Her Last Secret Sweetheart: Christian Cowboy Romance (Last Chance Ranch Romance Book 5)

by Liz Isaacson

  Worries started assaulting her. She couldn’t leave the ranch. Or California. Both had become sanctuaries for her, and—Scarlett pulled open the door.

  “Karla, thank the stars.” She pulled Karla into a tight hug and added, “What happened? Cache left?” She stepped back and held Karla at arm’s length. “He went to Shiloh Ridge.”

  “I know,” Karla said. “I haven’t heard from him or anything, so I don’t know when he’ll be back.” With an awful feeling in her stomach, she realized he might never come back. “He’ll come back, right?”

  “He told Dave he’d be back in time for the wedding,” Scarlett said, gesturing for Karla to come inside. “It’s so hot out there. Get in here so we can keep the air conditioning inside.”

  Karla stepped into the homestead at the same time her phone chimed. She glanced at it, her pulse shooting toward the stars. “It’s Cache.” She swiped and tapped, the anticipation building to astronomical proportions in the three seconds it took for his message to appear on the screen.

  Her hopes fell. “He just wants me to take care of the cattle and run cow cuddling.”

  “Hmm,” Scarlett said, heading into the kitchen. “Tea?”

  “It’s a million degrees outside.”

  “Chocolate milk then.” She stepped over to the fridge, and sure enough, she pulled out a gallon of chocolate milk. “I hate the stuff, but Hudson loves it.” She smiled at Karla. “We won’t tell him you had some. Besides, this situation calls for a lot of chocolate.” She reached for her phone. “And we better get Adele over here.”

  “Scarlett,” Karla said. “I want to go to Shiloh Ridge too.”

  The ranch owner smiled like she’d just gotten the greatest gift of her life, her fingers still flying over her screen as she texted Adele.

  “Should I?” Karla asked, her familiar doubts rearing their ugly heads. “I mean, I know you need—”

  “You should go,” Scarlett said, finally looking up from her phone. “If you feel like you should go, you should go.”

  “What do I say to him?” she asked, and Scarlett turned to get down a couple of glasses.

  “I can’t tell you that, but Adele is on her way over, and I’m sure she’ll have some opinions for you.” Scarlett laughed, and Karla was suddenly very, very thankful for her girlfriends on this ranch—the very ones she was worried would judge her and Cache’s relationship.

  “You didn’t start without me, did you?” Adele called as she entered the house. “I brought cookies.” She appeared with a plate full of treats and concern on her face. After handing the cookies to Scarlett, she hugged Karla and said, “Okay, we need a strategy for Shiloh Ridge….”

  Chapter 21

  Cache stayed in bed as long as he was able, which meant he was up and in the kitchen with his father by six o’clock in the morning.

  “Breakfast?” his dad asked, already pulling open the fridge. “Leo’s bringing over some muffins we had on the ranch yesterday.”

  Cache’s stomach seized at the idea of food. And at seeing Leo. He didn’t want to eat, and he didn’t want to talk.

  “Brenda is great, Dad,” he said, and his father turned toward him with a smile on his mouth but apprehension in his eyes.

  “Yeah? You liked her?”

  “A whole lot,” Cache said, lifting his coffee mug to his lips. “Are you going to marry her?”

  “I’ve been thinkin’ about it,” his dad said, cracking open an egg in each hand and letting it drop into a bowl. “She don’t want to live out on the ranch though, and it’s a twenty-minute drive.”

  “Maybe you should retire,” he said, and Leo entered the cabin through the back door just as Cache started the sentence.

  “That’s what I told him,” Leo said, setting a box of muffins down on the counter. “He doesn’t listen to me.”

  Cache wanted to scoff. His familiar feelings of never measuring up to Leo boiled to the surface no matter how he tried to cool them. He just looked at his brother and stirred his coffee.

  “Did you talk to Karla?” Leo asked, apparently oblivious to the vibes coming off of Cache. He got down his own mug and poured himself some coffee while their dad put a frying pan on the stove and got the flame going under it.

  “A little,” Cache said.

  “Then why are you here?” Leo asked.

  “Because I broke up with her.”

  Leo rolled his eyes. “Come on.”

  “You shouldn’t have been talking to her without me knowing,” Cache said.

  “We’re not fifteen anymore,” Leo said. “She wanted to have the perfect birthday party for you. Perfect, she said. I don’t know why it mattered to her so much, but it did.” He dumped too much sugar in his coffee and sat down at the table.

  Cache wanted to leave, and he realized now why he’d gone to California while his father and brother had come to Colorado. He loved his brother. He honestly did. But he didn’t want to compete with him anymore. Their relationship had improved drastically over the past two years they’d lived on separate ranches, and Cache had only now realized it.

  “Eggs,” his dad said, setting the pan between them. Cache felt like he’d been transported to the past, where he and Leo sat at the kitchen table on the dairy farm, arguing about something. Whether a cow needed to be put down. Or sold. Or the price at which they were willing to sell their milk.

  There was always something—even women, from time to time.

  And their dad had always cooked while they talked, set food in front of them, and then joined them, giving the advice they were both too stubborn to see.

  He didn’t like this version of himself and didn’t like that he felt trapped in this situation from the past.

  This morning, though, his father sat down and dished himself some eggs without saying anything. Even Leo looked at him like he’d sprouted a second head. Cache and Leo exchanged a glance, still waiting for the advice to drop.

  “I think I will ask Brenda to marry me,” their dad said, glancing up from his breakfast. “Why aren’t you eating?”

  “Aren’t you going to tell Cache what to do?” Leo asked. “Or me?” He picked up the bowl of scrambled eggs, but he simply held it without putting any on his plate.

  “Nope,” his dad said, and Cache didn’t like this break in the routine. Or maybe he did. He wasn’t sure. “But you better eat and then get on to your chores. Bear won’t tolerate any slack today, not after the week we’ve had.”

  Cache had kept up with the wolf attacks on the cattle here at Shiloh Ridge. He got along fine with Leo through texts, and when he didn’t have to coordinate with him to make decisions.

  “I can help,” Cache said, picking up his fork and taking the bowl of eggs from Leo.

  “You should go back to California,” Leo said.

  His dad shook his head. “No, he should go out to the front porch.”

  Cache put eggs on his plate, more confusion cutting through him than he could think through. “The porch?” he and Leo said at the same time.

  Leo beat him to the punch—just like always—and he strode across the cabin to the front window. Cache had started to get up, but he settled back into his chair. Let Leo take care of it. Leo always did.

  Perfect, wonderful, handsome Leo.

  Cache didn’t like the poisonous thoughts in his mind, and they made the eggs taste bad too.

  “Cache,” his dad said, leaning forward like his voice wouldn’t echo through the whole house. Behind them, Leo said something, but Cache didn’t hear him. His father wore so much earnestness in his expression that it completely captivated Cache.

  “What, Dad?”

  “Forget about Leo. He didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did Karla.”

  Cache sucked in a breath. “Dad.” He shook his head, his thoughts tumbling with the motion.

  “Trust me, son.” He leaned back. “Go eat your eggs out on the porch.” He dug back into his breakfast, the advice portion of the day obviously over.

  Cache
still hesitated, especially when Leo returned to the table and said, “There’s nothing out there, Dad.”

  His dad lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “All right.” He looked at Cache and put the last bite of eggs in his mouth. “I’m out to the fences this morning. I’ll see you two at dinner.”

  Ranching took all day, and the job was never done. Cache’s father loved it, though, and Cache always had too. He admired his dad for his work ethic, and he’d learned so much from him.

  He got to his feet and joined his dad at the kitchen sink. “Thanks for letting me crash here, Dad.” He hugged his father. “Be careful out on the fences.”

  “I will. Love you, son.” He took his hat from the peg by the back door and left Cache and Leo alone.

  Cache really didn’t want to talk about Karla with his brother, so he stopped by the table to grab his coffee, and then he went out onto the front porch like his dad had suggested. A rocking chair sat there, along with a small sidetable, perfect for holding mugs of coffee for a cowboy.

  He sighed as he settled into the rocking chair. “Could I move here?” he wondered aloud, but the feelings that overcame him felt like a dark storm. No, he would not be moving to Shiloh Ridge.

  Carson had come here after he and Adele had split up, and he’d liked it. But Carson’s older brother wasn’t here, with his perpetually long shadow and annoying habits of sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.

  Cache closed his eyes and prayed, hoping a solution would come forward in his mind. Karla had never responded to his text about taking care of the cows or canceling the cow cuddling sessions Cache would miss, and he didn’t like that.

  He wasn’t the type to leave his responsibilities unattended. But he wasn’t going to text her again. He also wasn’t the groveling type or the unkind type, though he had said something very mean to her before he’d left

  “Maybe I should apologize for that….” he muttered to himself. He pulled out his phone and looked at it at the same time the distinct sound of a car approaching the cabin entered his ears. His father lived down at the end of the lane, in a cabin surrounded almost entirely by pine trees, and no one had much of a reason to come down here.

  But someone was definitely coming. Cache had heard the tell-tale sound of tires on gravel enough to know.

  Sure enough, a gray sedan poked through the trees, easing to a stop with several yards to go.

  Cache peered at the driver, but he couldn’t see through the glare on the front windshield. He wasn’t sure they could see him up on the porch either, as the eaves on the cabins here were low and thick, great for keeping the snow on the roof instead of falling to the ground.

  Karla got out of the car.

  Cache’s heart stopped.

  She looked left and right and down at her phone before focusing on the cabin again. So she definitely couldn’t see him, and part of him wished he could rock backward and right through the wall so he could run out the back door and avoid her.

  At the same time, nothing in him wanted to avoid her.

  He found himself standing. Their eyes met, and Karla lifted one hand in a half-hearted wave. She didn’t smile, and she didn’t take a step. She wore jeans that might as well have been painted on, with a mustard yellow blouse with flowers all over it.

  Her hair was stunning as it flowed over her shoulders and with those cowgirl boots on, Cache’s blood started heating and pumping and zipping through his body.

  Karla was here.

  Karla wasn’t going to let him walk out of her life.

  For some reason, that made Cache happier than he’d thought it would, and he moved to the top of the steps. Then down them. He paused there and blinked. Yep, she was still there.

  “Do you have a couple of minutes to talk?” she asked, her voice getting swallowed by the huge Rocky Mountains and all the trees surrounding them.

  He nodded, because he couldn’t seem to get his voice to work. Karla moved then, coming closer and closer to him. When she stood only a few feet away, she stalled and looked up at him, neither one of them saying a word.

  Chapter 22

  Karla’s pulse took all of her concentration. All of her body’s brain power. She’d made it to Shiloh Ridge, and Cache was standing right in front of her.

  “Are you going to say anything?” he asked.

  Karla had never said a whole lot. She showed. Her coming all this way should mean something to him, and by the way he gazed at her with that soft glint in his eye, it did.

  “I didn’t want to wait for you to come back on Sunday,” she said. “I asked Scarlett to take care of the cows, and she said she would.”

  He nodded, glancing to his right where something crunched in the woods. Karla didn’t like all the trees, how closed in this ranch felt. She took another step toward Cache.

  “I know you said you didn’t love me, and that’s fine. Really, it is.” She pressed her fingertips together, trying to get both sides of her brain to cooperate with one another. “I wanted you to know how I feel about you, because I don’t always say it in words.”

  “You’re here,” he said while she took a breath to continue.

  The air stuck in her lungs. “Yeah,” she said, her next sentence flying out of her brain. “I’m here.”

  “Karla.” He reached out and brushed his fingers along hers. “I know you do things to show how you feel. I know that.” He ducked his head, concealing his eyes from her. “I said some mean things. Things I didn’t mean.”

  Karla’s stomach quaked, the memory of those words so fresh and so cutting.

  “I’m sorry.” He lifted his eyes to hers. “I just…Leo is a trigger for me, and I thought you knew that.”

  Karla did know that, but she couldn’t get her voice to work. She’d cried enough since he’d left yesterday, and if Adele hadn’t been with her at the airport, she’d probably be sitting in her cabin at Last Chance Ranch instead of here in front of him.

  “Hey, don’t cry,” he said, wiping her calloused hand across her cheek.

  Karla sniffed and stepped back. She didn’t even know she’d started crying. Wiping at her eyes, she said, “I like being your girlfriend. I liked it when we were secret, but I like it when we’re not too.”

  His mouth curved slightly. “I sense a but.”

  “No buts,” she said. “I’m also not going to keep any more secrets from you. No surprises. Nothing.” She just wanted him to come back. She hadn’t even realized how big of a piece of her heart he’d claimed until he wasn’t there. She felt hollow without him, without his gentle influence in her life, without the peace he’d brought her by not judging her for her past.

  “I like surprises,” he said. “Just not secrets.”

  “Well, you blew the party,” she said, feeling more normal. A laugh burst out of her mouth, but more tears streamed down her face. “I’m so sorry, Cache,” she said, her voice choked and too high.

  “It’s okay.” He gathered her into his strong embrace and held her close. She seized onto that peace, that forgiveness he always so freely gave. “I don’t think you cheated on me with Leo,” he said softly. “But that’s how I felt. I sort of went crazy. I just…I don’t think you’ll do that. Honest, I don’t.”

  Karla nodded against his chest. “I love you.”

  “And I love you.” He put a few inches between them but kept his hands on her waist. His hat bumped her forehead, and she reached up and took it off. He kissed her then, and Karla had never been happier that she’d left California.

  He didn’t kiss her long, and Karla laid her cheek against his chest. “I want to take you home to meet my family,” she whispered.

  “Yeah?” he asked. “No secrets with them?”

  “No.” She stepped out of his arms and pulled her phone from her pocket. “And I want you to read the texts I sent to Leo.”

  “Karla, I don’t need to do that.”

  “But I need you to do it,” she said. “I didn’t delete a single one, and I did talk to him on th
e phone twice, but I swear we just talked about you.” She shook her phone at him when he wouldn’t take it.

  He wore a look of doubt on his face, but he finally took her device. His hand fell to his side. “I don’t care what you said to him. I—”

  “I know you, Cache,” she interrupted. “You do care, number one. And number two, Leo didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.” She pressed one palm to his heart. “I do know you.” She backed up a step, then another. “I’m going to go get breakfast, and I’ll be back in a little bit.” With that, she turned and walked back to the rental car.

  Cache still stood there on the gravel in front of his father’s cabin when she backed up. But he was looking at her phone, that cowboy hat hiding his expression from her.

  Didn’t matter. Karla knew he needed to see the texts, and she was glad she’d insisted he look at them. She knew what secret communication did to people—it had ruined her marriage. She should’ve known better than to open the channels of communication between her and Leo. Maybe she was naïve to think Cache wouldn’t mind.

  He had told her that story about his brother, but she hadn’t internalized it enough.

  “Obviously,” she told herself as she drove the narrow roads back to the epicenter of the ranch. When her tires finally met asphalt, relief spread through her. Colorado was beautiful, and the town of Shiloh Ridge felt like something out of a Christmas postcard. Even in August, there were wreaths on the lampposts and a huge Christmas tree next to an old, red-brick building in the center of town.

  Right next to that, the diner Carson had told her about had a line of people waiting outside it. Carson had told her she’d be tempted to go somewhere else, and she should resist that. So she parked down the street a little ways and walked back to join the line.

  It had moved inside now, and Carson was right. Things moved quickly there, and she didn’t need a table anyway. Once through the door, she spotted the to-go line and stepped over to it.

  She felt a little out of sorts without her phone to keep her occupied. Glancing around the diner, she found the place lively and vibrant, full of the scent of bacon, cowboys, and hot coffee. She wanted all three, and she smiled to herself at the very idea of making a lasting relationship with Cache.