d planned, but she was positive that she didn’t want to be there if he did.

She stood under the hot shower, hoping that it would wash away the words she’d heard him say up on the knoll. She’d thought he was just as excited as she was about the bears, and just as concerned that they be a family. How had she missed the fact that it had meant nothing to him?

All the nights he’d spent with her family—he’d even kissed her. How could she have been so completely and utterly wrong about a human being?

She shook her head and turned off the water, reaching for a towel. When she was done drying her hair and had gotten dressed, she realized that none of it had gotten the sadness she’d felt out of her heart.

She pulled on a sweater and some jeans, tugging on her cowboy boots last. She reached for her red jacket—maybe that would help her feel better—but when she looked in the mirror, all she could see was her puffy eyes from crying most of the afternoon. Between Bernard and the bears, it had been a marathon crying session, and her dad had peeked in her bedroom occasionally.

“You ready to talk?” she heard him say as she reached for her car keys.

She looked up into her father’s kind eyes, and just didn’t have the heart to burden him with any of this. He’d worked so hard to cope with her mother’s death—and this certainly didn’t compare—but she thought maybe it was better to go for a drive. Besides, she really didn’t have the time to talk to him if she was going to get out of there before Bernard came. If he came.

“I’m worried about you, honey. Don’t go. Besides, you’ll miss the Olympics.”

She smiled as best she could and squeezed his hand.

“I’m all right, Dad. Just had some bad news today. I’m going to head over to Olivia and Fred’s for the night. I haven’t seen them in a long time, and I wanted to catch up.”

Her father crossed his arms over his chest.

“Opal Hamilton, you saw them last night. What’s going on.”

“Oh,” Opal said. Her head was so fuzzy she couldn’t even make up a simple white lie. “Right. Well, I want to go over anyway. Don’t wait up for me. In fact, I might even spend the night.”

Her dad shook his head and kissed her cheek. She smiled sadly at him and headed for her car.

“Opal, can I talk to you?”

She’d just unlocked her car when she heard his voice behind her, and she stiffened.

Her instinct was to keep going, to drive away and never look back, but she just couldn’t. She cared very much for Bernard, and they’d shared so much together—and if he finally wanted to talk, she’d let him.

She turned slowly and leaned against the car.

“Yes?” she said as she squared her shoulders and waited to hear what he had to say.

“Opal, I—I didn’t mean that to come out the way it did earlier. I really didn’t. I...I think I meant...”

Yes?” she asked again. He hadn’t been able to talk about his family, or his feelings, since she’d met him and she understood that it might be difficult. But if he wanted to talk now, she knew she couldn’t do it for him. She couldn’t be in a relationship with someone—were they even in a relationship?—who couldn’t say how they felt, or be concerned about families.

She sighed when he said, “Can’t we just go back to the way it was? I’m sorry I said anything. My family just isn’t—well, not at all like yours.”

Opal couldn’t imagine what anyone could have done to him to make him so cold, so distant, and she decided to try one more time. Give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Bernard, why don’t you talk to your mother?”

“Aw, Opal, it’s complicated,” he said as he looked down at his boots and pulled his beanie further over his ears.

She waited for what seemed like eons for him to continue, and her hands tingled in the cold as she realized he wasn’t going to.

“Bernard, it’s pretty clear we don’t have the same values. I love my family, crazy as they are and you won’t even talk to your mother. Or even about her. I don’t know where to go with that.”

He cleared his throat and stepped closer to her, so close that the frost of their breath mingled.

“Opal, I can’t. I just can’t. You don’t know my family—my mother.”

“Bernard, all families are beautiful in some way. Sometimes they just don’t look like it.”

She looked up into his eyes, and saw the hurt there. She wanted so much for him to confide in her, to share that pain—but she couldn’t wait any longer. If he couldn’t find the strength to trust her after all they’d been through, then he never would. She knew that now.

“I’m sorry, Bernard. I can’t be with someone who doesn’t trust me enough to share about family. Family is everything,” she said, and it took all she had to get the words out of her mouth.

She stepped back and got in her car. As she turned over the ignition, she caught his eye and almost changed her mind.

But she didn’t. She headed out of the gates of the ranch toward her sister’s house, needing to get away and try to outrun her pain.

The entire drive, she did her absolute best to forget about Bernard’s set jaw and stony face as he said he was fine without a family, and she was fairly successful until she parked the car and opened the door to her sister’s house.

She made it one step inside before she fell into Olivia’s arms and the tears flowed again.