by Cora Seton
Probably not, given the way things had gone.
She set down her sandwich and contemplated the thin band of silver on her finger. Was it time to take it off? She’d planned to wait until she had a final conversation with Jason, but the truth was, she didn’t feel like waiting. Jason had kept her waiting for years, and lately he hardly had bothered to pretend they were having a relationship. Why should she give him the courtesy of a formal breakup when he hadn’t given her any such courtesy?
She gave the ring an exploratory tug, wondering if it would cling to her after so much time on her finger. But just like the other day at the jewelry store, it slipped off easily. She held it up, looked it over one last time, then slid it into her pants pocket. Nothing to it. With a shrug that masked an ache in her heart, she packed up the remainder of her lunch and got back to work. She was sad for the death of her first real relationship, but her pain was for the girl she’d been, not for the woman she was today. She was ready to move on.
She’d been ready for quite some time.
Rose stood up and surveyed the tree house rising above her. She should have done this years ago. She didn’t know how she’d get through these next few days, until she rescued the rest of her things from the carriage house, found a new job and moved on. She was afraid Emory might try to hold her to the lease she’d signed. If he did, she might have to make a trip to small claims court. Autumn had said she’d be glad to rent the room to her on a long term basis, but if she had to pay for two places, money would be awfully tight.
Later that afternoon she rolled back into town and parked at the grocery store. She needed a contribution to bring along to the gathering at Ethan and Autumn’s place tonight. She’d left the woods early today to give herself time for a shower and change of clothes once she got back to the Big House. She’d framed in one of the large windows of the tree house securely, without even scratching the glass. And she’d prepped the doorframe, too. Next she’d put in the smaller window and get started on the roof. It had been hard to leave the tree house at the end of the afternoon. She wanted to keep on working straight through until it was done, but she was tired, her muscles ached, and she desperately needed a shower before she would be fit for company.
“Hi, Rose.”
Rose turned at the entrance to find Hannah Ashton behind her. “Hi, how are things at the clinic?” She made a mental note to stop by soon and visit the animals. It was hard to play with the strays and not be able to take any home, but she knew Hannah’s boss, Bella Chatham, appreciated anyone who took the time to come and handle them.
“They’re good. We’re busy,” Hannah said. “You coming to Ethan’s tonight?”
“Yes.” Rose smiled. “I take it you are, too?”
“Uh huh. These poker nights are getting out of hand. I think we might have enough people for three tables tonight. Are you shopping for something to bring along?”
“I’m grabbing some chips and dip.”
“I’m on soda duty. Although we all know everyone’s going to drink beer.”
“Except Autumn, Claire and Morgan,” Rose said. She envied them their built-in friendships and the fact that next year they’d be overrun with babies. The Cruz ranch was a heavenly place to live and work. She determined to make the best of the fact that she was living there now, too. At least temporarily.
Hannah nodded. As they made their way through the aisles of the grocery store, Rose noticed she was quieter than usual.
“Anything wrong?” she asked.
Hannah let out a sigh. “Actually, yes. Do you ever feel the need to get away?”
Rose laughed. “All the time.”
“Really?” Hannah faced her. “It’s not just me?”
“Nope. It sucks being young. You don’t own anything that’s yours.”
“That’s it exactly.” Hannah brightened. “I need my own place. My own land. Somewhere no one will watch what I’m doing. Somewhere away from Cody.”
“There’s a lot of land out there,” Rose said noncommittally, wondering what was wrong between Hannah and her boyfriend. She knew Hannah currently lived at Cody’s house, so if things weren’t right between them Hannah wouldn’t have anywhere to retreat. When they reached the potato chips, she stopped to survey the shelves and chose several bags.
“Sure, but someone owns all of it,” Hannah said. “It isn’t fair. It’s not like people even use all their land. It just sits there. And then there’s the fencing. How do you even build it?”
“Fencing?” Rose struggled to keep up with her. “You mean like for a corral?” Did Hannah want a horse? Was that what she and Cody were fighting about? Maybe Cody didn’t like horses. “Check online,” she said, thinking about the YouTube videos she’d watched to learn how to build the tree house.
Hannah looked at her. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Anyway,” she suddenly became brisk. “I need to grab some pop. What do you think I should get?”
As Rose watched her pace up and down the row of brightly colored drinks, she wondered what scheme Hannah was considering. She obviously had a secret. Just like Mia.
Just like her.
There was much more going on in Chance Creek than met the eye.
By the time Cab drove up the long dirt lane to the Cruz place, the parking area was filled with vehicles, and when he entered the large house, conversation and laughter spilled over him. He stood for a moment unnoticed in the doorway and counted all the friends in the large open-plan interior. Ethan, Jamie and Rob stood clustered by the fireplace where flames danced and sputtered in the grate. Bella and Evan Mortimer sat side by side on one of the comfortable sofas, their knees touching. Claire sat opposite them, gesturing as she spoke. Morgan and Autumn stood behind the half-height kitchen partition, setting up the snacks. He was surprised to see that all of Rob’s brothers had joined them tonight. He remembered a time not too long ago when Rob could barely stand to be in the same place as them. Things must have sorted themselves out between them now that it was clear who ran what over at the Matheson ranch. Rob and Morgan owned their section of Matheson land outright, along with a stake in the Cruz ranch. The other three Matheson boys ran the rest of their ranch jointly, overseen by their father, Holt.
Cab’s eyes narrowed as he took in another couple; Hannah Ashton and Cody Frank. Since Hannah and Morgan became fast friends over the summer, she’d joined them a couple of times, but this was the first time she’d brought her boyfriend. Cab frowned. He didn’t care for the man. Cody was a bit of a hotshot. Full of himself. Kind of an ass, if you asked him. Hannah was sweet and he hated to see her hitch her wagon to a man like that.
The door opened again behind him and he swung around to see Rose come in. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him.
“Hi,” he said, trying to keep it casual. The last thing he’d expected this morning was her tirade in the parking lot. He still didn’t understand what she was so upset about. By his way of thinking not only was it smart for him to make sure she got safely home—he saw enough in his line of work to know how dangerous the world was—it was also romantic. It showed he cared about her.
That certainly wasn’t the way Rose saw it, however, so he would heed her request. He wouldn’t follow her home next time. At least not closely enough for her to see him.
He smiled down at her now, enjoying the sweet curves of her figure and the way she looked back up at him, interest and suspicion warring in her eyes.
“Hi,” she said and edged around him to enter the living room. “Hi, everyone,” she called out as they both moved into the large, open space.
“See? What did I tell you? They’re together,” Rob said loudly, his voice cutting through every conversation in the room.
There was a hush as all eyes turned to them. Cab stifled the urge to strangle Rob, not an unfamiliar feeling since the man never missed a chance to create mischief. A glance told him Rose had gone pale. He also caught sight of her hand, however, where a certain ring finger no longer wore a ring. Hope surged t
hrough him. Had she broken up with Jason?
“I thought she was engaged,” Jamie murmured to Ethan, but his voice carried in the sudden hush.
Cab winced. Awkward, to say the least. Rose stood rigid, her lips pursed together, but just as Cab moved to set things straight, she said loud enough for everyone to hear, “I’ve decided not to be with Jason anymore.” She glanced at Cab. “I had some trouble at my place last night with Emory and Cab helped me out. He was checking to see how I was earlier when you saw us together, Rob. Cab’s a good friend. I appreciate that.”
After another awkward moment of silence, Autumn bustled over and took Rose under her wing, tugging her toward the kitchen where the rest of the women gathered around to question her. Cab shot an angry look at Rob, who ducked his head. He went to sit by Bella and Evan and hoped the rest of the evening would pass more smoothly.
“How are those bison doing?” he asked Bella.
For a moment she seemed confused. When understanding dawned, she laughed and said, “Still haven’t managed to acquire any for my menagerie, but Hannah sure seems interested in them these days.”
“Really?” Evan asked. “Bison?”
Cab still found himself wary around the billionaire, but Evan was proving to be a regular guy. A regular guy with wide interests and the money to fund investigations into many of them. The last he’d heard, Evan and Jake Matheson were putting their heads together to research ways to lessen cattle ranching’s environmental impact.
“Yes,” Bella said. “She’s had a million questions about them this week.”
“Odd,” Evan said. “I do, too.”
Bella looked at him askance. “Why?”
“I’ve read their meat is healthier for us than beef. And since bison ranged here long before we brought cattle with us, you’d think they’d do less environmental damage. It’s one of the things I want to investigate with Jake.”
“There are a few bison ranches to the west,” Cab said. “Mostly for meat, but a few stock the animals so that big game hunters can come and hunt them.”
Bella wrinkled her nose. “I don’t get that. Where exactly is the sport if they’re all penned in?”
Cab shrugged. “Beats me.”
“It’s all about the rush.” Cody appeared suddenly in their midst. A stocky man of medium height, dirty blond hair and brown eyes, he sat down at the far end of the couch Cab occupied, his legs wide and a beer propped on the armrest. He wore faded jeans and a rumpled sweatshirt. Cab doubted he’d done anything to clean up for the gathering tonight. “It’s just you and five thousand pounds of wild animal squaring off. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Hannah came to sit on the edge of Bella and Evan’s couch. She held a glass of soda with both hands, balancing it carefully on her knees. Her frown told Cab she didn’t agree with Cody.
“But… you’ve got a gun, right?” Bella said. “So you’re far enough away that the bison can’t hurt you.”
Cody waved that off. “Plenty of things can go wrong on a hunt. All kinds of things.”
“Like what?” Cab asked conversationally. He didn’t mean to rile the man, but he also didn’t like letting him off the hook that easy. Something about Cody got under his skin.
“Like… your firearm could jam. Or you could… trip.”
Somebody snickered. Cab thought it was Bella. She shook her honey-blond curls. “It doesn’t seem altogether fair to me.”
“Well, I’d like to see you come face to face with a bison. See what you think is fair then,” Cody said. He shook his empty bottle and turned to Hannah. “Darling, you want to go grab me another?”
Hannah’s eyebrows shot up and Cab was sure she would tell Cody where to get off, but instead she took a deep breath, let it out and stood up. “Sure, honey. Anyone else need a refill?”
The rest of them shook their heads, but Cab stood up, too, and followed her to the kitchen. He wanted to see how Rose was faring. She glanced at him over the other women’s heads as he approached. “That’s when Cab arrived and stopped me from murdering Emory,” she said as if finishing up a long story.
“Thank goodness for Cab,” Autumn said and smiled at him, flipping her long hair over her shoulder before reaching into the oven to pull out another tray of appetizers. Cab had liked her right away when she came to Chance Creek from New York City, and he was glad she and Ethan had hit it off so well. Now nearly six months pregnant, she glowed with good health, her belly noticeably rounded. It was no coincidence that most of their get-togethers happened at the Cruz ranch. Autumn was a born hostess and she never seemed happier than with a roomful of guests.
“Thank goodness for you,” he said. “I didn’t like the thought of Rose going back to the carriage house last night.”
“There’s always a room for you here, Rose,” Autumn said.
“Have you talked to your parents at all about what happened?” Cab asked Rose.
She nodded. “They were pretty shocked. My Mom took Emory’s side at first, but she backtracked pretty fast. Even she couldn’t justify him burning my paintings. They don’t like it that I’m moving out, though. Dad said he’ll take Emory to see his family physician and get it taken care of. I told him you can’t get something like that taken care of. It got pretty ugly. I think they think that since I’m marrying Jason, I should be Emory’s nurse or something.”
“But you’re not marrying Jason, right?” Autumn said gently.
Cab flashed her a grateful look. Just what he wanted to say.
Rose looked down. “No, but I haven’t talked to him yet. I will, though—tomorrow. I want to be single again. I want to be on my own. I don’t ever want to be around a man who thinks he can tell me what to do again.”
Claire snorted. “Better not ever get married then.”
The other women chuckled.
Rose looked from one to the other. “Do you really believe that? Is it impossible to find a man who will mind his own business and let me mind mine?”
Autumn wrinkled her nose. “Would you really want that?”
“Yes,” Rose was adamant. “I mean, what does some… guy… know that I don’t know? Why should he have anything to say about what I do?”
“Well, maybe because he loves you?” Morgan said, leaning against the counter. She waved her Perrier. “Not that you have to listen to him or take his word for gospel,” she added, “but if he’s got nothing to say about anything you do, why be with him at all?”
Rose blew out an angry breath. “You don’t get what I’m saying.”
“Actually, I think we do,” Autumn said. “Or at least I do. You live in the same town where you grew up, your parents are still alive and you’ve been living on a property your fiancé’s father owns. Plus your fiancé’s father is a busybody who has just about lost his mind. You haven’t had time to discover who you are. You haven’t really been out on your own. Now that you’re ending things with Jason, you need to do that before you can become part of a couple again. Then you won’t feel so overwhelmed by it.”
Rose’s face fell. “Yeah. I guess that’s it. I tried to be independent before, though. I moved out from home, I got a job, but being engaged to Jason meant I lined up my whole life around his decisions, and with Emory being how he is I might as well have had a second set of parents living with me. I seem to attract people who want to tell me what to do.”
She flashed a glance at Cab, and a weight settled in his chest. Did she mean him? He wasn’t like that at all. Not usually.
Not all of the time.
“Oh, we all attract people like that,” Claire said, her black bob swinging. “It’s just some of us are better at telling them to go hang themselves.”
“Like you,” Morgan said to her. She turned to Rose. “If you want to learn from an expert, watch how she does it.”
Claire made a face. “I don’t think sticking up for yourself is easy for anyone, Rose. You just have to keep doing it anyway.”
Cab was beginning to regret he’d e
ver crossed the room. Felt like a lot of anti-male sentiment in this corner. The way he figured it, if you saw someone making a mistake you ought to tell them. You didn’t need to be mean about it, but a head’s up sure didn’t hurt. And if there was something you could do to prevent them from coming to harm, wasn’t it your duty to do it?
Autumn handed him a beer with a smile, but he thought he saw pity in her eyes. He didn’t like that one bit.
He retraced his steps to the opposite side of the room and took refuge among the men.
‡
Chapter Nine
In the end, she stayed in Chicago overnight in a small hotel near the downtown area. Although she locked and bolted her door, and checked her windows several times, she found it hard to sleep more than a few minutes at a stretch. When she drifted off she saw Wahid, Abdul and Mehran again, walking down the aisle of the train, searching for her. In her dreams, she couldn’t hide. Instead, she felt compelled to draw attention to herself. She tried to whisper and raised her voice instead. Tried to shrink among the other chattering women and ended up standing on her seat.
Each time she lurched awake her heart pounded as she clutched the covers to her chin, scanned the room for intruders, listened for footsteps out in the corridor. Sometimes she heard them, and she waited, breath held, until they approached, passed and drifted into the distance. When her alarm rang in the morning, her eyes ached and her head throbbed. She wasn’t sure she could go on.
A hot shower helped. She unbraided her hair, washed it thoroughly, enjoying the spring scent of the hotel shampoo. She shaved her legs with the disposable razor she purchased the day before and used the blow dryer to dry her hair before neatly braiding it again.
She dressed in slim-legged trousers a shop attendant assured her were just the thing, pulled on an underwire bra a different attendant had held out for her inspection, and topped it with an eggplant-toned blouse and gray blazer.
“Something modest but classic,” she said to each shop clerk in turn, in memory of the woman from the train station.
