by Leigh Riker
* * *
“DON’T DO SOMETHING FOOLISH,” Blossom said. “Please.” Then she turned her back on Sam. She could trust him, if not Logan or... “You haven’t changed at all, Ken.”
He grinned. “Why would I? I’m your man. Now go get your things.” He cast a glance at her sedan parked nearby. “That yours? Piece of junk. There’s a new Lexus waiting for you, baby. All the bells and whistles. As soon as we get home.”
Blossom wasn’t fooled. So was a fist to her face or a kick to the bulge of her stomach...
“That condo is not my home. I don’t want a car, or clothes, or even a cell phone that isn’t really mine. I don’t want anything from you.”
“Since you decided to have a kid without consulting me, from now on I make the calls. Get moving.” Before she could step back, Ken charged up the steps to grasp her arm. “You have any idea how much time and money I’ve spent—wasted—trying to find you?”
“Well, now you have.” With his first words, Blossom had heard Sam lever the shotgun. Weeks ago, she would have been embarrassed, ashamed to have him witness this humiliation. Now she took comfort, and strength, from his presence. “If I’m such a waste, why do you want me back? I’m not only happier on my own. I’m safer.”
He tightened his hold, turning the skin on her arm white. “Do I have to take you inside this house myself? Pack for you? How useless can you get?” He raised his other arm. “I ought to—”
He was going to hit her, as he’d done far more often than the one time she’d told Logan about. Or had she suppressed at least some of those memories until Ken had touched her again? But in touching her, he came too close to her baby.
Blossom strained against his hold. “Let me go. You’re a bully—an abuser! I’m done with your moods, with everything about you. I’m through wondering what I did wrong every single day. I’ve taken all I’m going to take—”
“Why, you b—” He shoved her up against the outside wall, forcing Sam backward. He almost toppled over but still held the gun.
Blossom tried to catch her breath, but the words came out on a gasp. “I don’t need you, Ken. I don’t like you. In fact, I hate you!” She shook her head. “I stayed quiet far too long. I won’t bring my child into the world to suffer the same treatment I did. You—and my father—are cut from the same mold. I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”
He shook her. “You’re not bringing any kid of mine into this world without—”
“It’s not your baby.”
At first Blossom didn’t realize who had spoken. Then she saw Logan in her peripheral vision and took heart. He hadn’t left. He shoved open the screen door onto the porch.
“Who are you?” Ken demanded.
Logan’s gaze narrowed. “The owner—along with my grandfather—of this ranch. Go inside, Sam,” he said without taking his eyes off Ken.
“I won’t. If I have to, I’ll go down right here. Beside you.”
He gave Sam a measuring look, taking in his swaying stance. “I’m glad you have my back.” He stepped up to Ken. “Get off the Circle H—right now—or I’ll throw you off. And Sam will start shooting.” He lowered his tone, yet it sounded no less deadly. “You heard Blossom. She’s not going with you. Let her go.”
Ken stared down at her, his grip still tight around her upper arm. And Logan surprised her all over again.
“Blossom’s baby is mine,” he said. “It has nothing to do with you.”
Ken studied the swell of her abdomen. “Liar.”
“I’m not asking you to believe me. Just get out. Like Sam told you, you’re trespassing. Go, before we call the sheriff.”
“Your kid? She hasn’t been gone long enough,” Ken said. “Even though I’m not shocked she’d take up with another man to spite me—”
Blossom’s eyes filled but only for an instant. Logan would take responsibility for her baby—protect her child—when he might lose his own son to Libby? His job, his promotion, his career? She couldn’t let him lie for her.
“No, Ken.” She met his gaze without flinching. It was true, as Logan had said before, that she’d come a long way. She was stronger now. She would never be subjected to abuse from Ken or anyone else again. “I’m grateful Logan would offer to accept my child in order to protect me, too. But this baby is yours, Ken.”
“Then that’s it. Like me or don’t, we’re leaving. You’re mine, worthless as you really are. Look at it this way. I’m doing you a favor.”
Logan’s fist was already cocked like Sam’s shotgun, which suddenly exploded. He’d shot into the air, and as Ken reacted, Logan pulled Blossom from his grasp then hit him in the jaw. Ken’s head snapped back. He howled in pain and fury.
“Blossom isn’t a piece of property, yours or anyone else’s.” Logan shoved him toward the steps. Ken lost his balance and nearly tumbled down the short flight to the ground. His arms were still doing pinwheels when he hit the dirt at the bottom. He’d fallen into her flower bed. “Get out. Don’t come back.”
“Logan, wait.” Blossom pushed past him down the stairs. “Ken, you can fight me about this if you like. I can’t stop you. But when I left, I promised to safeguard my baby with my life, if need be. And I will. You’ll never have him. Call your lawyers. All of them. I don’t care.”
Logan was at her back now. His arms came around her, his hands laced over her stomach as if to stake his claim. He laid his cheek against the crown of her head.
“You heard the lady. You want a fight? We’ll give it to you.”
* * *
“YOU WERE AMAZING.”
Her arm still hurting where Ken had grabbed her, Blossom hurried around the kitchen, but Ken—at last—wasn’t on her mind. And at first she didn’t hear Logan. With all the excitement, she was already late to fix dinner, so she pulled two cans of chili from the pantry. She turned toward Logan. And beamed. “I was. Wasn’t I?”
“Fierce enough to rival the best of the pioneer women who came West long ago to find a better life. They were a pretty tough bunch, too.”
She set the cans on the counter. “Logan, I wasn’t going back to Ken, but I’m glad you bloodied his nose for me.”
“Probably the most satisfying part of my day. Except to hear you tell him off.” He paused. “I called the sheriff. He has the cops in Kansas City keeping track of Ken until he’s on the next plane out.” He slipped his arms around her. “I figure if you could get rid of that bully, I can handle Libby in court.”
Blossom smoothed his rumpled hair. “What about your job? What time is that test flight tomorrow?”
“Who cares?” His tone was light. “Sam keeps telling me I’m still a cowboy at heart—and I guess, after the bison stampede and Ken, he’s right.”
Her heart turned over. “You’ll lose your job. Your promotion.”
He actually smiled. “Already lost it. I told Joe I’m resigning. There are other manufacturers in Wichita, some better than the smaller one I was with. Once everything settles down again, I’ll look for a new job.”
“And in the meantime?”
“Sam gets his cast off in a few weeks then—”
“I’ll be taking over this ranch, Flyboy.” Sam headed into the kitchen. He’d proved himself today. Soon he’d be zooming all over the Circle H on the Gator and eventually a horse. Sam paused. “Could still use your help.”
“You’ve got it.”
His expression fell. “Appreciate that, Logan. You’re a good boy, but I know this is temporary. About an
y longtime plans you might have—” He cleared his throat. “If you and Sawyer sell out, you’d be selling me, too. I can’t live in some nursing home in Barren or KC. That room upstairs was confinement enough. You might as well put me down like some old horse—”
Logan stared. “What are you talking about?”
“This is my home. Same as it’s yours. Even if I’m not blood kin.”
Looking stunned, Logan released Blossom. He walked over to his grandfather and hauled him into his arms. “You’re not going anywhere. After what I saw today, you’ll be back running the Circle H—with my help at least part-time—until you’re a hundred years old, like Methuselah.”
Sam’s face brightened. “That so?”
Logan kissed the top of Sam’s head. “I’d do anything for you, Grandpa. You don’t think Sawyer’s going to come home, do you?”
“That’ll happen about the time Shadow and Grey sign a peace treaty.” Sam blinked then touched Logan’s shoulder before he whirled around and stumped out of the kitchen. “Sorry I interrupted something. Blossom, I hope you’re staying, too.”
Before she could answer, a car horn tooted near the front door. For an instant Blossom’s knee-jerk reaction was Ken. But he wasn’t here anymore. He never would be again.
Logan groaned. “It’s Libby.”
She had Nick with her. In the yard, where Blossom’s flowers had sprouted through the warm spring earth, and a few stems now lay trampled by Ken, he stopped to scoop up his kitten. They raced off together toward the barn. “You can ride with me in my truck, Blossom!”
Libby opened the door, wearing jeans with a denim shirt and a chastened expression. Her hair was in a ponytail.
“I know I should have called first, but I couldn’t. This has to be done in person.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Nick couldn’t wait a second longer to see that cat. He wants to go riding later—or tomorrow—with his father. And oh, that truck...”
Blossom couldn’t seem to move and Logan’s mouth firmed. “What’s all this, Libby?”
“I was wrong, and I’m ashamed that it took Nick—our seven-year-old boy—to set me straight.” Her voice quavered. “I realized after Nick cried for you in town at Doc’s office. I have been overly protective—and, as you said, I’ve denied my little boy his daddy. Even worse, I made him dislike me.”
“Aw, Libby.”
“I’ll never forget that night in the storm, but I’ll never forget Nick saying ‘I don’t like you’ either. That’s all I can hear now.” Her voice turned husky. “I can’t stop remembering his tears, and after he finally stopped crying, he curled up in a ball on his bed at home, telling me to ‘go away,’ and I shed more than a few tears of my own.” She glanced at Logan. “Hard to imagine, I know. I sat beside him anyway, knowing that in a different way I’d lost him—as I always feared.” She swallowed. “About that, I can’t keep Nick from being the person he can become with both of us raising him—and I shouldn’t blame you for what happened three years ago.”
Feeling like an intruder, Blossom stepped back. “I’ll let you two—”
“No, Blossom. Stay.” Libby half smiled. “I hope that’s what you plan to do. You’re good for Nick.” She looked between them. “I think you’re good for Logan.”
His mouth quirked. “You okay, Libby? Grey thinks you may be sick, and after what you just said—”
He’d meant it as a joke, but for another second she hesitated. “Not...that I know of. I’m sorry, Logan. I know you did your best that night. Sam and I couldn’t have done any better. I never stopped to think, but you were right. You must have been even more scared than I was. At least I was with Nick then. You didn’t know what you’d find when you got here.” She fussed with the strap on her handbag. “Well. I’ll go now. You can bring Nick home tomorrow—I left his overnight bag on the porch—or the next day. Whenever. Just call.”
“I never even thought of him staying overnight here. I was just as afraid of that as you were, Libby. But, yes. Thanks. I’ll bring him home.”
“I won’t worry,” she promised. “And by the way, another custody battle would only cost us both a lot of money. It would upset Nick even more. Instead, I think we can settle everything between us.” At the door, she looked back with a genuine smile that lit her whole face. “You two make a very cute picture together.”
After the door shut, Logan said, as if he couldn’t quite believe it, “She actually brought Nicky here again after what she said before and ate crow. I can’t believe I won’t have to sue her.”
“She’s a good mother, Logan.”
“I think she feels better knowing you’re here.” He paused. “You will stay? No more of this moving west into the setting sun. I didn’t get to ask before.”
Blossom searched in a drawer for a can opener. “I’m staying,” she said, and as if that was already a done deal, she set the opener down then looped her arms around his neck. “When I first came to the Circle H, I was a...wounded woman. I wanted to be a stronger person, to rely on myself so I couldn’t be hurt again.” She gazed deeply into his eyes. “But today... I relied on Sam, on you. I don’t think that makes me a weaker person, do you?”
“Nope. You get any stronger, you’ll be running the Circle H yourself.” He paused, swaying a little with her in his arms. “Blossom, we’ll rely on each other. But if I get another job in Wichita, or wherever, we’ll have to split our time between there and the ranch. That okay with you? You won’t mind?”
“Not as long as I’m with you. I love the Circle H. I’ll love wherever we are, but I don’t need to keep running. Do you know how good that feels? I’m free now, Logan.”
“So am I.” She knew he meant from his past, as well. “I learned from that stampede that no matter how many precautions I take, sometimes things just happen anyway. The flood, too. That’s all over now. I love you, Blossom Kennedy.” He kissed her then raised his head. “Well?”
“I love you, Logan Hunter.” Whatever he’d said or done at times, he’d done not out of control, like Ken, but out of love.
He held her close and kissed her once more. But that didn’t prove to be enough for either of them, so they kissed again, lingering in the kitchen with the last light of day slanting through the windows and the open screen door. From the barn, they could hear Nick’s giggles and the whinny of horses in their stalls.
“So,” he said then cleared his throat. “I guess we should get married.”
She laughed but with tears in her eyes. “You call that a proposal?”
“I do. That all right with you?”
Blossom pressed a hand to her stomach. “Yes. More than all right.” Then she asked, “But, Logan, are you sure? You’ll be raising someone else’s child.”
“She’ll be our child. There’ll likely be no fight with Ken for custody. I can’t see him with a baby on his own. I plan to be a better father to her—and to Nicky.”
“I know you will.” Then Blossom frowned a little. “We’ll have to make that official, though, get Ken to sign off on any claim or responsibility for the baby.”
“Piece of cake. I think Sam and I put the fear of God in him today.”
And Blossom smiled again. “I had no idea you two were such...cowboys.”
“Well, we are. I am.” Logan drew back. He picked up the can opener and put it in the drawer. He set the two cans of chili back on a pantry shelf then came out again. “Let’s eat,” he said. “I’ve got a real craving for some of your curry
.”
“It’s only a white sauce with spices and leftover chicken. It won’t take long.”
Logan pulled her back into his arms to give her one more kiss. “Who knew you were such a cook?”
“You’re about to find out, today and for the rest of your life,” Blossom promised.
* * * * *
Don’t miss the next book in Leigh Riker’s KANSAS COWBOYS miniseries, available soon from Harlequin Heartwarming!
Keep reading for an excerpt from SHADOW ON THE FELLS by Eleanor Jones
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