“This sounds serious.” She tried to lighten the sudden tension with a laugh.
What was left of Jake’s former smile thinned. “Your personal life is your own. I have no business telling you what to do.”
“Not entirely my own,” she admitted. “I do live on your ranch and in one of your cabins.” She’d been breaking company policy by allowing Aaron to spend the last six nights with her. If Jake reprimanded her for the infraction, she deserved it. “Being my employer does give you a few rights.”
“I’m also your friend. I’ve watched you grow up and change from a shy kid to a confident, capable woman who contributes significantly to the operation of this ranch.”
“Thank you, Jake.”
“I hate seeing friends make mistakes.”
“Aaron isn’t a mistake.”
“I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like the two of you dating. But as Carolina frequently reminds me, there’s nothing I can or should do about it.” He momentarily averted his gaze. When he next spoke, she understood the reason for his embarrassment. “Ellen told me he’s been sleeping over at your place. She sees his truck in the mornings when she drives by.”
Natalie hadn’t heard that part of Jake’s argument with his ex-wife. “I should have said something,” she offered lamely.
“I can quote company policy and tell you he can’t stay with you again, but I won’t. Rules and regulations aren’t the reason you need to end your relationship with him.”
“I beg your pardon?” Natalie’s irritation flared. She’d expected a lecture from the Jake who was like an older brother to her or a reprimand from the Jake who was her boss. Not a directive.
“I don’t want to see you hurt again.”
“I appreciate your concern. But Aaron isn’t like Drew.”
“No, he’s not. He’s famous.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of dating a celebrity. Especially for someone who’s vulnerable and inexperienced.”
“Don’t confuse me with your sister.”
“I’m not,” he said, his jaw tensing.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Our situations do appear alike on the surface. But they’re not. For starters, I’m not rushing into anything. And Aaron isn’t the same man who married Hailey. He’s changed since then.”
Her point, which seemed logical to her, appeared lost on Jake. If anything, he became angrier.
“He’s leaving. Or have you forgotten that?”
“He’ll be back.”
“In a year.”
“In a month at the most. Hopefully less.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“It’s what he promised.”
Jake made a sound of disgust. “He’s a user, Natalie. A manipulator. He ruined Hailey’s life. Took her away from everything and everyone she knew and loved. Is that what you want, too?”
“Who said anything about—”
“I’m not taking her away from here,” Aaron answered on Natalie’s behalf.
He stood in the office doorway, one hand braced on the jamb, his hat pulled low over his eyes. She and Jake must had been too engrossed in their conversation to hear the bell over the lobby entrance chime.
Natalie’s heart gave a small leap at the sight of Aaron. She was glad to see him and also worried. This wasn’t how she’d imagined his conversation with Jake going.
“Butt out, Reyes.” Jake glowered at Aaron.
“The hell I will.” Aaron stepped into the office, his stride that of a man on a mission.
Jake stood.
Natalie’s glance traveled from one man to the other. Once again, she felt as if she was standing in the middle of a lonely railroad track with two speeding locomotives approaching from opposite directions.
Only this time, she had no intention of dodging the crash by taking a shortcut home.
THE SOFT THUD of Aaron’s boots on the wooden floor helped to ground him and keep his temper in check. Losing it might make him feel better, but wouldn’t help Natalie. And she was his main concern.
She rose and faced him, her smile nervous and, at the same time, brave.
“There’s no reason for Natalie to leave Bear Creek Ranch,” Aaron said calmly. “I’m going to extend my stay another week and be back again around mid-May.”
“No.” The word exploded from Jake’s mouth. “Your eight weeks are up.”
“You don’t have the authority to refuse me. That would require a vote.”
“Do you honestly think my family will take your side over mine?”
“I don’t need their permission. I’ll rent a cabin and pay full rate if I have to. But I’m coming back.”
“Management reserves the right to refuse to rent to anyone,” Jake said. “And I’m management.”
Aaron was tired of arguing. From the very beginning, his relationship with Jake had been strained and difficult. “Isn’t it time we put the past behind us?”
“Kind of hard when you keep shoving it in my face.”
Here was one downside of the breakfast trail ride Aaron hadn’t considered. The constant reminder of his late wife and the old hurts associated with her death. “The foundation does a lot of good. Hailey would be—”
Jake didn’t let him finish. “You haven’t changed your M.O. one bit, Reyes.”
“Meaning what?”
“Two months. Isn’t that how long you knew Hailey before you two eloped? Now Natalie. You’re right on schedule. Another woman from Bear Creek Ranch falls victim to your charms.”
Screw maintaining his temper. “That’s enough!” Aaron shouted.
“I won’t let you hurt her!” Jake shouted back. “I couldn’t stop Hailey from going off with you but I can Natalie.”
“Carolina’s right.” Natalie leaped to her feet. “You’re overstepping your bounds.”
Jake came out from behind his desk. “If you persist in seeing Aaron, I won’t renew your employment contract when it comes up in four months. If he spends even one more night at your place, I’ll fire you on the spot.”
She stared at him in disbelief, her eyes filling with tears. “You wouldn’t.”
“Only to protect you.”
“I don’t need protection. Not from Aaron.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“No, I know him better.”
Few people possessed the nerve to stand up to Jake. Aaron wasn’t about to let Natalie do it alone and went to stand by her.
“He’s bluffing. Trying to scare you. He won’t fire you.”
“I don’t bluff, as you well know,” Jake said.
“It’s me you have a quarrel with. Not Natalie. There’s no reason to involve her.”
“You’re right. Leave Bear Creek Ranch tomorrow, and her job’s safe.”
“You can’t force him to leave,” Natalie cried, wiping her cheeks. “I won’t let you.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get him off Bear Creek Ranch and away from you.”
Aaron stepped in front of Natalie. “You son of a bitch. Do you have any idea what you’re doing? She’s the best damn employee you’ve got and your friend.”
“If you’re not gone by tomorrow, she’ll be somebody else’s employee.”
Natalie had told Aaron that Jake was capable of, even good at, separating the ranch from his personal life. She’d been wrong. To carry out his grudge against Aaron, Jake was willing to ruin her life. Could he sink any lower?
“I don’t deserve this, Jake,” Natalie whispered.
“You’re right, you don’t. I hate holding any kind of hammer over your head.” It seemed as if the anger burning within him died, leaving sadness in its wake. “But how else do I make you realize he’s not the man you deserve any more than Drew was?”
In that instant, Aaron understood Jake in a way he never thought possible. His ex-brother-in-law had lost his sister, first to Aaron, then to death. His wife left
him for somebody else. His daughters no longer lived with him. And now Natalie, whom he cared for greatly, was, to his way of thinking, betraying him with the same man who’d taken his sister from him.
“Aaron.” Natalie reached for his hand. “Take me home.”
There was nothing else he wanted more.
“Come back here.” Jake lowered his voice. “Please.”
She stopped at the door. “It’s almost quitting time. If you’re going to fire me for leaving ten minutes early, then do it. Otherwise, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
Aaron guided her through the lobby and out the door. Alice, who sat at Natalie’s workstation, gave them a small parting wave.
“I’m sorry for everything,” Aaron said once they were outside.
“It’s okay.” She smiled through her tears. “Despite what he said, Jake won’t fire me.”
“I don’t know. He seemed pretty convincing to me.”
She looked up at him so sweetly, so trustingly, Aaron couldn’t help but believe everything was going to eventually resolve itself. They went behind the building to where her golf cart was parked.
“What if he doesn’t renew your contract?”
“It won’t come to that.”
It definitely wouldn’t if Aaron left and didn’t return after the foundation board meeting. “Jake can be stubborn. You might be out of a job.”
“I’ll find another one.” Some of her bravado deserted her.
“And you’ll lose your home.”
She swallowed. “We’ll have your new house. It’s about time I got out on my own. Experienced more of life away from the ranch.”
Aaron should be happy. She’d chosen him over Jake. Instead, he felt sick. This wasn’t right. Natalie shouldn’t have to sacrifice everything that was dear to her in order for them to be together.
Like Hailey did.
For a moment, the past and present mingled together, confusing Aaron. Two women, Hailey and Natalie. Both of them in a lifelong relationship with Jake, both of them willing to end it and abandon the only home they’d ever known for Aaron.
Why did it always have to come down to this?
Chapter Sixteen
“You’re leaving,” Natalie said flatly.
“First thing in the morning.”
Aaron’s admission confirmed what she already knew. She’d seen it in his eyes during the drive to her cabin from the main lodge. Heard it in his voice. Sensed it in his withdrawal even now as they sat together on her front-porch steps discussing the scene in Jake’s office. She had experience, after all, when it came to men deserting her and recognized the signs. What she lacked was a shield against the pain.
This time it hurt infinitely worse. She hadn’t seriously contemplated quitting her job and moving away from her home for Drew.
“I’m sorry.” Aaron put an arm around her shoulders.
She stiffened. How could she cuddle with someone who was about to shatter her world?
“You said you were going to stay another week.”
“That was before Jake threatened to fire you.”
“I told you, no way will the rest of the Tuckers let him.”
“Jake doesn’t need their vote.”
“But he needs their support and their love. Whatever differences they have, they’re family and dependent on each other for their livelihood.” She pressed her steepled fingers to her lips. She and Aaron had been so happy this past week. Only this morning, they were making plans for the future. All that changed in a matter of minutes. “Jake’s just mad. He’ll be over it by tomorrow. You’ll see.”
“I can’t take the chance.”
“Will you come back in May?” She was aware of the desperation in her voice and hated it.
“I don’t know yet.”
He didn’t invite her to come see him or offer to call her, and she wasn’t about to ask. Her heart couldn’t withstand another crushing blow.
She instinctively scooted away from Aaron. He countered her efforts by locking his arm around her.
“I’m not one to give up so easily, Natalie. And anyone who tries to run my life learns pretty quickly they can’t. But Jake changed the rules when he brought you into it.”
“I think we should talk to my parents. Dad has a lot of influence with Jake and Mom’s in business with Millie.”
“I don’t want to involve them. Knowing your dad, he’d do something drastic like quit his job to save yours.”
“You’re probably right.” Natalie had a sudden glimmer into what Aaron must be thinking and feeling, the awful position her boss had put him in and the difficult choice he’d had to make. “Jake shouldn’t be allowed to manipulate us this way.”
“In his mind, he’s saving you from the same man who stole his sister away and let her die.”
“Hailey’s death was an accident. You couldn’t prevent what happened.”
“Not the accident itself. But I’m the one who wanted to compete in the team penning event that day. Hailey was pregnant and had no business being on a horse.”
“Did you ask her to compete with you?”
“Of course not. She went behind my back and signed up with some friends of ours.”
“Hailey was always very determined. Nobody influenced her decisions. Not even Jake.” Natalie wanted to say she was like Hailey in that respect but refrained. There had been too many comparisons recently between the two of them.
“I should have stayed home. She wouldn’t have gone if not for me.”
At the rough catch in Aaron’s voice, she turned and looked at him for the first time since they’d sat down on the steps. His red-rimmed eyes and closed features spoke volumes.
Guilt—over his wife’s death more than Jake’s bullying—was the reason Aaron planned on leaving in the morning. He was afraid of endangering her and Shiloh. And Jake, whether intentionally or not, constantly reminded Aaron of his failure to take proper care of his wife and unborn child.
“What if we lie low for a month or two? Then you can come back.” Now that she understood Aaron, and what she was fighting, she could find a solution.
“It’s not that simple.” He rubbed her arm, much the way a parent might comfort a child who was too young to grasp what was happening.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that.” He closed his eyes momentarily and drew a breath. “But your home is here. You said so yourself, if you ever got to travel, you’d always return to Bear Creek Ranch.”
“Ending things between us isn’t the answer either.” She felt as if a terrible weight was pressing down on her, robbing her lungs of their ability to function.
“A lot can happen in a year.”
Platitudes. She hated them. “You’re afraid of commitment. Admit it.”
“You may be right.” He rested his elbows on his knees. “I can’t risk hurting you like I did Hailey.”
“That’s a cop-out, Aaron.”
He didn’t contradict her.
She was suddenly furious. Guilt over Hailey’s death, okay. She could buy that. A feeling of responsibility toward her, also okay. Aaron wouldn’t intentionally hurt others. But this fear that history would repeat itself was absurd.
“What’s with you and Jake?” She pulled away from him and pushed to her feet. “I’m not Hailey. Don’t treat me like her. Don’t confuse me with her.”
“It’s hard not to sometimes.”
Of everything he’d said in the last hour, that cut the deepest. She’d been fooling herself all along, thinking what she and Aaron had was special and unique and worth fighting for.
“Leave.”
“Natalie.”
She pointed at his truck. “Now.”
He stood. “What do you want from me?”
“If you don’t know, then I guess you’ve got till next February to figure it out.”
She was on the verge of tears. Worse, her mother had come out from her cabin next d
oor and was staring at them. She probably wondered why Natalie hadn’t come over to fetch Shiloh.
Aaron noticed Natalie’s mother, too. “I’ll call you later tonight,” he said and reached for her.
“Don’t.” She stepped back and glared at him. “Don’t call, don’t come over. Just go.” Her dictate sounded vaguely familiar. Then she remembered. She’d told Drew almost the same thing.
And like Drew, Aaron complied.
Hugging herself, Natalie watched him get into his truck and drive away. Her throat burned, and her eyes swam. She needed a few minutes alone before going to her mother’s. Stumbling up the steps, she pushed open the door.
Not again.
Once inside the house, her tears fell in earnest. Aaron’s fear that history would repeat itself wasn’t absurd at all. Hadn’t she just proved it?
TAN WORK SLACKS and a pair of dusty, worn work boots entered Aaron’s line of vision, disrupting his packing. He looked up to find Skunk standing over him.
His bunkmate and friend tugged out his iPod earplugs and heaved a sad sigh.
In eight weeks, Aaron had become adept at reading Skunk’s body language. “I can’t stay. But I’ll be back.”
Skunk tilted his head to one side.
“Next year.”
He frowned.
“We went through this already.” Aaron had waited until that morning to tell Skunk, Rick and Teresa he was leaving. He gave the job with Air Waves Communications as his excuse, omitting the part about Natalie and their breakup.
His bunkmates were surely smart enough to figure out more was going on than what they were being told, but didn’t ask.
Skunk tapped a booted foot and glowered at Aaron.
“Forget it, baby.” Teresa came up behind Skunk. “No use talking to him. He’s done got the itch to go and ain’t nothing you say is gonna stop him.”
He hung his head.
Teresa patted him sympathetically on the back. “Yeah, well, he’s gonna miss us, too.”
Aaron felt like a heel.
Rick came out of the shower a minute later, hair wet, shirt untucked and a clean pair of socks in his hand. “You’re blowing it big-time, pal. Natalie’s a hell of a girl.”
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