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The Rancher's Blessed Event
Stella Bagwell
twins on the doorstepWITH BABY ON THE WAY…The very sight of Cooper Dunn still made Emily's pulse race, but the last thing she wanted was to let him back into her life…or her heart. What Emily needed was a man who would stay, a man who would love her more than the next rodeo…a man who'd love the baby she was carrying.Cooper made no promises–he'd help get the family ranch in working order and then he'd move on. But spending time with Emily awoke long-buried feelings–and made him yearn for a family.And then the baby came….STELLABagwellThe next generation of Murdocks continues the adventure of love!
“There’s no way in hell I’ll leave now.” (#u50cb0612-6dbf-5eb2-9096-18064db5e4b0)Letter to Reader (#ufd20707a-cb28-5afb-bd64-cef0bc49d029)Title Page (#uc6f02c94-67c5-5ff3-bb4c-a0be5142faaa)Acknowledgments (#uc1beced3-e3e5-5aae-8564-ac2060dbc1cc)STELLA BAGWELL (#u2d4776ee-91e0-5be2-aec5-c31e8202e998)Letter to Reader (#u70ec3832-e37d-55e6-bccd-875a0cc4894d)Chapter One (#u491b3132-9eb7-551e-a8b3-71f67bab0d78)Chapter Two (#u8c885b88-a7cc-5e2f-8624-6c7f5b00572e)Chapter Three (#ue8a8862b-7775-579a-a900-d4a2a55b7126)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“There’s no way in hell I’ll leave now.”
Emily stared at him with fury in her eyes. It was incredible that he was saying this to her now. Ten years too late! “Get this straight, Cooper Dunn, I am no concern of yours. You might own part of this ranch, but you don’t own me.”
Emily took a deep breath to get her anger under control. “My being pregnant has nothing to do with you,” she told him.
“But you need someone here to look after you.”
The gentle regard on his face both touched and infuriated her. If only he’d shown her as much ten years ago.
“You’re not a man who could stay in one place for more than a week, much less look after a pregnant woman.”
But, oh, how her heart wished he was that man!
Dear Reader,
Unforgettable Bride, by bestselling author Annette Broadrick, is May’s VIRGIN BRIDES selection, and the much-requested spin-off to her DAUGHTERS OF TEXAS series. Rough, gruff rodeo star Bobby Metcalf agreed to a quickie marriage—sans honeymoon!—with virginal Casey Carmichael. But four years later, he’s still a married man—one intent on being a husband to Casey in every sense....
Fabulous author Arlene James offers the month’s FABULOUS FATHERS title, Falling for a Father of Four. Orren Ellis was a single dad to a brood of four, so hiring sweet Mattie Kincaid seemed the perfect solution. Until he found himself falling for this woman he could never have.... Stella Bagwell introduces the next generation of her bestselling TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP series. In The Rancher’s Blessed Event, an ornery bronc rider must open his heart both to the woman who’d betrayed him...and her child yet to be born.
Who can resist a sexy, stubborn cowboy—particularly when he’s your husband? Well, Taylor Cassidy tries in Anne Ha’s Long, Tall Temporary Husband. But will she succeed? And Sharon De Vita’s irresistible trio, LULLABIES AND LOVE, continues with Baby with a Badge, where a bachelor cop finds a baby in his patrol car...and himself in desperate need of a woman’s touch! Finally, new author C.J. Hill makes her commanding debut with a title that sums it up best:
Baby Dreams and Wedding Schemes.
Romance has everything you need from new beginnings to tried-and-true favorites. Enjoy each and every novel this month, and every month!
Warm Regards!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Romance
Please address questions and book requests to:
Silhouette Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Oat. L2A 5X3
The Rancher’s Blessed Event
Stella Bagwell
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Mary-Theresa Hussey and Melissa Senate.
Thanks for keeping the Murdock family alive!
STELLA BAGWELL
sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. Now, more than thirty novels later, she is still thrilled to see her books in print and can’t imagine having any other job than that of writing about two people falling in love.
She lives in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma with her husband of twenty-six years. She has one son and daughter-in-law.
Dear Reader,
Writing a trilogy is a lot like reading one. In the process you become so attached to the same characters, you grow very reluctant to finally tell them goodbye. Such was the case when I finished the last of my TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP trilogy. So you can imagine what a special thrill it was for me when my editor asked if I would like to continue writing about the Murdock family!
Telling you how Rose, Justine and Chloe found their twin siblings—and love in the bargain—was pure pleasure for me. And I would like to express a big thank-you to all you readers who read and responded so warmly to each book. You are the reason my job is so rewarding, and I can’t convey how much I appreciate each and every one of you.
Now with great delight, I would like to invite you back to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where you’ll find old familiar friends and meet new ones, too. Beginning with Emily Hamilton and her unexpected reunion with an old flame, you’ll find the Murdock children have all grown up and, ready or not, are about to find love of their own!
Love and God bless,
Chapter One
Emily Dunn bolted upright in the bed. Her heart was thundering in her chest and nothing about the dark room felt familiar.
Jerking her head to the right, she saw a row of curtained windows. Back to the left, her eyes fixed on a nightstand. There, beneath a table lamp, the red glowing numbers of a digital alarm clock glared twelve forty-five.
Slowly her senses began to right themselves and everything came rushing back to her. The accident. The funeral. The awful realization that her husband was never coming back.
Swinging her legs over the side of the mattress, she reached for a robe lying at the end of the bed. It was a cold October night, but whatever had awakened her so abruptly had left her sweating beneath her nightgown. She swiped a hand against her damp forehead, then stood on shaky legs to pull the burgundy velour robe over her bare arms and shoulders.
Knowing sleep was out of the question now, she headed to the kitchen to make herself a cup of cocoa and switch on the radio. Snow had been predicted in the mountains around Alto, Ruidoso, Lincoln and Hondo. An hour ago when she’d gone to bed, the sky over the ranch was low and gray, but no snow had yet fallen.
Halfway to the kitchen Emily stopped in her tracks. She was certain she’d heard a rattling noise outside. Perhaps something other than her troubled thoughts had interrupted her sleep? It could have been a piece of loose sheet iron whipping in the wind, but an inner feeling told her something or someone was out there.
Quickly tightening the sash of the robe around her waist, she hurried to the nearest window and pulled back the curtain. Throughout the ten years she’d lived on the Diamond D, she couldn’t remember them ever having a prowler or anything stolen. But now that Kenneth was dead someone might view the place as easy pickings. The ranch was located on a lonely stretch of land north of the valley where the mountains turned to desert. Certainly no one came here unless they meant to.
The noise came again and this time Emily decided it was definitely the rattle of a stock trailer. What in the world was going on? Her father, Harlan, would never drive over here in the middle of the night unless it was an absolute emergency. At ten, she’d spoken to him briefly on the telephone and he’d been on his way to bed. As for the rest of her family, they would never show up in the middle of the night without calling first.
An uneasy chill swept through her as her mind began to spin. Her uncle Roy was the sheriff of Lincoln County. She could call him. But he and Aunt Justine lived a good thirty minutes away. She didn’t want to disturb them unless it turned out to be a real emergency. Besides, if a thief was already out there, he could drive off with a whole trailer load of cows and horses by the time the law could get here.
Her jaw grimly set, she walked quietly but quickly back to the bedroom and took a .30.30 rifle down from a rack on the wall. A box of bullets was in the nightstand. Her heart tripping over itself, she loaded the rifle full, then jacked a shot into the barrel. She didn’t intend to shoot anyone. But she wouldn’t hesitate to scare the hell out of them.
Rifle in one hand, she pulled on a pair of cowboy boots, then dropped a cellular phone into the pocket of her robe. If she did find more trouble than she could handle outside, she would at least be able to call her uncle Roy for help.
Moments later, she slipped soundlessly from a door at the back of the house. Wind was blowing from the north and Emily realized the mist stinging her face was actually bits of snow too fine to see in the dark.
Shivering from cold and fear, Emily made her way to the corner of the house, then carefully peeped around the edge toward the barn. The yard lamp at the corner of the corrals would normally have illuminated the front of the barn, but the light had been broken for months. What little moonlight there might have been was blotted out by the clouds. The most she could discern was the back of a two-horse trailer.
Realizing she had no one but herself to handle things, Emily stepped away from the shadow of the house and moved stealthily toward the barn.
Whoever had driven here was more than likely in the barn, looking for saddles or tack to steal, she decided. A good saddle was always worth several hundred dollars. Especially if the saddle had been handmade as were the ones on the Diamond D. She’d be damned before she’d let someone take them!
Inching forward, she could see the club cab pickup pulling the horse trailer. It was a fairly late model with Texas plates. This thief was obviously a long way from home. Not to mention traveling in style.
She was creeping closer to the open doorway of the barn when suddenly a light flared on inside the building. Stopping dead in her tracks, she held her breath and waited. Only a bold thief would turn on a light.
A few more seconds passed. A horse nickered, but nothing else stirred. With sudden decision, she stepped into the open doorway of the barn, the rifle aimed and ready.
“Who’s in there?” she called loudly. “Come out or I’m going to shoot!”
Two horses Emily had never seen before were tied to the top rail of a nearby stall. Both animals, a bay and a gray, skittered nervously at the sound of her raised voice.
To the left of her, hinges creaked. Her head twisted in the direction of the sound and her heart beat like a drum in her throat as she watched the door to the feed room slowly swing forward. When the man finally stepped out and into the dim light, she stared in shock as the room seemed to tilt around her.
“Cooper? Is that you?”
The man slowly pushed the brim of his Stetson back off his forehead, then turned to face Emily head-on. Inclining his head toward the .30.30, he asked, “Is that the way you greet people on the Diamond D now, or just me?”
It suddenly dawned on her that she was still pointing the barrel of the rifle straight at him. Lowering the weapon, she drew in a bracing breath and took a couple of shaky steps toward her brother-in-law.
“No one prowls around in my barn at this time of night. What are you doing here?”
Cooper didn’t miss the my in her answer or anything else about the woman standing a few steps away from him. It had been a long time since he’d seen her. Ten years to be exact. Yet he would have known her in a crowd a thousand miles away from this place.
“This was as soon as I could get here.”
Emily hadn’t expected him to get here at all. And the fact that he had stunned her ability to think, to do anything but continue to stare at him. Slowly and purposely her eyes took in everything between his brown boots and gray hat.
He looked as he had ten years ago, she decided, only a little older. His hair was still a tangle of sable brown curls against the back of his neck. Beneath the gray down jacket he wore, she could glimpse his trim waist and muscled thighs. If he’d put any weight on his six-foot frame, she couldn’t see it.
Cooper had never looked anything like his brother Kenneth, who’d been blond with a heavier build and smooth, almost classical features. The difference in the two men struck her even more as her gaze settled on his lean face. Cooper could not be called a handsome man. The bone structure of his face was roughly chiseled, his lips thin and his eyes hooded. Yet put all together he had a striking, masculine appearance. One that she had certainly never been able to forget.
“Kenneth’s funeral was two days ago,” she said bluntly.
His gray eyes caught and held her blue ones. “I figured as much. But the news of his accident didn’t catch up to me until yesterday. I’ve been driving ever since.”
If that was supposed to make her feel better, it didn’t. His few hours on the road to get here didn’t make up for ten years of neglect.
“I really don’t know why you bothered to come at all.”
Cooper’s gaze slid over the silk curtain of blond hair lying against Emily’s shoulders, the slender curves of her body beneath the heavy robe. She had to be thirty-five or six now. The same age as himself. Yet she looked far younger. And oh so achingly beautiful.
“Kenneth was my brother. That’s why I bothered.”
So he wasn’t here because of her. Emily had known that, but hearing him say it cut her anyway. Which was ridiculous. Cooper had never really cared for her. She’d known that for a long time now.
Gripping the rifle, she said, “I’m cold. I’m going in. Are you staying here tonight?”
Her question brought a twist to his lips. “You might not think so, but the Diamond D is still my home.”
Her brows arched with disbelief. He’d not stepped foot on the Diamond D once in ten years. She couldn’t see how he could still consider it his home. As far as she knew, the man didn’t have a home.
“That’s debatable,” she said stiffly, then turning to go, she tossed over her shoulder, “I’ll make you up a bed.”
“Emily.”
Pausing at the door she looked back at him. The moment her eyes connected with his, warm, sweet memories flooded her mind and brought searing tears to her throat. She wanted to run straight to him and cry her heart out against his chest. It was a shocking, reckless feeling that overwhelmed her with guilt. Yet it was there inside her just the same.
“I just wanted to say... I’m very sorry about Kenneth.”
And so was she. For so many reasons. “Me too, Cooper.”
She left the barn and Cooper turned back to his horses. And in that moment he realized he’d never felt more alone in his life.
Fifteen minutes later he found Emily in the kitchen. She was still in the robe and cowboy boots, but thankfully the rifle was nowhere in sight.
Shrugging out of his jacket, he hung it and his hat on a peg by the door, then turned and let his eyes drink in a room that had once been so much a part of his life. Other than the curtains on the windows and the Formica table being replaced with a wooden one, it looked the same as Cooper remembered.
Though the room was bare now he could easily imagine what it had looked like two days ago when they’d buried his brother. The kitchen had probably been crammed with friends and distant relatives. All sorts of food dishes would have lined the cabinets and tables. There had surely been lots of tears and hugs meant to comfort, and talk about what a good man Kenneth had been, and how tragic it was for him to have been killed in the prime of life.
Cooper was actually glad he hadn’t been here. He could do without all those people with their endless questions and pointed looks. Without having to ask, he knew people around here considered him the black sheep of the Dunn family. The prodigal son who’d waited too late to come home.
“I’m making cocoa. Would you like a cup?” she asked, breaking the silence.
The room was cold. He drew closer to her and the cookstove. “Yes. It’s been a few hours since I’ve eaten.”
Not trusting herself to look at him, she motioned with her head toward the refrigerator. “There’s plenty of leftovers if you want to dig them out.”
In other words she wasn’t going to bother feeding him. Well, Cooper hadn’t expected her to go out of her way to see to his comforts. But he had planned on her being a little bit warmer than this.
“The cocoa will be enough,” he told her.
Her eyes remained fixed on the saucepan of milk as she stirred it back and forth with a hypnotic rhythm. In the brighter light of the kitchen, Cooper could see the lines of fatigue on her face, the deep bruises of lost sleep beneath her eyes.
He’d expected to find her grieving. After all, Kenneth had been her husband for nearly ten years. Yet the longer he studied her, he decided she was more weary than anything.
“I was in east Texas yesterday. Before that, Montana. I’m sorry I missed Kenneth’s funeral.”
Emily doubted the sincerity of his words. Yet he was here now. She should at least give him credit for making any sort of appearance, she decided.
“The eulogy was very nice. The church was packed—even some of my old accounting clients came—and I’ve never seen so many flowers.”
Her voice was wooden and Cooper wondered if she was deliberately making it so to keep from breaking down in front of him.
“I’m glad for that much at least. Can you tell me what happened? The message I got only stated that Kenneth had been killed by a fall from a horse. Is that right?”
The cocoa was bubbling around the edges. Emily carried the pan over to the cabinet counter and filled two large mugs. At the end of the table she placed a mug for him, then sat down with her own.
“You know how Kenneth never would let a horse get the better of him,” she began. “But this one was mean all the way through. I’d begged him to get rid of it but—” Her eyes on the mug in her hands, she shrugged. “He didn’t listen to me.”
Cooper joined her at the table. “Was this a green horse he was breaking?”
It seemed incredible to Emily that she was sitting here talking to him as if he’d never really been away. As if nothing had ever happened between them. Down through the years she’d imagined him coming home so many times and how it might feel to see him again. Yet none of her imaginings came close to the strange mixture of pain and joy surging through her at this moment.
“No. It wasn’t a young horse he was just breaking,” she answered. “He used the gelding to work cattle and ride fence line. But the animal was temperamental and Kenneth had to watch him every second. The day he...I’d gone into Ruidoso and he’d planned to go check on a bull he’d been doctoring. We don’t really know what happened. It appeared the horse spooked for some reason and started bucking. Kenneth fell and it snapped his neck.”
Cooper drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. His brother had always been a good rider. But even the best of horsemen got caught off guard at times. He knew that as well as anyone.
“Are you the one who found him?”
She shook her head. “I was out looking for him. Along with my dad and Uncle Roy and several of his deputies. Daddy was the one who found him.”
He sipped the cocoa and rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “It’s hard to picture Kenneth not being able to handle a horse. He was always so good with them.”
In spite of Cooper’s long absence from the Diamond D, Emily could see he was feeling a loss for his brother. Her heart almost softened toward him. Almost, but not quite.
“It wasn’t really the horse that killed him. It was the liquor,” she said bluntly.
Cooper’s gray eyes narrowed on her pale face. “Liquor? What are you talking about? My brother never drank.”
Glancing away from him, she lifted the mug of cocoa to her lips. After she’d managed to take a couple of swallows, she asked, “How do you know?”
Rage at the loss of his brother, his home, and all that had happened ten years ago surged up in his craw like bitter acid. “Kenneth was your husband, but he was also my brother,” he said stonily. “I knew him.”
The bit of compassion she’d felt for him a moment ago vanished. “Yeah. Back when? Before you became a big rodeo star? Well, I’m sorry, Cooper, but the brother you knew wasn’t the one that fell from a horse and broke his neck.”
Something flickered in his gray eyes. Doubt? Guilt? Whatever it was sliced into Emily like the edge of a rusty razor.
“What are you trying to say? Had Kenneth become an alcoholic?” he asked.
She realized what her words were probably doing to him. Cooper had always looked up to his older brother. From what he’d once told her, Kenneth had been a steadying influence to him after their parents had died. Then later, when Cooper had decided to try his hand at bronc riding, Kenneth had urged him on like a proud papa. If either of the Dunn brothers had possessed a wild streak, it had been Cooper, not Kenneth.
Emily’s blue eyes were suddenly snapping with anger as she looked at him and it dawned on Cooper this was the most emotion he’d seen on her face since he’d arrived.
“No. Kenneth wasn’t an alcoholic, but it was in the makings. I told him not to ever get on that horse if he’d been drinking. But he did anyway. A man with drunk reflexes shouldn’t be on a gentle nag, much less a loco cow horse.”
Cooper felt physically ill. When the news of Kenneth’s death had reached him all he could think was what a senseless way to die. But now—what Emily was telling him made it far worse. “You know for a fact Kenneth had been drinking? You’d said you were gone to Ruidoso. You couldn’t have seen him.”
Emily pushed aside her unfinished cocoa and got up from the table. “The autopsy report stated there was enough alcohol in his bloodstream to make him well past the legal point of drunkenness. I’m sorry, Cooper, but that’s the way it was.”
He stared up at her in disbelief. “You’re sorry!”
Before she could make a reply, he jumped to his feet and grabbed her by the upper arm. “That’s all you can say, you’re sorry?” His face bore down on hers. “What the hell were you thinking, Emily? Why did you let him get on a horse in such a condition? What were you doing?”
Her features cold and stiff, she ripped her arm from his grasp. “What were you doing, Cooper?”
Her pointed question stunned him. His hand fell away from her arm, but his gray eyes mercilessly held onto hers.
The sick look on his face didn’t give Emily any pleasure and she decided they had both said enough for one night. None of it mattered anyway. Kenneth was gone. And so would Cooper, too. Probably by the end of the day.
Turning away from him, she started out of the room. Before she reached the door, she said, “I made up the bed in your old room. If you want any breakfast, I’ll have it ready by seven.”
Cooper wanted to call her back, but he didn’t. It was late and he could see she was exhausted. Now wasn’t the time to press her about his brother. But he would before he left here. And he’d make damn sure he got some answers.
The next morning Emily was frying bacon when Rose, her stepmother, called. Holding the portable phone with one hand, she forked the frying bacon with the other.
“I’m just checking on you,” Rose said. “Did you sleep last night?”
Emily closed her eyes and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. For twenty-three years Rose had been her mother in every sense of the word and throughout that time her love and gentle kindness had never wavered. Nor had it ever failed to touch Emily’s heart.
“A little,” she told her.
Picking up the weariness in her voice, Rose said, “You need more than a little sleep. Your dad is going to the horse sale with a friend so I’ve got the day to myself. Why don’t you go back to bed after you eat and I’ll come over and see to the chores for you.”
“You did that yesterday,” Emily reminded her.
“And it didn’t hurt me one little bit Now tell me if you need me to bring you anything and I’ll be over in an hour or so.”
Emily dropped a piece of bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels. “No,” she said quickly. “Don’t do that. I’ll be fine.”
“But honey, I want to help you.”
“I know,” she said, then decided she should explain. “Cooper came home last night.”
The line went quiet as Rose digested her daughter’s abrupt news. “Is he there now?”
Emily glanced over her shoulder to make sure the man hadn’t slipped into the kitchen without her knowing. “Yes.”
“How long does he plan to stay?”
“He hasn’t said and I haven’t asked.”
Rose went silent for another long spell. “How does he seem to be taking Kenneth’s death?”
“I think he’s still in a bit of shock about it.” And Emily was still in a shock over seeing Cooper again.
“Well, I know the two of them were close at one time. But frankly, I’m surprised the news brought Cooper home. He’s never bothered before. And what can he do now?”
“I’ve been thinking the very things you just said.”
“So you don’t really know his intentions?” Rose asked.
“Not yet.”
Rose groaned. “Oh Lord, Emily, I wished the man had stayed gone. Harlan isn’t going to like this one little bit. He hasn’t forgotten how Cooper hurt you. And if he’s come back with plans to take over his half of the ranch—well, all I can say is I see trouble.”
His half of the ranch. Like a cold north wind, the words rushed through Emily. It was true that Cooper and Kenneth had shared ownership of the ranch since their father had died fifteen years ago. But Cooper had never seen fit to take any interest in the place. Neither with money nor his presence. She couldn’t see that changing just because Kenneth was no longer here.
“You’re borrowing trouble, Mom. Cooper doesn’t have any intentions toward the Diamond D. Why would he? He’s a big rodeo star now. He has all the money he needs. And anybody with one good eye can see this place is falling down around my ears. No. You can rest assured Cooper couldn’t be bothered.”
“I hope you’re right, darling. You have enough on your mind without something like that. You haven’t told him anything, have you?”
Emily switched off the burner beneath the skillet and took a peep in the oven at the baking biscuits. “What do you mean? About the accident?”
“No. About you.”
Emily quickly glanced over her shoulder again. A few minutes before her mother had called, she’d heard Cooper head down the hall to the bathroom. Any second now she expected him to walk into the kitchen.
“I have no intentions of telling him anything about my condition. It’s none of his business. And I’d appreciate it if you’d tell Daddy and the rest of the family not to say anything if they happen to run into Cooper.”
“Is there a reason you don’t want him to know?”
She bit down on her lip as several reasons came to mind. “He...doesn’t need to know, that’s all. Now I’ve got to finish breakfast. I’ll call you later, Mom.”
“All right, honey, if that’s the way you feel. You know your daddy and I are here if you need us.”
Knowing she had her parents’ support was one of the things that had kept her going. “And I love you for it. We’ll talk later.”
She placed the phone out of the way then gathered a couple of pot holders and pulled the pan of hot bread from the oven.
“Something smells good. Is it biscuits?”
Emily glanced around just as Cooper walked into the room. Even though she knew he’d slept across the hall from her last night, it was still a shock to the senses to see him this morning.
He hadn’t shaved but she could see he must have taken a quick shower because his dark hair was wet and slicked back from his face. A red plaid shirt hung half buttoned on the outside of his jeans. His feet were bare except for a pair of white socks.
“Yes, it’s biscuits. And you shouldn’t be walking around without your boots. The floor is gritty. You’ll ruin your socks.”
He gave her a twisted smile. “I’ve been known to get grit in my boots before.”
No doubt, she thought. He’d made his living in thousands of dusty rodeo arenas. It shouldn’t matter to her if he ruined ten pair of socks on her dirty floors. And it shouldn’t feel so good to look at him, either. But it did.
Carrying the pan of biscuits over to the table, she motioned for him to take a seat at one of the empty plates. “How do you want your eggs? Scrambled or fried?”
“Fried, if it isn’t too much trouble.”
She went to the stove, broke four eggs into a skillet of warm grease, then carried a coffeepot back to the table and filled his cup.
“Are you always up and going this early?” he asked.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Normally I’m up and about much earlier. But I’ve tried to get a little more rest these past few days.” Not that laying in bed an hour and a half more did any good, she thought. She still felt drained and groggy, but she was determined to get better, to be able to smile and laugh again.
“You look tired.”
As she tended the cooking eggs, her free hand unconsciously fluttered to her bare cheek. With no makeup and her hair pulled back in a messy French braid she knew she must look awful. Her work jeans and old blue sweater didn’t help matters, either. But for the past couple of years, she’d ceased to think of her appearance as important. How irritating for Cooper to notice and point out such a thing to her.
“Ten years can do a lot to a person’s looks.”
He picked up the steaming cup of coffee and savored the smell as he brought it to his lips. After a careful sip, he said, “I didn’t say you looked older. I said you looked tired.”
The eggs done, she carried the skillet over to the table, ladled three onto his plate and one on her own.
As she took a seat opposite him, her eyes briefly met his and she wondered, if like her, he was remembering back to the breakfasts they shared ten years ago.
Emily hoped not. She hoped that once he’d left the Diamond D, he’d totally forgotten the unabashed way she’d loved him, the nights she’d spent cradled in his strong arms. Just thinking of the pleasure he’d given her sent a shaft of guilty heat rushing through her.
“I’m really okay,” she told him.
Emily didn’t look okay. She looked like hell, but Cooper kept the opinion to himself. He could see her nerves were raw and he hadn’t come here to the Diamond D to cause her more pain. In all honesty, Cooper wasn’t exactly sure why he’d come back.
The funeral had already taken place. He couldn’t help his brother now and he didn’t necessarily want to assert himself into Emily’s life just because she was his sister-in-law and newly widowed. Nor did he figure she would appreciate him sticking his nose into any unfinished legal business she might have to deal with over the accident. So had he really come here just to see her one more time? He didn’t want to answer that.
Shaking tabasco over his eggs, he asked, “How is everyone else around here? Do your parents still live on the Flying H?”
Relieved that he wasn’t going to bring up Kenneth’s accident right off, she relaxed a little. “Yes. My brother Ethan has graduated college and is living back home now.”
His brows lifted and for the first time since she’d found him in the barn last night there was a genuine smile on his face. “Little Ethan is out of college? Why, he was just a little ornery horned toad that last time I saw him.”
A vague tilt to her lips, she passed him a biscuit then took one for herself. “Well, he’s all grown up now.”
“What about your aunts?”
“Justine and Chloe are fine. So are their children. Uncle Roy is still the sheriff. He thought about retiring last year, but the people in this county love him too much to let him go. And my cousin Charlie loves being a Texas Ranger. Uncle Wyatt is still in the oil business and of course Daddy will always be a rancher.”
And what about you, he wanted to ask her. Had she been happy as Kenneth’s wife? Really happy? Cooper knew he had no right to put those questions to her. But for the past ten years he’d thought of little else.
“What about your other cousins? Are they still living around here?”
“The twins are all grown up now. Anna is touring as a concert pianist and Adam is working in the gas business with his dad. Their younger sister, Ivy, is at NMU studying to be a doctor. And you remember Charlie’s younger sister, Caroline. She lives in Santa Fe and works as a jewelry designer. None of them have married yet. I guess they’ve all been too busy building their careers.”
Wishing he could think about anything but her, he turned his attention to the food on his plate. It tasted good and he was hungry. But the eggs and bacon did little to fill up the empty hole in him.
“Emily,” he began after a few minutes of silence. “Last night...about Kenneth...if I sounded—”
When it appeared he couldn’t find the words to go on, Emily did it for him. “Out of line?”
He didn’t necessarily think his question had been out of line. Still, he did feel a little badly about being so rough on her. But hell, she’d met him with the barrel of a .30.30 pointed straight at his gut. The greeting hadn’t exactly put him in a warm mood.
“I don’t think wanting to know how my brother died was asking too much. Even if you didn’t want to talk about it.”
She reached for her coffee, but suddenly the smell of it sickened her. She put the cup down and reached for the orange juice she’d poured earlier.
“You think I’m to blame because Kenneth is dead,” she said flatly. “You think I should have stopped him somehow.”
He grimaced. “I didn’t—”
“You said it. You know you did. So don’t be bashful. Tell me what you’re really thinking now. God knows I can take it.”
That weariness was back in her voice and Cooper realized he hated it. More than anything he wanted to see the warm, vibrant Emily he used to know.
“Okay. I know that if there was one person on this earth who could have prevented Kenneth from getting on that horse, it was you.”
The smile she gave him was so utterly sad he could hardly bear to look at her. “At one time, that might have been true. But not now.”
“Why was Kenneth drinking?”
She couldn’t finish the food on her plate. In fact, she was going to be lucky if she didn’t lose what little she’d managed to get down.
“Why does anyone drink?” she countered. “He was unhappy with me, the ranch, life in general.”
Cooper didn’t want to believe what she was saying. Kenneth had never been a down person. It had always taken so little to make him happy. He couldn’t imagine his brother changing so drastically.
Seeing the doubt and confusion on his face, Emily said, “I wasn’t having an affair, if that’s what you’re thinking. And as far as I know, Kenneth wasn’t cheating on me. He was—well, he’d changed the last few years. I don’t know what he wanted and apparently whatever it was, I couldn’t give it to him.” She lifted her eyes to his. “So maybe you are right. Maybe I did cause his death.”
“Oh hell, Emily. That’s not what I needed to hear you say.”
Her brows inched slowly upward. “Then what do you want to hear from me?”
Suddenly he couldn’t face her. Too many bittersweet memories of the times he and Emily had spent together were pouring in over the pain he was already feeling for Kenneth.
With a little groan he got up from the table and walked over to a door that led out to the backyard. Through the windowpanes, he could see a part of the barn and the adjoining corrals. It was a pitiful sight. Much worse than he’d suspected it to be last night. Boards were rotting, fences were sagging, sheets of tin were loose and flopping in the cold wind. It was a far cry from the ranch he remembered as his home.
“I guess I just wanted to hear that my brother was happy. But it seems as though you can’t even give me that much.”
She looked down at her plate and blinked. It was the closest she’d come to crying since she’d first set eyes on him last night. Cooper had once been everything to her. When she thought of the word happy, she always thought of him.
“Your world might be a beautiful place, Cooper. But here on the Diamond D things have been... tough.”
Folding his arms across his chest, he turned to face her. “Then why are you here?”
The sight of him standing there so strong and handsome and alive infuriated her. He’d turned his back on her, broke her heart and virtually shunned his brother. He had no right to show his face here again, much less interrogate her!
Shoving her chair back from the table she marched over to within inches of him. “Because it’s my home, Cooper. But that’s something you wouldn’t understand. You don’t want a home. And from the looks of you, I doubt you’ll ever have one!”
A sneer twisted his lean face. “If this is what you call a home, I’m damn glad I don’t!”
Suddenly everything Emily had been through since she’d first met Cooper Dunn came whirling through her like an angry tornado. All she could see was him leaving and never coming back.
It was the stinging pain in her hand that finally jolted Emily back to reality. Instantly, anger and horror swept across her face. She’d slapped him!
Rubbing the wounded spot on his jaw, Cooper eyed her flushed cheeks. “So there is life in you after all.”
Oh God, he didn’t know. He couldn’t know!
Pressing her hand over her mouth, she ran to the bathroom and prayed he wouldn’t hear her retching.
Chapter Two
On the edge of a windswept break, Cooper reined the gray to a halt and gazed out at the snowy mesa floor. Many times in the past he’d ridden to this very spot where the sagebrush grew belly high to a horse and a lone pinon pine stood sentinel over the ranch below.
However, this morning Cooper felt no joy as he looked down at the home that had been in the Dunn Family for more than a hundred years. The Diamond D was not the same. Not physically nor spiritually and the knowledge saddened him greatly.
He hadn’t expected it to touch him like this. Hell, it had been years since he’d been on the place. He’d figured once he’d seen it again, the old ranch wouldn’t mean that much to him. After all, it had always been Kenneth’s baby. Their father had seen to that. William Dunn had never hidden the fact that of his two sons he considered Kenneth to be the better rancher. It was one of the main reasons Cooper had worked so hard to succeed at bronc riding. He’d never felt as if he really had a place of importance here on the ranch. Yet in spite of all that, it cut something deep inside him to see the home place like this. So shabby. So empty.
Pushing his coat collar up against the falling snow, Cooper nudged the gray down the bluff and back toward the house. Smoke was spiraling up from the old rock chimney, signaling him that Emily had just stoked up the fire.
Unconsciously his fingertips touched the spot on his jaw she’d slapped. The memory of her anger this morning put a wry smile on his lips. Emily was still Emily after all, and he wondered how she was going to react when he told her what he planned to do.
Almost a half hour later, Cooper found her in the living room in front of the fireplace. The rocking chair she sat in was an old oak one that had belonged to his mother. The back was high and the arms and legs carved. Though he’d never known his mother, others had told him the chair had been a favorite of Laura Dunn’s and it comforted Cooper somehow to see Emily in it now.
“The snow is getting heavier,” he said as he grew near her and the warm fire.
She glanced up from the blue jeans she was patching to see him shedding a heavy sheepskin coat. Snow still clung to his shoulders and the brim of his hat His nose and cheeks were reddened by the cold wind. She wondered why he’d bothered to go out on such a nasty morning.
“It’s only the end of October,” she replied. “I hope this isn’t a forewarning to what the rest of the winter is going to be like.”
Taking a seat in a stuffed armchair a few feet away from her, his eyes wandered over the room. Other than being run-down, it really hadn’t changed much in appearance, either. The ceiling was low and traversed with dark oak beams, the walls white plaster, the floor Spanish tile. The house was typical hacienda style and in its early years had once been regarded as a showcase. Now it needed money and a complete refurbishment. As did everything else he looked at on the place.
His eyes coming to rest on her face, he said, “I didn’t see much hay stacked away in the barn. Is that all you have?”
She nodded. “That’s it. Kenneth didn’t want to bother planting an alfalfa crop.”
His features twisted with confusion. “What the hell did he plan to feed this winter?”
Emily grimaced and placed her mending on the floor beside the rocker. “When our alfalfa ran out, he’d planned on buying more hay from Daddy. It would be cheaper that way. Especially with Daddy giving us a generous cut.”
“That doesn’t sound like Kenneth.”
Her expression both wry and sad, she glanced over at him. “No. Not the Kenneth you used to know.”
“For as long as I can remember the Diamond D raised its own alfalfa. It was one of the reasons why the ranch did so well.”
She looked back at the fire while thinking how ironic to hear Cooper repeating all the old arguments she’d given Kenneth. “I know. But the tractor has been giving us lots of problems. Kenneth figured by the time we fixed it, then counted the cost of fertilizer, labor and baling, we’d be better off not raising a crop of hay.”
Scooting to the edge of the chair, Cooper leaned toward her. “I’m going to tell you flat out, Emily. This place looks like hell. What’s been going on?”
Emily had figured that once daylight came, and Cooper had the chance to look around the place, he was going to be appalled. The ranch looked nothing like the one he’d known before he left for the rodeo circuit.
Rising from the rocker, she stood with her back to the warmth of the fire. “You’ve been here a few hours and you want to hear in one short explanation what’s happened to the ranch,” she said dryly.
Cooper’s gray eyes drifted up and down the length of her. She was a tall woman and from the looks of her, age hadn’t added any extra pounds to her slender frame. If anything, she appeared thinner. But it was difficult for Cooper to really tell much about her shape beneath the baggy jeans and sweater she was wearing.
“Do you not want to tell me? Or do you just not know? Which one is it?” he asked.
He sounded outraged and Emily stared at him in disbelief. “In the ten years you’ve been gone, you’ve never wondered or worried about the ranch’s condition. Don’t you think your display of concern is a little late in coming?”
Her sarcasm made Cooper want to go to her and shake her. But her fragile appearance stopped him. He got the feeling if he touched her, she just might break.
“Ever since Dad died, the Diamond D has been in Kenneth’s hands. That’s the way he wanted it,” he said quietly. “My brother would have never let it get in this condition without a reason.”
Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, Emily let out a long sigh. “A reason? Why not several reasons?”
“Okay. So there was more than one. Tell me.”
Her mind said she didn’t owe this man any explanations. He’d forfeited everything when he’d walked away. Yet when she looked at him, her heart interfered with her thinking. Kenneth had been his brother and this had been his home. It couldn’t be easy for him to find them both gone.
“Cooper, the ranch’s decline happened over years. Little by little Kenneth seemed to lose interest. And then all sorts of problems kept popping up, like broken-down vehicles, sick cows, bad weather. The list goes on. But I guess the plummeting price in the cattle market is what finally broke the place.”
His brows shot up. “The ranch is broke?”
She supposed that was hard for a man like him to imagine. Through the gossip grapevine and what little bit of sports news she caught on TV, she knew Cooper Dunn had made plenty of money these past ten years riding broncs in the PRCA. He was a champion, a celebrity figure in the world of rodeo. His finances had done nothing but grow.
“Let me put it this way. The ranch isn’t making money.”
“How many cattle are you running now?” he asked.
“A hundred and fifty head.”
The amount was so paltry she might as well as said none. He looked at her and the disgust on his face brought a flush of anger to her cheeks.
“I know it sounds and looks bad,” she told him, “but when you have a bad streak of luck—”
“You get up and fight back,” he interrupted hotly. “You don’t lose interest and you sure as hell don’t start drinking!”
“I didn’t do either of those things,” she retorted. “Nor do I plan to.”
But Kenneth had. She couldn’t have made it any plainer to him. But the ranch was still here. Barely. Cooper couldn’t let it die, too.
Rising from the chair, he went to stand beside her. She looked up at him as his shoulder came close to nudging hers and as Cooper searched her azure blue eyes he realized he’d forgotten nothing about this woman. Her honey pale skin, the length of her pert little nose, the curve of her full lips. Lips that he’d kissed whenever the urge had struck him. And the urge had struck him often. To his dismay, it still was.
“I was planning on leaving this evening. Along with the bronc riding, I’ve started competing in the team roping and I’m drawn in a rodeo in Arizona two days from now. But I’m not going.”
Aghast, she whispered, “Not going?”
Glancing away from her, he shook his head. Emily’s already jumpy stomach took a nosedive. “Why? I’m sure there’s several more rodeos for you to make between now and the National Finals in December.”
“Eight at least. But they’ll manage to go on without me.”
Maybe, Emily thought. But she wasn’t at all sure she could survive with him here. All she had to do was look at him and she remembered everything about him. The taste of his skin, the flash of his smile, the sweet bliss of his body next to hers. Oh God, it wasn’t right for her to think of such things with Kenneth barely gone. But she couldn’t stop herself. She’d never been able to stop herself.
Turning her gaze to the fire, she asked, “Why would you possibly want to stay? There’s nothing for you here.”
At one time Cooper had thought there was plenty for him here because she was here. He’d hoped and planned to eventually come back a rich man, a man worthy to be Emily’s husband. But she hadn’t waited. She’d married Kenneth instead. Even now, after all these years, the knowledge stabbed him deep and hard.
“Unless things have changed more than I know, I’m still part owner of this place,” Cooper stated coolly. “I have a right to see that my own property is taken care of. Or were you planning on selling it and moving into Ruidoso or somewhere else in this area?”
His question put a blank look on her face. “Sell?” she echoed. “I’d never do that. Besides, as you said, you’re half owner. I couldn’t sell without your consent.”
It really didn’t make any sort of sense, but it was a great relief to Cooper to hear her say she had no notions to sell the Diamond D. Selling would probably be the smart thing to do. She was a woman alone, without the funds to get the place going again. With what money they could get out of the property, she would have enough to start a new home somewhere and he could go on back to his rodeo life and not have the burden of the ranch on his mind.
But the Diamond D had always belonged to a Dunn. His father had been born here and he’d died here. So had his grandfather. The Dunn men had carved this ranch right out of Apache land. Back then, water had been as precious as gold and the Lincoln county range war had turned the desert plains into a bloody battlefield. It was even rumored that during those days of the 1870s, Cooper’s great-grandfather Dunn had rode with the great rancher, John Tunstall, and rubbed shoulders with Billy the Kid.
Whether that part of the family history was true or not, Cooper couldn’t really say. But he did know for more than a century, a Dunn had ranched this land. How could he walk away from that?
“Cooper, is that what you want? You want to sell the Diamond D?”
Her voice finally penetrated his deep thoughts. “I’m sorry,” he said, swiping a weary hand over his face. “Were you asking me something?”
She repeated her questions and he quickly shook his head.
“No. I don’t want to sell the ranch.”
Her mind spinning, Emily’s gaze clung to his hard face. “But you can’t want to stay here!”
His gray eyes cut down to hers and once again, memories swamped her. No man, including her husband, had gotten as close to her as Cooper had. When she’d been in his arms, the rest of the world had faded away. Nothing had mattered but him and having him close. If he stayed on the Diamond D she’d be so tempted...so crazy all over again.
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t the way you want to live! You’ve got a career. And anyway, I live here alone. It wouldn’t look...right if you were to stay in the house with me.”
His lips twisting with wry amusement, he went over to the window and glanced outside. “I don’t really see any neighbors out there watching us.”
“Don’t be flip. You know I have friends and family around here. They’ll all think it rather odd, don’t you think? A brother-in-law moving in with his freshly widowed sister-in-law.”
“Moving in,” he repeated with a snort. “You make it sound like we’re two lovers who can’t wait to set up housekeeping with each other.”
His sarcasm stung her and she shot him a disgusted look. “That’s exactly the way it will sound to everybody else, too!”
Turning his back on her, Cooper stared out the murky windowpanes. He could feel cold air seeping around the wooden window frames, but the draft did little to cool his thoughts. Why did she have to remind him of how it had been to love her? She was his brother’s widow and that’s the way it had to stay.
“I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks!” he said sharply. “This is between you and me. Like it or not, we own this ranch together. And I don’t want to see it go under.”
If anyone could get the Diamond D going, Emily thought reluctantly, it would be Cooper. He might have been riding in the spotlight for the past ten years, but he knew ranching backward and forward. And from the looks of him, he had the energy to follow his ideas through. But what about the mental commitment? How long would it be before he was bored and ready to head back to Cheyenne or Calgary or San Antonio?
No, Emily decided. She didn’t want him here. Especially with the baby coming. For so long she’d desperately wanted a child and now that she was finally pregnant she wanted to focus all her energy on carrying a healthy baby to full term. Cooper’s presence would dredge up memories too painful to bear.
“I won’t let the Diamond D go under. I promise you that,” she told him.
He turned and stared at her. “What do you mean, you won’t let it? It’s already on its way.”
She flushed. “Not totally. I still have a hundred and fifty head of cattle and ten head of horses.”
His eyes quickly narrowed. “What about the horse that caused Kenneth’s accident?”
She shook her head. “Daddy’s already sold him.”
He was visibly relieved. “Good. I didn’t relish the idea of putting a horse down, but I would have.”
Emily shook her head with disapproval. “As if that would do Kenneth any good now. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A horse for a man. Is that your way of thinking?”
“Something like that.”
“I can’t imagine you laying one angry hand on a horse. You always loved them. And they you. I guess that’s why they’ve made you rich and famous.”
He walked toward her then and for a moment the smile spreading over his face made her forget he’d ever been gone.
“Who says I’m rich and famous?”
She shrugged, wishing she could keep quiet around this man. She didn’t want him getting the idea he’d been in her thoughts down through the years. “Oh, everyone here in Lincoln, I suppose.”
“Then everyone is wrong. I’m just one good cowboy out of many.”
More than bothered by his closeness, Emily stepped off the hearth and away from him. “I’m going to go make a pot of coffee. It’s nearly time for lunch and then I have to feed the cattle.”
“Who’s been doing your feeding?”
“My dad. But I told him not to come today. I want to take care of things myself and I can’t do that moping around the house.”
She didn’t look strong enough to drive a pickup, much less pitch a bale of hay off the back of it. But maybe her appearance was deceiving. Cooper certainly hoped that was the case.
He followed her out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. Built on the north side of the house, the room was naturally colder than the others. Rubbing his hands together, Cooper went over to a gas heater on the wall and was dismayed to see it wasn’t burning.
“Why don’t you have the fire on? It’s miserable in here,” he muttered.
As Emily filled a blue granite percolator with cold water, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “A fire means gas and the cost of LP is outrageous now. If you’re cold put more clothes on.”
Emily had always been a practical woman, but this was ridiculous. “Damn it all, Emily, do you think I can’t buy a tank of gas?”
He went over to the cabinets and jerked open a drawer he remembered being a catchall. Thankfully it still was and a box of matches was there among the odds and ends. He carried them back to the heater, lit it and turned the control knob to high position.
Her hands on her hips, Emily glared at him in silence. Cooper lifted his brows at her.
“I have on all the clothes I want to have on,” he said.
“You might own half of this ranch, but I’m the one who pays the bills. I’m not going to buy extra gas just so you can sit around dressed like you’re in the Bahamas.”
Cooper glanced pointedly down at his flannel shirt. “I haven’t seen too many of these on the beach before.”
Whirling her back to him, she poured a stiff amount of coffee grounds into the pot, then plopped the lid down and whammed the whole thing on a burner on the cookstove.
“Emily, I just told you I can pay for the gas. It’s no problem.”
“I’ll not have you paying for anything! Not while there’s breath in my body,” she hissed, her back still to him.
The venom in her voice stunned him. He’d expected her to be harboring a few bad feelings toward him. But not this bad.
“You’d rather freeze and keep your pride, I suppose,” he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “You’d rather sit around in a cold, drafty house and take the chance of getting bronchitis or pneumonia than take a few dollars from me.”
A few dollars wouldn’t fill the propane tank, Emily wanted to shout at him. It would take several hundred and he knew it. But now that he was so successful, maybe he considered that amount as next to nothing.
Turning, she lifted her eyes to his. “Look, Cooper, the minute you start paying part of the bills, you’ll get the idea you can tell me what to do. I won’t have that.”
He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t do anything for you, is that it?”
His voice was still edged with sarcasm, but she could hear something else in it, too. A need of sorts that made her heart want to weep. Ten years ago she would have given anything to have him concerned about her welfare. But he’d been too busy planning his own life and his own career. She’d been left high and dry and he’d never looked back until now. Did he honestly think she would want to accept anything from him after the pain he caused her?
Anger pushing her away from the cabinets, she went over to stand in front of him. “Buy the damn gas if you want. Just don’t start giving me orders, understand?”
Seeing her intention to walk away, he grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her back to him. Her bosom heaving, she glared up at him and tried to jerk away, but he wouldn’t slacken his hold.
“You’ve grown as hard as nails, Emily. Why? Has your life here been that bad?”
Compared to the grip he had on her arm, his voice was soft. The sound of it caught at something inside Emily and she knew above all things now, she had to hold on to her composure. She could never let herself break down and admit to him that her marriage to Kenneth had grown into a painful one.
“I’m not being hard, Cooper. I’m being realistic.”
His eyes gently roamed her upturned face and as they did he wondered what had happened to the soft, beautiful woman who dreamed and hoped and looked at life with stars in her eyes. And in that moment, he knew he’d give anything to see that woman again.
“I never thought I’d come back and find you like this,” he murmured.
She swallowed as bittersweet emotions balled in her throat. “I never thought you’d come back, period,” she countered.
Cooper didn’t profess to know women. Down through the years he’d had little time for the opposite sex. He’d never really been around any of them enough to learn their likes and dislikes, what they were thinking and feeling. But at one time in his life, he’d known Emily. And as he took in the pain on her face, it struck him that Kenneth wasn’t the one that had made her like this. He had.
“Emily, I—”
Before he could say another word, Emily tore loose from his grip and fled the room.
Cooper was still staring after her when the sound of the coffee boiling out the spout and onto the cookstove finally snared his attention.
He went over and adjusted the burner to a slow perk, then pulled a coffee mug out of the cupboard. Apparently Emily was no longer in the mood for coffee, or him.
But whether she wanted to or not, she was going to have to get in the mood for him, he thought grimly. Because there was no way in hell he was going to leave now.
A few minutes later, as Cooper was finishing his coffee, Emily returned to the kitchen. Except for two bright spots on her cheeks, she looked as white as bleached flour. A couple of old coats were thrown across her arm and tall rubber boots were on her feet.
Tossing one of the coats at him, she said, “You wanted to help. Put that on and come with me.”
Unaffected by her order, he remained in his chair, his hands cradled around the coffee mug. “It’s time for lunch.”
“We can eat whenever we get back,” she said in a clipped voice.
If she’d been a man, Cooper would have taken the coat and thrown it straight at her. As it was, he got up from his chair, snatched away the coat that was still on her arm and pushed her into a chair.
“We’re going to eat. Now!”
“I’m not hungry,” she retorted.
“It looks as though you’re never hungry, but you’re going to eat just the same,” he snapped back at her.
Indignant, Emily watched him rummage through the shelves of the refrigerator. One by one he set out a plate of fried chicken, a bowl of potato salad, a container of baked beans and a saucer of sliced tomatoes.
At the cabinets he searched until he found two plates and forks, salt and pepper and a roll of paper towels. After pouring her a mugful of coffee, he refilled his own.
“Eat,” he said as he took a seat to her left.
She glared at him. “I told you not to be giving me orders.”
“I haven’t paid any bills so the deal isn’t on yet”
As far as Emily was concerned, the deal would never be on. But she filled her plate just the same and made an earnest attempt to eat.
Her aunt Justine was a registered nurse and she’d been stressing over and over to Emily just how important it was for her baby to get the proper nourishment in the early stages of development Even if she didn’t have much of an appetite, she would eat for her baby’s sake. The child was the one ray of light she could look forward to, the very purpose of her being. She wouldn’t let Cooper or anything jeopardize her pregnancy.
“I want to talk to you,” she told him and when he looked at her with raised brows, she added, “Seriously.”
“I’m already getting the urge to call you Your Honor. Just how much more serious do you want to get?”
A little smile slowly crossed her face. In spite of everything that had happened it was nice to see he hadn’t lost his wit. It had been one of her favorite things about him. He’d always been able to make her laugh.
When she’d first met Cooper, he’d been sidelined from his bronc riding with a broken leg and had come home to the Diamond D to heal. He’d needed a nurse to help him with physical therapy and eventually, through a mutual friend, he’d learned Justine had worked as a therapist and didn’t live all that far away.
When her aunt had driven out to the Diamond D to meet Cooper, she’d invited Emily to accompany her. From the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, she’d been awestruck. Not because he’d already started to make a name for himself in the world of rodeo. Athletes had never really impressed Emily all that much, even when they pitted their strength against a twelve-hundred-pound horse. But for some unexplainable reason, she’d felt an instant connection to Cooper, a pull like an electric force from which she couldn’t break away.
That had been more than ten years ago. Now he was back sitting only a few inches away and here she was once again feeling that same pull toward him. She had to stop it, she firmly told herself. She couldn’t let herself feel drawn to this man. He was a user. A heartbreaker. She didn’t need him.
“I want you to rethink this idea you have about staying here on the Diamond D,” she told him. “You only have a couple more months to go before the season ends and then you’ll have a bit of time off after the National Finals in Las Vegas. At this late date, it doesn’t make sense for you to sideline your career. You can always come back later and check on the ranch.”
He shot her a skeptical look. “And what’s going to happen during November and December? You can’t keep this place going by yourself.”
She lifted her chin proudly. “Most of it, I can. And Daddy is already checking on a man to help me with the heavier work. If you feel you just have to do something, you can contribute to his wages. Otherwise, you’re going to lose a lot of money and possibly even your position in the PRCA standings.”
Any other time Cooper would have agreed with her, even appreciated the common sense she was using toward both their predicaments. But oddly enough, the money he might win in the next couple of months, or his number one position in the money earned column, didn’t really mean what it once had to Cooper. He could live without the glory, the stardom and the big paychecks.
“I’m not all that worried about the next two months of rodeos. I’m more concerned about getting things done around here. There’s hardly enough hay for the horses, let alone the cattle. Fences are falling down. The roof on the barn is sagging in and God only knows what else needs to be repaired. You said it had taken years for the ranch to get in this run-down condition, well, it looks as though it’s going to take quite a long time to fix it.”
Emily knew he was right. And she should probably be glad he wanted to make things better. But she couldn’t live in the same house with him. She wasn’t strong enough to forgive or forget what he’d done to her. Even worse, she wasn’t at all sure she had the strength or courage to resist him.
“You’re right. It will. But wouldn’t it make more sense for you to simply hire the work done?”
He shrugged while his eyes made a shrewd assessment of her face. “Actually, the idea of doing some good ol’ outdoor manual labor appeals to me.”
“Sure,” she said with dry disbelief. “This from a man who earns his living in eight-second intervals.”
Even though she was being calm enough and sensible enough, Cooper could see that Emily didn’t want him here. She either hated him, he concluded, or she was actually worried about what others might think of them living in the same house together.
“You’ve made it obvious you don’t want me here, Emily. And I’ll tell you something else. I’m not all that sure I want to be here.” His gray eyes pinned hers. “You and I aren’t exactly two people who should be thrown together as partners. But like it or not, we are.”
She put down her fork and crumpled her dirty napkin. “I can live with us both owning the ranch. As long as you’re a silent partner.”
He very nearly laughed and for a split second Emily wished that ten years had never passed and she was back in that time when she’d loved and laughed and hoped along with him.
“I never was good at keeping my mouth shut,” he said, while shoveling the last of the potato salad from his plate. “But I’ll consider your suggestion. Maybe we can work something out so you won’t have to put up with me and I won’t have to miss the last of the rodeo season.”
Dear God, she silently prayed, maybe he was finally listening to her. Cooper had to understand the two of them weren’t meant to be working partners or partners of any sort. He needed to leave here before the past came crashing in on both of them.
Chapter Three
Minutes later at the hay barn, Cooper ordered Emily to stand to one side while he loaded the back of an old work truck with several bales of alfalfa and three hundred pounds of caked feed.
As she watched him lift the heavy bales of hay, she knew it was a job she shouldn’t be doing. Especially with her history of miscarriage. But she wasn’t about to let Cooper know any part of what had happened to her after he’d left the ranch. Today she would accept his help and be grateful for it and hopefully by tomorrow she could persuade him to leave the Diamond D in her care. Maybe he’d stay away for another ten years.
If anything, the snowfall had grown heavier. As the old truck jostled over a rutted track toward the feeding ground, the wipers struggled to scrape away the fat flakes of ice sticking to the windshield.
Any other time, Emily would have enjoyed seeing the sage and pinon decorated in white, but today she hardly noticed the falling snow. Cooper had distracted her to say the least.
“Are you cold?”
His question caused her to glance across the seat at him. “I’m okay.”
He twisted the knob on the heater to a warmer setting. “Are you sure this heater even works? The air blowing from the defrost vents feels like it’s coming off the north pole.”
“What do you expect in this weather?”
He expected his brother would have a decent work truck with a heater. In bad weather it wasn’t safe for a person to get this far away from the ranch without a source of heat.
“Everything on this damn place is about to fall apart!” he muttered.
Including her, Emily thought, as she huddled inside her old wool work coat and jammed her gloved hands between her legs.
“You’ve just gotten soft,” she told him.
He snorted. “I admit I’ve been gone from this place for a long time, but since then I damn well haven’t gone soft or lazy. Unlike somebody else around here.”
Emily whipped around on the seat to face him. “If you’re implying I have, then just keep your mouth shut! You don’t know what I’ve been doing since you’ve been gone!”
His eyes bored into her. “Well, if you and Kenneth did all that much work, I sure as hell would like to see it. So far there’s not a building, a shed or a fence on this property that looks as though it’s had any attention in years!”
She didn’t know why he’d suddenly gotten so angry. Just because the heater was lukewarm didn’t warrant this sort of outburst from him.
“I told you Kenneth lost interest.”
“What was he doing with his time?”
The dry look she shot him said, you ought to know. “He spent his time with the horses. Sorta like someone else who used to live here.”
The sheepish expression stealing over his face told Emily she hadn’t given him the answer he was expecting.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he braked the old truck to a halt. A short distance away were a group of wooden feed troughs sheltered from the north wind by a stand of juniper and piГ±on pine.
“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I keep wondering why you’ve hung around here for so long.”
Emily quickly looked away from him and out the window. The cattle were several rises over from them, but the animals had heard the truck and were now making their way in a hungry trot toward the feed grounds.
“Like I told you this morning, I’ve hung around because this is my home. And Kenneth was my husband.”
He studied the back of her old black hat and the blond braid lying against her ranch coat. The garment had once been dark brown but it had obviously been washed and worn until the color now resembled dead grass. Her hair was still beautiful, but it looked as though she’d trimmed it herself. Cooper wondered how long it had been since she’d spent time just for herself, doing those feminine things women do with their skin and hair and nails.
A faint scowl on his face, Cooper said, “It appears to me as if he wasn’t being all that good of one. Or is that simply what you want me to believe?”
His question caused tears to collect in Emily’s throat. More than anything she didn’t want to belittle Kenneth to him. At one time the man had seemed to love her. And up until the past couple of years, he’d been a decent husband to her. It hadn’t been his fault that she’d failed him somewhere along the way.
“Your brother was a good man,” she said quietly. “He did...the best he could.”
Before Cooper was able to respond, Emily climbed out of the truck and hurried around to the tailgate. She was reaching for a sack of feed when his hands came down on her shoulders.
“Move out of the way. I’ll do this.”
Digging in her boot heels, she twisted her head around enough to see his face. “You’re supposed to be helping. Not giving orders.”
“When did you get so damn stubborn?”
Her lips parted to answer, but suddenly his grip on her shoulders eased. The expression on his face softened and she forgot all about his question. For the first time in years, Cooper was touching her as though he really meant it and all Emily wanted to do was turn and bury her face in his chest, beg him to hold her and never let her go.
“Cooper, I—”
Troubled by the sudden charge of awareness between them, Cooper quickly thrust her aside and slung the fifty-pound sack of feed over his shoulder.
“If you want to do something, follow me and start spreading the cake while I get the other sacks,” he said gruffly.
Relieved that he’d snapped her back to reality, Emily started after him. He set the sack of feed at one end of the nearest trough, then started to rip the string to open it.
“I’ll do that,” Emily quickly offered. “You go get the rest of the sacks before all the cattle get here. With this bit of snow on the ground they’re going to be hungry and rowdy.”
“Are any of them mean?”
“No,” she assured him. “I promise you won’t have to make a mad dash for the truck.”
To Emily’s surprise he grinned. “I’ll keep an eye out anyway,” he told her.
In a matter of moments the bawling steers reached the feed grounds and swarmed Emily. Working her way through the hungry cattle, she poured a long string of hard green pellets down the center of the wooden trough.
Once the sack was empty, she began walking to the next trough where Cooper had already placed another sack.
In their eagerness to be fed, the steers trotted ahead and around her. Emily pushed several animals out of her path, but before she was aware of the danger behind her she was sent sprawling to the ground.
The instant Cooper saw Emily fall, he tossed the sack from his shoulder and ran to her. She was lying facedown. A few feet away her hat had been stomped into the dirt and snow.
His heart pounding with fear, Cooper knelt over her and gently touched the back of her head. “Emily! My God, are you all right?”
Groaning, she tried to lever herself off the frozen ground. Her lungs were on fire and her head whirled like a kaleidoscope.
“I think... I...”
Carefully Cooper eased her onto her back, then cradled her head in the crook of his arm. “Try to breathe a little,” he instructed. “It’ll come back to you.”
Her shocked lungs finally managed to draw in more oxygen. As they did, her scrambled senses began to settle back into place. She glanced at the motley herd of cattle milling around them, then up at Cooper’s face.
“What happened?”
Gently he brushed the tangled blond hair away from her face. “A steer hit you from behind and knocked you down. How do you feel now? Do you think you’re okay? Does anything feel broken?”
Broken? Oh dear Lord, the baby! What had the fall done to it?
What little bit of color that had been returning to Emily’s face instantly vanished. “I don’t know!” she said in a panicked rush.
He frowned “What do you mean, you don’t know? Can’t you tell me whether you’re hurting or not?”
“I’m not hurting.”
He looked relieved. “Then do you want to try to stand up now?”
She shook her head and tears suddenly collected in her eyes. The baby was everything to her. She couldn’t lose it now! “I’m afraid,” she whispered.
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