Rodeo Daddy. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ “If Jack had wanted the ranch, he’d have stayed and fought for me.” If he’d loved her enough...

      “Not under the circumstances,” Cody mumbled. “I hate to be the one, but someone has to tell you.”

      Her heart thumped wildly in her chest and she held her breath, suddenly afraid. “Tell me what?”

      “We started losing cattle just after Jack hired on. Dad and I didn’t want to believe it was him, because from the start we could see how you felt about him.”

      “Jack was rustling cattle?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “I don’t believe it.”

      “Well, it’s true. Remember the night Ray Dale Farnsworth was killed?”

      Ray Dale was the son of a neighboring farmer. Her father had hired him as a favor to Angus Farnsworth, Ray Dale’s father. Ray Dale was a wild one, always in trouble, but Ryder thought he could help the young man.

      Then Ray Dale was found dead in Box Canyon at the north end of the ranch. It appeared he’d fallen from his horse and hit his head. Everyone had always wondered what he’d been doing in the canyon that night.

      The sheriff had wondered as well. She remembered overhearing something about semi-truck tire prints along a nearby road and a rumor of rustling. But rustling was always something to worry about on a ranch the size of the Wishing Tree, and when the sheriff ruled the death accidental, that had been the end of the rustling talk.

      “Ray Dale and Jack were rustling our cows,” Cody said quietly. “Dad and I had suspected it for some time.” He held up a hand. “It’s the honest to God truth. I saw Jack ride out after Ray Dale that night.”

      She couldn’t believe her ears. “That proves nothing.”

      “The two had rounded up about fifty head in Box Canyon,” Cody continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. “I don’t know what happened. There was a storm that night so maybe the lightning and thunder spooked the cows and they stampeded and Ray Dale got thrown from his horse.” He shrugged. “But Jack was there. I followed him to the canyon, then I rode back to tell Dad.”

      She shook her head. “There has to be another explanation.”

      “Jack had a record, Chels. We found out that this wasn’t his first brush with the law. He’d done some time in Juvenile Hall for stealing on other ranches where he’d worked.”

      She closed her eyes, remembering Jack telling her he’d gotten into some trouble when he was younger, made some mistakes. He’d grown up hard and hadn’t had the advantages she and Cody had, but he’d been so determined to change his life.

      “He wouldn’t steal from us,” she said adamantly, opening her eyes. “And if they really were rustling, then why didn’t Dad have him arrested? Why didn’t any of this come out at the time?”

      “Isn’t it obvious? Dad knew how you felt about Jack. He didn’t want you to be hurt. Ray Dale was dead. The Farnsworths were going through enough, losing their only son, without adding the pain and embarrassment of knowing Ray Dale was rustling. Dad felt that the loss of a few cows and letting Jack Shane get away with it was better than hurting people he cared about.”

      She stared at her brother, missing her father all the more because what Cody said was true. That’s exactly how Ryder Jensen would have handled the situation. But it wasn’t like her father to try to buy off a thief and they both knew it. “Dad wouldn’t offer ten thousand dollars to Jack if he really believed he was stealing from the ranch.”

      “Wouldn’t he?” Cody said.

      She didn’t want to hear this. Didn’t want to believe it.

      “He did it to protect you,” her brother continued. “I can’t tell you how it hurt Dad to do it. He knew you’d be devastated if you learned the truth. By then, Jack knew we were on to him. That’s why he took off the way he did.”

      “But why didn’t he take the money?” she cried. “If money was all he cared about, why didn’t he take it?”

      Cody shook his head. “Maybe there is some honor among thieves. Or maybe he thought it was a trap.” He reached out, encircled her neck with his arm and pulled her to him. “I’m sorry, sis,” he said, hugging her. “Maybe now that you know the truth, you can finally get over Jack Shane once and for all, and Dad will be able to rest in peace.”

      Unable to hold back the tears, she hugged Cody, glad to have her big brother back. She’d give up crying tomorrow. At least now she knew why Jack left the Wishing Tree and hadn’t looked back.

      CHAPTER TWO

      IN THE DAYS that followed, Chelsea rode Scout every morning, galloping through the cool dawn, the wind blowing back her hair, blowing back her tears.

      On those rides, she questioned every aspect of her relationship with Jack, searching for some sign that she’d been dead wrong about him. That her love for him had blinded her to his faults, his weaknesses, his deceitfulness. Or that, like her father and brother believed, she really had been too young to see the truth.

      She remembered everything about Jack Shane. The way he talked, the way he stood, the way he touched her. And the way he’d left her.

      She’d been seventeen that summer, Jack twenty-two. He had a way about him. A quiet, gentle strength. She liked how he handled the horses she loved. She liked the tenderness that came into his dark eyes when he looked at her. She’d felt a pull to him, stronger than gravity, whenever she was near him.

      She’d known he’d been hurt bad when he was young, and suffered poverty and neglect. She’d felt his pain, just looking at him. But she’d also seen his desire to overcome his past, his determination to succeed. He was a man willing to work for what he wanted. He hadn’t been kicked down so much that he didn’t still have dreams.

      Maybe it was that hunger that had led him to steal.

      It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen how overwhelmed he was by the size of the Wishing Tree ranch, how envious he was of her family’s closeness and how...uncomfortable he was with her wealth. He hadn’t wanted to fall in love with her because of it, and told her as much.

      Chelsea had never thought much about money. Probably because she’d never had to. Everything she’d ever needed was on the ranch. Her life was unbelievably rich in so many things she hadn’t realized until she’d met Jack Shane. Money was only one of them.

      Jack had never believed he would be accepted in the circles in which her family traveled, and because of that, he’d had trouble believing the two of them had a future.

      He’d been right. She ached at the thought of how Jack must have felt when her father offered him ten thousand dollars to leave the Wishing Tree and her. She knew how much pride he had. In fact, he’d had little else.

      That alone could explain why Jack had written the hurried note telling her it would never work out. Why he’d left without talking to her and why he’d never come back.

      What if Cody was wrong? She kept thinking about the check and the fact that Jack hadn’t taken the money. The more she thought about it, the more she believed Jack hadn’t left out of guilt, but hurt and embarrassment. What if there was СКАЧАТЬ