Her time to hold back the past from him had come to an end.
* * *
The next morning, Marshall buried himself in routine after the vet left, so much to be done in the aftermath of the fire. He and Tally had slept in the bunkhouse through the night, waking with just enough time to throw on fresh clothes before his siblings and the veterinarian arrived.
After he let his family know about the fire, Jack and Jeannie had sent along a message that they had a meeting to attend but would be by as soon as they finished.
With thoroughness characteristic of his family’s love of their animals, Marshall was determined to examine each horse personally. His veterinarian, Dr. Cibou, had issued clean bills of health. Still, Marshall needed to see with his own eyes. His older brother, Broderick, assisted, bringing each horse to Marshall, holding the still-flighty horses steady as Marshall checked.
He’d left his other siblings scattered throughout the damaged structure and back at the house. Tally gave him a curt nod, busying herself in the kitchen, making enough food to feed his large family. Light snowfall dimmed the scorches on the barn, but the area still smelled of smoke.
Broderick clasped a lead line with ease, stroking underneath the mane of a sorrel horse. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the doctor?”
Marshall skimmed his hand on the sorrel’s hindquarters, down to the fetlock. The sorrel lifted his foot in response. Marshall wanted to be sure no glass or debris had been picked up and become lodged in the horse’s hooves.
“I was checked out by the paramedics last night.” Marshall pressed around, checking for sensitivity. Nothing. Another sigh of slight, bittersweet relief.
“Just be careful. You’re not immortal.”
“Don’t I know it.” He held up his cast arm. “I’m about ready to saw this cast off like I did when I was a kid.”
“Mom was so mad at you.” Broderick led the sorrel away, turning him out into the pasture. The horse trotted out to the small herd of animals that had already been screened.
“I had to read Aiden an extra bedtime story every night that summer. The brat chose the longest books he could find. I thought it was by accident until I caught him comparing the length. Although I didn’t really mind because I love books, which Mom knew all along.”
Broderick laughed softly. “She was wise that way.” He clapped his brother on the shoulder. “It’ll all work out. The insurance will cover the rebuild. But it’s going to be chaos. We’ll house some of the livestock at Dad’s place until things settle down.”
Broderick brought a palomino forward. The golden coat shimmered in the sun. Little snowflakes clung to the horse. The mare looked enchanted. Calmest one yet. Marshall began his exam again. Muscle memory guiding him, keeping exhaustion at bay.
“I blame myself for this whole mess. If I hadn’t been so damn stubborn about not having a hand living in the bunkhouse, there would have been someone there.” He scratched the horse behind the ear. The mare’s long neck stretched, leaning into the affection.
“Accidents happen. There are plenty of ranches that don’t have round-the-clock staff. That said, you don’t have to run the place on your own.”
He nodded tightly.
A car engine’s purr echoed in the barn. The engine cut off, replaced by quick footfalls on gravel and snow. Their father, Jack, rounded the corner into the barn. His hands in thick gloves, he wiped his snow-flecked hair. “Can you boys come inside? We have something we need to tell the family.”
Their father sounded serious, but before Marshall could question him, Jack had already left.
Broderick and Marshall finished examining the palomino mare quickly and silently. His father was not one for dramatic scenes.
Marshall made his way with his older brother to the house, falling a few steps behind his kid brother, Aiden. His youngest brother glanced over his shoulder, deep lines of worry on his teenage face.
The short trek from the barn gave Marshall space to breathe for a moment. The snowfall became a mess of footsteps. Hunting had never been his strongest skill, but he did note the chaos of the imprints in the snow. People moved with speed into the house. Aiden held the door for his brothers, and they hurried into the dining room.
Tally’s red hair, drawn back into a ponytail, bobbed as she finished setting down a platter of sandwiches beside a chafing dish full of stew. She smoothed her emerald green long-sleeve shirt, catching Marshall’s eye. Felt the warmth radiate from her gaze. “I’ll be in the kitchen if anyone needs anything.”
Marshall held out an arm for her. “Stay. Join us.”
Jack and Jeannie exchanged pointed looks before Jack nodded. “Yes, Tally. If Marshall wants you to stay, then please do. This won’t be a secret for long, anyway.”
With a small nod, she closed the distance between them, moving to his side. He half expected her now-familiar light touch to his arm. But her hands remained in front of her.
For a moment, this scene felt familiar. Memories of family meetings in this room danced before his eyes. This is where he’d found out he’d be an older brother.
The gathering today had a similar feel, except there were stepchildren and spouses here as well now. And there’d been a time long ago when he had gathered the family in this very spot. He’d sat in Tally’s seat, a notebook filled with plans. At ten years old, he had tried to convince his father to let him run the barrels at the largest rodeo in the area. Marshall had presented his plan with a cool efficiency. A lighthearted meeting in retrospect, but the presentation had seemed life-or-death back then.
The expression on Jack’s face was far from lighthearted.
Marshall frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Jack dropped into the chair; his broad shoulders, normally so square and strong, seemed deflated. He rested his hands on his knees. “I know this is a bad time with what happened last night in the barn, but this can’t wait.” He drew in a ragged breath, his face haggard. “Shana had a development in the investigation into Milla Jones’s disappearance.”
Marshall was stunned silent. The statement sounded like a foreign language he could not quite grasp, his ears ringing while his siblings blurted questions in rapid-fire succession.
“Have you found her?” Broderick demanded, hand fiddling with the plate before him.
Naomi’s face turned grave, rage filling her eyes. “Where is she?”
“Why did she run?” Aiden demanded, leaning forward in his seat.
Jack held up a hand to silence them before continuing. “She hasn’t been found. But the DNA results from the brush she left revealed some...shocking results.”
Marshall found his voice again. “What do you mean?”
“She isn’t who she claimed to be.”
Naomi’s lip curled. “That’s no surprise. She was deceitful from the start.”
Jack leveled a somber gaze at his children that started a roar of premonition in Marshall’s head. “You need to prepare yourself.” He paused, his shoulders bracing, his haggard face pulling tighter. “Her DNA is a match to...Breanna’s.”
Gasps filled the room. Broderick’s legs went out from under him and he sank into a chair, his wife’s arm going around him. The roaring in Marshall’s brain intensified. Joy and denial mixing in a wash of confusion and betrayal. In a dim corner of his consciousness he realized Tally had slid her hand into his and was holding on tightly.
His jaw tense, Jack rubbed a hand behind his neck. “It appears this ‘Milla’ was telling the truth about Breanna being alive after all, because she is our Brea.”
Eleven
Tally wanted to comfort Marshall, but even an hour after his family had cleared out, she didn’t know how to reach through the wall around him. He was going through the motions of finishing up with the horses, putting them back into the main barn.
So much had happened in such a short t
ime, her world felt off-kilter. She’d couldn’t imagine how he must feel.
After cleaning away the last of the untouched food—no one had felt much like eating after the announcement about Brea—Tally closed the refrigerator and sagged back to rest against the stainless steel.
Why would Breanna pretend to be someone else and keep her identity from the family? It didn’t make sense. They’d loved her. She’d loved them. Where had she been all these years?
So many torturous questions and too few answers.
And in the middle of it all, Tally had a dilemma of her own. Her father had been a part of whatever happened all those years ago with the plane crash. Even if his part had been unintentional, the crash had happened—and not in the way people believed. If knowing about her father’s role that day could somehow shed even a hint of light on what happened, Tally couldn’t hold it back from the family anymore.
As much as she ached to give Marshall space to come to grips with what he’d learned, what if delaying further gave Milla/Brea more time to fade away? Whatever her reason for doing so?
Guilt knotted Tally’s gut over not having come clean sooner. She’d been selfish, thinking only of holding on to Marshall and what they shared for as long as possible.
She was falling for him. Hard. And even if she hadn’t, she owed him the truth. All of it.
Her insides quivering with nerves and yes, fear, she sat at the table and waited for him to return. Eyes glued on the front door, she popped a pen cap on and off. Set the pen down on the table. Picked it up again as if routine and ritual alone would make her conversation easier. Manageable.
Wind bellowed, whipping through the house as Marshall finally crossed the threshold. Snow clung to his wispy dark hair and clothes. Wordlessly, he peeled off his coat and boots. The air still retained a biting cold. A cold that nipped at the pit of Tally’s stomach.
He made his way into the kitchen, socks muffling his footfalls. He barely glanced at the kitchen island. Went straight to the stainless steel refrigerator. With the weight of the world in his eyes, he pulled out a water bottle. “What a long damn day.”
It wasn’t that long ago that he’d been there for her—supporting her wordlessly after she’d had a hellish day. She wished she could return that favor now, and hated that she was about to complicate matters more.
The pen cap wore a groove in her thumb as she continued to push the cap on and off. Deciding to tell him didn’t make it any easier. “Um, yes, it has been. Did you get the horses all secure for the night?”
“They’re all bedded down.” To Tally’s eye, Marshall seemed to be searching. Trying to locate something in his kitchen that kept eluding him. He touched the stones on the island for a moment, walked across the room to open a cabinet. Tally’s throat felt bone-dry. “I should probably call it a day, too. Are you coming up?”
She clutched the edges of the table. “I need to tell you something.”
“That sounds ominous. I’m not sure I have it in me for more shocks today,” he said with a half smile.
She wanted to wait, to steal one more night with him, but that wouldn’t be fair to anyone. “It’s...difficult. And I should have told you sooner. Could you please sit down?”
Frowning, he sank into a chair beside her, his water bottle in one hand. “I’m listening.”
“It’s about what happened to your mother and your sister.”
He sat up straighter, setting the bottle aside. “What do you mean?”
“My father was an airplane mechanic. His drinking got worse because he felt responsible for a fatal crash.” She swallowed hard. “He was the mechanic responsible for the aircraft that went down with your mother and sister on board.”
The truth hurt her as she spoke it. She couldn’t begin to imagine the pain it caused him.
He studied her through narrowed eyes. “You’ve known this since you came to work here?”
His words came out slowly, carefully.
She nodded. “I was hoping to find some kind of closure to what caused my father to take his life. I came here with the intent to tell you, when the time was right. And I’ve finally realized there could never be a perfect time to share this.”
Shock in his eyes, he stared at her, his body still. “And even when I told you there was some kind of question about whether or not my sister survived, you didn’t think it might be worth mentioning?”
“I didn’t want to cause you further stress, which I know sounds like a cop-out now,” she rushed to add, “but it made sense at the time.”
She could see him closing down, shutting her out. The spark that used to be visible in his eyes when he looked at her was gone. It was too much for him—the barn, his sister. He should be celebrating that she might be alive, and instead Tally was heaping this on him.
She’d let him down by not telling him sooner. And they were both paying the price in her timing now.
He eased back in his chair. “I want to believe you. But there’s also a part of me that’s wondering if you’re telling me now because you think since my sister is alive it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s not it at all.” She reached out to touch his wrist, wishing she could reclaim this pain between them. Lessen it, at least. He flinched, but didn’t pull away. “The time was never...”
She searched for the right words and realized there were none. She had no justification. “Fine. You’re right. I have no excuse. I came here for the job, hoping to get ahead while making peace with my past.”
She’d been selfish, wrong.
And she saw the betrayal burning in his eyes.
Tally eased her hand away from him. “I’ll pack my things and leave.”
“No,” he said tightly, standing. “You were hired to do a job. I’m not going to penalize my family for our mistakes. See the fund-raiser event through, and then you can consider your employment complete.”
She couldn’t stop herself from making a last-ditch effort. “Can we talk about this?”
“There’s nothing more to say.” He picked up his coat. “I’m going to sleep in the bunkhouse to watch over the horses.”
Turning on his heel, she saw his guard go all the way up as his muscled back tensed. He moved toward the door, deadly silent. Tally watched him sling on his coat and boots.
A low whistle called Nugget from slumber. The little dog kept close to his human, though the pup gave a backward glance before the door shut. Marshall left her alone.
Just like that.
A world, a future, everything gone.
He shut her out, becoming as impossibly distant as an island far away from shore. She had no boat, no oar, nothing to reach him with.
She felt the gulf between them, felt alone in the world again, too. Quicker than the fire that claimed his old barn, she’d torched any tender feelings between them forever. Tally set the pen down atop her to-do list.
Neatly. Precisely. She adjusted the angle. Her world was spinning out of control. And all she could do to hold on was her job, prepare for the fund-raiser, then pack her few things.
Salty tears brimmed in her eyes, threatening to release a deluge of hurricane proportions. Throat bobbing, she put a hand to her forehead, hoping to stay the tears.
She had no more words. Nothing she could say could intervene now. Peace was nowhere to be found.
This fairy tale had come to an abrupt end. The bond—that connection—was snipped forever.
* * *
Lingering scents of fire and ash still permeated the bunk room. Or perhaps they still clung to his jacket. Destruction all around him in little and profound ways.
Nugget ran around the bunk room, tail wagging. A sad smile pulled his cheek muscles upward. He wished for the dog’s unbridled ease.
Stripping down to a white T-shirt and boxers, Marshall crawled into bed. Nugget jumped on the mattress after
him, circling three times before settling against Marshall’s left side.
Absently, his eyes flitted around the bunk room, catching on the sturdy exposed wood. With a deep inhale, his nostrils were filled with memories. Scents of Tally permeated the sheets.
His hold on sobriety was teetering on the edge. He was one breath away from four years down the tubes. He’d thought he could tackle giving a future with Tally a try, but he’d been wrong on so many levels. His feelings for her overwhelmed him, as if he’d become addicted.
The chilly air rasped in his throat. Burned his lungs. His head throbbed as if he suffered from a hangover after hitting rock bottom. He felt the pit of his addiction roil beneath the surface.
Weeks ago, he’d been fine on his own. Managed this whole place alone. Kept the world at bay. Then Tally came into his life with a literal splash.
Moving through the days with her had been so damn easy, like they’d known each other for far longer. His fingers ached for the now-familiar feeling of her soft skin.
Only, everything they’d shared together had been based on a lie.
Hell yes, he was raw from knowing she’d lied to him from the start of working here, but there was more to it than that. He hadn’t seen it. He’d been 100 percent blind when it came to her. Now? How could he possibly trust himself or his judgment? Sure, he’d been a man battling addiction when Tally had shown up. But at least he’d been keeping his head above water, dealing with it.
The punch to his gut that she’d delivered threatened to pull him under for good. And he could not let it, no matter how much losing her was going to hurt. He needed to be stronger than that now. He needed to draw in tight and hold on to his self control. He owed it to his family, to his mother’s memory and to his sister. Whatever had driven Brea away, she would need her family stronger than ever when they found her. He couldn’t afford a lapse now.
The Rancher's Seduction Page 14
