Red Hot Rancher. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ shoulders and she almost sagged under the emotional weight of it all. But the truth was, none of those burdens were as crushing as the knowledge that she still had to see Caden again. And everything in her was torn.

      It had been five years since she’d seen him and five minutes since she’d thought of him. He’d been in her mind forever. Since the moment they’d met in high school, Caden Hale was all she’d been able to see. All she’d wanted to see. Until the night he had laid out their future together. Marriage, kids, the ranch, everything they used to talk about. Everything that Emma had come to believe was somehow destined.

      But that same night, it had become clear to her that if she stayed in Montana with him and never tried to chase down her own dreams, she’d end up resenting him and hating herself. So she’d left. Walked away. And she had the feeling he’d be even less happy to see her than Gracie was.

      Since the evening before, when she’d walked in the door of her family home, Emma had been dreading and anticipating the moment when she’d face him again.

      “Emma! Come on in here.” Her father’s voice splintered her thoughts and dragged her back to the moment.

      “Coming, Dad!”

      “Bring a bottle,” he shouted, “I think my granddaughter’s getting hungry!”

      Emma frowned as one more weight settled on her shoulders, but she told herself that was a problem for another day. She looked at her sister and said, “We’ll finish this later.”

      “Oh,” Gracie told her, “we’re finished.”

      Taking a breath, hoping for patience, Emma headed to the kitchen.

      * * *

      The drive from the Double H ranch to the Williamses’ place only took about twenty minutes. Once upon a time, he and Emma had talked about one day cutting a road directly across their adjoining fields, to directly link the ranches. But that, like so many other things, had never happened.

      At any other time, Caden might have noticed the fall colors erupting on the trees lining the wide road. But now, all he could see were the images replaying in his mind, of Emma’s eyes the night she said goodbye.

      * * *

       “I have to go, Caden,” she said plaintively, trying to make him understand. “I have to try. I can’t do what my mom did. She gave up on her dreams. You remember what a great singer she was, right?”

       “I do, but—”

       “She never did anything with it and before she died, she told me that was her one regret. That she’d never found out if she could make it or not.”

       Panic was rising in his chest, but Caden fought it down. He and Emma had been together a long time. He’d always believed that they were working toward the same goals. This had come out of nowhere for him and he didn’t know what the hell to think. “What about the dream of building up my family ranch?”

       “That’s your dream, Caden,” she said simply and tore a hole in his heart.

       That was a slap. She’d had plenty of ideas, had jumped in enthusiastically with plans. “We’ve been talking about this for years,” he reminded her. “We were going to do it together. Create something special.”

       “I know.” She touched him and her hand on his arm was like a fire that was bone chilling. “But this is important to me, too, Caden. I have to find out if I’m good enough.”

       Couldn’t she see that she’d never be as important in Hollywood as she was right here? To him?

       “So you’re just leaving.”

       “You could come with me...”

       He laughed at her. “I can’t leave.”

       “And I can’t stay,” she said. “If I don’t go now, neither one of us will be happy.”

      * * *

      He cut off the memories and buried them under a layer of fury. She’d made it seem like she was doing him a favor by walking away. As if the dreams they’d forged together for years hadn’t been as important as the ones she’d nurtured all to herself.

      Well, she’d ripped his heart out that night and he’d had to shut himself down to get through it. But he had. He’d made a damn good life without Emma and it was only going to get better. And once he’d faced her and had his say, he could get back to it.

      When he steered his top-of-the-line, black Dodge Ram truck up the drive to her father’s ranch, he noted the peeling paint on the fence rails and the weeds choking out the front flower bed. The Williams place had been slowly going to hell since Emma left. Just another black mark against her.

      Frank Williams had pretty much given up when his oldest girl had run off to Hollywood. He’d expected her to take over, to merge their ranch with Caden’s as they’d always planned.

      Emma had torn up a lot of dreams when she left to find her own.

      Still, Caden felt a pang of guilt. He should make more time to check in on Frank and do what he could to help out. Frowning to himself, he made a mental note to send a few of his ranch hands over in a day or two to paint the corral fence. Get it done before winter, he told himself, or the damn wood would rot and warp and the whole fence would have to be replaced.

      “The perfect metaphor,” he muttered. When Emma left, they’d all had to rebuild. She’d taken off to chase a dream and left the rest of them wondering what the hell had happened. Now she was back.

       With a baby.

      He parked the truck, turned off the engine and just sat there for a minute, staring at the house where he’d spent so much of his life. It was old and sturdy, yellow, with white trim because that’s how Emma’s mother had liked it best. There was a big front porch and a second story where the bedrooms were. He knew this house as well as he knew his own.

      He and Emma had been a couple since the year she was a freshman in high school. He’d been a “manly” junior and took substantial mocking from his friends for being interested in a “kid,” but he hadn’t cared.

      Emma was all he’d been able to see back then and until the night she’d walked away, that hadn’t changed. But things were different now. Emma had left once before. Why should he believe she was here to stay now? No, what was between them had curled up and died five years ago.

      Yet even as that thought rose up in his mind, his body was tightening at the prospect of being near her again.

      While he sat there, watching the house, the front door flew open and Gracie, Emma’s younger sister, raced toward him. Caden got out of the truck in time to catch her when Gracie threw herself at him.

      “I can’t believe this,” she muttered against his chest. “She just showed up last night like it was nothing and we’re supposed to be happy she’s here.” She pulled her head back and glared up at him. “I’m not. I’m СКАЧАТЬ