The Cowboy's Gamble: Destined For Love Series

by Denison, Janelle

  Mac ate half of his barbeque chicken before finally breaking the silence with his personal opinion on the matter. “I’m guessing your problem is with Josie.”

  Seth forced himself to take a bite of greasy bologna and processed cheese. “That woman is nothing but a thorn in my side.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “No.” What he wanted was Mac’s lunch. “She’s stubborn, mule-headed, and I’m just about at my wits end with her. She blows everything I say out of proportion, puts words in my mouth, and generally hates my guts and is making my life miserable. Maybe I ought to just give her the divorce she wants.” He tossed his half-eaten sandwich onto his knapsack in disgust. So much for not wanting to talk about his problems with Josie.

  “You’d give up that easily?” Mac asked neutrally.

  “It’s what she wants.” Grabbing his can of juice, he popped the top and chugged the warm liquid in one drink.

  “You sure about that?”

  Seth caught the delicious scent of homemade potato salad and his stomach growled demandingly. “She’d be the first in line to wave good-bye as I head out the driveway.”

  Mac’s easy grin reached his eyes. “She’d miss you.”

  Seth’s answer was a disbelieving snort. Bracing his back against the tree trunk, he lowered his Stetson over his eyes, dismissing the foreman, and their discussion, with the promise of a quick nap.

  “You obviously don’t see the way the girl looks at you.” Mac rudely ignored his attempts to rest peacefully. “She’s heartsick over you.”

  “You’re crazy, old man,” he muttered. If Josie was heartsick, then she had a helluva way of showing it with her brash, I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude.

  “All this sun does tend to take its toll,” Mac agreed about the possibility of being mentally unbalanced. “But I’ve known Josie her entire life, and there’s only one other time when she’s looked the way she does now.”

  “Please, enlighten me,” he drawled wryly from beneath the brim of his hat. “And tell me when that was.”

  “When the two of you broke things off the first time all those years ago.”

  Everything within Seth tensed. Slowly, he tipped his hat back and narrowed his gaze on Mac. The man knew entirely too much for his own good. “What happened eleven years ago is different from now.”

  He frowned, as if the contrasts eluded him. “You had a fight, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.” Frustration steamed in Seth when he recalled his argument with Josie. A wave of anger prompted him to blurt out, “She’s holding things against me that I have no control over!”

  Mac savored a succulent slice of peach before asking, “Such as?”

  “Rumors,” Seth said, summing up the situation with the word Josie had used repeatedly. “About her.”

  “Ahh,” Mac said, as if he had a total comprehension of the situation.

  Thing was, Seth had the strange feeling that the wily old man did understand.

  Silenced passed as Mac leisurely ate a juicy wedge of watermelon. Stomach growling more fiercely than before, Seth rummaged through his knapsack for his own fruit and bit a chunk from his apple. It was dry in comparison to Mac’s fresh selection of fruit.

  “You know, I never was one to believe rumors,” Mac said, finally breaking the quiet spell between them.

  “I heard the facts with my own ears.” He’d told Josie the same thing, but that detail hadn’t seemed to matter to her.

  “What kind of facts?”

  Seth chose his words carefully, not wanting to be crude, or offend Mac. “That Josie was, well, promiscuous, and I was just an added fling. A father to claim for her unborn child.”

  A thoughtful look flickered across Mac’s weathered face as he finished off his fruit. He packed away the remains of his lunch, stretched out on his side on the soft grass, and regarded Seth curiously. “Every wonder who might be at the source of such nastiness?”

  Seth’s brows snapped together. “What do you mean?”

  Mac slowly shook his head. “For someone who is so smart, you sure don’t know much about women.”

  Feeling appropriately insulted, Seth clenched his jaw in indignation. “Get to your point, old man, and fast.”

  “First, no matter what you believe, I’ve never known Josie to be . . . what’s that big word again?”

  “Promiscuous,” he supplied, his patience quickly dwindling.

  “Yeah, that,” Mac said, waving his hand between them as if he had no use for such fancy phrases. “Don’t you think behavior like that would continue? We both know women who like to cat around, and they’ve always been that way. It’s a part of who they are. Don’t you think it’s a tad odd that Josie didn’t become a loose woman over the years?”

  Unexpectedly, Seth’s stomach clenched. He’d never analyzed the situation quite that way, but then anger, and a tremendous blow to his pride, had driven him eleven years ago. Now, he was able to see the situation as a rational, twenty-nine year old man, and not the hot-headed eighteen year old boy he’d been.

  “Yeah, I guess I see your point,” Seth admitted, though he still felt as if something was missing from the equation. Something just beyond his grasp, but there nonetheless.

  Plucking a long blade of grass, Mac chewed on the end. “So, who would have the most to gain by starting the rumors?”

  They were back to rumors again. Sighing, he brought up his jean-clad knee, draped a wrist across the top, and straightened his other leg. “They weren’t exactly rumors,” he tried to explain. “I overheard guys I knew in school bragging about Josie. Isn’t that pretty much hearing it from the horse’s mouth?”

  Mac shrugged. “Depends on whether or not the horse had been paid to neigh certain things that might hurt one person, and anger another.”

  Adrenaline picked up Seth’s pulse as he thought about the possibility of such a scheme. And then he shook off the notion. “This is crazy,” he said, unable to believe someone could be that desperate. “Who would want to hurt Josie that badly that they’d pay to damage her reputation . . .”

  Seth’s blood gelled as the past rushed in on him, important bits and pieces that forced him to re-evaluate what had happened a lifetime ago.

  His brother, Robert, had been the first to learn of Josie’s pregnancy. Instead of the support he’d expected, Seth had been dealt a staggering shock.

  How do you know it’s your baby? His brother had asked him. Considering she’s slept with half the senior class, there’s no telling whose brat it is.

  Then the allegations had started. Rumors he’d believed. Rumors that had made Seth vindictive and blind to the truth. Rumors that had made sure he had nothing to do with a McAllister.

  There was only one person he knew who hated Josie McAllister enough to destroy the love he and Josie had once shared.

  Robert.

  White hot fury ripped through him, and he jumped to his feet and jabbed an accusatory finger at Mac. “You’ve known all along!”

  “I’ve suspected,” Mac said with a casual lift of his shoulders. “Josie just isn’t the kind of girl to be . . . whatever that fancy word is. She never has been and never will be.”

  It was that simple . . . and still so complicated. Good God, how many years had he believed the worst, hating Josie for an offense she’d never committed? The same amount of years she’d lived with the pain of his rejection and complete loathing.

  The same amount of years she’d raised a daughter that was also his.

  He felt physically ill. Was it no wonder she despised him?

  He strode toward his horse, determination and rage fueling him.

  “Where you off to, boss?” Mac asked easily, as if he hadn’t just turned his entire world upside down.

  Seth swung up into the saddle in one lithe movement and reached for Lexi’s reins. As much as his instincts urged him to race home to talk to Josie and look at Kellie and see her as his own daughter for the first time, he had to rid himself of the awful anger and
bitterness welling inside him before he could reconcile with his new family.

  Meeting Mac’s gaze, he gave him a slight nod, silently thanking him for his wisdom and intervention. “Seems to me I’ve got a score to settle with my brother.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Seth barged into Robert’s office on the Paradise Wild without knocking. His brother glanced up, startled at the intrusion, but Seth didn’t give him a chance to speak.

  Bracing his hands on the desk that separated them, Seth leaned across the surface, looked his brother straight in the eye, and said in a venomously low voice, “Depending how generous I feel after I hear a few things from you, I might let you live.”

  Robert quickly recovered his composure, covering up his stunned expression with a smirk. “Married life certainly doesn’t agree with you. Is your wife not as accommodating as you’d hoped she’d be?”

  Rage gripped him, and he struggled to keep his temper from exploding. “If you ever say another derogatory thing about my wife, it’ll be your last.” His tone was chilling and dangerous.

  Robert met his stare defiantly, but thought better of further provoking him. “So, then, what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

  “I want some straight answers from you.”

  “About what?”

  “About Josie, and the guys she’d supposedly slept with.”

  Trepidation flashed in Robert’s eyes, then he shrugged in casual disregard. “What would I know about that?”

  Seth resisted the savage urge to reach across the desk, grab Robert by the collar, and shake the truth from him. “Think back and try real hard to remember who you bribed to spread those malicious rumors.”

  His brother began shuffling papers on his desk, giving the task more attention than it warranted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you do.” Seth straightened, every muscle in his body coiled tight. “You paid a handful of guys in my senior class to brag about being with Josie so I’d hear them, believe the lies. . .”

  “What you’re suggesting is ridiculous,” he scoffed, a nervous tremor in his voice.

  “Are you, or are you not, the source of those rumors?” Seth asked with deadly calm.

  Robert glanced up, his lips thinning. And then, as if realizing he was backed into a tight corner, he scrambled for a way to fight his way out. “Josie was just using you, and you were too blind to see that!”

  It wasn’t the confession Seth was looking for. “It’s a simple question, brother. Yes, or no?”

  “She was going to trap you into marriage!” Robert blurted, his voice tinged with desperation.

  “Answer me!” Seth bellowed, slamming his fisted hand down on the desk.

  Robert abruptly stood, sending his chair crashing into the wall behind him. “Yes!” The blatant answer seemed to surprise Robert, but once it was out, he jutted his chin out belligerently. “I did it! And it accomplished exactly what it needed to.”

  A muscle in Seth’s jaw ticked. “Which was?”

  “It was the only way to protect you from that tra . . . from her! McAllisters don’t know anything but how to lie, cheat, and steal! And they always have ulterior motives! If you would have married her, she would have tried to get her hands on our land.”

  Seth couldn’t believe his brother could think such a thing of Josie. She was one of the most honest, hardworking women he knew. “So, you took it upon yourself to destroy Josie’s reputation and make us hate one another?” Seth slowly started around the desk toward his brother until he was towering over him.

  Robert stood his ground. “It worked.”

  “I lost ten years with my daughter!” he roared, the anguish of that statement seemingly ripping from his soul. “Ten years that I can never get back! You have kids of your own. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  “She’s a McAllister,” he spat.

  “She’s got O’Connor blood running through her veins,” Seth said through gritted teeth. “My blood!”

  Robert said nothing, just glared.

  Seth shook his head in disgust. “God, you’re just as spiteful as our father was.” Deciding he’d had enough, Seth turned to go.

  “At least I’m not a traitor,” Robert sneered.

  The slight was more than Seth could take, and everything he’d endured over the past eleven years came to a boiling head. Robert’s betrayal. His father’s bitterness that had cost him half of the Paradise Wild. Losing Josie and missing the chance to know the beautiful, sweet girl who was his daughter.

  Whirling back around, he fisted his hands into Robert’s shirt and slammed him into the wall hard enough to hear his teeth rattle. Robert’s stunned expression quickly evaporated as survival instincts kicked in. Robert threw the first punch, clipping Seth along the jaw. That was the only invitation Seth needed to reciprocate.

  They hadn’t fought with their fists since they were teenagers, but the battle was long overdue. They both took their anger and years of accumulated bitterness out on the other. Fists flew, connecting with bone and muscle. Grunts of fury and pain filled the office, along with vicious curses and an occasional taunt.

  Papers on the desk scattered as a hand reached out to break a fall. A filing cabinet toppled over from the strength of a male body rushing it. Pictures on the wall crashed to the floor, and furniture was overturned. And then they were on the ground, rolling around and throwing punches as the opportunity presented itself. Though Seth was larger, Robert was a worthy opponent and managed his share of damage.

  “Stop!” a hysterical voice screamed from behind them. “You’re going to kill each other!”

  Seth recognized the voice as belonging to his sister-in-law. “I’m working on it!” he said in between panting breaths, then grunted as Robert took advantage of the distraction and planted his fist into his belly, bringing him to his knees.

  With a low growl, Seth lunged, tackling Robert. Robert groaned as he cracked his head against the floor, then blinked as if seeing stars. Seth came up on his knees and leaned over Robert just as a merciless smile curled his brother’s lip and he threw a punch, albeit a weak one, that connected with the corner of Seth’s eye.

  Ignoring the burning pain, Seth pounced on Robert as he struggled to stand up, and just when he would have returned the black eye, they were both doused with cold water. Sucking in a breath at the unexpected shower, they jumped apart. Seth scowled at the woman responsible for the diversion.

  Sarah stood feet away from them, an empty metal bucket in her hand, her expression furious. “Sorry to ruin your fun, boys, but that is enough!” Her strict gaze encompassed them both. “What do you two think you’re doing?”

  “Having it out?” Seth offered as water dripped off his nose and chin.

  She didn’t find his attempt at levity the least bit humorous. “You’re acting like hormonal teenagers! You guys are all the family you have left. This has to stop!”

  Seth and Robert glared at one another, each expecting an apology from the other. The silence grew thick.

  Finally, Seth turned toward Sarah. “Nothing I say or do will get through to him. He’s intent on hating me for marrying Josie, and he’s punishing Josie for a seventy-five year old feud that she’s not responsible for.” Swiping at the cut on his bottom lip with the back of his hand, he glanced at Robert again. “I love you because you’re my brother. But I love my wife and daughter more. Until you can be civil with me and my family, consider me in the enemy camp.”

  Robert digested that, and Seth thought he saw a glimmer of possibility in his hazel eyes. Like he was grappling with the longing to forge a truce, and still being tangled up in the bitterness and resentment their father had instilled so deeply into him.

  Regret wove through Seth, and he gave Sarah a curt nod. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a more important matter to tend to.”

  The man who stumbled into the kitchen looked like he’d been in a barroom brawl. Kellie gasped in shock, and Josie’s stomach ga
ve an odd twist as she took in Seth’s split lip, the purplish-red discoloration around the corner of his left eye, and an angry scrape on his jaw.

  “Seth, what happened?” Forgetting that she was angry enough with her husband to spit nails, she stopped chopping the vegetables she and Kellie were preparing for dinner and went to him.

  And stopped halfway there.

  His gaze was focused on Kellie, intense and searching, the depths of his blue eyes filled with a personal anguish that made Josie’s breath catch.

  He knew.

  She didn’t know how he’d learned the truth, but somehow he knew the secret she’d protected for eleven long years. But did he believe it, or were the lies about her still clouding his ability to accept the truth that was staring back at him with wide, trusting green eyes?

  “Where have you been?” she asked, hating the trembling quality of her voice.

  Finally, he shifted his gaze to her, which now encompassed a wealth of regret, and guilt. “I was defending a woman’s honor, and settling a few things with my brother. Now, I’d like to settle a few things with you.”

  Dread churned within her, and she steeled herself to defend her position, and her daughter, if need be. Not wanting Kellie to be privy to their conversation until she knew what Seth had to say, she addressed the young girl, who still stood by the sink, looking uncertain, and a little shaken by Seth’s roughed-up appearance.

  “Honey, Seth and I need a little time alone,” Josie said, careful to keep her voice calm. “Maybe you could go upstairs and find me some antiseptic, Band-Aids, and cotton balls so I can get Seth cleaned up.”

  “Okay,” she said, and skirted her way around the adults and out of the room.

  Seth watched Kellie leave the kitchen, then flicked his gaze back to Josie, who was nervously twisting her hands together in front of her. Defiance sparked from her beautiful green eyes, but he wasn’t here to condemn, just to uncover the truth.