Burned in Broken Hearts Junction: A Cozy Matchmaker Mystery (Cozy Matchmaker Mystery Series) by Meg Muldoon
Authors: Meg Muldoon
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before we drove his old Chevy all the way to Austin. For more than a decade, he’d tried his hand at the local music scene while I tended bar and soaked up some of the best live music in the world.
But after a while of living there, we both decided to move back to Broken Hearts Junction. Lawrence had his stroke, and then Jacob’s father died shortly after of cancer, and Jacob felt the need to come back home.
And frankly, I’d been a little homesick myself. Tired of city life, missing my juniper canyons and the cottonwood groves. Of the peace and solitude of my home’s landscape.
But there was also another reason we moved back to Broken Hearts Junction.
We had wanted to start a family.
Jacob and I never got married. He had always said he didn’t believe in marriage. And that if two people loved each other the way we did, then they should be together, and that the state approving that didn’t mean a damn thing.
I used to agree with him. But these days, I wasn’t so sure.
The family thing didn’t work out, obviously. He left before we got around to it.
Things had become rocky between us before he took off. He’d stopped looking for a job, and my meager wages at The Stupid Cupid Saloon were barely keeping the two of us afloat. We had a lot of fights about money.
Maybe I expected too much from him. Maybe I drove him away.
One day he came back from seeing Lawrence, and he was fuming. I never knew the reason for it, and we got into a fight when I asked him what was wrong.
The next morning, I woke up to a note on the kitchen counter, and an empty driveway. He was going back to Austin to go find a job, the note said. He said we’d be together again soon, but that a man had to work, and that he would come back to Broken Hearts Junction when the economy got better here.
But it didn’t take long for me to realize that he was lying: the bad job market was just an excuse.
He hadn’t gone back to Austin so much to make a living as he did to get away from me.
Jacob had left me. That’s what his note said between the lines. He was moving away to make his life somewhere else.
Without me in it.
But despite all that, despite him giving up on us, I still believed.
Being the helpless, hopeless fool that I was, I still believed that he was my soulmate.
And despite all the signs pointing to the contrary, I still believed that he would find his way back home. One of these days, he’d show up on the porch with a bouquet of roses and a bottle of wine and an apology.
And he’d never leave me again.
All I had to do was wait him out.
Hank, who had been lying next to me by the fire, rolled over on his back and growled. I gave in to his demands and started rubbing his soft belly.
Jacob had given me Hank for Valentine’s Day a few weeks before he left. And looking back on it, I think he must have known what he was going to do. He must have been planning on leaving me for weeks, maybe months. Hank had been a parting gift.
But that was three years ago, and this was now. And despite him not asking about me or Lawrence, I took some solace in what he had said about coming back home for a visit. Maybe he was having a change of heart. Maybe he was beginning to see that we were meant for each other.
Maybe things weren’t as dire as they seemed after—
I jumped as there was a knock at the door. Hank rolled over and got to his feet, scrambling against the hardwood and running for the door, barking and howling.
A sense of dread pulled at my chest as I considered whether or not to open it.
Most likely, it was Lyle on the other side, coming around to collect rent money that I didn’t have before scolding me and walking off down the steps in a huff.
“Shoot,” I muttered.
Lyle would know that I was home, what with my car sitting out in front and smoke coming from the chimney.
I was just going to have to buck up and deal with him. I rolled up off the floor and opened the door, preparing for the worst.
Finding out
But after a while of living there, we both decided to move back to Broken Hearts Junction. Lawrence had his stroke, and then Jacob’s father died shortly after of cancer, and Jacob felt the need to come back home.
And frankly, I’d been a little homesick myself. Tired of city life, missing my juniper canyons and the cottonwood groves. Of the peace and solitude of my home’s landscape.
But there was also another reason we moved back to Broken Hearts Junction.
We had wanted to start a family.
Jacob and I never got married. He had always said he didn’t believe in marriage. And that if two people loved each other the way we did, then they should be together, and that the state approving that didn’t mean a damn thing.
I used to agree with him. But these days, I wasn’t so sure.
The family thing didn’t work out, obviously. He left before we got around to it.
Things had become rocky between us before he took off. He’d stopped looking for a job, and my meager wages at The Stupid Cupid Saloon were barely keeping the two of us afloat. We had a lot of fights about money.
Maybe I expected too much from him. Maybe I drove him away.
One day he came back from seeing Lawrence, and he was fuming. I never knew the reason for it, and we got into a fight when I asked him what was wrong.
The next morning, I woke up to a note on the kitchen counter, and an empty driveway. He was going back to Austin to go find a job, the note said. He said we’d be together again soon, but that a man had to work, and that he would come back to Broken Hearts Junction when the economy got better here.
But it didn’t take long for me to realize that he was lying: the bad job market was just an excuse.
He hadn’t gone back to Austin so much to make a living as he did to get away from me.
Jacob had left me. That’s what his note said between the lines. He was moving away to make his life somewhere else.
Without me in it.
But despite all that, despite him giving up on us, I still believed.
Being the helpless, hopeless fool that I was, I still believed that he was my soulmate.
And despite all the signs pointing to the contrary, I still believed that he would find his way back home. One of these days, he’d show up on the porch with a bouquet of roses and a bottle of wine and an apology.
And he’d never leave me again.
All I had to do was wait him out.
Hank, who had been lying next to me by the fire, rolled over on his back and growled. I gave in to his demands and started rubbing his soft belly.
Jacob had given me Hank for Valentine’s Day a few weeks before he left. And looking back on it, I think he must have known what he was going to do. He must have been planning on leaving me for weeks, maybe months. Hank had been a parting gift.
But that was three years ago, and this was now. And despite him not asking about me or Lawrence, I took some solace in what he had said about coming back home for a visit. Maybe he was having a change of heart. Maybe he was beginning to see that we were meant for each other.
Maybe things weren’t as dire as they seemed after—
I jumped as there was a knock at the door. Hank rolled over and got to his feet, scrambling against the hardwood and running for the door, barking and howling.
A sense of dread pulled at my chest as I considered whether or not to open it.
Most likely, it was Lyle on the other side, coming around to collect rent money that I didn’t have before scolding me and walking off down the steps in a huff.
“Shoot,” I muttered.
Lyle would know that I was home, what with my car sitting out in front and smoke coming from the chimney.
I was just going to have to buck up and deal with him. I rolled up off the floor and opened the door, preparing for the worst.
Finding out
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