The Rancher Next Door. Susan Mallery

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СКАЧАТЬ Hattie Darby was still an attractive, vital woman. Her skin was a little pale, but otherwise she glowed with health. Her long dark hair hung almost to her waist. The first gray had shown up less than a year ago. She was fit and stubborn, and he knew he was too much like her for comfort.

      They shared both temperament and features. He’d inherited his charm and success with the ladies from his father, but his temper from his mother.

      “You’re coming home tomorrow,” Jack said.

      His mother raised her eyebrows. “Have you been keeping women at the house? Is that why you’re upset? Now they have to leave?”

      Despite his annoyance with the situation, he smiled. “Yeah, you know me. Why have one when seventeen would be that much better?”

      Hattie looked at her oldest child. “It wouldn’t kill you to go out on a date now and again.”

      “No, thanks, and don’t try to change the subject.”

      “I didn’t know there was a subject to change.”

      He folded his arms over his chest and glared at his mother. “I spoke with Dr. Remington. Katie Fitzgerald is going to be coming out to the ranch every day to help you with your physical therapy.”

      Hattie blinked at him. “Is that what has you upset? Katie Fitzgerald? I don’t believe it.” Her gaze narrowed. “Don’t try to tell me that this is about that ridiculous feud. I say it’s high time that ended, and I suspect you agree with me.”

      He did, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

      “As for Katie,” she went on, “she’s a lovely young woman and someone you might want to take notice of.”

      He knew what his mother meant—that Katie would be a good match for him. Hattie was beginning to get desperate where his love life was concerned. Lately she’d taken to throwing any single woman she could in his path. As if at least one of them would have to appeal to him.

      He thought about telling her that it was too late for Katie and him. They’d had their chance and it hadn’t ended well. Of course, they’d both been pretty young.

      “I’m not looking to get married again,” he told his mother. “From what I’ve heard Katie’s divorced, as well.”

      “Then you’re probably perfect for each other.”

      “Then she’s probably as gun-shy,” he corrected. “Rumor has it her marriage lasted all of six months and the guy left her alone and pregnant. I doubt she’d be much interested in trying that again. I know I’m not. I’ve been burned enough times already.”

      Hattie didn’t look convinced. “You’d be nothing like her ex-husband. And I’ll bet she’s nothing like your ex-wife.”

      “Mom, I’m serious. Don’t go messing with this. Neither of us is interested.”

      Hattie Darby looked anything but convinced. Jack suspected she would try to meddle, but he would be on his guard. The last thing he wanted was a trip down memory lane with Katie Fitzgerald. Between Katie and his ex-wife, who had stayed with him all of two years, he’d long since learned that love didn’t last. The second it became inconvenient, it dried up and blew away.

      Chapter Two

      Katie turned left at the bridge and crossed onto the Darby ranch. Enemy territory, she thought with a smile as she looked out over a vast emptiness made temporarily beautiful by acres of wildflowers. Spring in Texas was her favorite time of year. There were moderate temperatures, the bright colors of new leaves, flowers and grass and the wild thunderstorms that made staying indoors in front of a roaring fire the most perfect way to spend an evening. While she’d been at college she’d heard dozens of students complain that Texas was too hot, too flat and too big, but for Katie, that was the charm of living here.

      She drove nearly two miles before she spotted low outbuildings in the distance. She saw horses grazing in oversize corrals and, past them, cattle. Even from nearly a mile away she could see that the buildings looked freshly painted and repaired. Times had changed for the better on the Darby ranch. Between Jack’s forays into oil and horse breeding, cash was no longer a problem. When beef prices dropped, he could afford to wait until the market was better. He could finance expansion and ride out hard times. She’d had an earful of Jack’s good fortune over the past couple of days, all delivered by her father. His angry voice had betrayed his lack of goodwill toward his neighbor, but that wasn’t news. Darbys and Fitzgeralds had hated each other since the beginning of time, or at least since Joshua Fitzgerald and Michael Darby had first settled on adjoining ranches nearly a hundred and forty years before. Time had changed the land and circumstances of the heirs to that land, but it hadn’t changed the feud.

      Katie pulled up in front of the two-story sprawling ranch house and put her forest-green Explorer in park. Then she rested her hands on the steering wheel and stared at the well-tended flower garden in front of the wide front porch. A swing hung by a bay window that overlooked the main pasture. There were several rockers on the other side of the porch.

      Katie smiled as she remembered being all of fifteen and desperately in love with Jack Darby. She remembered how he’d sworn that one day they would be able to tell the world they loved each other, and they would sit on the swing in front of his house and no one would say a word to either of them. It had been a foolish dream, dreamed by children. She and Jack had both become very different people.

      She found herself wondering about the man he was now. Were there any similarities to the boy she’d known? When she’d seen him in town she’d noticed that he was a couple of inches taller and a little broader through the chest. He’d seemed harder, somehow, as if time had added muscle as well as experience. According to her stepmother, who kept her apprised of the local gossip, Jack had been married and divorced while Katie had been gone. Suzanne had been able to give generalities about the beginning and ending of Jack’s marriage, but she hadn’t filled in the particulars. Such as, who had ended the relationship and did Jack still miss his ex-wife?

      “Not that it matters to me,” Katie said aloud as she turned off the engine and grabbed her bag of equipment. “This is about business, nothing more.”

      She almost believed it, she thought as she made her way to the front of the house. Unfortunately, instead of knocking, she found herself wondering why she’d never been able to put Jack completely out of her mind. Had his ex-wife had the same problem? Jack seemed much more able to get the past behind him. Whenever he and Katie had met in town over the years when she’d been home for holidays and birthdays, he’d offered a polite hello but nothing more. Two days ago, he’d acted as if they’d barely been acquainted with each other. Eleven years ago she’d declared her love and had begged Jack to run away with her. Apparently that had mattered a whole lot more to her than to him.

      Forget it, she told herself as she knocked firmly on the front door. From inside, a voice called that the door was open. Katie let herself in and stepped into the front room.

      When she’d been little, her family had been the affluent one and the Darbys had been struggling. Looking around at the new furniture and refinished hardwood floor, she saw evidence of Jack’s success. Times had certainly changed.

      “Katie, I’m hoping that’s you,” Hattie Darby called. “Head down the hall. I’m in the first room on the right.”

      “Yes, it’s me,” Katie СКАЧАТЬ