Annie rubbed the little collie's ruff in greeting just as the front door of the house was thrown open with a bang.
"You're home!" C.J. yelled. He jumped the stairs two at a time and threw his arms around her.
Laughing, she hugged him back tightly. "I was only gone overnight, sweetheart."
"I missed you so much. Are you gonna be okay?"
It must have been terrifying for him to be awakened to the wails of sirens especially when she wasn't here to comfort him. She gave him another hug. "I'm fine. I was okay last night but Maggie just wanted to make extra sure."
"Leah says the horses could have died."
"Not just the horses. I said Mom could have died, too."
Annie looked up and found her daughter watching them solemnly from the porch steps.
"Well, I didn't. Everything turned out okay, thank heavens. How's Stardust?"
Leah's face softened. "Still shaken up. Doctor Thacker says the burns on her flanks should heal in a couple of weeks. He gave me some stuff to put on it every day."
"Good. I'm glad that's the worst of it."
Leah came down the stairs and hugged her too. "Thanks for saving her, Mom. I'm glad you're okay."
"Me, too," Annie answered.
"Me, three," C.J. chirped with a grin.
"Count me in, too."
At the deep voice coming from the porch, Annie jerked her head up. Her heart skipped a beat when she found Joe leaning against a post, his arms folded across his chest.
She gaped at him. "You're still here."
He shrugged. "I'm like the proverbial bad penny. You can't get rid of me."
I don't want to. Oh, Joe, I don't want to. "I thought you were leaving this morning."
"I changed my plans a little. Called Waterson and told him what happened. I told him I couldn't take off until I knew you were going to be okay."
Which meant now that he could see she was still alive and kicking, he would be packing up his truck and heading out.
Her spirits plummeted. At least she would have a chance to say goodbye, although she wasn't entirely sure she wanted it now. Or that she could handle it without breaking down completely.
She forced a smile. "Maggie says I'm good as new."
"I'm glad."
The intensity in his voice and in his dark eyes sent a blush climbing her cheeks.
Colt cleared his throat and she jerked her gaze from Joe's to find him watching them both, an odd, amused look in his blue eyes. "Hey, who wants to show me where the fire was?"
"I do!" C.J. answered.
"Leah? How about you, too?"
"No thanks," she answered.
In his typical nonsubtle way, Colt jerked his head meaningfully toward Annie and Joe and she felt her blush heat even more.
"Come with us," he ordered Leah.
Her daughter must have finally clued in that there were undercurrents here she didn't understand. Her eyes widened as she looked between the two of them. "Uh, sure," she finally said with a smile she hid behind her hand. "See you later, Mom."
As soon as all three of them started toward the horse barn, Annie turned to him. "I…I'm glad I had a chance to see you again before you left. To thank you once again for coming to my rescue."
He shrugged. "Let's just forget it."
"I'm not going to forget it. You saved my life."
"I'm just glad I was able to get there in time."
That wasn't good enough. She wasn't going to let him get away with clichés and his normal self-deprecating attitude.
She walked up the wooden steps of the porch so they were on level ground—as level as they could be, anyway, when he was almost a foot taller. She drew in a deep breath and met his gaze.
"Tell me the truth, Joe. Why did you do it?"
He frowned at her. "Do what?"
"Go inside that burning barn for me."
"What do you mean, why did I do it? What kind of question is that? Why the hell do you think I did it?"
"Tell me," she asked urgently. It was suddenly vitally important that she know.
He looked at her like the fire had shortwired her brain. "What was I supposed to do? Just stand outside twiddling my thumbs while you burned to death?"
"But what would possibly make you risk your life for mine like that? You could have been killed just as easily as me in there."
He shoved away from the porch post. "This is stupid. What do you want me to say? I couldn't let you die, not if there was something I could do to prevent it."
"That brings the total times you've saved my life to about a dozen, right? Two in the last few months alone, if you add that day at the lake."
He shrugged. "Who's counting?"
"Me. I'm counting."
All the anguish she had gone through these last few weeks—these last thirteen years, for that matter—broiled up inside her and she felt her temper spike right along with it.
She glared at him. "I'm counting," she repeated. "And I want to know why it's so damned okay for you to put your butt on the line for me over and over again, but when you find out I tried to do the same thing for you once, you act as if I committed some unforgivable crime."
"It's not the same," he snapped.
"It's exactly the same! You couldn't stand by and do nothing while I died in that fire. Fine. And I couldn't stand by and see you go to the gas chamber for a crime I knew you didn't commit. Not if I could prevent it."
He stared at her, stunned by her words, by her logic. He had spent almost two weeks building a hard, stony wall of guilt and anger around his heart and now the first trickle of doubt at his position began to seep through.
"You want to know why I married Charlie?" she went on. "Because I love you, you stupid idiot. I have loved you all of my life. I would have done anything for you. Even marry a man I hated, if that's what it took to protect you."
He felt frozen, locked into place by shame as the wall tumbled down around him.
He had been running from her love just as long as she had been offering it, so terrified that accepting it would make him weak, would make him need. In a few words, she had completely humbled him, shown him just how hollow a victory he had won.
He didn't deserve this courageous, beautiful woman who had sacrificed so much for him. Not because of his family or because people thought he had killed his father or because he had spent time in prison.
He didn't deserve her because he hadn't been willing to believe in her. Or in himself.
He knew he didn't deserve her. But dammit, he wasn't going to let that stop him this time.
"There. I've said it," she mumbled, when he continued to stand there and stare at her. "Now you can leave." Go. Please go. Before I make an even bigger fool out of myself.
"Annie."
She looked up warily.
"I'm not going anywhere."
She blinked at him. "You're…you're not?"
He shook his head.
"What about your new job?"
Waterson would be disappointed but Joe would just have to find a way to make things right with him.
"I've got a job. On a ranch I love." He paused and the silence stretched out between them. "With the woman I love."
For a moment she couldn't breathe, couldn't think straight, as a wild, frantic heat flared through her. He gazed down at her out of those serious dark eyes and the raw emotion in them made her feel as if a thousand butterflies were fluttering through her stomach.
Still, she didn't dare let herself hope. She had hoped too many times before. "What…what did you say?"
"I love you, Annie. I don't want to leave the Double C. I never did. I want to marry you. I want to go to sleep every night with you in my arms and wake up every morning the same way. I want to stay right here and be a father to Leah and to C.J., if you'll have me."
Tears began a long, slow trickle down her cheeks as joy exploded in her heart. "Oh, Joe. Yes. Yes!"
An instant later she was in his arms, right were she had always belo
nged, and his mouth captured hers. It was a kiss full of healing, a kiss full of redemption.
A kiss overflowing with promise.
They had forever to show each other how wonderful life could be. The possibilities staggered her and she sagged against him, feeling boneless, weightless.
He guided them both to the old porch swing then sat down and pulled her to his lap. "Annie, before we go any further with this, I have to tell you something."
She drew back, concerned by that solemn look in his dark eyes. "What is it?"
His chest rose and fell against her as he took a deep breath and then his gaze met hers. "I didn't kill my father," he murmured. "I wanted to, but I didn't."
She touched his beautiful, rugged face, to the muscle twitching along his jawline. "I know you didn't. Not on purpose."
"No, you don't understand. I didn't touch him. He was already dead when I walked in the door."
Shocked questions buzzed through her mind, then the answer came to her, sending them all scattering.
"Your mother," she whispered, a statement not a question.
Joe nodded. "She was in the kitchen baking cookies as if nothing had happened while he bled to death."
"Oh Joe. I'm so sorry." She wrapped her arms around him, finally able to give the comfort he had always rejected.
Holding her tightly, he rested his chin on her head. "I think he hit her one too many times and she finally snapped. She didn't remember a thing about it. Nothing. She never did, even up until she died four years ago."
"So you took the blame for her."
"It seemed the right thing to do. I couldn't let her go to jail, not when she had already been through so much. I figured I couldn't protect her from him while he was alive but maybe I could protect her once he was dead."
They were silent for several moments, accompanied only by the rattling of the chains on the porch swing and the beating of their hearts. Finally he kissed her again, so tenderly those tears came sneaking back.
"I love you, Annie. I came back to town all those years ago to tell you that, to see if you might feel the same way. But everything changed after I found my father."
For all of them, she thought. If he hadn't taken the blame for his mother, she never would have married Charlie. But then she wouldn't have had C.J. and wouldn't have discovered how truly strong she could be.
She looked up at the big, hard man she had loved since she was a little girl and her heart overflowed.
It was time to break free of the past, time to move forward and seize the promise life offered them.
And they would do it together.
The knowledge filled her with sweet, healing peace.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6273-1
RENEGADE FATHER
Copyright © 2001 by RaeAnne Thayne
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Table of Contents
RAEANNE THAYNE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Renegade Father Page 20