A Baby on the Ranch: A Baby on the RanchRamona and the Renegade

by Marie Ferrarella

  Well, either way, she would have words with the man. She resigned herself to the confrontation.

  The old Kasey would have run from this confrontation, avoiding it like the plague. But the new Kasey had too much respect for herself to behave like some limp dishrag, allowing herself to be used, then discarded, only to be picked up again at will.

  “Hi, this too soon to have that talk?” Hollis asked with a grin.

  She had visions of wiping that smile off his face. How could she have ever been naive enough to have fallen for this shallow, shallow man? Especially when there had been a man of substance just around the corner for the better part of her life.

  “No, it’s as good a time as any,” she told Hollis. There was no inviting smile on her lips and when he went to kiss them, she turned her head, giving him a mouthful of hair instead. “I said we’d talk. That’s not code for kiss, or grope, or anything else, is that understood?”

  “Okay.” He put up his hands, as if pushing away any further dialogue about his aborted attempt to kiss her. “I get that.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Get what?”

  “That you’re angry. You have every right to be angry,” he acknowledged. “I made a huge mistake. I should have never left you,” he told her, and he sounded so sincere, she found herself believing him. And then he really surprised her by saying, “I should have taken you with me.”

  She stared at him, stunned. Taking hold of her hand, Hollis continued, making his plea. “Come with me, Kasey. I don’t belong in this two-bit, flea-bitten town. I have to be where the action is,” he stressed. “I was dying here, but out there, out there is a whole big world, just waiting for us.” His eyes fairly glowed as he added, “Just ripe for the picking.”

  She didn’t ask him what that meant, although she had a sneaking suspicion she knew. But there was a far more pressing question to ask him as he spun his grand plans about escaping Forever with her.

  “What about Wayne?”

  His words coming to a skidding halt, Hollis looked at her blankly. “Who?”

  “Wayne,” she repeated a bit more firmly. When there appeared to be no further enlightenment on his part, she added, “Your son.”

  “Oh.” It was obvious that not only had he forgotten about the child, he really hadn’t even given him any thought. He shrugged. “Well, he can come, too.” His mind appeared to race, searching for a way to make this all work out. “We’ll get a sitter for him.” Problem solved, he continued in a far more enthusiastic voice. “I want to show you things, Kasey. I want to put Las Vegas at your feet.”

  “Las Vegas,” she repeated incredulously. What in heaven’s name would she want to do there? She had absolutely no desire to spend any time in a place that revolved around pitting yourself against luck for a monetary outcome.

  Hollis took her tone to mean that she needed more input on the subject to be won over. And he was more than prepared.

  “Yes. You wouldn’t believe the luck I had out there. I won enough money to buy back the ranch if I wanted it,” he confided, then smirked. “But then I thought, why? It would only tie me down to this place, and like I said, there’s a whole big world out there.” He took her hand in his, coaxing her. “What d’you say, Kase? Come with me.” It wasn’t a request so much as a statement. He expected her to eagerly agree.

  She looked at this man who thought he was tempting her. He didn’t even know her well enough to understand that what he said held absolutely no allure for her.

  Again she couldn’t help wondering, what had she ever seen in him? Especially since Eli had always been around, there whenever she needed him. Comparing the two was like comparing fool’s gold to the real thing. One’s shine didn’t go beyond the surface, the other had to be mined before he showed his full worth. His significant worth.

  “You’re right,” Kasey acknowledged quietly. “You don’t belong here—”

  Hollis took her agreement to mean that he’d won. He all but beamed, triumphant. “Oh, Kasey, wait’ll you see—”

  Kasey cut him off. “I didn’t finish,” she pointed out sternly. “You don’t belong here,” she stressed. “But I do. For me, this is where the action is and I don’t have any intentions of ever leaving it.”

  “Not leave?” Hollis asked, confused and unable to process the very idea that she would turn him down. That she would pick living here over living with him. Hollis looked at the woman he’d come back for as if she had just turned slow-witted on him. “How could you not want to go?”

  “Because my life’s here,” she stated. Didn’t he get it? “My son is here. My friends are here—”

  “And Eli?” His tone was accusing, contemptuous. “Is he the reason you want to stay?”

  If Hollis meant to make her feel guilty, he was out of luck. It wasn’t going to happen. She smiled as she said, “He is a good reason for wanting to stay in Forever, yes,” she agreed.

  As she watched, Hollis’s complexion turned red and his anger erupted. “And that’s what you’re settling for?” he demanded. “Being with Eli?”

  “Being with Eli wouldn’t be settling,” she informed him coldly. “But for the record, he hasn’t asked me to be with him. I just don’t want to be with you—here or in Las Vegas. I don’t want to be with you in any kind of setting.”

  Hollis seemed unable to believe her. He had never been turned down before, not by any woman. “You’re just saying that because I hurt you when I left.”

  She had come to view that segment of her life in a completely different light.

  “Your leaving me just might have been the kindest thing you ever did for me,” Kasey told him. “You forced me to open my eyes, to finally see you the way you were, not the way I wanted you to be. Don’t misunderstand,” she said quickly, “I don’t begrudge you that life you want, Hollis. I just don’t want to share it with you.”

  As Kasey turned to walk away, incensed, Hollis grabbed her roughly by the arm, jerking her around. “You’re my wife, Kasey, and you’ll do as I say.”

  Okay, he’d seen enough. Put up with enough. This was the final straw, Eli thought, stepping forward. He’d returned with Wayne in time to see Hollis grabbing Kasey to force her to stay.

  Braced for a confrontation, he shifted Wayne to the crook of his left arm, turning his body so that he half shielded the infant.

  “Let her go, Hollis,” Eli ordered angrily. “You gave up the right to call her your wife when you abandoned her.”

  The expression on Hollis’s face was absolutely malevolent. “This is none of your business,” he shouted angrily at Eli.

  “This has always been my business,” Eli contradicted. “Now I’m not going to tell you again. Let her go, Hollis.”

  There was pure fury in Hollis’s eyes. “Or what?” he challenged, then jeered, “You’re a big man, aren’t you? Growling out orders. Meanwhile, just look at you! You’re hiding behind a damn baby. Think that’ll keep you safe?” he demanded, taunting him. “Well, think again, hotshot. You holding a kid in your arms isn’t going to stop me from whipping you good,” Hollis promised.

  Eli didn’t bother answering him. At least not verbally.

  In less time than it took to think about it, his fisted right hand flew out, making solid contact with what had always been referred to as Hollis’s glass jaw.

  Hollis never knew what hit him. He dropped to the ground like a stone.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stunned, Kasey stared at Hollis, lying in an unconscious, crumpled heap on the ground, then raised her eyes to the man who had delivered the punch.

  “Eli?”

  She said his name as if she wasn’t certain she’d seen what she’d just witnessed. As if she suddenly realized that there were even more hidden facets to this man than she’d already discovered in these past few months.

  Kasey forced herself to glance one final time at Hollis, just to make sure he was still breathing. She put her fingers against his neck and found a pulse. It was then that she felt a sense of
relief as well as a smattering of triumph. Hollis had finally gotten what was coming to him.

  Eli found the expression on Kasey’s face completely unfathomable.

  Oh, damn, now he’d gone and done it, he thought, frustrated. She would probably feel sorry for Hollis. Kasey had a huge heart and she’d always had a soft spot in it for the underdog.

  Eli saw no way to salvage or reverse the situation.

  “Sorry,” he told her, “but there’s just so much I could take.”

  Eli watched her face intently, watched Kasey slowly nod as she appraised the crumpled figure on the ground again.

  A feather would have done it. Or even the slightest summer breeze. Either would have easily knocked him over right after he heard her say, “About time.”

  Had she really said what he thought he’d heard her say?

  “Excuse me?”

  She raised her eyes to his. “I said ‘about time.’” And then she elaborated, in case he still wasn’t getting her meaning. “It’s about time you stop letting that walking ego order you around like you were some sort of unpaid lackey of his. Hollis never appreciated you.” She came closer to him, a soft smile blooming on her lips. “And I’m ashamed to say, neither did I.” She thought of the past couple of months and what he had done for her, how he had made her feel whole. “At least, not completely. Not until you gave me that letter and said it was from Hollis.”

  He looked at her uncertainly. “I don’t—”

  “Don’t you think I knew that you had written it? That you were just trying to save my feelings?”

  “What gave me away?” he asked, then took a guess. “The handwriting?”

  “The thoughtfulness. Hollis wouldn’t have said that he was at fault. Hollis always found a way to blame everyone else except himself. You were trying to spare my feelings by giving me the words I needed to read. I think that was when I started to fall in love with you,” she told him honestly.

  Eli said nothing for a minute. And then, still holding a very cooperative Wayne in the crook of his left arm, Eli cupped the back of Kasey’s head and kissed her with all the fervor that had suddenly seized every single fiber of his being. He kissed her with all the love he was feeling and instantly sent her heart, not to mention her head, reeling.

  And it was exactly that moment when everyone still at the reception appeared, drawn by the initial noise. They gathered around them as well as the fallen Hollis.

  Sensing their presence, Eli reluctantly pulled his head back, released his hold on Kasey and looked around. His brothers and father had surrounded them, as did Rick, Joe and several other people, including Miss Joan and her husband.

  “What are you all staring at?” Eli asked, doing his best not to appear as self-conscious as he felt.

  “A late bloomer, apparently,” his brother Gabe answered for all of them. He was looking down at Hollis’s prone body when he said it.

  To underscore his opinion, Gabe began to clap, applauding Eli not just for seizing the moment with Kasey, but predominantly for decking Hollis. Within less than a minute, the sound of his palms meeting one another was echoed by the rest of the remaining guests.

  Eli looked at Kasey. “I guess Hollis doesn’t have a whole lot of friends around here anymore.”

  “None that I can see,” Miss Joan agreed, raising her voice above the noise. “By the way, Stonestreet’s car’s parked out front,” she told them. “Why don’t some of you boys take the man to his vehicle and just put him inside? Maybe he’ll take the hint when he wakes up, and drive away from Forever. The town doesn’t need some mouthy gambler stirring things up and causing trouble.” She turned toward Rick. “Do they, Sheriff?” she asked pointedly.

  “No, they surely don’t,” he agreed heartily. “You heard the lady,” he said, addressing Joe and several of the other men around him. “Let’s go take the trash out. No reason to leave it lying around and have it ruin a fine wedding,” he emphasized.

  Within a couple of minutes, Gabe, Rafe, Rick and Joe, the sheriff’s brother-in-law, deputy and friend, had each taken an extremity and were just short of dragging the unconscious Hollis out to the front of the house. His flaming red sports car sat just where Miss Joan had said it would be.

  The man had no sense of subtlety, Eli thought, looking at the car as he followed behind the men carrying Kasey’s ex. Moving around the men, he opened the driver’s side door for them, then stepped back. The other men deposited Hollis into his car, draping the unconscious man’s arms over his steering wheel and anchoring him there as best they could.

  The message was clear: go away.

  “That’s some haymaker you’ve got, Eli,” Rick commented, dusting off his hands. “Remind me never to be on the receiving end of it.”

  “No chance of that.” Kasey spoke up. She’d followed the others, holding her son in her arms. “It takes a lot to get Eli angry.”

  “You want to press charges?” Rick asked Eli. He nodded toward the slumped figure in the car. “I could hold him for a few days for disturbing the peace,” he offered. “Give you two a chance to get away if you wanted to.”

  But Eli shook his head. “Nobody’s going anywhere, Sheriff.”

  “You’re wrong there,” Kasey told him. When he looked at her, obviously waiting for an explanation, she said, “Hollis can’t wait to leave this two-bit, flea-bitten town behind. His words, not mine,” she clarified when Rick raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “Well, then, by all means, let’s oblige him,” Rick proposed. “One of you boys do me a favor and drive our former citizen to the edge of town. I’ll have Larry follow and he’ll drive you back,” he promised, referring to his other deputy.

  “Sounds good to me,” Gabe declared. “I’ll do it,” he volunteered.

  “Guess then the rest of us will be going home,” Rick declared, stating the obvious. Stepping back toward Miguel Rodriguez, he shook the man’s hand. “Great reception, Mr. Rodriguez. Everyone had a great time.”

  “Some more than others,” Miguel agreed, looking at his youngest son and the woman beside him. “You two are welcome to stay the night if you’re too tired to drive back to your place,” he offered.

  Your place.

  It had a nice sound to it, Kasey thought. A nice feel to it, as well. She knew in her heart that she belonged with Eli on his ranch. But it would take words to that effect from Eli before she could even think of settling in.

  And, as of yet, he hadn’t actually said anything about their future together. She’d noticed that he deliberately kept the scope of any conversation they had in the present, never mentioning anything even remotely far ahead.

  Was that on purpose or just an oversight? She wished she knew.

  “Thanks, Dad, but I think we’ll just be going back to the ranch,” Eli told his father.

  There was no reference to the term his father had used, she noticed. Was that deliberate?

  Or…?

  You’re going to drive yourself crazy. The man stepped up to defend you. He punched Hollis out when he tried to manhandle you. What more do you want?

  What she wanted was commitment. The very concept that had frightened her just a few short months ago was now something she coveted.

  But hinting at it wasn’t her style—and even if it was, pushing the situation might make Eli balk. Men were unpredictable at bottom and maybe his throat would start to close up at the mere thought of settling down. Of committing to one woman. To her. It wasn’t exactly unheard of.

  One day at a time, Kasey.

  “I wasn’t going to go with him, you know,” she said very quietly some fifteen minutes later as they were driving back to the ranch.

  Kasey said the words so softly, for a second he thought he was just imagining her voice and it was just the breeze whistling through the trees.

  “What?”

  “Hollis.” She turned to look at him. “Just before you decked him, he wanted me to leave town with him. I wouldn’t have gone.” When he made no comment in res
ponse to her declaration, she nervously went on talking, not knowing what else to do. “Would you believe that he didn’t know who Wayne was?”

  Eli looked at her, confused. “He didn’t know Wayne was his son?”

  This wasn’t coming out right. Since when did she have trouble being coherent? Since she had so much riding on it, she thought, answering her own question.

  “No, the name,” Kasey corrected. “Hollis didn’t remember that we named him—that I named him Wayne,” she amended. “When he said he wanted me to go away with him and when I asked him what about Wayne, he looked at me as if he didn’t know who I was talking about. He never once asked about him or wanted to hold him.” She looked at Eli. “You holding Wayne certainly didn’t stop him from threatening to hit you.” The very thought made her furious.

  Kasey’s hands were fisted in her lap, just as his had been earlier.

  “It all turned out well,” Eli said, soothing her. “Hollis is pretty clear now how you feel about leaving and I’ve got a feeling he won’t be bothering you anymore. His ego doesn’t like rejection.” He wasn’t saying anything they both didn’t know. “You’ll be erased from his memory because you don’t fit his cookie-cutter mentality of what a fawning woman should be like around him.”

  They were home. Eli pulled up in front of the ranch house. Turning the ignition off, he left the key where it was for a moment as he shifted toward her. “Does that bother you, being erased from his mind?”

  “Why should it bother me?”

  “Well, you love him,” Eli answered quietly, treading lightly in this obvious minefield of emotions.

  “Loved,” Kasey stressed. “I loved him, dumb as that now seems to me. But I guess everyone’s allowed one really bad mistake in their lives.” And he was hers. “And when you look at the total picture, it wasn’t a complete disaster.”

  As he listened, Eli expected to hear her say something about the nice moments that she and Hollis had had together. Instead, Kasey surprised him. “If I hadn’t married Hollis, then I would have never had Wayne.” Looking over her shoulder to the backseat, she smiled at the sleeping little boy secured in his infant seat. He’d be outgrowing it soon, she thought fondly. “The best baby in the whole world. Funny how that is, given Hollis’s temperament,” she commented.