by Cora Seton
She was all sensation. Tightening. Aching. Longing—until she exploded in ecstasy. Wave after wave of glorious delight washed through her, making her cry out again and again until Noah slammed against her, grunting his release.
When they finally collapsed, breathing hard, Olivia laughing with the sheer wonder of it all, she wished she never had to leave. How could anyone object to her being with this man? He was obviously meant for her.
In a flash of clarity, she realized she was going about this all wrong. She kept waiting for permission to follow her heart—from people who would never give it to her.
Instead she needed to make a decision. Which was more important—to be a Cooper or to be with Noah?
She didn’t need to make up her mind right now, but she would soon, no matter what happened between their families.
Chapter Eleven
“I was beginning to think you’d run out on me,” Noah said bluntly when he took Brandon’s call the next morning. He was in the stable getting ready for a ride, but this was more important. He’d parted reluctantly from Olivia last night after spending a couple of hours with her. It was getting harder and harder to let her leave.
“I wasn’t due for a meeting until today.”
Noah’s grip on his phone tightened. “But you’d been checking in more often.” He stroked a hand down Warning’s neck. Would he see Olivia tonight?
“Fat lot of good that was doing me.”
“Let’s meet.” He needed to see Brandon face to face.
“I’ll be at Linda’s Diner at one.” Brandon hung up before Noah could suggest they meet somewhere else. Somewhere Christie wasn’t.
“Hell, Warning. Can’t one thing go right?”
Warning flicked an ear as if it was a pointless question. Noah had to agree. Life seemed full of trouble these days, but as he hopped up into the saddle and set Warning walking down a trail, his spirits lifted. He couldn’t help think back to his time with Olivia last night. How sexy she’d been. How it had felt to be inside her.
He travelled north on a meandering trail, and when he got to the edge of the Ridley property, he decided to keep going. He and his siblings had explored this area as kids, of course, but it had been years since he’d reconnoitered here. Alone with his thoughts, the only sounds the call of a bird and the distant lowing of cattle back on his own spread, Noah relaxed. This was a wonderful property, he had to admit some time later when he’d traversed much of it. A perfect extension of the Flying W. Or Thorn Hill.
As if he’d conjured up one of Thorn Hill’s inhabitants with his thoughts, he spotted Steel Cooper on horseback several hundred yards away. Noah reined in Warning, considering his options, but it was too late to try to slip away, even if he’d wanted to. Steel had seen him.
Steel reined in, too, and when he realized Noah was heading his way, he came to meet him.
They paused when they were only a few feet apart, both of them scanning their surroundings as if they were simply out on a morning’s ride together.
“It’s good land,” Steel finally said, surprising Noah, who’d been prepared for accusations.
“That it is.”
“Heard you’re raising money for the library.”
“That’s right. Least we can do. It’s a shame the way it’s falling apart.”
Steel gave him a steady look, and Noah wondered if he knew his sister’s part in the matter. “It is a shame.”
“We’ll get the water back where it belongs in the creek right after the fundraiser.”
Steel nodded.
Noah wished he could read the other man’s mind. He’d expected arguments. Demands they set the water to rights earlier than the weekend. Not this calm acceptance.
“It’s going to get bad,” Steel said suddenly. “You know that, right?”
Noah’s stomach twisted. Bad? What did that mean?
“The drought. This isn’t the usual kind. It goes deeper than that.”
“How do you know?” Noah asked reluctantly.
Steel shrugged. Looked a little sheepish. “I feel it. It’s in the smell of the wind.”
Noah glanced at him curiously. He hadn’t thought Steel had that kind of feeling in him. He wished he could suggest their families see the drought through together but doubted the Coopers would take to that idea.
“People are going to get hurt,” Steel added.
Noah stilled. “Is that a threat?”
Steel flashed him a look of disgust. “If I was threatening you, you’d know it, Turner.”
“Look, I—”
“Next Sunday. Creek back to normal, or there’ll be trouble.” Steel dug his heels into his mount’s sides and galloped away.
Noah could only watch him, feeling he’d missed an opportunity. He turned Warning toward home, too.
Olivia was coming out of the grocery store the next day when Lance flagged her down. He was marching angrily across the parking lot, his hair slipping into his eyes. He cocked his hat back, brushed his hair from his face and shook a fistful of newspaper at her.
“Did you see this?”
“No, what is it?” Olivia had to admit she rarely read the local paper these days. Everything was online, and the Chance Creek grapevine worked far faster than the printing press did for local gossip. She was surprised Lance was talking to her; he hadn’t said more than two words since the day she’d watched him drive away from Caroline’s house.
“Read it!” He pushed the paper into her hands, paced off and spun around to pace back.
Olivia realized he’d given her the letters to the editor page. She began to read the first one, and her fingers tightened around the pages.
Dear Editor,
I must say I’m sorely disappointed to hear of the changes coming to Chance Creek High. That school stands like a beacon in my mind to the best days of my life…
The letter went on, gushing about the good old days when the writer’s life was full of studies and dances. It ended with a diatribe against brainwashing children with lessons on computers and how the school was headed for a bad end.
“What a crank,” she said.
“There’s more. Keep reading.”
Olivia jumped to the next letter. It also lamented the proposed changes to the school and explained how Chance Creek High’s old-fashioned values had made a lasting impression on the author’s life. There was a third, a fourth, a fifth—
Olivia looked up. “I don’t believe—”
“It’s a setup,” Lance exploded. “Those Turners did this. I know they did.”
She shook her head. “It’s just people afraid of change, that’s all. We already won; the project is going ahead.”
“It’s not too late for them to shut it down,” Lance pointed out. “What if they change everyone’s mind? Huh? We need that property.” He snatched the paper out of her hand. “I’ve been patient, like you asked me to be. The Turners are still stealing our water.”
“Just until next Sunday. I told you they’re helping the library. Marta needs that money, Lance.”
“They aren’t helping the library.” His tone was scathing. “They’re trying to win the prize. Stop being so damn naive.”
Olivia watched him go, her stomach tightening into a knot, then dropped her groceries in the truck and veered off toward Linda’s Diner. She needed a cup of tea before she went home.
Was Lance right?
Noah had been quick to volunteer to help raise funds for the library. Was he doing it out of the goodness of his heart? Or to steal the Ridley property away from her family? Maybe she was naive. She hadn’t even considered the second possibility, although it was staring her in the face. She couldn’t believe the man who’d made love to her so passionately last night would do anything to hurt her, though. She had hated to leave the cabin and go home—and Noah hadn’t wanted to let her leave, either.
Inside the small restaurant, she immediately spotted Noah and made her way over to him. She might as well ask the hard questions right now
. She dimly recognized Brandon Sykes, one of Noah’s parolees, sitting across from him, but she pressed on.
“Noah, I need to talk to—”
“Noah! Did you see my letter? They printed it!” Coach Latham rushed up to the table waving a paper, and Olivia stiffened. Coach Latham had written in? It must have been one of the ones she hadn’t read. “Never had a letter in the paper before,” he went on. “Wouldn’t have ever done it if it wasn’t for you!”
Olivia stilled and caught a flash of consternation in Noah’s eyes.
Had he been involved in the letter-writing campaign, after all?
Olivia stepped back. Noah reached toward her, but she held out a hand to ward him off, going cold, then flushing hot as the reality of what he’d done hit her.
He was working against her. Against her family. Just when the Coopers had finally found a way to gain some positive traction here.
This is about the Ridley property, nothing else, a little voice in her mind said, but Olivia didn’t care. Whatever it was about, it was underhanded and mean. And he’d done it while wooing her, while sweeping her off her feet—stealing away and making love to her—
He didn’t care about her at all, did he? He just wanted his family to win.
He’d been pulling one over on her, and she should have seen it coming. Thirteen years ago Maya had pretended to be her best friend, right up until she’d discovered the evidence that put Olivia’s father in jail. Now Noah was pulling the exact same move, and Olivia had fallen for it all over again.
Shame flared through her, heating her skin. How dare he? How dare he mess with her that way?
“Olivia!” Noah called after her, but she was already walking out.
Out the door. Onto the street. Out of his life.
Chapter Twelve
“Quit wiggling,” Ella Hall told Olivia for the tenth time as she fussed with her hair, doing something complicated and stylish for the gala. The past week and a half had gone by in a blur, and Olivia felt like a wind-up doll, performing all her duties with an automatic eye on the details, fooling everyone—but at the end of it having no recollection of what she’d done. Her heart hurt as badly as it had the day she’d realized Noah was playing her. She’d ignored his texts and calls since then. He’d fooled her good, and she didn’t need any more pain in her life.
She figured tonight would make or break the school project. Either they’d solidify support for the upgrade, thanks to Fulsom and his friends’ commitment to it, or they’d lose ground. Meanwhile the letters to the editor were undermining their efforts.
The Turners had done their homework well, she thought bitterly. Letters against the upgrade outweighed the ones for it three to one, and that wasn’t even counting the extra letters pinned to telephone poles downtown that appeared mysteriously each morning. Only in the last day or so had the tide begun to turn as those not beholden to the Turners realized the work they’d looked forward to at the high school might not happen if the naysayers had their way.
“Put the letters out of your mind,” Ella told her. “Don’t take it personally. This is business, and business can be cutthroat. Tonight it’s your turn to do your worst.”
“I was kind of hoping to do my best,” Olivia told her.
Ella laughed. “Well, break a leg and all that.”
“I’m nervous,” Olivia admitted. “What if Fulsom and his cronies hate my family? Everyone else seems to.”
“No, they don’t. When Fulsom and his friends meet you, they’ll think you’re a charming young lady fighting the good fight for the next generation. They’re going to be impressed that you got someone like Carl on your side.”
“That was all Virginia,” Olivia said. “She bribed him with a ranch.”
“What does she think now that he married an almost honorary Turner?”
“She says Cooper blood is stronger and that Camila won’t be able to help becoming one of us.”
“But Carl isn’t even a Cooper,” Ella protested with a laugh.
“Evidently Cooper blood is contagious. You’d better watch out.”
Ella just smiled. “I’m glad we’ve gotten to know each other,” she said.
“Me, too,” Olivia said, touched. “I’d never have gotten this all off the ground without you.” If it hadn’t been for Ella and the others, her shame and disappointment over Noah’s betrayal would have crushed her. She hadn’t told them what happened, but she’d let slip she wasn’t seeing him anymore. They’d been tactful and kind, kept her occupied with plans and fussed over her until she felt a little better.
A little.
She wasn’t sure she’d ever feel herself again.
“Sure you would. You sell yourself short a lot, you know that?” Ella surveyed her work and added one more hairpin. “In my experience women do that when something bad happened when they were young. They forget they’re allowed to move forward and leave whatever it was behind.”
Olivia wished wholeheartedly she could leave her trouble behind. But it seemed to be chasing her. Poisoning everything new and good she touched.
“I guess,” she said to Ella. She couldn’t believe the transformation Ella had worked on her. She wished she could make as big a change inside.
“If you need to talk—or need help with anything else, just ask,” Ella said gently. “Whatever is going on, Olivia, you’re not alone.”
Her words struck too close to home because these days Olivia felt more alone than ever.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’d better go check everything one last time.”
“You look stunning.”
“I don’t even recognize myself.” Olivia looked in the mirror one last time. She wore a deep blue Regency-style gown Ella had helped her pick out from the options Alice Reed, a local seamstress and costume designer, had shown her. The old-fashioned dress suited her, and she kept turning to see it from all angles.
“You’re Olivia Cooper. The lady of the hour. One of Chance Creek’s first-tier citizens,” Ella proclaimed.
Hardly, Olivia thought. She wasn’t a first-tier citizen. She was a Cooper.
And if she failed tonight she could lose everything.
“Why are you being such a bear today?” Maya asked when Noah snapped at her for moving too slowly. She and Stella were helping him set up everything for the tubing fundraiser, which would begin at ten sharp the next morning, and they were both working hard. They didn’t deserve to be the recipients of his ire.
But Liam was AWOL, and that steamed him—he needed another man to lug some of the heavy equipment out near the creek. Brandon hadn’t shown up, either, even though he’d said he would. Noah had offered to pay him for two days’ work—today to set up and tomorrow to help run the fundraiser. He’d thought Brandon would jump at the chance to earn a little cash. He could scarcely afford to part with it. Brandon was overdue by several hours.
He obviously wasn’t that hard up.
Which begged the question: How was he making money these days?
At their last meeting, Brandon had admitted he still hadn’t found work, but he didn’t seem as worried as he had before. He said he’d been helping out his mom. There was something about him, something different.
Noah wasn’t sure what to make of it.
He’d convinced several of Chance Creek’s restaurants to sell food at the fundraiser and donate part of their receipts. The women at Fila’s—including Camila—would be arriving early tomorrow to set up a food tent, and the folks from DelMonaco’s were bringing their huge outdoor grill so they could sell hamburgers, hot dogs and barbecued chicken.
“I need to get this stage built,” Noah answered his sister finally. “It’s a two-man job.”
His sisters exchanged a look. “We’re not exactly helpless,” Stella told him.
Noah took a deep breath. “I know. Hell, sorry. It’s just—where the hell is Liam?” And Brandon, more to the point.
“Liam’s done some good work this week,” Stella chided him. “Maybe you nee
d to give him a break.”
Good work? He’d managed to screw up things between him and Olivia, Noah wanted to say. But his sisters wouldn’t see that as a problem. Besides, he couldn’t push all the blame onto Liam. After all, he’d helped convince the coach to write in.
When did he start playing fast and loose with the concepts of right and wrong? Brandon would have a field day if he could see his parole officer now. The letter-writing campaign was unacceptable, period. Losing Olivia was like losing the sun. The world was a bleak, inhospitable place without her, and it was everything he could do to simply go through with his normal activities. He thought about her constantly. Dreamed about her. Somehow he had to make this right, but first he needed to pull off this fundraiser—
For Olivia’s sake.
Would she ever forgive him? He wondered what she was doing now. Getting ready for the gala tonight?
He wished he could be there.
“I guess we’d better get to it.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Maya drawled.
He’d already loaded his truck with the wood they needed for the stage. Noah went back to get it, and by the time he’d driven out near the creek where Maya and Stella waited for him, he’d gotten himself in hand. Liam would turn up sooner or later, and the work would get done. He should be grateful Jed had left them alone today. He didn’t think he could stand it if his uncle had decided to oversee the process.
“How many people do you think we’ll get tomorrow?” Stella asked.
“I don’t know.” He hadn’t exactly been thinking straight when he’d picked the day after the Coopers’ gala for his fundraising event, but then they were targeting a different crowd. It would be grownups at the gala tonight. Families with young children at the Creek tomorrow. He hoped it would work out. “Hopefully enough to pay the library’s bills.”
“What gave you the inspiration to fix the library, anyway? It’s a great idea,” she hurried to add. “Should balance the books a little between us and the Coopers.”
Noah chose his words carefully. No need to mention Olivia. “I realized how bad it has gotten, and we needed a project we could handle. We can do a lot of the work the library needs ourselves once we have the supplies paid for. It’ll be impressive when we’re done without breaking the bank.”
