Red Hot Rancher. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ as well as fury in her eyes.

      He knew how she felt. “Gwen ran into her at the market this morning. Said she’s come back to stay.”

      Gracie let him go, took a step back and swiped a solitary tear off her cheek. “That’s what she says, but why should we believe her? She left before, didn’t she?”

      He didn’t know if it was good or bad that Gracie was pretty much echoing his own thoughts on the matter.

      “Dad’s happy to see her anyway.” She shoved her hands into her jeans pockets and tossed her windblown hair off her forehead. “He actually got out of bed this morning.”

      That was news. Frank had given up on life about a year after Emma left. Little by little, he’d withdrawn more and more from everyday life. He’d started out hoping Emma would see she’d made a mistake and come running home. But finally, the older man had realized that his girl was probably gone forever and all the life in him had just drained away. Not even Gracie had been able to coax him out of the depression he’d dropped into.

      If Emma left again, it’d probably kill her father this time.

      “She can’t be here, Caden,” Gracie was saying. “What if she finds out? She’ll tell Dad and then—”

      “You should tell your dad,” Caden whispered. He was the only person Gracie had trusted with her secrets and he’d never betray her. But he did think she was handling them all wrong and didn’t mind saying so.

      “I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Especially not now.”

      “Hello, Caden.”

      Just like that, everything in him went still and cold. He hadn’t heard that low-pitched, sultry voice in too damn long, but it had the same effect on him it always had. He turned to look, saw Emma standing in the open doorway and his mouth went dry. His jeans were suddenly too tight and drawing a breath seemed near impossible.

      The last time he’d seen her was on his television screen. Emma had been starring in a vapid, ridiculous sitcom, and as hard as it had been for Caden to admit, she had been really good in it. So good, he’d watched the show exactly once, got stinking drunk and never turned the damn TV on again. She’d left him for Hollywood and it burned his ass that she’d done well.

      Now she was back, and why did she have to look so damn tempting?

      Her dark brown hair was longer, falling well past her shoulders now, in the wild, thick curls she’d always hated. She wore a long-sleeved red flannel shirt and a pair of black jeans that hugged her hips and long, shapely legs. Her old boots completed the outfit and somehow it felt to Caden as if she’d donned a costume to fit in.

      Maybe the Hollywood Emma was the real person now and this woman in front of him was the one acting out a part.

      And as much as he wanted her, Caden braced himself against old emotions, desires and faced her now with the cold, empty memories flooding his mind. Her greenish-gold eyes were still as clear and beautiful as ever, but as he met her gaze, Caden saw secrets there. Something he’d never seen before.

      He didn’t like it.

      “You’re not going to say hello?” she asked.

      The voice that had haunted his dreams. The woman who had haunted everything in his life. Caden felt a sharp stab of betrayal. She’d walked out on him five years ago and never looked back. Now she said hello like nothing had changed between them? Were they supposed to go have a drink? Catch up on old times? Maybe she’d ask him to babysit. Well, screw that.

      Beside him, Gracie had a death grip on his arm, her fingers digging into his skin right through the fabric of his heavy brown coat. Reminding him where his loyalties lay now. Gracie had stayed. Had taken care of everything that Emma had walked away from. So he’d stand with her against the woman who had left them both.

      “What’re you doing here, Emma?”

      She lifted her chin, kept her gaze fixed on his and said simply, “This is my home.”

      “Not for five years.”

      She chewed at her bottom lip and that action tugged at something inside him, too. Heat bubbled in his gut but Caden ignored it.

      “I’m back now,” Emma told him. “I’m not leaving again.”

      “Is that right?” He didn’t believe her.

      “It is. I’m done with Hollywood.” Her chin was still lifted in self-defense mode.

      She’d had success, though he didn’t want to admit it. So what had changed her mind? What had chased her home? And why the hell did he still care after all this time?

      “What changed?” he asked, before he could stop himself.

      “I guess I did,” she said.

      He nodded. “Right. You changed five years ago. And now you’ve changed again. When’s the next change coming?”

      “There won’t be one.”

      “Don’t believe her,” Gracie murmured.

      “Oh, I don’t,” Caden assured her and had the satisfaction of seeing Emma’s eyes flash. Anger? Insult? Didn’t matter which. As long as she knew where he stood.

      Even knowing he couldn’t trust her didn’t stop Caden from wanting her with a bone-deep desire that had never really left him. “Why don’t you go inside, Gracie? I want to talk to Emma.”

      She gave him a long, speculative look, then did as he asked, skirting past her sister still standing in the doorway.

      “Wow.” Emma’s gaze locked on him. “You and Gracie must be really close these days. She’s taking orders from you now?”

      “It wasn’t an order,” he told her. “It was a request.”

      “That she hopped to fulfill.” Tipping her head to one side, she kept her eyes on him. “What’s going on between you two?”

      Caden stared right back, and folded his arms across his chest. He hadn’t missed the temper in her tone. “You don’t get to ask that question, Emma. It’s none of your business.”

      “She’s my sister.”

      He laughed shortly. “You’ve been gone for years, Emma. All of a sudden now, you’re sisters?”

      “I didn’t leave the family, Caden,” she argued and her chin lifted a little higher. “I left Montana.”

      “And me.”

      She took a breath, nodded and said, “Yeah. And you. But I explained why I had to go.”

      Anger whipped through him like a lightning bolt. “That makes it okay that you took off? As long as you ‘explained’?”

      She took a breath, stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets and stared at him for a long moment before asking, “What is it you want from me, Caden?”

      Well, СКАЧАТЬ