by Kate Pearce
“Nope. You’ll get to meet her and the rest of the family at Thanksgiving. We’ve been invited to dinner.”
“How old is she?” Jackson was still focused on Rachel. “She must be in her twenties, right?”
“Twenty-three, I think.” Cauy shrugged as if it didn’t matter much to him. “She’s the one who found Grace, and as she’s only at the ranch for the holidays, I offered to keep the dog here.”
“This is the Rachel who is very impressed with you?” Jackson asked, waggling his eyebrows.
“No, she was impressed that I had all the stuff ready when we brought Grace home the other night.” Cauy helped himself to more coffee. “Speaking of which, I’m only letting Grace out in the fenced yard behind the house at the moment because I don’t want her running off again.”
“Got it.” Jackson sat back, and Cauy heaved a small sigh of relief. “Do you mind if I go through the stuff in the farm office and try and make some sense of it?”
“Be my guest. You know that organization has never been my thing.”
“There is also a pile of boxes currently taking up all the space in my closet.”
“We can go through them as well if you like.” Cauy checked the time. “I don’t have anything planned for today.” Like riding over and telling Rachel Morgan he’d made a terrible mistake and didn’t want to just be friends . . .
Jackson finished his coffee and dumped the mug in the sink. He was never one to sit around worrying about possibilities. “Then let’s get started. Maybe we’ll find a few million bucks hidden somewhere.”
“That would be good.”
Jackson took Cauy’s mug and rinsed it out. “You’re short of money? What did you do? Piss it away?”
“Not exactly.” Cauy winced. “Remember Lorelei got half of everything, and I’m still restructuring my company to reflect that.”
“Basically, you’re pulling the ‘my money’s all tied up’ defense and expecting poor old me to pay for everything?” Jackson joked.
“That’s right.” Cauy threw the dish towel at his brother’s head. “If you find that million bucks, we won’t have to worry about it, will we?”
Two hours later, they were knee deep in paperwork. Cauy was pining for a sight of the sky while Jackson was really getting into it.
“Hey, I had a thought.”
Cauy turned to look up at his brother, who was sitting at the desk while Cauy sat on the floor. “That we should just make a huge bonfire and get rid of all this crap?”
“No, you’ll need it for your accountant,” Jackson tutted, and shook his head. “Is Kim still working for you?”
“He’s my lawyer, not my accountant, but they work closely together, why?”
“Because I was just wondering whether Dad’s hating the Morgans has anything to do with you. Didn’t you say Kim was checking into some financial stuff about the Morgans for you?”
“He was, so what?”
Jackson held up a ledger. “Until Mom married Dad, the relationship between the Morgans and our ranch was cordial and financially productive. After they married, Dad took against the Morgans and refused to work with them anymore.”
“What’s that got to do with me?” Cauy asked.
“Don’t be dumb.” Jackson sat forward in the chair. “What if Dad knew or thought he knew that one of the Morgans, probably Billy, was actually your father?” Jackson chuckled. “That would certainly explain why he hated their guts.”
As Cauy’s whole world rocked and rolled, he put his hand on the floor to steady himself before shooting to his feet.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” he croaked.
“You okay?” Jackson reached for Cauy even as he ran past him. “I don’t really believe that, dude, it was just idle speculation.”
Cauy kept going as the implications of Jackson’s suggestion hammered into his brain until he reached his truck, got in, and drove away as if the hounds of hell were pursuing him.
He drove upward, away from the county road and toward the boundary fence that bordered the silver mine. There was nobody up there except a few ghosts, and that was all the company he could deal with right now.
Turning off the engine, he braced his crossed arms on the steering wheel and stared out into the white wispy fog.
Rachel . . .
He fumbled in his pocket for his cell phone and then realized he’d left it charging in the kitchen at the ranch. When he got back—if he ever went back—should he call his mom and ruin her Thanksgiving by asking if Jackson was correct?
He tried to force himself to think. If Billy knew Cauy was his son he would never have allowed Rachel to get close to him. But what if Billy didn’t know? Cauy was roughly the same age as Blue Boy. No one had ever suggested that Billy had been unfaithful to his wife.... The fact that Billy had gone to pieces after Annie and Rachel had disappeared didn’t indicate he was the kind of man who was glad to get rid of his wife.
Cauy jumped as a truck with its headlights on full beam flashed its lights at him. Had Jackson come after him? He stayed in the truck as two people got out and came toward him. He couldn’t see who they were in the glare of the lights, but he had a terrible suspicion he knew who it was going to be.
Those damn Morgans got everywhere.
Chase tapped on his window. “Are you okay, Cauy?”
Cauy didn’t dare look to his left as he caught a glimpse of Rachel’s worried face behind Chase’s.
He reluctantly rolled down his window.
“Hey. I came to check the GPR units were still in place, but I can’t see anything for the fog.”
“We did the same.” Chase’s easy smile didn’t make Cauy feel any better. “Do you want to come back and see the footage we’ve gotten so far? It’s really cool.”
“I wish I could, but my brother’s just arrived, and we’ve got fourteen horses to deal with in the barn.” Cauy kept his attention firmly on Chase.
“That’s a shame,” Rachel said. “I thought you’d enjoy it.”
He couldn’t even look at her.
Chase stepped back. “Never mind. You’re coming over on Thursday, so you can see it then. Drive safely. This fog is getting thicker by the minute.”
“Will do.” Cauy gave a perfunctory nod. “See you then.” He shut the window. He waited until the two figures got back in their truck, and then backed up and turned around. He had to go home. Jackson would want an explanation, but Cauy wasn’t sure he had one to give.
Chapter Fourteen
“This is Yvonne’s.” Cauy held the door open so that Jackson could squeeze inside the busy coffee shop. “Take a seat if you can find one, and I’ll get some coffee.”
“Thanks.” Jackson took control of the huge pile of mail Cauy had liberated from the post office. “Get me a slice of cherry pie while you’re at it, okay?”
“Sure.”
By the time Cauy got to the table, Jackson had already acquired a friend.
“Ry was here all on his own, and he invited me to sit with him.” Jackson made space on the table for the two coffees. “I was just asking what we should bring with us to Thanksgiving.”
Cauy hadn’t even thought about that. Sometimes he felt like since the accident some of the civilized parts of his brain had never restarted.
“Trust me.” Ry smiled. “We don’t need anything. My grandma’s a professional.” He looked back toward the door. “But you can ask her yourself, if you like.”
Cauy turned his head to see the trifecta of doom approaching the table—Ruth, Billy, and Rachel.
He cleared his throat. “Hey, Jackson, maybe we should move and let these good people have the table to themselves?”
Jackson gave him a funny look. “There’s plenty of room if we just add another chair.”
Ruth was all smiles as she sat down between Cauy and Jackson.
“How lovely to see you boys in town.” She patted Jackson’s arm. “And how are you? It’s so nice to see you again.”
“It’s a pleasure to see you t
oo, Mrs. Morgan.” Jackson kissed her cheek. “I hear you’ve been looking out for my big brother.”
“Well, he was all alone up there so someone had to take him under their wing.” Ruth beamed at Cauy. “And he’s been very helpful, what with the mine, and the horses, and Rachel’s dog. . . .”
Jackson turned his killer smile on Rachel. “It’s good to meet you. You obviously have great taste in dogs.”
“Just got lucky, I guess,” Rachel said. “It was nice of your brother to take her in.”
Billy held out his hand. “Good to meet you, Jackson. I remember you from when the twins were at school.”
“Yeah, I think you had the misfortune to coach our baseball team one summer.” Jackson winced. “We were absolutely terrible, but we had a lot of fun.”
“So are you planning on staying at the ranch?” Billy asked.
“I’ll be there for a while. I just got out of the Air Force and I promised Cauy I’d help him set the place to rights.” Jackson shuddered. “We spent all day yesterday sorting out the ranch office. You wouldn’t believe the stuff we found.” He half turned to Cauy and asked, “Shall I tell them how I freaked you out?”
“Please don’t.” Cauy glared at Jackson.
“What did you do?” Billy asked Jackson. “Cauy doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who gets freaked out.”
Jackson leaned forward. “I was speculating about a family mystery, and—”
“You’re not going to talk about it right now, are you?” Cauy said swiftly. “I’m sure the Morgans don’t want to hear about it.”
“Cauy, lighten up,” Jackson said, patting his arm. “The whole idea is so absurd that maybe we just need to get it out in the open and disprove my stupid theory once and for all.”
That was the trouble with Jackson, Cay thought savagely. He was stubborn as a mule, and thought “honesty was the best policy.” All the Morgans were staring at them now and Cauy had a terrible sense of impending disaster.
Jackson carried on flapping his gums. “You know our parents married very young, and Cauy was born six months after the wedding?”
Ruth and Billy nodded, their amusement replaced by cautious interest.
“Dad never liked Cauy, and we always wondered whether Mom had only married Mark because she was pregnant by another man.”
Silence fell, broken only by other people’s happy conversations and the clink of coffee cups and plates. Cauy wished he could fold himself up small and disappear under the table.
“What did your mother say about that?” Ruth finally asked.
“She wouldn’t tell us anything. But Dad hinted at it all the time.” Jackson looked from Cauy to Billy. “Seeing as Dad only started hating the Morgans after his marriage I wondered whether there was some connection.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’m not sure why Cauy freaked out at the very idea, but there it is.”
Cauy’s gaze was inevitably drawn to Rachel’s so he had an excellent view of when she put two and two together and came up with the same answer he had.
“You wondered if . . . Billy was Cauy’s father?” Ruth asked faintly.
“Yup.” Jackson nodded and looked expectantly around the table.
“Not possible.” Billy sat back, his blue eyes clear and unwavering. “I swear I never looked at another woman when Annie was my wife.” He turned to Cauy. “I did hear rumors about Anita back then, but she was my friend, so I ignored them and wished her happy when she chose to marry Mark. Does that make you feel better, Cauy?”
Rachel shot to her feet and stomped out of the café.
Jackson raised his eyebrows. “What did I say?”
But Cauy didn’t have time to answer his stupid brother; he was already chasing Rachel down.
* * *
“Stupid, stupid, idiotic stupid, stupid MEN!” Rachel muttered as she strode along the boardwalk toward the parking lot. “STUPID!”
She had reached her truck before she heard someone calling her name and swung around, still snarling, which certainly made Cauy Lymond back up fast. “What?”
He held up his hands. “Okay, I can understand that sounded bad, but—”
She took a step toward him. “I. Don’t. Care. Go away and bother some other poor woman, why don’t you? You told me you were worried Mark wasn’t your father so why didn’t you add the last bit?”
“I didn’t even think about that possibility until Jackson opened his big mouth!” Cauy shot right back at her.
“Are you sure that’s why you decided not to have sex with me?” Rachel demanded.
“Hell no! You were the one who walked away from that. I had no idea Jackson was going to come up with that stupid story and blurt it out at Yvonne’s!”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Rachel shook her head. “It’s just a symptom of the whole. I am done with you and your stupid, infuriating ability not to talk to me!”
She stamped her foot so hard she almost bit her tongue.
He stood there silently, and she wanted to smack him real bad.
“Go. Away, Cauy.”
He squared up to her. “What do you goddamn want me to tell you?”
She blinked at him as snow began to fall. “Everything! Don’t you get it?”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t live all inside yourself! You can’t deliberately cut yourself off from any emotion and feeling.”
“Okay.” He moved so fast she was up against the side of her truck before she even reacted, his hard body covering hers, shielding her from sight. He leaned down, his hat blocking the snow, and one arm braced over her head.
“After my accident, I wasn’t doing too well. I was badly burned, I had headaches and flashbacks that made me feel like I was right back watching the damn oil burst out of the well at high pressure—except this time it was in slow motion, and I still couldn’t stop it happening.”
He drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
“I had nightmares. So I went to see a shrink and talked, and talked, trying to make things right. I took every pill they threw at me, and life became a blur of pain and hospitals, and desperation. I lost myself somewhere.”
Rachel struggled to bring her hand up to his scarred cheek.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I want . . .” He buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I came back here to start again.”
Rachel slid her hand around the back of his neck and just held on to him, her heart racing and her mind furiously trying to decide what to say. Did he have a point? When did talking things through lose its value if you wouldn’t or couldn’t change the past?
There was so much she wanted to say to him right now about all the other stuff, but how could she when all she really wanted to do was hold him tight and tell him that everything was going to be all right?
He eased slightly away from her so that he could look down into her face.
“You’re smart, and bright, and full of positivity and I just can’t stop coming back to you.” He kissed her hard. “You’re the best thing in my life right now, and I don’t want to ruin it.”
“How about we just try?” Rachel whispered. “Maybe you won’t?”
He stared at her for a long moment and then kissed her until she forgot how to breathe. Melted snow dripped down her neck and she shivered.
“This won’t work,” Cauy groaned. “Come home with me?”
“What about Jackson?” Rachel asked.
“After airing our dirty laundry in public he can damn well walk.” Cauy grabbed her hand. “Come on.”
His truck was close by, and fifteen minutes later they were at his ranch. He kept hold of her hand as they went through the kitchen and the dog woofed a welcome.
“But I haven’t said hi to Grace!” Rachel said.
“Later. No more interruptions.”
Cauy kept going until she was in his room and could admire his new bedding up close and personal. He locked the door and turned back to her, his expression so damned hot that she
almost melted on the spot. As if in a dream she walked into his arms and kissed him, her hands tugging at his jacket, his fleece, and his T-shirt until with a stifled groan he pulled everything off over his head.
His hands were equally busy, and soon she was down to her bra and panties with him just in boxers. He held her so close she could feel every throbbing inch of him against her stomach.
“Don’t stop now.” She bit his ear. “I’d rather not have Jackson knocking on the door.”
The arm around her hips tightened, and he walked her backward toward the bed.
“Nice sheets,” Rachel gasped.
“Yeah.” He followed her down and straddled her. “Even better with you on them.”
He kissed his way down her throat to her breasts and lingered there, teasing her nipple through her bra with his teeth as his callused hands explored even lower. Rachel couldn’t stay still, her fingers tangling in the curls at the nape of his neck and scratching slow circles on his scarred shoulder that made him shiver.
“I want you.” He reared over her, his gaze intent. “I can’t promise you anything right now, but—”
“Stop talking.” She grabbed hold of his head and brought him back down to her.
“First time you’ve ever told me to shut up.” He nuzzled her throat and kissed her so slowly she wanted to die of lust. His hand slid beneath the cotton of her panties, teasing and testing her most intimate flesh until her hips bucked insistently against the palm of his hand.
He eased himself lower until her thighs were spread wide and removed her already damp panties. Knowing how good she was shortly going to feel, Rachel let out a purr of pure anticipation. He groaned as he flicked his tongue against her and slid one finger deep making her come so fast she almost couldn’t deal with it.
She shoved hard on his shoulder until he raised his head, his gaze so steamy she wanted to come again.
“Do you have protection?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t, but I bet Jackson does.” Cauy back crawled off the bed. “Don’t answer your phone.”
He was back so fast she barely had time to unhook her bra and throw it onto the rug to join the rest of their scattered clothes. He straddled her and ripped the foil packet open with his teeth before shoving down his boxers.
