CASSIDY HARTE AND THE COMEBACK KID

by Reanne Thayne

  "I know, sweetheart. I'm sorry I didn't make it last week for dinner. I've been really busy at work and with...with things."

  "Guess what? Maisy had kittens. They're all black-and-white except one that has ginger stripes. Do you want to see them?"

  She laughed. "I will later, okay." She gestured toward him. "Zack, these beautiful creatures are my nieces, Lucy and Dylan. Lucy, Dylan, this is Zack Slater. A friend of mine."

  He smiled. "Hi, ladies."

  Instantly the girls' enthusiasm switched off like a burned-out bulb. The happy welcome in their eyes faded, and they nodded politely to him, their faces stiff.

  Obviously, they had heard about the evil Zack Slater who had blown back into town to ruin their beloved aunt's life once again.

  If he couldn't win over a couple of ten-year-olds, he was in serious trouble with the rest of her family. He was racking his brain trying to come up with something harmless and friendly to say when Cassie beat him to it.

  "Where is everybody?"

  "Mom and Sarah are in the kitchen," Lucy said. "Dad's checking on one of the horses down at the barn, and Jesse's not here yet. He had some stuff to do at the police station and said he'd be a little late."

  Cassie lifted an eyebrow. "On Sunday?"

  "Sarah said he was waiting for a fax or something. She said it was something real important."

  Zack pulled their contribution from behind the seat—a heavy, cast-iron Dutch oven filled with the makings for Cassie's world-famous blueberry cobbler and a huge plastic container loaded with pasta salad—then he followed her up the porch steps and into the ranch house.

  Inside, he heard the low, musical murmur of women's voices as they neared the kitchen but it stopped in midnote when they walked into the big, airy room.

  One woman stood at the professional stove stirring something while the other sat at the table husking corn-cobs. Their eyes turned wary, the way the girls' had, when they saw him.

  Beside Zack Cassie fidgeted and cleared her throat. "Sorry we're a little late."

  "You're fine. Matt hasn't even started the charcoal for the steaks yet," the shorter of the two women said.

  With a nervous smile Cassie introduced him to the women. Ellie Harte, Matt's new wife, was an older version of her daughter, small and slender with auburn hair and sparkling green eyes. Sarah, who was apparently brave enough to be willing to marry wild, reckless Jesse Harte, was tall and willowy with a long sweep of wheat-colored hair.

  Their expressions were polite and curious but far from friendly. Unless he found a way to break the ice, he could see they were all in for a long, awkward afternoon.

  "What can I do to help?" he asked as Cassie moved containers around in the big refrigerator to make room for her salad. "I can fire up the charcoal if you'd like."

  "Matt gets a little territorial when it comes to his barbecue," Ellie said.

  Then he was probably real testy about breaking bread with the man he thought had taken his wife. Zack winced. Maybe Cassie was right to be so nervous. Maybe they should have put this off a little longer.

  No. There was no sense in waiting. He owed Matt an explanation and an apology and he might as well get it over with. Not here at the house, though. If the man wanted to take a swing at him, he wouldn't do it in front of the nervous eyes of the women and Zack didn't want to deprive him of the chance. He figured he owed him that, as well.

  "I think I'll just take a stroll around and see how much the ranch has changed in the past ten years."

  "I'll come with you," Cassie offered.

  He shook his head. "Why don't you stay and visit? I'd rather go alone."

  She sent him a searching look, then nodded and squeezed his hand in gratitude or for luck, he wasn't certain.

  He found Matt Harte with his elbows resting on the split rail of a corral fence watching a filly canter around inside.

  Cassie's oldest brother, the man who had raised her from the age of twelve, narrowed his gaze as Zack approached but said nothing, waiting for him to make the first move.

  He had always liked and respected Matt Harte. The man had nerves of steel and the best natural horse instincts of anybody Zack had ever met. It didn't surprise him at all that in the past ten years the Diamond Harte had become world-renowned for raising and training champion cutters.

  That didn't make what he had to do any easier.

  He joined Matt at the fence. "She's a pretty little thing, isn't she?" he murmured, nodding toward the filly.

  "Yeah. She's shaping up to be a real goer. I thought her gait was a little off this morning but she looks like she's fine now. Ellie said as much but I had to check for myself. I guess I should listen to my vet more often."

  They lapsed into an awkward silence. Zack didn't have the first clue where to begin.

  "I know you don't want me here," he finally said.

  Matt turned around and leaned against the fence, elbows propped on the rail and his expression shuttered. "If I had my way, you'd just ride right on back out of town the way you came."

  "I'm not going to do that."

  He received only a grunt in return and sighed. This was much harder than he'd expected. "Look, you can think whatever you want about me for walking out on your sister. You couldn't think any worse of me than I do of myself for that. But I didn't leave with Melanie. I swear it."

  Matt gave him a sidelong glance as if testing his sincerity. "So you say. But you still left."

  He nodded. "I had my reasons. I thought they were good ones at the time."

  "And now?"

  "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I don't think I was ready to be the kind of man Cassie deserves."

  "And I'm supposed to believe everything's different now? That you're not going to get itchy feet in a few days or a few weeks and walk away from her again?"

  "To be blunt, Harte, it really doesn't matter what you believe. Just what she believes."

  Matt muttered a pungent oath. "I'm not going to let you break her heart again. She grieved over you for a long time. Too damn long. And I know she blamed herself that Melanie ran off and left me with Lucy so tiny."

  His chest ached at the words. "I owe Cassie more apologies than I can ever give for hurting her. I'd like to spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to her. And I'm also sorry I betrayed your trust in me. You were a man I liked and respected. Even if I hadn't been engaged to Cassie, for that reason alone I never would have touched your wife."

  He paused. "I drove out of town alone ten years ago, Harte. I know you don't believe me and there's not a damn thing I can do to prove it, but it's God's honest truth."

  A muscle worked in the other man's cheek as he gazed at the ranch house. "You're right. I'll never really know if Melanie left with you or not. It doesn't really matter. If not you, she would have latched on to some other saddle bum to take her anywhere but here. All I know is she walked away and never looked back. Just like you did."

  Although he felt about as uncomfortable as a short-tailed bull in fly season talking about this with another man—and Cassie's brother to boot—he plunged forward. "I love your sister. I never stopped loving her in all these years. I hope as a recently married man maybe you can understand a little about that."

  He paused, feeling his ears redden while Matt appeared to become suddenly fascinated with something on his boots. "I want to marry her," he went on gamely. "But I won't come between her and her family. You and Jesse mean too much to her."

  If Matt was surprised by that, he didn't show his hand.

  "I know the past is always going to be there between the two of us. Maybe you're always going to wonder if I'm one of the men who messed with your wife. I can swear up and down that I didn't, but if you don't think you can get beyond that, do you think you can just pretend, for Cassie's sake? Hate me all you want on your own time. But can we at least try to be polite to each other around her?"

  The other man was silent for several moments then he shrugged. "Let's see how you treat her
first. Now what's this I hear about you running a spread near Durango? Cattle or horses?"

  Zack breathed out a sigh of relief. He couldn't exactly say Matt had welcomed him back with open arms. But he hadn't shoved his face in the dirt, either.

  "Cattle," he answered. "Only a couple hundred head. It's beautiful country there but not as beautiful as Star Valley."

  As the conversation shifted from women to the far more comfortable topic of ranching, he relaxed a little.

  One brother down, one to go.

  * * *

  With her stomach still snarled into knots, Cassie stood on the wide flagstone patio watching Zack and Matt leaning against the corral fence, deep in conversation. If only they were a little closer, she might be able to read their lips.

  "What do you think they're talking about?" she asked Ellie.

  Her sister-in-law shaded her eyes with her hand to follow Cassie's gaze. "I don't know. But at least nobody's throwing punches yet."

  "It's early in the game," Sarah put in. "Wait until Jesse shows up."

  Cassie groaned. "You two are not helping."

  The quiet, pretty schoolteacher who had captured Jesse's wild heart was immediately apologetic. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I was only joking. For what it's worth, Matt has too much control to punch anyone, and I made Jesse promise to behave himself. Everything will be fine."

  Why did everybody else seem to think that but her? She huffed out a breath. "So, um, what do you think?" she asked, anxious for her friends' opinion.

  "About what?" Ellie asked, her eyes dark green with teasing laughter.

  "About him." she said impatiently. "Zack."

  "He seems very polite," Sarah offered.

  "He must have plenty of sand in his gut to walk right out first thing and face Matt," Ellie added.

  Sarah cocked her head, her expression thoughtful as she gazed at the pasture where the two men stood admiring the horses. "And I have to admit, I can see why a woman might find him moderately attractive," she said.

  Ellie snorted. "Moderately attractive. Right. That's like saying Matt is moderately stubborn. The man's beautiful. Movie-star gorgeous, Cass."

  "He is, isn't he?" She smiled as the tremors in her stomach changed from nerves to that familiar achy awareness.

  After a moment Ellie touched her arm, her green eyes worried. "But gorgeous and good for you aren't the same thing at all. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

  Did she? No. She was still scared to death whenever she thought about the future, but she was beginning to feel the first fledgling stirs of hope.

  "I still love him," she said simply. "I never stopped."

  Ellie studied her, that anxious look still on her face, then it faded away as she smiled. "Then that's good enough for me."

  "Me, too," Sarah piped in, with uncharacteristically poor grammar but with a sincerity that brought tears to Cassie's eyes.

  "Thank you. Both of you." On impulse, she hugged them both, grateful once more to fate for handing her such wonderful sisters and friends—and that her brothers had been smart enough to snatch them up.

  "Just be careful," Ellie murmured.

  Oh, it was far too late for that, she thought. She was way beyond careful. When she stepped away from the embrace, she decided her curiosity couldn't wait any longer "I think I'll just go see for myself what they're talking about."

  "Tell your brother to get up here and start the coals, or it will be midnight before we eat."

  She hummed a little as she walked down to the corral, her heart suddenly much lighter than it had been driving to the ranch. Maybe Zack was right. Maybe everything would be fine, after all.

  When she reached the men, Zack's smile of greeting warmed her to her toes. She slipped her hand into his and was met with a look of surprise, then deep pleasure at her gesture that told him she wouldn't hide their relationship behind her fear.

  "Your wife sent me to tell you to start the coals," she told Matt. "Those steaks aren't going to grill themselves."

  Matt's relaxed grin took her by surprise. She might have expected thick tension between the two men with their history, but they seemed to be getting along like a couple of hogs rolling in mud.

  "Yeah, she's a bossy little thing, isn't she?" he answered, looking toward the house and his wife with such an expression of joy and love on his face that tears burned behind her eyes.

  Was it happiness she felt for her brother and his bride? Or envy?

  Whatever, she blinked them back as he headed toward the house. "What were you two talking about?" Her voice came out a little ragged around the edges, but Zack didn't appear to notice.

  "Oh, this and that. I told him I'm interested in buying this little filly for my ranch when she's trained. He told me he'd think about it."

  "Did you...did you talk about Melanie?"

  "Yeah."

  She frowned impatiently at him. "And?"

  He shrugged. "I told him I didn't leave with her, but he's a hard man to read. I think he's far more concerned about you than about Melanie at this point. I tried to assure him my intentions toward you are honorable."

  "Oh. That's really too bad," she teased.

  His laughter sounded rough. "If I had my way, I'd drag you back into that barn over there, find a nice soft pile of hay and then..." He whispered something in her ear that sent heat rushing through her like the blast from a welder's torch.

  She shivered in reaction, but before she could answer, raised voices sounded on the patio, destroying the moment. With a groan of resignation, she eased away from the sultry promise of that low voice in her ear.

  "That would be brother number two. The hotheaded one. Your hay pile idea sounds like a very smart one. Let's go."

  She yanked his hand to lead him toward the barn and outbuildings, but he shook his head, gripping her fingers. "Come on, sweetheart. We've come this far. Don't chicken out on me now."

  She blew out a breath. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

  Squaring her shoulders, she walked beside Zack toward the house, her hand still wrapped in his. They were almost to the patio when Jesse marched out to meet them.

  She had expected him to be angry, but the sheer cold fury in his eyes stunned her.

  "Get away from him, Cass," Jesse growled. "Right now. Go on into the house."

  An answering anger flared and she stepped forward, chin out. "I haven't taken orders from you since I was fourteen years old. I'm not about to start now."

  "Do it, Cassie."

  She was dismayed—and disgusted—to see dark violence in his eyes, etched into his features.

  "Forget it," she snapped. "You're a little old for settling things with your fists, don't you think? Not to mention the fact that around here you're supposed to be upholding the law, not shattering it."

  "That's exactly what I'm doing. Slater, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me down to the station."

  Zack's laughter held little humor. "You're arresting me for dating your sister? Don't you think that's a little extreme?"

  "I'm not arresting you for anything. I just have some questions to ask you."

  Cassie stepped between them. "Stop it. This is ridiculous. We're here to share Sunday dinner with the family, and that's just what we're going to do. If you have a problem with that, Jess, maybe you need to go eat somewhere else."

  * * *

  Zack certainly didn't need Cassie to fight his battles for him but he was absurdly touched that she stood up to her brother, chin up and her hand still in his, clenching as if she was ready to take Jesse on if he made one wrong move.

  He wanted to kiss her right there, but he had a pretty strong feeling that that wouldn't go over well given the current climate.

  He glanced toward the wide flagstone patio where the rest of her family gathered and the first flickers of unease stirred to life in his gut.

  Something was wrong.

  Seriously wrong.

  Matt and his wife both looked stunned, t
heir faces ashen, and the other woman—Jesse's fiancée, Sarah—looked as if she was ready to cry.

  He jerked back to the heated conversation next to him. Cassie was still upbraiding her brother for his lack of manners and his immaturity.

  He held a hand out to stop her. "What's going on?" he asked slowly. "This isn't about some personal vendetta, is it?"

  The police chief's voice was hard as a whetstone. "No. I'm investigating a homicide, Slater. And right now you're my prime suspect. I need you to come in for questioning."

  Beside him, he felt Cassie jerk her shoulders back. "A homicide? Are you crazy? We haven't had a homicide in Salt River in years."

  "Right. This one is about ten years old. Remember that skeleton Ron Atkins found a few months ago in the foothills of his ranch? The state crime lab was finally able to make an identification."

  A feeling of dread settled over him. "And?"

  "And Matt wasted his money getting a divorce in absentia. Apparently he's been a widower all these years. The bones belonged to Melanie."

  The color leached from Cassie's face. "Oh, no."

  "After her fingerprints were found on some of the items found with her body, the state crime lab ran dental records and they matched perfectly. No question it was Melanie."

  * * *

  She was going to be sick.

  The smell of charcoal and starter fluid wafting from the grill suddenly seemed greasy—the heat of the afternoon too heavy and oppressive—and she pulled her hand away from Zack's to press it to the churning of her stomach.

  Melanie was dead. Murdered. She could hardly believe it.

  She had hated her manipulative, amoral sister-in-law passionately even before she thought Zack had run off with her, but she had never wished her dead.

  All these years when she thought of Melanie it had been with malice and hateful anger for the future Cassie thought she had stolen from her. And all these years, the object of her hatred had been dead, buried in a shallow grave just a few miles away from the Diamond Harte.

  Her stomach heaved again and she had to breathe hard to battle back the nausea.