by Laurie Paige
She liked working, and Cade had indicated he had other business, so they weren’t reviewing the horses. She’d looked around and decided the stable needed a good cleaning. She’d ordered Gil to handle the wheel-barrow and take the manure out. He’d grumbled about the mud being up to man’s knees but he did the work. At least the rain had stopped.
When Gil went to the bunkhouse for lunch, she put the shovel up and leaned over a stall door. Cade had put the mother and foal in the stable during the storm. Now both lay in the clean straw and snoozed. They looked cozy—
The door opened and Bill came in.
She steeled herself. She had known even before Cade had mentioned it at breakfast that the ranch road was closed due to a washout. Wayne had called and told Garrett he was sending a load of rock out to fill the hole, then they would have to bring in dirt and gravel to remake the road.
The ranch inhabitants were trapped for the next two to three days unless they wanted to spent a day on horseback to get to town. Bill was trapped along with the rest of them.
“Hi,” she said, keeping a cheerful face but wary at the same time.
“You don’t have to tense up,” he said. “I’m not going to fight with you.”
“Too bad. I’m in the mood for a good brawl.”
He stopped a couple of feet from her and leaned over the stall. The mare lifted her head and stared at him.
“It’s okay,” Leanne told the new mother. “He won’t hurt your baby.”
As if understanding, the mare ignored the man and began licking her foal. Leanne sighed as a sweet hunger stole over her. She liked children, had always thought she’d have two, a boy and a girl. The perfect family.
She had a feeling love and marriage weren’t going to happen for her the way they did in the storybooks. Cade wasn’t interested in those things, at least not with her, and no one else would please her heart.
Her foolish heart. It had been getting her into trouble all her life. She followed where it led. All those dreams it had dangled before her had led to nothing but trouble, for her and everyone she knew.
If she’d used her head, she would be married to Bill right now and settled in a nice house in a nice suburb with nice people for neighbors. Security. Stability. Contentment?
An ache pierced her heart. She didn’t want nice, not if it meant not having a dream or a grand passion or a great love. She squeezed her eyes tight. When was she going to grow up and quit wishing for the moon?
“What are you thinking?” Bill asked.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to accept life as it was. She had to be practical. “Why do you ask?” she said, trying to be polite.
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You’ve never asked me anything like that before. I wondered why you did now.”
“Don’t be silly—” He stopped abruptly and looked apologetic. “Maybe I didn’t. I guess I thought I knew you. I guess I was wrong.”
To her amazement, she saw interest in his eyes, that of a male for a woman who was new, maybe a little mysterious. Or that of a male who saw another interested male and wondered what he had missed. She wondered when she had become so cynical. Since being around Cade, the answer came to her.
“It’s too late to ask now,” she said.
He looped his arms over the stall siding and stared moodily at the horses. “I know. You chose Kincaid.”
“Redstone,” she corrected. “His legal name is Redstone. He wants it to stay that way.”
“But he’s going to have all the privileges of the Kincaid name—a big ranch, money, even his own line of horses, according to Rand. Is that what attracted you to him so fast? That he’s going to have a big fine ranch and a big fine house to go along with it?”
His accusation hurt. Once she would have tried to explain herself and justify why she’d done what she did. Now she knew it was too late. She no longer cared what he thought. And that hurt.
She realized she was losing a childhood attachment, something that had been deeply rooted in her life. Her childhood friend was now part of her past. No one ever mentioned this painful act of growing up, this letting go.
“Or was it love at first sight?” he continued when she didn’t answer right away.
“Who knows what love is?” she asked, forcing a smile. “The heart makes choices.”
The mare looked up from administering to her baby. She glanced at Leanne, then Bill, and back to Leanne. Her velvety brown eyes seemed to be telling Leanne she knew exactly what love was and would share the information when the stranger wasn’t around.
“If I’d bought the property instead of the house, would you have chosen me?”
Her heart lurched sickeningly. She might never have met Cade, or only as a married woman when she came to visit Rand and Suzanne. She shook her head. “I don’t think I could have gone through with the ceremony anyway. I’m sorry. It just wouldn’t have worked.”
The wind scurried about the eaves of the stable. It drove ragged layers of clouds across the sky. Inside, the silence fell between her and the man she’d once thought of as her friend like an abyss dropping open at her feet.
When she released a heavy sigh, Bill shifted and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, too. I think we could have had a good life. I want you to be happy.”
She nodded without looking up. She didn’t want him to see the ache of unhappiness in her eyes. Neither did she want his sympathy or wise, understanding ways.
Truthfully, she didn’t know what she wanted. She couldn’t seem to get her life right no matter how hard she tried. Perhaps she needed to start over someplace where no one knew her at all.
“I’ll be around for a couple more days. If you need to talk, I’ll listen,” Bill told her.
“Thank you.”
The stable door opened, bringing a crisp gust of wind still fresh with rain inside along with Cade and Gil Watts.
Cade took in the scene—Leanne, looking quietly unhappy, and her old boyfriend, who still had a hand on her shoulder, looking supportive and understanding. He braced himself for trouble.
“Stalls done?” he asked in a tone much rougher than he’d meant it to be.
Bill gave him a hard, appraising perusal. Cade returned the look. Leanne swung around.
“Yes, I’m done.” She didn’t smile or act glad to see him in any way.
Cade waited for a clue from her. Had she confessed all to her old friend? Was the truth out and everything forgiven between the couple? And where did that leave him?
He cursed under his breath. “Come on,” he told Watts, “we have hay to check.” He led the way out the other side of the stable, angry and not sure why.
“Nice to have old friends, huh?” Watts asked nastily.
Cade wanted to sock the man. Instead, he gave him a steady stare until the cowboy looked away. “I want a trench dug to lead this water toward the creek, away from the barn and the paddocks where the auction horses are. Check with Rand about help if you need it.”
“You going to work with the horses some more?”
“Yeah.”
“You ask me, I’d say you’re getting rid of the wrong stock. We’ve always used Western horses for the remuda.”
“The line here has played out. It needs new blood. I’m looking at Quarter horses for the working remuda.”
“What about the Appaloosas?” Watts demanded.
“They’re a special breeding program apart from the others.”
“Speaking of breeding,” Watts began, “you’d better keep an eye on your wife. She seems to like the city dude.”
“He’s a longtime friend of the family.” Cade was surprised at how calmly he said this.
“Word at the bunkhouse is he was her fiancé. Funny, huh?”
“He’s history.” Cade raised one eyebrow in warning. “Let’s get to work.”
“Sure. You’re the boss.”
The man’s insolence grated, but Cade decided to ignore it. He wasn’t an ow
ner here until the sale was final. When that happened, Watts was going to be advised to find new employment. The remuda hand wasn’t good enough with the horses to keep around longer than necessary. He used old methods of training that intimidated the animal into obeying instead of teaching it to work willingly with its rider.
Putting his anger at seeing Leanne so cozy with her old friend aside, Cade considered asking his brother Ryder to come up and help with the Quarter horse string he was thinking of buying. They’d be green as grass and would take a month of training to bring them up to Redstone standards. Their dad had been a stickler for training ranch mounts correctly.
Leanne was good with the animals, just as she’d said, but he doubted she would stick around that long. A few weeks of real work and she’d head back to the easy life.
His fury mounted. Women always held out the promise of heaven to a man. Then they backed off. So, okay, he could handle that. If she went home with Bill…
He smacked the fence with the heel of his hand, startling two of the horses who had come over to investigate him. He clucked his tongue and they came back. He caught them by the mane and led them inside the arena. Leanne was waiting for him by the time he got there.
She tossed a blanket over the horse nearest her. “I don’t think I can handle the saddle just yet.”
Reminded of her injury, he threw the saddle on, then cinched it for her.
The bruises had been deep purple when he’d undressed her. He’d been careful of them when they’d made love. She’d teased him about kissing it and making it all better.
Heat roared through him like a forest fire. Gritting his teeth, he linked his hands for her to step into for a leg up. She paused beside him.
“I think Bill understands why I left,” she said. “He said if I wanted to talk, he would listen.”
“Bully for him,” Cade snarled, wiping the tender expression from her face. “Did you also tell him the marriage is a fake and he can get back in the running?”
She stared at him for a long ten seconds. He was aware of her gaze running down his body, then returning to his face.
“I never meant to drag you into my mess,” she murmured. “I don’t want to hurt you—”
“You can’t,” he informed her. “I’d have to care to be hurt, wouldn’t I?”
“And you don’t,” she concluded. She stepped into his cupped palms and straddled the mount.
“That’s right.”
“I understood that from the first.” She clicked to the horse and moved off, looking like Joan of Arc facing the burning stake without a tear or plea for mercy.
Damn, but a woman could make a man feel guilty for breathing. He took care of his own mount, then swung up and started it through its paces. She did the same. When he stopped, satisfied with the way the horse handled, he watched her and her mount work as one, their motions fluid and confident.
Yeah, she was good. He’d miss her when she was gone. Her help. He’d miss her help.
And her mouth…both kissing it and listening to her pithy remarks, the way she could put a man in his place that was both maddening and funny at times.
He heaved a harsh sigh.
Eleven
Leanne worked as hard as she ever had for the next two days. She hardly had time to notice when the road was opened on the third and Bill left. He sought her out to say goodbye and told her she knew where to find him if she ever needed help. She thanked him and let him kiss her, but on the cheek instead of the mouth.
After he drove off, she stood by the arena and watched him leave. She whispered a final goodbye and felt she was saying farewell to her childhood and all that had been young and tender and hopeful about life.
Taking a shaky breath, she rubbed her eyes as emotion welled from that pool of sadness she’d never fully realized existed within her until her parents’ deaths.
Turning away, she found Cade watching. When he met her eyes, he gave her a hard, probing stare. There was fury in his eyes. When she managed a trembly smile for him, he pressed his lips into a thin line and walked off.
She sighed. She didn’t understand him at all.
After saddling the next mount, she put him through his paces, then put him in the appropriate corral. Working continuously through the morning, she managed not to dwell on her personal problems. Lunch proved to be a different matter.
“I’ve been thinking about houses,” Garrett announced as soon as they were all seated. “You young folks might like your own places, those of you who want to live here. We should be thinking about sites.”
Leanne couldn’t look him in the face. She wasn’t a member of the family. She wouldn’t be living here in the future. The lie she and Cade lived daily sat heavy on her conscience and trembled at the tip of her tongue.
“Gina, here, can’t ride in her condition,” the older man continued. He looked at Cade and Leanne. “But I thought you two might like to go out with me this afternoon and look around. I need to get out of the house. Sitting around makes a man old before his time.”
A heartbeat passed before Cade answered. “We still have a lot of work ahead for the auction. Maybe after that.”
“I understand.” Garrett smiled in spite of his obvious disappointment. He leaned toward Leanne. “Don’t let this boy work all the time. Make him take some time for fun and for your family. That’s the important thing.”
“I will,” she promised, refusing to let herself blink when the tears that plagued her nowadays burned behind her eyes. She was aware of Gina’s and Blake’s interested glances and carefully kept on her poker face.
“Did we get any more responses from the invitations?” Cade asked Trent, changing the subject.
“Yes. As of now, we’ll have fifteen buyers, plus the local ranchers who will stop by, probably another twenty or so. It’s a good turnout.”
“Will anyone want the horses?” Blake questioned. “The string isn’t prime.”
“There’s some good bloodlines in the mares,” Cade told him. “With new studs, someone needing to increase the gene pool in his remuda could use them.”
The meal seemed to take forever as the men discussed bloodlines and the auction. Leanne excused herself as soon as possible only to run into Suzanne and Joey on the way to the arena.
“Hi, I wanted to ask you and Cade to come to dinner tonight,” she said. “Bill’s gone, so it’ll be only family. Company’s nice, but it’s a relief when they leave, isn’t it?”
Leanne realized that Suzanne didn’t have the ties to Bill that she and Rand had and saw him as an outsider. Because of the supposed marriage, Suzanne considered Cade family now just as she was considered family by Cade’s grandfather. Thus, the tangled webs of deception.
“Thanks. I’ll tell Cade,” she said without enthusiasm.
Suzanne gave her a sharp glance. Leanne avoided any questions by playing peek-a-boo with Joey for a minute, then heading back to work.
Cade had a string of horses already chosen for the afternoon. She sighed and swung up into the saddle, taking care not to move her sore shoulder too much.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that she realized Cade was avoiding her. He’d stayed a careful distance from her for three days so that there were no accidental touches, but now he seemed to stay out of speaking range, too. It was frustrating. She finally cornered him coming out of the tack room late in the day.
“I saw Suzanne earlier,” she said. “We’re invited to dinner tonight.”
“I don’t have time.” He headed toward the next horse.
“Are we working late again?”
“I am.”
“You don’t have to work yourself to death just to avoid me,” she informed him crisply.
He stopped. The gaze he leveled on her made her tremble. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? You’ve made it clear I’m not to come near you. I’m trying to oblige. If you’ve changed your mind, say so, honey.”
She didn’t like the offhand endearment. It was said in the ton
e of an insult, not as a nickname for his wife.
Not that she was his wife, but she was supposed to be. “This is too complicated,” she murmured. “Shall I go alone, then?”
“Suit yourself.” He stalked off.
What had she done to make him so angry? Getting back to work, she pondered the question until it was time to shower and go to dinner. Entering the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her, she stopped when Cade entered.
He let the door click behind him, then leaned against it, his eyes dark and moody as his gaze ran over her.
Her blood became hot and carried the heat to all parts of her, making her body soft and fluid, ready for him. She swallowed but didn’t speak as they stared at each other across a chasm of distrust and anger.
She didn’t know how the abyss happened, but she did know the only way to tackle a tough problem was to face it head-on. “Why are you angry with me?”
He shrugged and bent to strip off his boots and socks. “I’m not.”
“Don’t lie. Please. Let’s have the truth between us if nowhere else in our lives.”
He tossed his shirt aside, then unzipped his jeans, revealing the top edge of the white briefs he wore. Hunger ate at her as she remembered peeling them down his muscular legs and tossing them aside.
“Okay, the truth,” he drawled in a deceptively soft voice that suddenly hardened on the next statement. “I don’t like being played for a fool.”
“When did I do that?” She was truly puzzled.
The muscles in his jaw moved before he finally spoke. “When you stood outside and watched your old lover leave this morning, looking as if the world was coming to an end. If you want him, why didn’t you take off with him?”
He pushed his jeans down and kicked them out of the way. His briefs soon followed. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, naked, before her.
“He’d probably take you back if you apologized prettily. But you’d better act soon. He didn’t strike me as the type to wait long,” he continued in the same hard and somewhat insolent manner.
He went into the bathroom, parading past her au natural, and closed the door.
She stood there for another minute, then followed him. “If you think I’m pining after Bill, you’ve got another think coming. I’m glad he’s gone.”