by B. J Daniels
He instantly imagined sitting in front of a roaring fire with his feet up and Kayley next to him.
“I heard you sold the place,” Kayley said, vaporizing the image of the two of them before the fire.
“It’s not definite yet.”
She raised a brow. “Waiting for a better offer?”
He took off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair. “Maybe,” he said as he settled his hat back on his head.
She smiled, but there was a sadness to it. “Race you to the ridge.” She spurred her horse and took off at a gallop.
He charged after her, galloping through the dried golden grass, dust billowing up under his horse’s hooves. He heard her laughing as he raced to catch up to her. She sounded out of breath when he finally caught her as they scrambled up a small hill and reined in their horses.
The view from the ridge had always been one of his favorites. He stared out now, Kayley on her horse beside him, and felt his heart kick up a beat at her closeness.
He could see his ranch and hers, the land running wild to the horizon.
His heart began to beat a little faster. How could he leave this place that meant so much to him? Leave this woman again?
“Kayley—”
“I think we should quit meeting like this.” Her voice broke. “Don’t say something you’ll regret later. Please.”
He slid off his horse and pulled her to the ground and into his arms. “Kayley.” He smothered her protests with a kiss. She fought it for a moment, then softened in his arms, kissing him back as if she thought this might be the last time she ever kissed him.
And then she was pulling away, swinging back up onto her horse and riding away in a cloud of dust. He stood watching her go, the breeze smelling of fall and the coming storm. He feared that would be the last time he would kiss her, maybe even the last time he saw her.
When he checked his cell phone, he found a message from his boss. He was needed back as soon as possible—if he was physically able to do the job. He rubbed his aching leg, but it was his aching heart that was the problem.
When his cell rang, he thought it would be about work.
“You missed your appointment yesterday.”
At first Jace didn’t recognize the woman’s voice.
“To sign the papers for your property?”
He swore. He’d completely forgotten that he was supposed to be in town at two to sign papers. “Something came up. I should have called.”
“You forgot.” The Realtor sounded disbelieving. “You’re the one who wanted to push this through right away. The buyer has been very accommodating.”
Yeah, the buyer. Ty Reynolds.
She sighed. “What would be a good time to reschedule? How about this afternoon. Say, four?”
“Sure.”
“Mr. Dennison, if you’re hoping for another offer—”
“No. I’ll be there.” He hung up.
TY HADN’T GIVEN ANY MORE thought to the woman he’d seen watching Kayley’s house.
He’d been too focused on getting Jace Dennison out of town. He’d nearly lost his mind when Jace hadn’t shown up to sign the papers yesterday. Now the Realtor was calling to reschedule?
What the hell was going on? According to the Realtor, Jace had been anxious to sell.
“Does he want more money? Is that it?” he demanded.
“I don’t think that’s it,” the Realtor said. “Apparently he just forgot the appointment.”
Like hell.
“He rescheduled for this afternoon. If you could stop by about four.”
“Fine. I want this settled.”
“I’m sure we can get it all taken care of then,” the Realtor assured him.
Except that after he hung up, Ty wasn’t assured at all. Was Jace changing his mind?
Kayley. Of course it was about her. Jace was stringing her along. Once he sold the land, she would know he wasn’t staying around. But as long as it was in limbo…
He was driving back from checking cattle on his ranch when he drove through the small town of Saco and spotted a silver SUV parked in front of O’Brien’s Café. The license plate was out of Billings, and there was a rental sticker on the window.
Even as he turned in and parked, Ty told himself that this was a bad idea. What would be the point of getting into a fight with Jace Dennison? It wouldn’t make any points with Kayley, that was for sure.
But at that moment, he didn’t give a damn. He was too angry to even care if confronting Jace cost him the property. He just wanted the satisfaction of telling him what a bastard he thought he was.
But as he pushed open the door to the café, he saw at a glance that Jace Dennison wasn’t there. Stepping next door to the attached bar, he looked around, wondering how many silver rental SUVs there were.
At least two, he realized as he spotted a familiar face at the far end of the bar.
“Nice to see you again,” Ty said as he slid onto the bar stool next to the woman he’d seen watching Kayley’s house.
She raised a brow but said nothing as she picked up her drink and took a sip.
“A woman after my own heart,” he said and told the bartender he’d take what the lady was having.
“Who said I was a lady?”
He chuckled as he took a good look at the woman. With chin-length dark hair cut in a bob and wide, golden brown eyes, she was strikingly attractive. Her jeans and T-shirt hugged some very interesting curves.
“I get the feeling we have a lot in common,” Ty said after the bartender slid a margarita in front of him. “What shall we drink to?”
“What makes you think I want to drink with you?” she asked coyly.
“Apparently, other than margaritas, we have Kayley Mitchell in common. I saw you spying on her the other night.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. So, what do we drink to?” he asked again, holding up his glass.
“Getting to know each other better,” she said and gently touched her glass to his. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Ty. Ty Reynolds.”
She smiled. “Nice to meet you, Ty. You can call me Eva.”
Chapter Nine
Kayley was furious with herself. Back at the house, she sat down and finished off the cake from the previous night. It didn’t make her feel any better.
She wasn’t angry at herself for kissing Jace. She actually smiled as she scraped the cake pan and took the last bite before carrying the pan over to the sink. She loved kissing Jace, loved making love with him, simply loved him.
But Ty was right about one thing: she felt herself getting drawn back in. From the moment she knew he would be coming home and that she would probably see him, Kayley had been clear on one point: she wasn’t going to let Jace break her heart again.
She really had believed she was prepared to not let that happen. But she’d let him get closer than she’d planned. Now the thought of never seeing him again made her ache inside.
She touched her lips with her fingertips, remembering the kiss, remembering the look in his eyes, and snatched up the phone.
“I think Jace is having doubts about leaving, and it is making me crazy,” she said the moment her friend Shawna answered.
“Didn’t I warn you that this was going to happen? You have to stay away from him.”
“How do you suggest I do that in a town the size of Whitehorse? I was out riding my horse—”
“Where you and Jace used to ride together? Kayley!”
“I didn’t know he would be there. I’m telling you the truth. I got the feeling he’d left his cowboy days behind him.”
“Apparently not. When is he leaving?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t you have a four-day weekend starting tomorrow?”
Teachers got two personal days this week, which meant the students did, too.
“Tell Jace that you’re going away,” Shawna said. “Far enough that there is no chance he is going to find you.”
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“I can’t leave right now. I have way too much to do here to get ready for the holidays and school and—”
“But Jace doesn’t know that. Hide your pickup in the garage. Don’t answer your phone. It will be a good test for both of you.”
Shawna had a point. It would also keep Ty away. She would tell everyone she was going to Billings to stay with a friend down there and shop.
“You will both have time to think about what is really going on,” her friend said.
Kayley nodded to herself, even though she knew that when she surfaced again Jace could be gone. But it was for the best. “I’ll do it.”
The first call she placed was to one of the biggest gossips in town. Then she called Andi. She thought about calling Jace, but decided it would be best if he heard it through someone else and asked Andi to have Cade tell Jace, if he wouldn’t mind.
When she called Ty, he didn’t pick up. She didn’t leave a message.
JACE WAS SURPRISED WHEN he reined in at his corral to find Cade waiting for him.
“I brought over some tamales Andi made,” his friend said as he watched Jace unsaddle his horse. “I thought we could have an early supper.”
They sat down in the shade of the back patio and ate the still-warm tamales with a couple of cold beers that Cade had also bought.
“Why don’t you tell me why you really stopped by?” Jace asked after they’d eaten.
“I’m sorry about the other night after dinner at the house,” Cade said. “I was out of the line. The women gave me hell.”
Jace laughed. “You were right.” He took a breath and let it go as he looked out across the pasture. “I’m still in love with Kayley.”
His friend laughed. “Like that is a surprise to anyone.”
“I don’t want her waiting for me again.”
“Have you told her that?” Cade asked.
Now it was Jace’s turn to laugh. “Hell, she’s the one who told me. Not in so many words, but she’s determined not to hear how I feel about her.”
Cade shook his head and finished his beer.
“I went for a horseback ride earlier,” Jace said into the silence. “I thought I no longer had any connection to this place, this land. It made me sad to think about selling it.”
“You know, if I had this land, I’d tear down both houses. I think it would save money in the long run since neither is energy efficient. That rise over there would be a great place to build a house,” Cade said. “Nice view of the river. Bet that field would be full of whitetail deer in the mornings during hunting season.”
“Are you thinking about making an offer?” Jace asked, pretending he didn’t know what his friend was saying.
“What will you do with the money from the sale?” Cade asked.
“If you’re asking if I need the money, I don’t. I haven’t taken up gambling or drugs or expensive hobbies.”
“No, I would imagine you travel light,” Cade agreed. “Maybe you should stay away from her until you figure a few things out.”
“Yeah.” He thought about seeing her riding toward him, about the kiss on the high ridge, about watching her ride away. He knew whatever decision he made this time, there would be no going back.
His friend sighed. “I brought over supper because I had a message for you from Kayley via Andi. She’s taking off for a few days. She told Andi, who told me to tell you.”
Jace chuckled. “So that’s what the tamales were about. I should always get my news via tamales, then. They were delicious. Thank Andi for me.”
He didn’t need Andi or Cade to tell him why Kayley was leaving. She expected him to be gone before she got back. She didn’t want to see him again.
He knew that was probably for the best. So why did he feel as if he’d been kicked in the chest by a horse? “Is Ty going with her?” he managed to ask around the lump that had formed in his throat.
Cade shrugged as he got to his feet. “It’s been nice having you back in town.”
“Yeah, it was,” Jace said, rising to shake his friend’s hand.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Cade said.
Jace nodded, but he feared it was. Even if Kayley could forgive him for what he did to her twelve years ago, he wasn’t sure he could forgive himself.
VIRGINIA FOUND HER MOTHER in the parlor, staring into the fire that burned on the grate. She often found Pepper Winchester like this.
If she had had to guess what her mother was thinking about, she would have figured Trace. Virginia had come to understand since being here that her mother would never get over her youngest son’s murder.
“Mind if I join you?” she asked.
Pepper looked up. It took her a moment to focus on her only daughter. Virginia was the oldest of the five siblings, and she and her mother had never been close.
Had she thought that coming back to the ranch might change that, Virginia would have been sorely disappointed.
Her mother motioned to the chair next to her. “I heard there is a winter storm warning. Has it started to snow yet?”
“No. Not until later. But something is definitely blowing in.” This was the kind of conversation they often had. The weather was the only thing they could talk about without arguing.
“I don’t mind the snow,” Pepper said. “It’s that darned wind. It always blows in the road, and without Alfred here to run the plow—”
“I can run the plow.”
Her mother looked over at her, clearly amused. “You?”
“You’ve always underestimated me, Mother. Haven’t you wondered how I managed to survive the past twenty-seven years without you and the Winchester money?” She waved a hand through the air as if swatting away that particular topic.
“That is not what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said before she and her mother could get into a fight.
“Let me guess—you want to talk about money.”
Virginia smiled ruefully. That was always at the heart of it—the Winchester fortune—if there was any left.
“In a way, that is what I wanted to talk to you about,” she admitted. “But not in the way you think. I want you to acknowledge my son.”
Pepper had turned her attention back to the fire but now swiveled around to stare at her daughter.
“I want Jace to have whatever you might have left me,” she said.
Pepper seemed speechless.
“I know you think the only reason I came back was because I thought you were dying and wanted my share of whatever is left here,” Virginia said. “I wasn’t fighting for the money. I was fighting for my place in this family, and I equated that with getting a fair share of the inheritance.”
Her mother started to speak, but she stopped her.
“Jace Dennison is my son. I don’t want him to feel left out the way I have my whole life. He’s a Winchester. I want you to promise me that you will accept him—if not now, then on your deathbed.”
“You would give up your share of the Winchester fortune for your son?” Pepper asked, sounding astonished.
Virginia rose to her feet. “Do I have your promise?”
“Yes,” her mother said, looking at her as if seeing her for the first time.
WHEN JACE HEADED INTO town to the Realtor’s office later that afternoon, he noticed that Kayley’s pickup was gone, the blinds closed, no sign of life.
She must have already left on her trip.
All his instincts told him not to do this, as he parked in front of the real estate office and sat asking himself what the hell he was doing.
After a few moments, he got out and went inside.
“I know I’m late but we need to talk,” he told his Realtor as she led him into her office and closed the door.
“Yes, we do,” she agreed, not sounding happy. “The buyer didn’t show this afternoon.”
He stared at her. “He backed out?”
She shrugged. “Maybe he’s just trying to get back at you for not showing up yesterday and
accepting his offer, or maybe he’s changed his mind. I personally thought his offer was a little high.”
Jace laughed; he couldn’t help himself.
“I’m sorry, but I fail to see what is funny about all this.”
“I was just sitting outside trying to talk myself into going through with this deal.”
“Well, now there is no deal, apparently.”
“My point exactly.” He stood to leave. “Looks like things have taken care of themselves.”
“You would be a fool to take your property off the market right now,” she said.
“Believe me, it won’t be the first time I’ve been a fool. Or probably the last.”
“I’m sure the buyer will come back with another offer,” she said. “Why don’t you let me try to get hold of him again? He doesn’t seem to be answering his cell phone, but I’m sure—”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve decided I’m going to hang on to the property for the time being,” Jace said. Staying in Whitehorse wouldn’t be easy. He’d have to accept that he was a Winchester.
But he wasn’t worried about any of that right now. Fighting to get Kayley back was going to be the hard part.
AS TY LOOKED AT THE WOMAN on the barstool next to him, he wondered what he’d ever seen in Kayley. She’d always been in love with Jace Dennison. Why had he spent years waiting for her to get over him?
It made no sense, especially when a woman like the one sitting next to him was so beautiful and interested in him—if her hand on his thigh was any indication.
“Let’s have another drink, then get out of here,” she whispered in his ear.
“Sounds good to me.” He was all grins. Even the bartender was giving him a look like he was one lucky SOB.
“You never told me why you were watching Kayley Mitchell’s house,” he said, realizing he was starting to feel the drinks he’d consumed.
“Maybe it wasn’t her I was watching,” she said with a come-hither look.
“Me?”
“I’ve always wanted a cowboy.”
He laughed, delighted. “Well, honey, that’s just what I am.” Not a rodeo cowboy like Jace had been. No, Ty had been too busy actually cowboying on his old man’s spread. “Want to guess how many cattle I run?”
