by Helen Lacey
But he lingered in the doorway, looking down into her upturned face, his expression suddenly serious. “How about you come and stay at the ranch on Saturday night?”
She raised a brow. “Is that allowed?”
His blue eyes glittered brilliantly. “We need to talk, Valene, and I’d like to show you the ranch. I mean, really show you.”
She pressed against him. “Like the hayloft in the barn?”
“Everything,” he said and sighed heavily. “And what it means to me.”
He sounded somber, not like his usual self, and she was immediately concerned. “Um...okay. Of course I’ll stay. I’ll take Bruce over to my parents for the evening.”
They said goodbye, and she was already missing him by the time she returned inside and collected her bag and laptop. She wanted to tell him she loved him. Of course it was too soon. But the words burned on the end of her tongue. The condo seemed so much fuller with him in it, and standing alone in the living room now, Val realized how incredibly lonely she had been before Jake had entered her life.
He’d said they needed to talk and she was filled with anticipation and some fear. Talking sounded serious. Perhaps he was ready to admit that their relationship was headed to the next level—like real commitment. Or maybe he thought they were moving too fast? The notion that he might want to slow things down hurt more than bore thinking about. She didn’t want to go slow—she wanted to jump headfirst into a serious relationship with him.
She’d been at work for less than half an hour when her father called her into his office. Even though her dad was retired, and Maddie and Zach were in charge, he still kept his office and used it on the odd occasion he was in the building. Val tapped on the door and entered the room, spotting her father immediately by the window, arms crossed, looking grimmer than she’d seen for a long time.
“Come in, Valene,” he said and moved across the room to close the door.
“Is everything okay, Dad?”
He met her gaze, his brown eyes appearing tired. “Not exactly. I’ve discovered something that I would like to discuss with you.”
“Something?” She frowned. “Do you mean you know who’s responsible for us losing so many—”
“Sit down, Valene,” he instructed.
Val stilled immediately and then took a seat. “Dad, what’s going on?”
He took a breath and grabbed a thin folder from his desk. “You know your mom and I love you.”
She nodded. “I know. I love you both, too.”
“And you know I only want to see you happy?”
“Yes, of course.”
He sighed heavily. “I want you to tell me everything you know about Jake Brockton.”
Val rolled her eyes. “Not this again. I told you that Jake has nothing to do with what’s been happening with the company and—”
“I know that,” her father said quietly, cutting her off. “But please, answer the question.”
She took a heavy breath. Okay, this was about her father being her dad. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. In fact, I’ve never been better or happier.”
“You seem happy,” he said. “Answer the question, Valene.”
She frowned. “Look, I know you have reservations, but I’ll introduce you and Mom to Jake and you’ll see that he is—”
“Answer the question,” her father said again, firmer and more impatiently.
Val sat back in the chair. “He’s very nice. We’ve been dating a few weeks. He works on a ranch near Fulshear. He’s got a mother and a younger sister. He’s kind and considerate and handsome and I like him very much. In fact, I more than—”
“Works on a ranch, you say?” her father queried, dropping the file in front of her. “Valene.” He said her name with deliberate emphasis. “Your new beau, Jake Brockton, owns the Double Rock Ranch.”
Val heard white noise so loud it screeched through her ears, then she thought about the absurdity of her father’s words and laughed humorlessly. “That’s ridiculous, Dad. Jake works on the ranch. He quit college when his father died and took over the job as foreman and studied for his degree online a few years later to get his MBA.”
“That much is true,” he father said and pointed to the file. “It’s all in there. It also documents how he purchased the Double Rock Ranch eight years ago and has turned it into a very successful and highly lucrative business.”
The white noise returned. “That doesn’t make sense. What are you saying, Dad? That Jake is—”
“Wealthy,” he supplied. “Very wealthy. In fact, he’s so wealthy that at the moment he could probably buy us out ten times over.”
It made no sense. Val kept shaking her head, refuting her father’s claims. “I don’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” he assured her. “I have no reason to lie to you about this, Valene. However, your boyfriend is another story.”
Val’s insides ached. “It can’t be true. Jake wouldn’t deliberately deceive me. Why would he pretend to be a penniless ranch hand?”
“It might have something to do with the fact that his ex-wife took him to the cleaner’s in the divorce.”
Ex-wife?
Val wanted to throw up. Jake had been married? He was wealthy? He had lied to her over and over? It couldn’t be true!
The look on her face must have given her away, because her father quickly responded.
“You weren’t aware he’d been married?”
She shook her head. “I thought he had an ex-girlfriend.”
“An ex-wife,” her father amended. “A pregnant ex-wife, in fact. Take a look, it’s all in the investigator’s report.”
A pregnant ex-wife?
Could he have stooped any lower?
The sickness in her belly reached her heart and she stared at the damning file, refusing to open it up and look. She didn’t want to hear any more, because none of it made any sense. Why would Jake lie to her? Why would he pretend to be someone he wasn’t?
“I’m sorry, kiddo,” her father said quietly. “This wasn’t what we were looking for when we started this investigation. It’s just a little collateral damage, I’m afraid.”
Had he really just equated her relationship with Jake to collateral damage?
Val grabbed the file and left the room without saying another word to her father. What could she possible say to assuage the humiliation and embarrassment coursing through her veins? There was no logical reason, no explanation Jake could offer that would undo the betrayal she felt. While she had been going on about gold diggers and money not being important to her, what a great laugh he must have been having at her expense.
When she returned to her office, she slammed the door and dropped into her chair. She noticed two unread text messages on her cell phone from Jake.
Lying, deceitful rat!
She ignored the messages and looked through the file, flicking through the pages with furious fingers.
Multimillionaire, divorced, baby with his ex-wife.
The list of his sins kept getting longer and longer.
She remembered the conversation they’d had in the upstairs bedroom at the ranch. The owner had gotten the place in an ugly divorce, he’d said. While that might have been true, he’d neglected to tell her he was the owner! He must have been laughing his ass off behind her back the whole time he was trying to get her into bed. Because that’s clearly all they were about—the wildflowers, her favorite bagel, the sketches of her beloved dog, the trip to the animal shelter, the horseback riding, the agonizing wait for his first kiss...the man certainly had the seduction thing down to a fine art. What was worse, he knew how important honesty was to her. She’d told him, when they were wrapped in each other’s arms, how difficult it had been to learn to trust again after Diego’s blatant disregard for her feelings once she’d discovered he was only i
nterested in the Fortunado name and money. What a gullible and utter fool he must think her to be.
Jerk! Jerk! Jerk!
She hated him.
“Hey, sis?”
She looked up, not realizing she was holding her head in her hands. And also not realizing she had tears on her cheeks. Maddie stood in the half-open doorway, her expression filled with compassion and worse, pity.
“I know, you told me so, right?” she said and shrugged. “You said not to trust him, and I didn’t listen and now—”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Maddie said gently and closed the door. “You didn’t know he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t.”
Val scowled. “Why would he do it? Why act like a poor man when...” Her words trailed off and she gave a brittle laugh. “He took me to Toscano’s for our first real date. I asked him how he managed to get a reservation on such short notice, and he said he knew the owner through the beef business. His beef business. He picked me up in a brand-new truck the night of the charity benefit, and when I asked him who owned it, he said it belonged to the ranch. His ranch. He gave me a tour of the ranch house that’s being renovated and said the owner had been through an ugly divorce. His ugly divorce. And there’s a child,” she added, her rage gaining momentum. “He has a child and he didn’t tell me. And I...I fell for it... I fell for his sexy, workingman charm, and within a couple of dates I was putty in his hands. I fell in love with a man I know nothing about, Maddie. Everything he said to me was twisted around and manipulated and said for a purpose—because he wanted to deceive me into thinking he was someone else—someone with values and integrity and honor. I feel like such a complete fool. And a condescending one, at that, because I know there were times over the past few weeks when I said things that made me sound like a spoiled snob. And all this time he was probably laughing at me.”
“Perhaps there’s an explanation,” Maddie said, clearly trying to be a voice of reason.
Val shook her head. “There’s nothing he can say to me that will erase the lies.”
Maddie sighed. “What are you going to do, Val?”
She took a breath and squared her shoulders. “I’m going to do what I should have done the first time we met. I’m going to tell him to go straight to hell!”
* * *
Jake was standing in front of the house on Friday morning, listening to the drywall contractor complain about unreasonable time frames to get the place finished when he spotted Valene’s car coming down the driveway.
He hadn’t spoken to her the evening before. Instead she’d sent a text message pleading a headache and promising she would talk to him the following day. He certainly hadn’t expected to see her. But he wasn’t unhappy. All he needed to do was get the contractor to stop talking.
“Okay, okay,” he said and held up his hand. “Another week, but that’s it. I want it finished and your crew out of here by the end of the month.”
He turned and walked down the path, greeting her as she pulled up and turned off the engine. She got out and as always, his heart skipped a beat. She looked tired, he thought, as though she hadn’t slept, and he wondered if she was still struggling with a headache.
“Hey there, this is a nice surprise.” He bent his head to kiss her and she twisted unexpectedly, so he only managed to feel her cheek beneath his mouth. “Everything okay?”
She looked up, her brown eyes darker than he’d ever seen them. “Perfect. Things have never seemed clearer.”
He noticed she was wearing her work attire, as though she’d come directly from the office, and her hair was up in a tight ponytail. “Valene, I—”
“I was wondering if you could show me around some more,” she said and took a few steps toward the house. “You know, give me the full tour experience. Take me into every room of the house, and every stall and stable. I mean, I know you’d planned on giving me the full tour tomorrow, but since I’m here,” she said and held up her arms, “how about right now?”
The tone of her voice sent alarms bells ringing, and since the tension emanating from her was palpable, it took him about two seconds to figure out what was wrong.
She knows...
“Valene,” he said quietly. “Let’s go inside and—”
“Inside?” she said shrilly. “Inside where? The bunkhouse? Your mom’s house? The ranch house? Oh, hang on,” she said and pointed to the house. “I mean, your house.”
The air sucked from his lungs. “I wanted to tell you.”
“When?” she demanded. “On our first date? Our second date? The first time you kissed me? The first time you got me into bed?”
It was then that he realized they had an audience. His mother, for one, and several of the contractors who were trying to look uninterested from their spot on the scaffolding.
“Let me explain,” he said quietly.
“Explain what?” she shot back. “That you’re not a penniless ranch hand?”
“I never actually said I was. You just assumed I—”
“I made an assumption based on what you told me,” she said angrily. “On what I believed was the truth. The fact that nothing you have said to me so far is the truth makes it very clear what you think of me and this thing between us.”
Jake could see the hurt etched on every line on her face. “I know I deceived you, Valene, but it wasn’t ever intentionally malicious. And I tried to tell you several times about the ranch, but it—”
“I must have missed that part,” she said, cutting him off. “And the part about your ex-wife!”
“Okay,” he said, exasperated. “I also should have told you about Patrice. But frankly, it didn’t seem important.”
She laughed. “Not important? What about the baby, Jake? I guess that isn’t important, either?”
His gut clenched. “It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t believe it matters what I think. If it did, you wouldn’t have been lying your ass off to me for the past three weeks.”
He understood her anger, but it still annoyed the hell out of him. She wasn’t listening. She wasn’t even trying to listen. “I planned on telling you tomorrow night.”
“Too little, too late.”
Irritation curled up his spine. “That’s an immature response, Valene. Yes, okay, I’m wealthy. I bought this ranch eight years ago, and with a lot of hard work I’ve made a lot of money, some that I’ve invested, some I’ve given to charity. And yes, I was married and now I’m divorced. And yes, my ex-wife was pregnant when we separated. But none of that,” he emphasized, “has anything to do with you and me.”
She shook her head, clearly bemused. And furious.
“It has everything to do with you and me,” she shot back. “I trusted you.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“That doesn’t cut it. Because I believed you trusted me, too. But I can see that clearly it was a one-way street. You had your own agenda and I was too gullible and naive to see it for what it was. I have to hand it to you, Jake, you gave a damned fine performance of being a humble ranch hand—right up to the cowboy dancing and wildflowers.”
“It wasn’t a performance, Valene. It was real, all of it. And the money doesn’t change who I am.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Well, it shouldn’t...but I’ll never know, will I? You duped me. You made me believe you were someone you’re not, and at times you made me feel small-minded and spoiled and overindulged. I’ve admitted things to you about myself that I’ve never told anyone, and as I was driving over here to say goodbye to you, it occurred to me that you really didn’t let me get to know much of you at all.”
Jake’s belly took a dive. What was she saying? “Goodbye?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I don’t want to see you again.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I’m perfectly serious.”
> Jake ran a hand through his hair, ignoring the fact that his mother and the contractors were in earshot and could probably hear every word they were saying. “So, we had a fight. We’ll get past it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to get past it, Jake. And I’m pleased that I found all this out now, before I got in too deep. Have a nice life.”
She turned and opened the car door, flinging it wide for effect.
“Valene...sweetheart, would you please let me—”
“I told my sister I was going to tell you to go to hell,” she said and started the ignition. “But I can’t want that for you, because I care too much. Damn you, Jake,” she said, her eyes glistening with tears. “Damn you for making me fall in love with you.”
Then she slammed the door and drove off down the driveway. Through the gates.
And out of his life.
“You just going to stand there,” his mother said from behind him, “or are you going after her?”
Jake thrust his hands into his jacket pockets. “You heard her. She said goodbye.”
His mother came up beside him. “I heard a very unhappy girl say that she was in love with you.”
His insides clenched. “If that was true, she wouldn’t have left.”
“She’s hurting. People act irrationally when they are hurt.”
“Valene’s in love with the idea of being in love,” he said, watching her car disappear into the distance, aching all over. “You don’t fall for someone in three weeks.”
“I did,” his mother said. “I knew I loved your father the first time we met. It was a blind date.”
“I know the story, Mom.”
“And you know how it played out,” she reminded him. “We were married seven weeks after we first met. We had two wonderful children and twenty amazing years together. And I still miss him every day of my life.”
Jake’s throat tightened. “I know you do.”
“I don’t regret one moment. Losing him was devastating, but I know I wouldn’t feel this intense grief if I hadn’t experienced such a great love.”
Jake sighed heavily. “What’s your point, Mom?”
