He wanted her. He got sick just thinking about living without her. When he let himself dwell on her losing their baby, he damned near went out of his mind.
But the one question he couldn’t answer was if he loved her.
On its heels came the worry of how she was dealing with her guests, for surely the Charltons and his foster brothers had arrived by now. They were likely chomping at the bit waiting for him to show up while he was trying to find the guts to saddle his horse and face his fate head-on.
Hellfire, cowpoke, just get your ass headed north. Take it like a man. And when that talking to didn’t get him on his feet, he closed his eyes and saw Daisy needing him.
Trey was on his feet and to the door when the creak of wheels and the jingle of a harness reached his ears. His right hand hovered over his sidearm as he stepped back into the cool shadows of the adobe.
Somebody was coming by, and until he knew if he or she were friend or foe, he wasn’t showing his hand.
The creak of wheels grew louder, mingling with the clomp of hooves. But his heart was hammering so damned loud he barely heard them.
Just shy of the adobe, his visitor stopped. He flexed the fingers of his gun hand, steadied his breathing, drove every thought but survival from his mind.
“Trey? Are you in there?”
Daisy? Forget keeping his breath steady and his heart from nigh on pounding out of his chest. He’d dreamed of her coming to him every damned night, and she was finally here.
He stormed out the door and came up short. It was his Daisy all right, handling the reins of her buggy with ease despite her small size. Beside her huddled a woman even tinier and more delicate than Daisy.
An older woman.
Shit! She’d brought Mrs. Charlton here.
He flicked a gaze up the road but didn’t see anyone trailing her. “Where’s your brother?”
“Back at the ranch, likely cussing up a storm when they realized I hadn’t just taken Mrs. Charlton on a tour of the ranch.” She smiled at him, and the anger he tried to hold onto popped like a soap bubble. “You two need to talk, and you need to do it in private. You wouldn’t get that at the ranch.”
“Anybody know you were heading here?” he asked.
“Just Hollis, and he wouldn’t breathe a word.”
“Oh, my, you are a handsome boy,” the lady said, and just the sound of her voice jarred something buried deep inside him.
He sucked in a breath. Blew it out. And forced his legs to carry him to the buggy.
“I gather you’re Mrs. Charlton,” he said. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
The lady pressed a hand to her mouth. “You take after my side of the family, but you have his voice. Dear Lord, it is you.”
Before he could remind the lady about the birthmark Daisy claimed he had, the woman was reaching for him. And dammit all, but he took that fragile little woman in his arms and set her on her feet before him.
He opened his mouth to spout some quip, but his throat was too clogged to utter a sound. Just when he’d swallowed enough air to blow up, she slipped her arms around him and just pulled him against her.
The rightness of her embrace seeped into him, stealing his strength to resist her. His eyes burned. His chest felt too tight.
He could no more brush this off as an inconvenience any more than he could will the sun to stop shining.
“Please. Let me see the birthmark on your neck,” she said.
He took his hat off and went down on a knee before her. Her fingers moved like a whisper over his hair, parting it, touching a finger to his neck and setting off a skitter of sensations that he’d never felt before in his life.
Hell, there was no way a big oaf like him came from this tiny woman. Yet he felt the strength of will in her touch too. She was strong of spirit, but as much as he wanted to belong, the old hurt of abandonment wouldn’t let go of him.
She let out a sob and clutched at him. “It’s you. After all these years I’ve finally found my baby boy,” she said.
His breath got trapped inside him, and his heart hammered so hard the world spun. “You sure, Mrs. Charlton?”
“Oh, yes, yes.” Her voice trailed off, and she lost her grip.
He realized almost too late that she was about to faint and caught her up in his arms. She weighed hardly anything, he thought, as he carried her inside the adobe.
He didn’t realize Daisy was right beside him until he bent to set Mrs. Charlton on his bedroll. “Mrs. Charlton? Ma’am? Can I get you anything?”
Her eyelids fluttered, then her gaze fixed on his. She smiled, a contented pulling of her lips that made her teary eyes sparkle.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she said.
“A bit too much sun.” He glanced at Daisy, who merely smiled, her eyes sparkling with moisture too.
Mrs. Charlton lifted small hands to his face, the fingers delicately tracing the lines and contours as if memorizing them or assuring herself he was real. “Just finding you is all I needed, Thomas.”
“It’s Trey, ma’am.”
“Of course you wouldn’t know,” she said. “I had decided if you were a girl, you’d bear my mother’s name. If you were a boy, I’d name you after your father. Jeremy Thomas Warren, Jr.”
He swallowed hard and let that name sink into him. His real name that had been passed down a generation already.
“Because your father went by Jeremy, we’d decided to call you Thomas.” She wrinkled her nose. “I couldn’t abide hanging the name Junior on you or any of the other Southern monikers to denote such.”
“Can’t imagine being called that either,” he said, his voice sounding like sandpaper despite the deep breaths he took in. “How’d I end up in the Guardian Angel’s Orphan Asylum?”
She shook her head, and her lips quivered. “The midwife took you there. You see, my father hated Jeremy for siding with the North. He hated him for surviving the war when his only son had lost his life. When he’d lost his plantation, his way of life, my father refused to let me marry Jeremy, even after I got with child.”
He glanced at Daisy, who looked far too pale. Was she thinking how they’d fallen into a similar fate?
“Seems your pa got his way,” Trey said.
She gave a short nod, her lips pursed. “The month before you were born, Jeremy was to get leave from the army to come get me. We were to be married right away.”
Good God! He’d been wanted. Not just by a mother. But by his father as well.
“What happened to stop it?” he asked.
“My father was a horrible, bitter man who I am sure is burning in hell.” Mrs. Charlton bit her trembling lower lip and stared at her hands, letting silent tears fall. “As Jeremy was leaving his post, he was murdered. Shot down in cold blood. I suspect by my father’s orders.”
“How terrible,” Daisy said.
“I grieved so, but I clung to the fact I had you,” Mrs. Charlton said, and she smiled up at him. “But Father had heinous plans for you as well, and the trouble I had giving birth to you aided his cause.”
“How so?” he asked, taking her trembling hand in his.
She clutched his hand tightly, and the oddest warmth started to flow into him. Again, that sense of rightness took root, stronger this time. The feelings so new he shook inside.
“I held you for such a short time, then the midwife took you away so the doctor could tend to me,” she said. “I heard you cry once, then no more. They told me when I woke again that you’d died.”
“That was a damned lie,” he said.
She gave a bitter laugh. “I didn’t know that until ten years later when I happened upon the midwife in New York. She confessed to me then that Father had ordered her to take the baby and toss him in the river. But she couldn’t do it, so she boarded a northbound train, and then left you on the steps of an orphanage. She thought there you’d be safe from Father.”
“No name, just a note pinned on my blanket so they’d known when I was bo
rn. Trey March.”
“She didn’t tell me she’d done that,” she said. “The midwife’s memory was faulty by then, but she kept begging for my forgiveness. It was later that Shelby questioned the wisdom of believing her, for he suspected she’d done as my father wished and disposed of you.”
He’d have been of a mind to suspect the same thing. “Why’d you keep looking for me?”
“Because I knew in my heart that you were alive. I knew if I kept searching that I’d find you.” She smiled up at him through her glistening tears. “And I did. I’ve finally found my son.”
He bobbed his own head, not trusting his voice any longer. His throat had closed up again with emotion he couldn’t name.
Daisy shifted closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder and a hand on his back. He smiled at the two little women comforting him.
This felt right. Good.
Warmth stole over him, like he’d stood too close to the fire. A comforting warmth that made him feel like he belonged. That he finally had a past that was real.
He was Phoebe Charlton’s lost son. Not the boy tossed aside like garbage because his mother hadn’t wanted him. Not a bastard out of choice.
Nope, she’d hurt along with him all these years, and he hadn’t known it. Now that he did, he didn’t want this moment to end.
He wanted to savor this peace and sense of rightness for a long time. However he didn’t want to get stranded here with the women tonight either.
“Much as I enjoy sitting here with you two,” he said, feeling more light of spirit than he had in his life, “we’d best head back to the ranch.”
Time to face the last obstacle in his life and make peace with his foster brothers. And Daisy. He still had to give her the answer she expected, the answer that was still eluding him.
Daisy, Trey and his mother made it back to the Circle 46 before dusk. Reid and Dade were just coming up the lane, and the dark looks they wore were proof that they were worried about Daisy’s whereabouts.
“I knew you went to him,” Dade said, seeming none too pleased about it.
Daisy piped up before he could. “I thought it best that he have a private reunion with his mother.”
Dade and Reid shared a look. But it was Reid who spoke to Trey.
“I’m glad you found out the truth,” he said. “I know how much it bothered you all these years. You all right with it now?”
Trey nodded. “I’m getting there.”
“Now that you’re back, the three of us need to talk,” Reid said, his commanding tone making it clear that it couldn’t wait.
Shit, all he wanted to do now was get Daisy aside and talk to her. But that’d have to wait.
In too short a time, he went from having no family in his life to having way too damned much. His brothers wouldn’t rest until they’d had this long overdue powwow.
“Take Mrs. Charlton on to the house,” Trey told Daisy.
She gave each of them a pointed look. “You’ll be along shortly?”
“Soon as we can,” Reid said, and Trey didn’t gainsay him.
Daisy gave Trey one last longing look, then snapped the lines and guided her buggy down the lane.
The three men sat their horses in silence, each taking the other’s measure. Reid looked his old self, assured and dominant of his surroundings.
Dade hung back, observant as usual.
“Charlton extended the deadline on the Crown Seven,” Reid said. “If you want, you can buy back your shares. But know this. Erston sold off thousands of acres, reducing the Crown Seven to a third of what it used to be.”
Trey barked out a laugh. “You expect either of us to forget that you betrayed us and Kirby?”
Reid winced, but held his gaze steady on his brothers. “I know it looked that way, but if I hadn’t agreed to Erston’s terms,” he went on when Dade swore and Trey scoffed, “he would’ve ruined Kirby, seen me hanged for a murder I didn’t commit, and swear you’d both been rustling.”
“He tried to do that to us anyway,” Trey said.
“So I heard,” Reid said, then shook his head. “You can’t imagine how damned much I regretted letting Kirby, and both of you, down. It took me years, but I found the true killer and cleared my name. I found a good woman, but I lost the only family I had.”
“You didn’t lose us,” Dade said. “Kirby died believing that the three of us would stay strong. Stay a family.”
“We still could be, if we can put the past behind us and join forces again,” Reid said, staring first at Dade, then at Trey.
To Trey’s surprise, Dade spoke up first. “Much as I enjoyed growing up there, I’ll pass.”
“You going to go back to being the sheriff ?” Reid asked.
Dade shook his head, his gaze shifting toward the ranch. “Don’t know what we’ll do yet.”
Trey knew. Dade wanted to be closer to Daisy, and he damned sure couldn’t blame him.
“What about you?” Reid asked him. “Charlton bought the ranch because his wife was convinced you were her missing son.”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Trey said, and that earned him a biting glare from Dade.
“Think damned hard, because Charlton will want an answer soon.” Reid reined his horse around and headed back to the ranch.
Trey followed suit, only to be cut off by Dade. “Time for us to talk, brother.”
He bit off a ripe oath. More than anything, he’d hoped to avoid this confrontation with Dade until much later.
“Maggie had a talk with Daisy and found out you’d knocked her up,” Dade said. “What I want to know is why you dallied with her in the first place. You know a woman like her is the marrying kind.”
He had known it, and he had tried to avoid her, but Daisy had come to him. She’d caught him when he was feeling sorry for himself, and too soon he got lost in her arms. Not that he aimed to tell Dade that.
“I offered to marry her,” he said.
Dade’s mouth thinned. “She wants more than that and you know it. I trust your time away helped you reach a decision.”
He shook his head. “Wish it did, but I still don’t know if I can give her what she wants.”
“That’s bullshit, brother. You either stand up like a man and tell my sister how you feel about her or you turn around and ride off.”
“You can’t make that choice for her.”
Dade shifted in the saddle, sitting taller and giving the impression he wasn’t one to be messed with.
“Then you make it for her,” he said. “She’s been hurt enough, you hear?”
“Loud and clear.”
Dade whirled his horse around and cantered down the lane. Trey didn’t budge, just sat there staring at the ranch he longed to call his own.
She’d be waiting for him to come any minute. She’d be sure he’d be able to confess his feelings to her now. But six days away from her had just left him hungering for her touch.
Dammit, Dade was right. He had to make a choice, and he had to do it now.
When Trey failed to arrive ten minutes after Dade, Daisy went outside to get a better look up the lane. He wasn’t coming, and by the grim look on her brother’s face, she suspected he knew why.
“Where’s Trey?”
“Left him at the gate with the choice to act like a man and marry you or head out.”
She stamped a foot, hands fisted. “You had no right!”
“I have every right as your brother.”
“Damn you!” Daisy picked up her hem and started walking down the lane.
“Where are you going?” Dade asked.
She turned and faced him. “For a walk, and if you so much as come within fifty feet of me I’ll have you horsewhipped.”
With that, she whirled around and resumed walking. She heard her brother cuss. But he didn’t follow her.
As soon as she was clear of the house, she lifted her skirts higher and ran. She was terrified he’d take it into his head to ride out. That he’d be gone befo
re she could talk to him.
She saw the spotted gelding first, tied to a fence post. Then she caught sight of Trey.
He sat beneath the gate, his back leaning against the post and his long legs crossed at the ankle.
His head was down, like he was dozing.
“Trey!” She ran the rest of the way and fell beside him, one hand resting on his chest. The other on his shoulder. “Are you all right? What did Dade say to you?”
He shook his head, his laugh brittle. “He cares for you, Daisy. He doesn’t want to see you hurt again, and he’s afraid that’s just what will happen with us.”
“Then don’t leave me, because that will surely kill me if you do.”
He slid her a heated look that made her toes curl and dragged her down onto his lap. “Relax, Daisy. He ain’t running me off. Only you can do that.”
“I wouldn’t—”
He pressed two fingers against her lips, silencing her. “Before you say another word, think long and hard about what you might be hitching your cart to.”
She slid her arms around his neck and smiled. “I’m looking, and I see a handsome cowboy who’s too stubborn and too proud and too unsure of what he feels in his heart.”
He tipped his head back and let out a sad laugh. “That’s true enough. I don’t know what to think. I tried hard to figure out what love was, but I still don’t know for sure.” He gathered her close and dropped a kiss on her lips. “All I know is I can’t bear to live without you. Can’t sleep without knowing you’re at my side. Can’t imagine having children with anyone but you.”
She cupped his face and a tear slipped from her eyes. “You dear man. That is love or as close as a person can get to it.”
Still he looked troubled. Unsure. “I’ve had a helluva bad start in life, Daisy. My grandfather hated my father so much he’d rather have seen me dead. He likely had my father killed and wanted the same for me. I grew up in an orphanage where folks came and went and none looked twice at me because I was sullen. A hard one to manage.”
“You had every right to be sullen,” she said. “I still can’t believe what your mother went through. What you went through.”
Cowboy Come Home Page 31