The Horseman's Heritage

by Jacki Bentley

  How could she tell Mandy and not reveal her father's words about not wanting a family. She couldn't tell her that part. Ever. “So the lady ... borrowed his child and didn't tell him about it. She didn't tell him because she knew he'd want his daughter to live with him if he knew about the little girl."

  Mandy frowned. “Was my new daddy your handsome man, Mommy?” Mandy asked the question with hopeful, baby eyes swimming in tears.

  "Yes, sweetheart,” she answered.

  "Grown ups should use their words more."

  Reese laughed. “Yes, they should."

  "But he doesn't live far, far away anymore.” Her eyes widened with hope. “He lives with us in the house we bought for you. Isn't that so?” She asked the question of Reese.

  "Yes, that's true,” Reese answered with a paternal smile that touched Ashley's heart. “I love Texas, but I love you more."

  Mandy smiled and threw her arms around her dad.

  "We'll go home to Ohio soon, pumpkin."

  Mandy giggled at the nickname. “You have got to stop calling me all those silly names, Daddy, I'm a big kid now."

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “I'll try to do better on that."

  Ashley looked into his eyes over Mandy's blond hair. She saw a shimmer of tears there.

  How had she misjudged him so very badly and in doing so had dealt him a great injustice? She drew in a shaky breath.

  She'd always imagined him as a single man driving the highways of Texas in his low-slung sports car. Maybe she'd even thought him a little shallow. Perhaps too handsome for his own good. She wasn't sure. But she had jumped to the conclusion, largely unaided by any real scientific data. Just his harsh words and the look on his face back then. He was a good parent. The past few weeks had proven that fact.

  In fact, at times she felt he knew Mandy better than she did, in spite of her advantage of more years with her. Maybe it was the Peacewatcher gifts they had in common.

  * * * *

  Reese guided his horse, Tellstar, through the process of cutting an extra mean and stubborn steer from the rest of the herd.

  The soft, squeaking sounds of the top quality leather saddle between him and the horse as the animal swung abruptly from side to side, blocking the steer's attempts at escape, faded into the background as he worked. The task was so automatic to Reese and his mount that it didn't need one hundred percent concentration.

  After the incident with Mandy, the emotional wall between him and Ashley lost some of its depth and height. He was grateful for the tact she had used in explaining things to Mandy, glad she hadn't told Mandy his exact words. That he hadn't wanted a child with Ashley.

  God, he owed her for that. His love for her grew in that moment.

  As the days before the barbecue passed, they slept in the same room and turned to find each other and make love often. But their fiery attraction to each other couldn't seem to break the last blocks in the wall.

  A voice out of nowhere said, You could have read her letters, Dad. It was all there. Ask Aunt Josie to show them to you.

  At the voice in his ears, Reese jerked in the saddle, startling the horse, causing him to lose focus and bolt.

  "Easy, Tell. Easy.” He closed his hands on the lose rein to get the horse back to the steer.

  Hell, Ashley could have come to him before she made the decision to have Mandy. Things could have been different. She could have married him the first time he asked and negotiated children afterwards. People shouldn't marry and then debate the major issues of a relationship later. Now that would be dishonest. Dishonorable.

  "Trying to kill that horse for the insurance money?” His brother's voice brought his attention back to his surroundings with a thud.

  After a few days of letting the problem with Ashley stew, Reese realized he was taking out some of his thoughtless frustration on the Triple C's best cutting horse. The horse had had a hard workout. Maybe too hard. That was before he before he reacted to Gabe's voice in his thoughts and jerked on the poor horse's mouth.

  Tell blew air in and out of his chest in deep gusts. And Clay had called him on it, as he himself would've done with any other worker on the place who did such a fool thing. He knew better than to let his personal life interfere with work.

  "You know better than to ask a damn fool question like that,” Reese snapped and followed it with a spewing of profanity that caused Clay to raise an eyebrow like a prissy church lady.

  Clay stared steadily. “Get off and walk your horse, Brother and tell me what's eating at you. Jake and me'll stand right over here and listen.” Jake was Clay's favorite mount.

  "Ashley,” Reese said as he swung a leg over the saddle and eased to the ground. He loosened the girth and started walking the horse in a large circle as cool down exercise.

  "Ashley trouble, huh? I thought you two had straightened everything out?"

  "Nothing is ever nice and straight with a woman. You should know that by now."

  "Huh. I haven't had as much dealings with them as you have, I reckon."

  Reese raised a brow but didn't comment.

  "So what's wrong with Ashley?” Clay asked after a long wait.

  From the look on his face, Reese guessed his brother was uncomfortable with this nosiness but felt it worth the risks to keep asking probing questions.

  "She lied to me about my child for one thing. And would've kept on lying to me for God only knows how long if I hadn't caught her at it. She's so damned independent for another. She doesn't need me."

  "The word lie seems a strong word under the circumstances. You know, everybody knows she told you everything in those letters and e-mails you didn't read.” His brother looked stern.

  "No, I don't, by God,” Reese insisted flatly, but knowing he fooled himself. And he had no intention of admitting the disembodied voice of his son, Gabe, had just now communicated the same thing to him.

  "I do."

  "How can you possibly know that?"

  Clay shrugged. “Just do. With my Peacewatcher People intuitive gift thing, I guess."

  "Don't start with that...."

  Clay shook his head and let it drop. “What can I say? I just know things. Especially with horse training methods.

  "Yeah, you're good with horses for sure."

  "Josie says I'm a Horsemaster.” Clay laughed as if he only half-believed. “Just wait until you start hearing the voices, then you won't think it so damned amusing."

  "What?"

  "Nothing."

  "You're trying to make Ashley pay, aren't you? Hell, she's a generous woman. You don't deserve her, Brother."

  For a minute it looked to Reese as though Clay spoke of something from his own experience, some deep hurt.

  "Maybe ... maybe she should pay,” he snapped back. But he remembered her care with telling Mandy the truth.

  Clay gazed at him with a look of skepticism and outright disagreement.

  "How would you like it if some career-minded lady scientist with a ticking biological clock used you for a stud and didn't have the decency to tell you about your daughter?"

  His brother grinned, then said, “I don't think she did that and neither do you."

  "Maybe not. Hell yeah, I know that's not the way it was."

  "You want to know what I think?” Clay crossed his arms over his saddle horn, resting some of the weight of the day and gave his brother a level look. “I think you were afraid to have another kid. Has nothing to do with Mandy, now that she exists. You know you would never have given in and agreed to having her yourself. You were hell bent against it. You hurt too much when we lost Gabe."

  "True. I miss him like hell."

  "Me, too. But you should be thankful it happened any way at all. Better to know Mandy late than having no cute little monster girl around at all."

  Reese didn't refute the statement. He couldn't.

  Clay continued, “And you're kind of ticked off Ashley got on so well without you. Part of the problem is we're taught by the culture around here
to think women will obey us, that as southern men we have some masculine right to expect submission."

  "That so?” Reese asked, scowling.

  His brother waved a hand. “Right. You were conned into expecting the old ways. It doesn't work that way anymore. Shouldn't, anyway. I'm not sure it ever did. Women are too smart for blind obedience. They didn't evolve all that intelligence in one or two generations."

  "I thought you were no expert on women."

  "Your horse is breathing better, but you'd best walk him all the way to the house,” Clay changed the subject.

  Reese resented like hell being told something he already knew. His little brother was taking this change in ranch leadership to heart.

  Clay was not the little kid that let his beloved and looked-up-to older brother teach him to recite the alphabet backwards anymore.

  "Yes, sir,” Reese mocked and started toward the house.

  "Reese."

  "Yeah?"

  "She does need you."

  "How do you know? Don't tell me. You just know things."

  "Right."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  As Reese walked his tired horse home, he looked up at the horizon and saw Ashley riding out toward him. With each jump of the horse's lope, her beautiful mahogany hair lifted and floated around the edges of her face.

  Ashley was a natural at riding, getting better every time she rode.

  As she drew closer, he realized she was dressed like a Texan, tight jeans encased her legs. Her sexy green blouse drew his eyes to her breasts. The top of the thing was neck-high but the modest cover only enhanced the effect on him. He felt the reaction of his body, swift and hard.

  She stopped in front of him. “What are you doing out here?” he asked. His words came out sharper than he'd intended. It worried him that she rode so far from the homestead alone.

  "Clay said you wanted to see me."

  "Clay wouldn't send a green rider out into open rangeland.

  Ashley turned away. Her eyes followed the horizon. Hell, he could tell he'd hurt her feelings. She looked away to give herself time to recover.

  "And I wouldn't dream of taking one of your prize horses out for a ride without clearing it with the barn manager."

  Slowly, with delicate feminine grace, she dismounted and faced him, her aqua eyes as cold as ice.

  She clenched her delicate hands. “When Clay and the other men came in without you, he told me you and I should talk. Clay insisted on riding most of the way with me. He turned back at the ridge just out of sight."

  "Ashley...” Reese began to apologize. “That was a grouchy, hateful thing to say."

  "True."

  "You're a good rider."

  Surprise at the praise lit her eyes. “Uh, well, thanks."

  Falling back on what always worked with them, he grabbed her, pulled her to him and kissed her long and hard.

  She threw her arms around him and kissed him back. The passion and heat of her warm, moist lips stirred him. He closed his eyes and savored the feeling. With a hand on her amazing shapely behind, he drew her lower body closer to him, pressing his leg between her thighs.

  She broke the kiss and stared daggers at him. “Who asked you to kiss me,” she hissed, indignant and annoyed at his high handedness now.

  He couldn't help laughing at her expression. Mistake. He sobered. “I thought being your husband gave me certain rights, honey,” he spoke unreasonably and damned himself for the chauvinistic words as soon as they left his mouth. But surfacing anger and frustration had overridden his common sense.

  "I swear, Reese Lincoln Caldwell, you make me angrier than any other human being in the world. Let me go. Now,” she demanded with fire in her eyes.

  "I will. Just...” he said. “Not yet.” He tilted her head to expose her neck to his lips. His touch was softer, his tight hold slackened as he kissed her neck. He lifted his head. “Do you remember that it was not far from this exact spot that we made love the first time? Do you remember?"

  He waited, daring her with his eyes to admit she did remember.

  She looked around her as though noticing her surroundings for the first time.

  "Yes,” she spat grudgingly.

  "Tell me where and when our child was conceived, Ashley,” he demanded. “I want some of the memories you took from me. Tell me,” he prodded when she hesitated. “Was it in Houston at that fancy hotel?” he demanded. “Or maybe at the airport hotel? We stayed there a few times four years ago. I thought you couldn't wait to get me alone. Maybe we could have sped things up by having our veterinarian send you some frozen semen, honey. Maybe you didn't need me at all."

  "Reese, stop this!” she ordered.

  Ashley clinched her fists. His anger seemed to fuel hers. Her eyes flashed a dark challenge. Daring him to retract his words. Damn it all to hell and back.

  Exasperated with himself, Reese drew a hand through his hair. “Just tell me where it was."

  "Alright, alright. Your subconscious knows the answer already. It was right here you ... you big bully ... you...."

  That got his attention. “That early?"

  "Yes, it was that early. The first time."

  "Well, I'll be...."

  "I wasn't the only one there, if you remember,” she interrupted.

  The tone of her voice startled her horse. “Whoa,” Ashley said in a soothing tone. She shortened the rein to remind the horse to stand. The nice older mare, named Sunshine, complied at once.

  "Heck, you made me forget I still held the horse,” she said, her brows knitted in a frown. Ashley rushed on, “You had more experience at that sort of thing than I. Protection was your responsibility as much as mine."

  Her return volley of venomous words shocked Reese in a way he'd not often been shocked before. He took an automatic step back.

  He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “True. Very true. I used condoms."

  He reached for her arm and she jerked away.

  "Wait, honey...."

  "Your mother told me that birth control is iffy with Peacewatchers."

  He looked stunned. “Hell, Ashley, I didn't know that then. Maybe I would have been more careful ... er ... less...."

  "Passionate?"

  He shrugged.

  "You should really read that darn Peacewatcher book, you know."

  He laughed at that. What a fool he'd been. Their baby hadn't been planned at all. She hadn't stolen his daughter from him.

  With a smooth movement, she mounted Sunshine, gathered her reins and prepared to leave.

  "Ash!” he called. She left him and kept going, not even looking back.

  Stubborn woman. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “I'm sorry!” he yelled.

  She halted the horse, and then she twisted in the saddle to look back at him. After an agonizing length of time, she asked the horse return to him. This time at a slow trot, her stormy eyes piercing him.

  The pain she tried to hide echoed through his soul. Damn, damn, damn.

  "Oh, Ashley, honey, I am sorry. I was in a bear of a mood when you rode up. No damn excuse.” He held out an open hand to her.

  She jumped down from the horse returned to him and stepped into his arms with a trust that humbled him. He closed his arms around her and shut his eyes, savoring her warmth and the feminine shape of her.

  Ashley closed her eyes and let him hold her for a long time. He kissed her forehead.

  "It was here,” she whispered at last. “Mandy was conceived out here on the ranch land."

  "And you didn't plan it to get ahead of your bio clock. I see that now."

  "I would never do such a thing,” she whispered, looking him straight in the eye.

  "Sorry, baby.” He tipped her face up. Slowly, achingly he covered her lips with his. He took his time exploring her soft lips, inhaling the sweet, clean fragrance of her deep in his lungs. When he eased up, she gasped and pressed close, asking for more with body language. Her response deli
ghted him.

  "Reese."

  He obliged, kissing her again, long and hard. Then with reluctance he came up for air again, breathing rough and shallow.

  "I've been an arrogant, arrogant fool, jumping to every kind of bad conclusion,” he rasped. “Do you think you can forgive me?"

  She grinned impishly. “Maybe. Maybe in time."

  He laughed at her expression.

  "I'll try,” she teased, leaning back as far his arms allowed, looking deep into his eyes, causing his body to ache with need.

  His gaze took in every inch of her tight blue jeans. “What happened to those ugly jeans I bought you?” Unsnapping her jeans, he toyed with the zipper of her jeans. “A lady wouldn't wear these tight things,” he teased.

  "I'm a scientist, not a lady,” she countered.

  He laughed.

  Finding the hemline of her top with his fingers, he slid the palm of his hand up her ribs with as much slowness as he could manage, finally finding her bare breasts, her hard nipples. God, he loved the feel of her under his hands.

  "You're a lady alright,” he argued, “All smoothness and silk."

  His woman held her breath at the first contact of his firm fingers. Liking his welcome, he moved to take hold of the waistband of her underwear. Clinching his fist, he crushed the silky material and together with her jeans, pulled downward.

  "Reese,” she whispered as her underwear and jeans slipped along her legs.

  The clothing dispensed with, slowly, mercilessly, he traced the same path back upward.

  "You torture me,” she said.

  "You're all woman, sweetheart. All soft and smooth and inviting."

  "True ladies don't do this kind of thing out in the open air now do they?” she said as she arched eagerly to meet his hand as it returned to the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. She closed her lovely eyes as if she enjoyed his touch. Her thick, dark lashes entranced him.

  "Hell, I don't even know."

  She tossed her head back and forth. “Oh, Reese, I don't want to be a lady today."

  He laughed, but it came out more a soft, masculine growl.