by Opal Carew
His concern for her overshadowed his need to see Melissa set free.
That’s why Melissa had made her promise to leave Thad alone, stay away from him, until he’d purchased his own ranch. With Cheyenne tugging at Thad’s heart—and other sexy parts of him—he would never buy his ranch. Would never let Melissa move on to the next life.
“Anything you want, Melissa.” Her voice sounded bitter, even to her own ears. Was Cheyenne jealous? “Hell, yeah!” She was jealous of a woman long-departed, but still loved and coveted by her husband. Cheyenne wanted that kind of love, that kind of closeness for herself.
But she’d wait. Bide her time. No matter how long it took.
“Any wine left?” Sayde came down the stairs in her pajamas.
“Not much.” Cheyenne stood and gestured to the dozens of unopened bottles lying on their sides in the wine rack. “Should we finish them off tonight?” She refilled her glass, and poured one for Sayde.
“If only.” She plopped down on the couch. “At my age, I’d never recover.” She took the glass Cheyenne handed her. “I was awake and heard you come in. Everything okay?”
She sat next to Sayde on the couch, curling her legs under her, staring at her wine. “Sure. Just peachy.”
Sayde let out a low, “Awww. Sorry, honey. I know you keep your Madam Ruby life confidential, but I can imagine how frustrating it is for both you and Thad. And Melissa.”
Cheyenne’s head jerked up. “You knew it was his wife?” She didn’t realize Sayde was that in-tune with the spirit world.
“My intuition told me, and it’s just too close to the fifth anniversary of her death to make me think it’s all a coincidence. Especially since Melissa’s family is in charge of the money she’d left Thad.” She stood. “I know it’s late, but I have some legal papers I want you to look at for me.”
Cheyenne stood. “Of course. Anything you’d like.”
Sayde smiled, the first time Cheyenne had seen her do that all day. “You’re an angel. A real angel.” She led the way into her office and turned the tumblers on the big wall safe.
Thank goodness Sayde wasn’t intuitive about what had happened between Cheyenne and Thad. The woman would think twice about giving Cheyenne the title of angel.
“When I show you this, you’re going to understand why I haven’t pushed Thad to buy his own ranch.” She pulled out a thick stack of papers and set them on her desk, gesturing for Cheyenne to sit in the plush office chair behind the desk.
Cheyenne set down her wine glass. She was going to need to be as sober as possible for this one.
Chapter Ten
Thad rode one of the ranch four-wheelers to Sayde’s house the next afternoon. He knew Cheyenne was gone. He’d heard her helicopter just after sunrise.
Why had she run? Was she feeling his emotions last night in the living room? Was his heart pouring out the tenderness he felt for her? Was his soul trying to connect with hers?
“You fucking sound like a goddamn romance novel, boy.” And now he was talking to himself.
Cheyenne had read his emotions, and run as fast as she could away from him. That was the end of that love story. His chest hurt just thinking about how he’d fucked up, but he had to shove that aside for now. He needed to deal with Sayde before he did anything else, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
She opened the door and stepped out onto the patio, two beers in one hand, a stack of papers in the other. “Been expecting you all day, foreman.” She grinned. “Or should I say, ex-foreman?”
He hated how everyone knew everything about him before he even did. Stepping off the ATV, he limped to the table and plopped down in one of the stuffed chairs. “Ex.” He pulled the resignation letter he’d written last night out of his pocket and handed it to her. “You don’t know how much I hate to do this, Sayde.”
She read the note, then tore it up, throwing the pieces up over their heads. As they blew around them, she grinned. “You don’t know how happy I am to do that.”
Shit, she wasn’t going to make this easy. “I don’t want to leave.” He swallowed down his feelings. “This is like home to me. You’ve been like…” He wanted to say a mother, but that was too much. “You’ve made this a place that I don’t ever want to leave.” He shifted, lifting his sore leg up onto an empty chair. “But I have to. For Melissa’s sake.”
“You have to leave here? Or you have to buy your own ranch?” Sayde looked like she was bursting with excitement.
“Have to buy my own ranch. The money she left me—”
“Oh, I know all about that.” She picked up the hefty stack of papers and dropped it down right in front of him. “And here’s your ranch.”
He stared at her for a long minute. Had Mazie’s death affected her somehow? Was she slipping away from reality?
“Don’t you look at me like I’m bonkers.” She tapped the papers, her brown eyes sparkling. “This is our agreement. You, Thad McCade, are buying High Paradise.”
His mouth dropped open. His brain stopped working. His bad foot slipped off the chair and hit the concrete. “Son of a…” Pain ran all the way up his leg. “What do you mean, buying the ranch? Unless I won the lottery and didn’t hear about it, I’m just a little bit short of having enough to buy the ranch.”
“Not outright, no. But here’s what I drafted four years ago when you didn’t immediately leave High Paradise after getting Melissa’s money.” She sat back. “You will pay me whatever’s in that trust fund with her family’s lawyers. For that, you’ll have full control and partial ownership in the ranch.”
Did he want part of a ranch? Even if it was the place he called home? “And you’d be the majority owner?”
“Yes, we’d split the revenue proportionally until my death.” She stood and paced to the edge of the patio. “I love the ranch, but I’m tired of being alone here. I want to move to the city, where I have friends and family. I want to go out on dates and flirt and…” She turned and looked at him. “Maybe remarry someday.” Gesturing toward the house, she winked at Thad. “The place will be yours to do with as you please. Move in as is, refurnish it, remodel it, hell, tear it down and build your own place.”
“I love this house. Just as it is.” But it would only be a temporary move. When she passed away some day in the far, far future, he’d have to give up the ranch if he didn’t have enough to buy it from her heirs. Which he probably wouldn’t. He couldn’t take that risk. “I appreciate the offer, but having a place that’d be mine forever just sounds too good to pass up, Miss Sayde.” He stood, favoring his bad leg. “It was Melissa’s dream, my dream, and I want to honor that dream and—”
“Oh, stop with the oration, Thad.” She walked up to the table and flipped to a marked page. “Read this.”
He bent closer. “Upon the demise of…” He swallowed. When Sayde died, the entire ranch, land, buildings, stock, equipment, assets… It went on and on listing everything she owned. Then stopped when he saw his name.
He was her beneficiary?
His head shot up. “Sayde. Are you serious?” It was too much to hope for.
“I’m serious, Thad.” She sank into a chair.
He must have done the same without realizing it, because all the sudden they were at eye level. “But why?”
“Barrett and I never had children. We have nieces and nephews, but none of them are interested in running the ranch. They’re more interested in liquidating everything in sight and adding the profits to their fat portfolios.” She rested her forearms on the table. “You are like a son to me.” Her eyes sparkled with moisture.
Opening his mouth, he tried to find words to convey his feelings. Instead, he asked, “When were you going to tell me this?”
“As soon as you screwed up the courage to tell me you were going off to buy your own ranch. Which may never have happened if Melissa didn’t decide to haunt you.”
“Sayde, I…” He wanted to say so much.
She held up a hand. “I know. I know. You love m
e, you think of me as a mother-figure, you have no words to express the deep emotions you have for me.” She laughed, loud and long.
He smiled, but still couldn’t assimilate this new information as reality.
“Thad, you love this old dirt farm as much as I do. You’ll have little twerps of your own whom you’ll teach to love it, too. And you’ll have a wife—well, maybe swap around the order of those last two things, please. But you deserve a life of happiness, and I know you’ll find it here.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I wouldn’t trust this ranch to anyone but you.”
Her words sent joy exploding through him like fireworks. He lifted his gaze heavenward. “I don’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” She picked up her beer bottle and tapped it against his. “To the future of High Paradise. McCade’s High Paradise.”
He stood and took a drink. This was like nothing he’d ever dreamed of. “Sayde. Thank you. I don’t know how to tell you how much this means to me.”
“Well, you’ll have a couple hours in the truck to tell me.” She gestured toward his house. “Go pack. We’re heading to town for a couple of days.”
“For?” Things were going too fast for him to keep track of.
“We’re driving to the county seat where we’re going to pick up my attorney. We’re going to transfer all the money in your trust account into my account, I’m going to sign over the ranch to you, then we’re going to go to my accountant’s office where we’ll get you set up on the checkbook…” She tipped up her chin. “And get some money into your personal bank account so you can go on that goddamn vacation you promised to take.” She laughed and reached for him.
He hugged her back, laughing like he’d never stop.
Minutes later, with Sayde heading into her house to finish packing, Thad carried the thick stack of papers she’d given him and trudged back toward his house.
He tried to read the first page, but his mind kept spinning with excitement. Halfway to his place, he realized he’d left the four-wheeler at Sayde’s. He shrugged and kept limping along. His ankle barely gave him a twinge with all the adrenaline rushing through him.
High Paradise was his.
He stepped up onto his porch, hoping Melissa’s spirit was lurking, because this was the news that would set her free. Pulling out his chair at the kitchen table, he sat, placing the paperwork in front of him.
“Melissa, if you’re here, if you can hear me…” He felt odd talking to someone he’d let go of so long ago. “Sayde has sold me the ranch. Well, part of it, but eventually…” He didn’t even like to think of that happening. “It’s more than I ever imagined owning, more than I’d hoped to be able to call my own.” He was rambling.
“Sweetie, if this was what you were waiting for to happen, it’s happening now. And I love you, and I miss you, and…” What kind of spell would Madam Ruby perform? “I release you, Melissa, to go to your next reality.”
The room turned cold. Had he said the wrong thing?
In the cabinet, plates rattled.
The damn plate.
She wanted him to remember the plate? The whole reason she’d raced from the house and jumped on Wise Acre nearly five years ago. “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened that day. We fought, I was inconsiderate of your feelings, I’ve kicked myself about it for years, sweetie, but I’ve got to let it go now. I’ve got to forgive myself, and beg your forgiveness again.” For the thousandth time.
A warm, soft breeze caressed his face as a golden glow filled the room.
He felt comforted, as if held in the arms of pure love. “Take care of our little one, Melissa. Until I see you again.” His jaw quivered and his eyes burned with the threat of tears.
The light grew brighter, the wind swirling through the room, then slowly diminishing, dimming, until the screen door opened an inch, slapped shut, and silence filled the room.
On the floor, Cheyenne’s business card swirled out from under the stove.
Thad smiled, holding his breath, holding in the emotion for a few seconds. He gave up and dropped his head, mourning all he’d lost, for one last time.
Chapter Eleven
Three weeks later, Thad rode Gator down the mountain fifteen miles from his campsite. Sayde had called his satellite phone this morning telling him there was another batch of papers to sign for the ranch sale, and she was sending Clint to meet him halfway.
He tucked his shearling coat tighter around him and settled his hat a little lower. The gray sky heralded a snowfall tonight. Fall came early this high in the Purcell Mountains, but since he had the opportunity to take a week to himself—semi-forced on him by Sayde—he’d opted for some alone time in the place he loved almost as much as the ranch. His ranch.
The last weeks had been a tornado of activity. With Cheyenne’s help, the legal parts had been rushed through the system, and now one-tenth of the High Paradise was his. He hadn’t seen her since the day she’d run out of his house. She’d done all her work in the background, and Sayde said Cheyenne had pulled in every favor owed to her to get the transfer expedited.
His ranch. The shock he’d felt that first day Sayde had told him was now turning into anxious excitement. He couldn’t wait to get back and get started.
Sayde was in the process of moving out of the big house, heading to a condo in Helena, in the same building Cheyenne lived in. Sayde. Manipulative, tough as tanned leather, but as kind as a woman could be. He’d tried a few times to tell her how much this meant to him, how much she meant to him, but it had come out strange, and she’d just hugged him and laughed through tears.
Hopefully she knew… But now if he could just figure out how to get the same reaction out of Cheyenne.
Gator danced sideways, avoiding a rocky spot.
Thad needed to keep his mind on getting down the mountain in one piece. He couldn’t think about Cheyenne. Those sky-blue eyes of hers turning dark with her arousal. Her silly humor that kept him laughing, even through the seriousness of their lovemaking. Her deep caring for Sayde, Melissa, and even Mazie. The way she wanted to help him through his problems, how she gave up so much of her time to help him when all he’d given her in return was callousness. But she’d forgiven him…
Gator nickered. They were just around the bend from the wide, flat spot in the trail where he’d meet Clint. The horse had to smell something ahead.
He rounded a stand of trees and spotted three horses. He recognized Clint, who he’d just promoted to ranch foreman, another ranch hand, and someone in a big coat, their cowboy hat tipped down low.
When he pulled up next to Clint, the man looked sheepish. “Clint?”
“Sayde says to tell you it’s for your own good.”
“What?” What part of his life was she meddling with now?
The third rider came forward, tipping up his hat. Her hat. Cheyenne.
“Hi, Thad. Mind if I bust in on your vacation for a few days?” Her brow was wrinkled and her lips trembled.
He stared, not knowing how to speak the words that expressed how fast his heart was beating, the way his chest ached with pleasure and his mind soared at the thought of her humbling herself this way.
She was more woman than any female he knew.
“Hell yeah, you can bust in.” He smiled.
Her anxiety turned into a grin that could warm the entire mountain range.
“Thanks, Clint. I’ve got her.”
The cowboy touched the brim of his hat, nodding toward Cheyenne, and turned, heading back down the mountain with the other ranch hand. Sayde had sent two cowboys along to insure Cheyenne’s safety. He sure loved how overprotective his boss lady was.
Thad just stared at her. Bundled up like she was used to being outdoors in this weather. A bedroll and stuffed saddlebags behind her on the horse. “I’m glad you went to all this trouble to find me.” He winked.
She tipped her head down, smiling. “I wanted a few minutes alone with you before you started your new job running the ranch.”
She looked up at the gray sky. “Are we going to get snowed in?” Her brows rose and her eyes sparkled.
Damn, stuck in a lean-to with her for a few days. He chuckled. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
****
Cheyenne shivered as Thad jumped off his horse and walked toward her.
He lifted his arms and she fell into them.
“I think I’m numb.”
He tightened his grip on her. “I’ll warm you up.” He brought her to where pine branches leaned against the face of a cave. “In here.” Taking her hand, he led her into the dark space. He powered on a lamp and showed her the area. “Not as nice as your digs, but it’s free.” He pointed up. “There’s an opening that lets the smoke out.” He took a knee and lit the pile of logs inside a rock circle.
She wandered around, looking at the big logs sitting outside the fire ring, the screen tent near the wall holding his sleeping bag, and the metal box in a small opening in the cave wall. “How did you find this place?”
Walking to her, he ran his hands up and down his arms. “I came up here every chance I got. Living in a bunkhouse with a dozen other men had me a little stir crazy, and Sayde’s husband gave me a map, a compass, and told me to ‘git’.”
The fire crackled and he brought her closer. “Sit a spell while I get the horses settled.”
She sat on a log and held her gloved hands out toward the fire. This had been one of the scariest things she’d done in her life. No, the scariest thing. When she didn’t hear from Thad after all the paperwork was filed, she’d called Sayde.
The woman had balked at Cheyenne’s suggestion of ambushing Thad, but worst case scenario—he’d just haul her back down the mountain. After he broke her heart.
She had to give it a try, though. She’d felt such tenderness from him that night in his living room. Deep emotions and a sense of wonder, almost, like he was surprised by how she affected him.