by Cora Seton
Then Connor bent to tie the ribbon around her wrist. When his hands touched her skin, her awareness crackled on again, then off. On and off, until Sadie wanted to scream.
What did it mean?
“Now you won’t forget the day you met me,” he said lightly. And before she could pull away, he bent down and kissed her.
The world exploded in sensation. The thirsty hedge, the parched grass beneath her feet, the sere breeze that caressed her face. The acres of kitchen garden behind the walls of the maze, each plant crying out for its own mixture of water and nutrients.
Connor pulled away. With him went her awareness again. Sadie grabbed hold of one of the branches of the thick hedge to steady herself, but felt nothing. No sense of thirst, of too much sun, of dwindling reserves of water in the ground deep below her.
Nothing at all.
Swallowing, Sadie looked at Connor. Really looked at him. His strong features were framed by dark hair. Wide blue eyes watched her, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Had he felt it, too?
No.
No one else ever did.
So how had he—
“I have to go,” she blurted and spun around.
“Sadie—”
“Cass needs me.” She lifted the hem of her bridesmaid gown.
And ran.
Chapter Two
‡
It took him nearly a half-hour to find his way out of the maze, and by that time Connor was ready to barrel straight through its evergreen walls. He needed to find Sadie again. Talk to her.
But he figured if he damaged the maze, it would set Sadie against him forever. Besides, his Gran would rise from her grave and read him the riot act if he desecrated something as special as the maze out of sheer impatience.
Chasing Sadie now wouldn’t score him any points, anyway. His kiss had surprised her. Hell, it had surprised him.
But she’d reacted to it.
When his mouth had brushed her cheek, she’d jolted like a live wire conducting a current. He wasn’t sure if it was attraction—or fear—that had made her suck in her breath, but she couldn’t say she was immune to his touch, for better or for worse.
He decided to look for Brian, but before he’d taken three steps out of the maze toward Sadie’s garden, his phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out and saw his father was calling.
“Dad, what’s up?” he said when he’d accepted the call.
“Not much. You in Montana?”
“That’s right.” Connor hadn’t exactly come clean about the trouble he’d gotten himself into, or about the nature of this mission. Instead he’d classified it as a leave, and told his father he had come to help out a friend.
His father hadn’t been entirely pleased. Sean O’Riley might share his ex-wife’s Irish ancestry, but he was a Texan through and through, as his forefathers had been for over a hundred years. He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live anywhere else than Texas, which made it hard for Connor to admit he was trying to make Montana his home.
“Should have come here. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“You could always visit me.” Connor said the words out of habit. His father rarely left the spread he oversaw, and never for as frivolous a reason as a visit to his son.
“Heard from your mother lately?”
“You could call her yourself, you know.” How many times had they had this exchange? For a couple divorced for twenty years, they were awfully nosy about each other’s business.
“Answer the question.”
“I hear from her every week. You know that.” Whether by phone, text, email or video chat, Keira O’Riley never failed to reach out to him. She’d always wanted him to be clear that she loved him despite the distance between them.
Despite the fact she’d let his father take him to America.
“How about Dalton?”
“Nah.” His brother was a whole other matter. Dalton had stayed in Ireland when the family split, and while Connor told himself it wasn’t Dalton’s fault their mother had kept him there any more than it was his fault his father had taken him to Texas, he hadn’t been able to keep from resenting his brother for getting his mother’s full attention. And he had the feeling Dalton felt the same about him and his father.
Not for the first time he wondered what his parents had been thinking when they each took a child from their marriage. Had they thought it was somehow fair? Had they known even when Dalton was twelve and Connor ten that Connor would thrive on a huge spread and Dalton would suit the smaller Irish ranch?
And what about the part of Connor that longed for those green, green hills? Was there a similar part to his brother that craved the wide open, sunny skies of Texas?
He’d never know. They didn’t speak of things like that, when they spoke at all.
“All seems well, Dad,” he finally said with an equal amount of pity and irritation. Sean O’Riley had hied himself home to Texas after thirteen years in Ireland, swearing he couldn’t stand another misty morning on a ranch no bigger than a thimble, but he’d never found himself another woman.
Connor thought he missed his wife.
“Good, good.” His dad paused for so long Connor thought he might have hung up. “Might take you up on that.”
“Up on what?” Connor paced the long rows of Sadie’s garden, turned onto a main path and headed back toward the party. He spotted Brian near the back porch steps talking to a knot of well-wishers. The evening was mellowing out as the sun went down, and the murmur of voices and the lilt of dance music made Connor want to belong here.
“On visiting. I’m taking a vacation in a few weeks.”
Connor stopped in his tracks. “A vacation?” He didn’t think he’d ever heard the word on his father’s lips. “A vacation?”
“That’s right.” Sean sounded testy. “A man can take a break now and then. ’Specially one who’s worked as hard as I have.”
“Of course.” Connor rushed to appease his father. It was just he couldn’t remember an instance when Sean had taken more than an hour or two off work to fish in the pond, let alone travel to another state for a real vacation. His trip to Paris as a young man when he’d met Connor’s mother was the single instance of that kind of thing. “I’m sure we can put you up.”
If he was still at Two Willows. If Sadie hadn’t run him off by then.
“When were you thinking?” he asked.
“Three weeks from today,” his father said, as if planning vacations was as normal as drinking a beer. “I plan to stay awhile, too.”
“O-okay.” Hell, he’d better work fast to have things in order by then. “Any reason in particular for taking a vacation now?”
Another long pause had him pacing toward the party again. Something was up with his Dad. He wished he knew what.
“Henry put his foot down. Said I’d better be gone for a month. I ain’t staying away for a month, though. Three weeks tops.”
Connor nearly laughed in relief. Henry Butler owned Valhalla, the enormous spread Sean oversaw. The man had urged Connor’s dad for years to take regular breaks. “No health issues, then?”
“Health issues? You think I’ve gone soft?”
“No, Dad.” He was glad to hear his father was in good health. Sean was nearing sixty. It was time for him to slow down. Ranch work was hard on a man—it wore you down over the years. “I look forward to your visit.”
After a few more minutes of small talk about cattle, drought, the price of grain and the relative sizes of Valhalla and Two Willows, Connor signed off the call and pocketed his phone, just as he reached Brian.
“Here he is now,” Brian said, moving aside so Connor could join the conversation between him, his new bride and her sisters, all congregated around her in their bridesmaid gowns. “Connor will take care of Two Willows while I’m gone.”
The dark-haired woman to Cass’s right scoffed openly. “We don’t need help caring for Two Willows. Sadie will take on Cass’s jobs, and
I’ll run the cattle operation—like always,” she asserted.
Lena Reed. Connor bit back a smile. He’d already heard from Brian she was a firebrand and fiercely protective of her role as overseer of the ranch. The General had a bad habit of sending men to take the position from her and she’d dug her heels in good this time; she wouldn’t hand it over again.
Brian didn’t seem to care. “We agree on practically everything,” he’d said once in a video chat with the men left behind at USSOCOM. “She’s lived here all her life. She knows this ranch like the back of her hand. Why butt heads when she’s right?”
Connor figured they’d come up with a kind of partnership when all the men had arrived on the ranch. They’d either divvy up responsibilities or make decisions by democratic means. He had no problem with Lena having her say.
“I won’t interfere,” he told her. “I’m here to help Sadie.”
Lena raised an eyebrow. “Help her with what?”
“Make her mark on the property.” He explained the concept of the legacy the General had sent him to build.
“You’re so lucky,” Jo said to Sadie.
Alice kept her gaze on Connor, though. “That won’t be easy,” she said finally.
“Is that one of your predictions?” Connor challenged her. Brian had told him about them.
She nodded. “It is.”
When she didn’t back down, Cass said, “What will you build, Sadie?”
Brian was looking at his wife fondly. Cass was obviously be the peacemaker in the family, Connor thought.
Sadie shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet.” Without another word she left the group, ran lightly up the steps to the back porch and disappeared inside the house.
“Connor, can I have a word?” Without waiting for Connor to answer, Brian guided him away from the others to an unused table far from the dancing. “Cass and I will head out for our honeymoon in an hour or so. I wish you’d been here longer so I could show you the ropes.”
“I’ll figure things out.” Brian had been sending him notes about the ranch and the General’s daughters every day for the past few weeks. He was about to set out with Cass on a road trip down to the Grand Canyon, among other places. Connor wondered again if the General should have sent all the rest of the men at once, but he guessed that wouldn’t have worked very well, given Sadie’s cold reception of him. The women might have ganged up and kicked them all to the curb.
“Just because we ran off the men trying to get a hold of this ranch doesn’t mean we’re out of danger here.” Brian leaned forward. “I figure this is bigger than just a handful of small-town operators, you know? Someone’s bound to come sniffing around sooner or later to find out what happened. And they’ll probably want revenge. The General should have sent the others with you.”
“I’ve got it handled,” Connor said. He figured it’d take time for their enemies to regroup. The main players were injured—on their way to jail.
“Cass and I should have booked a shorter trip. I just felt—”
“Cass needed a break. A month away. I know, you’ve told me.” A half-dozen times. “She’s been through a lot. You two need a chance to be together without all this. I’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”
Brian sighed. “That’s just it; I’ve already gotten used to worrying about Two Willows—and Cass’s sisters. You know they all can’t leave the ranch—”
“At one time. I know.” Brian had made it clear how much the tradition meant to Cass and her sisters. A Reed had to be on the ranch at all times to guarantee the General’s safety. Their mother had come up with the superstitious compact with the land, and the girls treated it like a sacred prophecy. The General’s daughters might hold a grudge a mile long against their father, but they’d protect him until the end.
“Really. I’ve got this. Sadie and I will finish up the repairs to the house, too,” he said to Brian. “Enjoy your honeymoon.”
“Make Sadie fall for you. None of us get this ranch unless all of us succeed,” Brian reminded him.
“I know. I won’t screw up.”
He hoped he sounded a whole lot surer of that than he felt.
“There you are, Sadie. We should talk,” Cass said when she entered the kitchen. She looked up, spotted Alice sitting cross-legged atop the refrigerator and sighed. “Alice, not in your bridesmaid gown.”
Sadie suppressed a smile. The top of the fridge was Alice’s favorite perch, bridesmaid gown or no. They’d been chatting amicably about the wedding and their guests—but not about Connor, which Sadie appreciated. She had a feeling Alice knew something had happened between them. She got hunches about things all the time. Sadie touched the ribbon on her wrist, not sure why she hadn’t pulled it off and thrown it away.
“It’s perfectly clean up here.” But Alice climbed down gracefully. “I’ll keep our guests happy while you two talk.”
Sadie watched her leave with misgivings. She’d been worried for days Cass would spot the signs of trouble in her garden and confront her. Or maybe her sister meant to talk about Connor.
Sadie didn’t want to think about him.
“I updated the manual Mom left me,” Cass told her, leading the way up to the bedroom she now shared with Brian and picking up a three-ring binder from her desk. She hugged it to her chest for a moment. “It means a lot to me,” she admitted. “It’s hard to let it go.”
“It’s only for a month,” Sadie reminded her, but she understood. Right now, a month seemed like far too long to be without her sister. Somehow she’d have to get the garden to hobble along until Cass returned and she could make her escape. She prayed no one noticed the problems until then. Her sisters had been so kind, even when it became clear how she’d betrayed them by dating such a monster—letting him get so close to them. But if they realized how she was struggling to do the tasks she’d always done so easily, they might think about the matter more closely.
They might realize how much she was to blame.
“You need to be the one who stays,” Cass said, handing her the binder.
Sadie took it, her mouth dropping open. Had Cass read her mind?
“I mean, you can leave for errands of course, things like that, but for the most part, it has to be you.” Cass must have noticed her confusion. “That’s what Mom said to me when she died. ‘Let it mostly be you.’ To stay on the ranch. That’s part of the job. Part of what I do here.”
Sadie understood in a flash. “For the General.”
Cass nodded. “For Mom,” she added. “One of us always has to be here. Let it mostly be you,” she repeated, and Sadie knew that those words must have run through her sister’s mind a dozen times a day since their mother died. “While I’m gone,” Cass amended. “Once I’m back it’ll be me again. But out of all of us you’re the most connected to Two Willows physically. It makes sense for it to be you.”
“Okay.” But the word felt like dust in Sadie’s mouth. Didn’t Cass see she wasn’t connected to Two Willows at all anymore?
Except when Connor touched her.
“Is something wrong?” Cass touched her arm. “Are you still worried about Mark? He’s gone, honey. He can’t hurt you now. And even if he could, Connor’s here. He’s Brian’s friend. He’ll protect you. Brian told me all about him earlier. They served together back at USSOCOM.”
“It isn’t that.” But of course it was, in a way. Mark might not be here, but he could still hurt her. He was hurting her with every breath she took. She’d chosen him over the land. Over her sisters.
Now the land wouldn’t forgive her.
“You’ll feel better in time,” Cass promised her. “I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but it will happen, believe me. When I learned who Bob really was, it hurt so bad I didn’t think I could ever love again. But now I have Brian. You’ll find someone, too—I know you will.”
Sadie wanted to tell her she was wrong, but this was Cass’s wedding day, and she couldn’t allow even a hint of her own pain and confusion to mar it.
“Of course,” she made herself say. “I know that.”
“You’ll be so busy doing my jobs and your own you won’t have time to think about anything for the next month anyway,” Cass told her and patted the binder. “Think of Connor as a guardian angel, standing in for Brian while we’re gone. The days will pass in a flash and I’ll be back. By then you won’t give two hoots what Mark did.”
“He nearly killed you,” Sadie blurted. “You think I can forget that?” She cursed herself for letting the words spill from her mouth.
Cass softened. “Of course not. But you can’t hold on to that. You have to move forward. Find your own happiness. None of us can change the past.”
Sadie nodded. “Have fun on your honeymoon. You deserve to have a good time.”
“Have fun building your legacy. Make it something really special—something worthy of Two Willows.” Cass kissed her on the top of her head. “Come on, we’d better get back to our guests.”
Sadie followed her downstairs, blinking back tears. How could she build something worthy of Two Willows when she wasn’t worthy of it? Connor would have to accomplish that on his own.
As if her thoughts had summoned him, the man himself appeared at the back door when they reached it. She let Cass go first and watched her sister head straight for her new husband.
“Dance with me,” Connor said.
And the moment he took her hand, the world came alive again.
As dusk eased into nighttime, Sadie danced with him, drank with him, toasted the happy couple with him and introduced him to the men and women who came to make his acquaintance, but the whole time Connor felt as if the beautiful young woman by his side was somewhere else.
It was as if she was listening for something only she could hear. He thought she’d beg off after their first dance, but to his surprise she allowed him to ask for another, and then another. Even when they moved away from the dance floor, Connor was all too aware of the way she kept brushing his hand with hers, touching his sleeve, bumping her elbow against his. With any other woman, Connor would have thought she was flirting—taking the opportunity to touch him and send a signal of her interest.
