A Touch of Passion (boxed set romance bundle)

by Uvi Poznansky

  “I clean your office, and you’d left the papers on the top of others in the drawer where I always put your ledger. I wasn’t snooping.”

  He reached out to take her hand, leaned forward and kissed the back. “Of course you weren’t snooping. I never thought that. I guess it’s been my secret for such a long time; I never knew that anyone, other than the doc, knew about it. I doubt even Cathy knows.”

  Rose stroked his cheek, her fingers weaving through his front curls that always fell forward, and her words held the utmost conviction. “From the day she came into this world, in my heart, that little girl has been my granddaughter. I love her dearly. You know I do.”

  “Oh, Ma, you’ve proven it over and over. She’s lucky to have you.”

  “But… flesh and blood matter. I never gave a fig about knowing our bloodline will continue until your father revealed how important it is to a man. Guess I wanted you to have the one thing that seemed to please him so much...knowing that one day your son would be here to take over.”

  “I must take after you, sweetheart, ‘cause I never put much value on something that seemed so archaic. Until now. Max has turned me into a believer. I can’t tell you how overwhelmed I am to think he’s my son, my boy…our flesh and blood.”

  She nodded, tears gathering and then spilling over. “I know, Clint. I’m thrilled.”

  “Yeah? Well, I’m kinda pissed myself. Why is it that I just found out today? And how come Max told me, and not the woman whose responsibility it was to have come to me years ago?”

  “I have a confession. Hear me out before you light into me for being an interfering old woman.” He watched her smooth the rug over her knees, gathering her words for how best to approach the subject. He’d seen her do this many times. And it had never driven him as crazy as it did tonight. He cleared his throat once and then again.

  “Hold yer horses. I’m getting to it. You know that Annie and I kept up a correspondence over the years, first by mail and then when you bought that computer a few years ago and got me lessons, I—”

  “Quit stalling.”

  “Well, all I did was pass on the news from the ranch. When you came and told me and your father that Cathy was pregnant, and you were going to marry her; of course I passed on the good news to Annie.”

  Christ! So simple. “She must have either just found out she was pregnant, or soon after.”

  “No, she knew. I looked back at the letters, I kept them all, and she’d made plans to come back for a visit three months after she’d left, remember? I wrote her and told her she’d be arriving at the right time to be here for the wedding. I also shared the happy news about your, and Cathy’s, baby.”

  Clint flung himself back into his chair, hoping that the frustrated regrets churning up his insides weren’t as clearly written over his face as he figured they were.

  “Son, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for writing that letter. Annie told me today that when she read the news, she knew that revealing her condition might tear you and Cathy apart. Seems before she’d left to go home, you’d still been in the besotted stage with that tramp, and Annie would never have done anything to cause you any hurt.”

  The gut tightening and pain of Annie’s treachery began to be replaced with relief, and then something akin to the happiness he’d lived with when his life hadn’t been so complicated. Hope lit a lamp inside, and the future opened up with so many possibilities that he felt lightheaded.

  He grinned at Rose and wondered why she looked wary and then determined.

  “Clint, I’d give my left arm not to have to tell you this next piece of news, but you’ll find out soon enough anyway. Cathy is back in town.”

  How fleeting was a moment of happiness before words could rip it apart? “Shit!” He looked up to apologize to Rose, when she stopped him.

  “No, don’t be sorry for saying exactly what I did when Linda told me. Now I want you to get your lawyer to draw up some legal papers granting you custody. Then you must get Cathy to sign them, so we never again have to worry about her taking Debbie.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Anne took her time appearing the next morning. The swollen side of her jaw exposed a large bruise and no amount of makeup covered her black eye. With her hair being shaped around her face, she couldn’t use it for camouflage, and so she did the best she could, then braced herself for Clint’s disapproval.

  When she appeared at the breakfast table, only Rose and the kids were there to greet her. Phew! Reprieve!

  Rose, looking so much better, stood as she entered the room. “Hi, honey. Oh. My. God. Look at your poor face.”

  Max voiced exactly what Anne had been worried about. “Clint’s gonna be mad, Maman.”

  “Can’t be helped, bud. I should have ducked.” She ruffled his hair and glowed from his telling grin. Then she bent to kiss Debbie’s cheek and received a big hug for her troubles.

  Rose scoffed—her certainty not quite solid. “Clint won’t be any such thing. A mite worried perhaps.” She wiped her hands on her apron. “The kids are almost finished with their cereal. What can I get for you?”

  “First of all, you can tell me what you’re doing out of bed?”

  “Don’t fret, Annie-girl. I’m fine. Yesterday, there were too many fear factors for this old lady. But since our world is bright today, I’ll not be tied to my room. I feel great.”

  Anne went over and hugged her friend. “What wonderful news. But I don’t want you making breakfast and draining your strength. The kids and I are perfectly capable of getting our own meals.”

  Rose chuckled. “All I did was put out the bowls and the kids got the boxes from the cupboard. Debbie fetched the milk and Max made the toast.” She held out her hands and waved them. “I did nothing.”

  Anne laughed at her expression. “Well, what would you like to eat? Let me fetch you something while I get my own.”

  “Just bring me whatever you fancy. You’ll spoil me yet.”

  “Maman, Debbie and I are finished. Can we go to the corral and see how Blackie and the other yearlings are? I promise not to go inside the paddock. But if he comes to me at the fence, that’s okay. Right?”

  “I don’t see why not. Wait, Max.” Anne went to the refrigerator and found an apple. “Give this to him, from me, for taking such good care of you yesterday.”

  “He let me hide behind him, until that fat dude came to get one of the bridles and saw me. Blackie put up a stink but they’d tied him to the side. I was scared that if I didn’t do as he said, the jerk would hurt him. I was sure glad to see Clint when he jumped in, and stopped him from shaking me.”

  “Well, you’re safe now. You won’t ever do anything like that again, will you?”

  “No. I’m really sorry. Your face is all swollen because of me.”

  “That’s not true, Max. My face is this way because the fat dude hit me. Now I suppose we’d better talk about your punishment.”

  “Do we hafta?” Max grinned in his cheeky way, hoping to win her over.

  “Oh, yes, we hafta. I’ll be asking, at the barn, for a list of chores you’ll be doing for the next week. I think if we keep you busy, you won’t have so much time to get into trouble. What do you think?”

  His eyes lit up. “Cool! Maybe I can groom the horses.”

  “Uh uh! I was thinking more along the lines of you mucking out the stalls.”

  ❋

  After he’d called his lawyer to make an appointment first thing the next morning, Clint headed into town. He pulled up in front of the glass-fronted offices and stepped from the truck.

  “Clint, just the man I was going to call.”

  “Hey, sheriff, nice to see you.”

  “Same here. I wanted to tell you that we’ve finished with your horse trailer and you can pick it up on your way home, if you’d like.”

  “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

  “We’ve got those two crooks, you and Annie cornered yesterday, nice and comfy in the holding cell, awaiting
pick-up. They’ve been at this horse-stealing gig for some time now, and I’m shore happy to get them put away.”

  “You and me both. They’ve been creating havoc with the other ranchers, to the point where tempers were flying and things were getting ugly.”

  “Tell me about it. We got more calls these last coupla weeks than the rest of the year. Glad it’s over, thanks to you. See ya’all later.”

  Clint smiled at a couple of the town’s women passing by him and lifted his cowboy hat in the way his mama taught him. “Howdy, ladies.”

  Minutes later, he was shown into his lawyer’s office. There, he passed on the particulars regarding the sole custody they needed to set in place for Debbie and felt satisfied that he’d gotten the ball rolling.

  Dan Shelton, the lawyer who’d been around during his father’s time, sat back from writing on his legal pad and folded his hands, elbows resting on the chair arms. “I’m sorry to hear about this situation, Clint. She’s a bad ‘un, that Cathy. Never knew a girl who cared less about who she hurt—absolutely no conscience. Heard she’s back in town.”

  “Yeah! Ma told me last night. It’s why I’ve decided to get the ball rolling on this. If Cathy takes off again, I might never find her.”

  “What if she decides to fight you over the custody? Not that I imagine she would. However, if for some strange reason she does, I doubt you’d have any trouble. After all, you’ve got the stable home and environment the courts would choose over her vagabond lifestyle.”

  “Let’s pray it never comes down to that. Especially since the doc told me last year that I can’t possibly be Debbie’s father. He found out when they took blood tests during her tonsillectomy.”

  Dan picked up his pen and twirled it through his fingers, His brow creased from the stress of his thoughts. “Oh, well, that changes things. Let’s keep that news under wraps. I wouldn’t put it past Cathy to try something if she knew she had you over a barrel.”

  Shuddering, Clint leaned over to shake hands. “Lord! Don’t say that. How the hell can a man deal with a woman who could stoop so low?”

  ❋

  By the time Clint hitched up his trailer and drove back in through the ranch gates, he’d thought out every scenario of how he could approach his ex-wife. Worry had eaten a large hole in his confidence.

  The girl he’d married hadn’t been as bad as the woman grown. The stories he’d heard, spreading around town, told of the troubles Cathy had been involved in recently, and they turned his stomach. Far as he knew, she’d just been released after two years of incarceration in a woman’s prison for selling drugs. Obviously, this was not the person he wanted anywhere near his innocent little daughter.

  He drove the truck to the spot where he’d had the trailer parked before the robbery. Stepping down to lock the hitch, he noticed a conglomeration of boot prints in the loose dirt. One set stood out from the others. A heel where a stone had imbedded into the leather sole showed a particular pattern, and he knew exactly who wore those very boots—Peter Layton. He’d worked on the ranch a while back, and Clint had fired him for being a shirker who’d rather sleep on the job than work hard for his wages.

  Dammit! Now, he’d have to go back into town and confront the dude. But he’d wait until later when the bar was in full swing. No doubt the loser would be celebrating his freedom, not having been caught and jailed like his partners.

  Clint wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans and dug into his pocket. He pulled out a small black velvet box, opened it and viewed, once again, the gorgeous diamond ring he’d purchased while in town. Three stones, all large, all exact, set in a band of gold. The salesgirl had shown him many rings in what they called the solitaire style, but they’d seemed somehow lacking. In his romantic thoughts, he’d seen the three stones symbolizing his and Annie’s lives: one for the past, another for today and one for the future.

  He snapped the lid closed and nestled it back where it would stay hidden until the right moment. Maybe he should ask her to go into town with him for dinner. His other business wouldn’t take long; just a warning and a threat to be passed on to Layton. Afterward, they could enjoy the rest of the evening.

  Not being a man who shied away from his responsibilities, Clint fully intended to get this ring on Annie’s finger and her married to him as soon as possible.

  Thinking about those prospects, he grinned. Their ol' ranch hadn’t seen a big bang-up party in years. ‘Bout time they let loose and had some fun.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  “Annie-girl, you look fine.”

  She put her hands on her hips, and then growled, “So why did you make that face when you saw mine?”

  “Because you’re hurt, and it’s driving me nuts that I let it happen to you, that’s why. Trust me, no one in town will even look at the bruise. Especially, if you were to put some makeup on the eye part. Wouldn’t that cover the black?”

  “I have make-up on.” She bit her lip and smothered her snarl. “Clint, why are you asking me to go into town with you anyway? So you can harp at me about my son’s bad behavior yesterday?”

  “You mean our son’s behavior, and I don’t harp.”

  Anne’s discomfort over his correction flashed in her expression and she knew he’d seen it. She deflated instantly. “You’re right. We need to talk. I’ve been avoiding the moment. Frankly, it might be better to hash it out where there’s a crowd so you can’t get on your high horse.”

  Clint’s happy laugh shocked her. “Hey, I promise not to mount up.” He put his hand over his heart. “Now, will you come?”

  “Fine, give me few minutes to get ready. In the meantime, I’ve told Max he’ll be spending the next couple of weeks doing barn work, and I wanted you to organize tasks with the hands to keep him busy. And no easy stuff. I know from my time here before, there’s an awful lot of hard work that needs to be done and he can kick in, starting with chores. I imagine Debbie has her…”

  Clint looked uncomfortable and the floor drew his gaze. “Well…”

  “You’re kidding me? She hasn’t been given any responsibilities? Why not?”

  “Come on, Annie. She’s just a little girl. Rose lets her help here in the house.”

  “She has a pony, doesn’t she? It might be difficult for her to do the heavy stuff, but surely there are lots of tasks to let her feel she’s pulling her weight.”

  The truth hit him right between the eyes. He’d begun working on the farm even younger than Debbie, and it hadn’t hurt him. Annie was right. “I never thought about it like that before. I’ll set it up. Now go get yerself prettied up, and I’ll tell Rose we might be late.”

  ❋

  Not long after, they were driving along the road in his Highlander with the country music playing low. The trees flashed past with fences charting the curving lane.

  Clint cleared his throat and looked at her. His voice mesmerized with the hint of sexiness missing from his everyday speech. “I like your outfit. You look beautiful.”

  Anne smoothed her hands over the long white cotton skirt and crossed her booted feet. Her body’s reaction to his stimulation caused her to shift from side to side. “Merci.” Falling back on her first language let her know how very strongly she was affected by Clint’s proximity. Shyness attacked, and she found herself playing with the ruffles on her black chiffon blouse. Soon, she had to pull it back up on her shoulder since the style was like the gypsies wore. Next, she twirled the rings on her fingers and tried to think of a brilliant comment to break the uncomfortable silence. Finally, she decided on the truth. “You never did tell me why it was so important that we come into town tonight.” She sat in the passenger seat of the darkened vehicle, while the red, yellow and blue dashboard lights lent a glow, enclosing them in the confined space that reeked with tension. At least for her!

  Having the man she’d been fantasizing over for years, sitting this close, looking like a hero in a western movie—his checkered red shirt fitting his muscular body perfectly—kind of made h
er drool. Not actually, but it was the perfect metaphor to explain inner symptoms. Pride kept her from showing her discomfort, and her brain prodded her to explain why she’d put herself through this punishment. So close, yet not being able to touch, she’d be a basket case by the end of the night. Unsurprisingly, cars and Clint did strange things to her equilibrium. Suddenly, his words broke into her thoughts.

  “I have to look for a fellow by the name of Peter Layton. Today, I saw his boot prints down at the parking lot where we’d stored the horse trailer, and I’m pretty sure he must have helped in the robbery. I’d wondered how the thieves knew where to look for the key to unlock the hitch. He worked for me a few months ago; until I fired him for being a slacker. No doubt, helping rob me was his way of payback.”

  “Now I see why we’re heading to town, but darn it, Clint, shouldn’t you leave this up to the sheriff?”

  “I suppose I should. Thing is, he has a wife and small baby. If they lock him up, she’ll be the one to suffer. I figured to maybe scare the hell outta him. If he knows I have photo evidence putting him at the scene,” he pulled his phone from his shirt pocket, “he might smarten up. Worth a try. The kid’s young and stupid. But I’m thinking, he not’s really bad.”

  “Why, Clint Walsh. You’re just a big softie under all that testosterone.”

  He winked at her and grinned. “Darlin’, it’s all due to you being here and working your magic. Before you arrived, there were only two things in my life to bring me any peace or contentment, and they were my two girls. Now you’ve brought me a son. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. He’s a kid to make any man proud.”

  “You’re not angry with me anymore. Rose must have told you what happened.”

  He reached out to her, his hand waiting. She gladly joined him and the warmth from his skin seared her flesh. Tingles shot from her fingers, surged up her arm and made a beeline for her chest. Her heart was pumping blood to her brain so fast, that she worried about how stupid she’d look with her head between her knees. Not wanting to announce her predicament, she left her hand where it was. But the torturing stimulation forced her to look anywhere but his way. Listening to his husky voice as he tried to explain how he felt, but still using words acceptable to his machismo, she melted.