Chapter Seventeen

Delilah’s confession rode high in Zero’s chest for two days before Tag finally cuffed him across the arm.

“What is wrong with you, man?” Tag asked as they worked side by side to lead the cows into the south pasture.

“Nothing,” he replied automatically, the response he’d been giving everyone for forty-eight of the longest hours he could remember.

And that included the days after he’d left the army and returned home to his shattered family. That period had passed in a blur, aided by the numbness that had crept through him and stayed put pretty much until the day Delilah blasted into his life.

It was only after she showed up that he’d realized the difference between existing and living. He’d started to thaw out, to believe he could find his own happiness after all, that opening himself up to Delilah wasn’t a betrayal of Rob’s memory. And then, she’d pulled the carpet out from under him, first by telling him she’d trained his dogs to be something other than cattle dogs and second by walking out the door.

Like he’d meant nothing to her.

But then, had he ever? She’d taken this job knowing she didn’t have the experience needed and then turned his dogs into pets. That betrayal stung.

But not as badly as his own betrayal of his family. Because he’d put himself and his selfish desires ahead of them instead of digging out the truth. He’d let Delilah into his heart, blinding himself to what was happening around his own ranch. If he’d done his job, none of this would have happened.

He literally did not know how to move forward, how to stay where he was at, or if it would be possible to go back to being numb, because frankly, he’d prefer that to the sharp pain stabbing his heart.

Especially given life didn’t pause just because you hurt.

He still had responsibilities and people who counted on him. Cattle that needed to be moved continually, dogs that weren’t earning their keep. Family that drifted around like ghosts of their former selves, convicting him every minute of his crimes against them.

“You can’t lie to me,” Tag scoffed and reset his hat as he went after Smiley, the Hereford that Hunter had claimed looked like she wore a perpetual grin on her cow face, that had wandered off to the left of the herd. “I’m your oldest friend.”

Zero shut his eyes for a beat and let that wash over him. Tag still thought of himself as a friend. Not an employee. Zero had been the one to reframe their interaction. Compartmentalizing was what he did, maybe to his detriment, especially when Tag clearly didn’t think anything had changed.

Maybe this was where he could let go of the idea he was so large and in charge he should remain removed from those he’d elected himself caretaker of. It wasn’t like the other way had worked so splendidly he’d recommend it.

Plus, he was tired. So tired of trying to maintain everything. Delilah had been a refuge from that, a bright point in his life. And now she was gone. As he deserved.

“Thanks,” Zero told Tag with a fair amount of gruffness. “For sticking around. It’s been a tough year.”

Tag shot him a glance over his shoulder, grinning. “Was a lot less tough with new blood around here. I was sorry to see Delilah go.”

It wasn’t hard to keep a reaction off of his face as Tag blithely name checked the main source of Zero’s current level of angst—after all, he had a lot of practice not participating in his own emotions.

“She went back to school.” At least that was the impression he’d gotten from Sheridan when she’d returned from town after giving the former dog trainer a ride, since her key fob was still missing. Not that he’d asked, but his sister had certainly been quick to inform him. “Apparently she’s getting her doctorate.”

Tag whistled. “That’s fancy. Shocking that some college girl would agree to spend a lot of time in your dusty barn.”

Yeah, shocking.

No wonder she’d tripped his radar back at the beginning. He should have listened more carefully to his gut. Might have saved him a heap of heartache.

“She didn’t want to come back on the weekends or something?” Tag asked casually and waved his hands at the cattle in a shooing motion. “After the other night, when you kicked us all out, I kind of got the impression maybe something was happening between you two.”

“Nothing happened,” Zero interjected, probably a little too quickly, given the look he got in return from Tag. “We agreed to part ways. That’s all there is to it.”

That and a mile of disappointment and sheer anger he’d let his guard down, only to have his heart stomped flat. Not just stomped. Delilah’s confession had left him with nothing.

He’d started imagining her with him on the ranch, by his side. As his partner in everything, but especially life. That’s why he never should have tried something like winging it. His own heart had gotten confused.

Then she’d left him alone again, with no way to move the ranch forward. No hope for his family to heal. No one to spend his days with. No sound of running water in the bathroom while she took her turn. Just a big, empty hole in his heart and a big void where all of his plans used to be.

That’s what he got for forgetting his family and their welfare came first. Exactly what he deserved. Nothing.

“But where does the training stand? You haven’t said anything about it. Did she train the dogs or what?” Tag asked.

Zero sighed. “I don’t know. It turns out she isn’t actually a dog trainer.”

Why he’d blurted that out, he had no idea. Okay, maybe he had a small, minuscule hint of an idea. The whole thing weighed him down to the point of exhaustion, and when Tag had reminded him that they were friends first and foremost…well, that had meant something to him. Maybe a chance to unburden a little. Unpack what had happened in case he’d missed something, anything that would make it hurt a little less.

“What?” Tag stopped dead still in the middle of the pasture, ignoring the cattle. “How can she not be a dog trainer? What are you talking about? She worked with the dogs every day. I saw her.”

Yeah, he’d seen her, too, but that didn’t change facts. “She lied about her credentials, plain and simple. So she might have worked with the crew, but she’s not a dog trainer by trade.”

Tag’s confusion mirrored his own. “So she lied about the famous guy being her dad.”

“No.” She might be a lot of things, but a good enough actress to fake the anguish he’d seen in her body language while talking about her father was not one of them. “That part was true.”

“Then help me out here. What did she lie about?”

Zero scowled. “Everything. She didn’t tell me she only took the job for the money.”

“Um, doesn’t everyone take jobs for money?” Tag laughed. “Except me, I guess. I took this job because I live here, and my boss is such a pleasure to work for.”

“Stop twisting this around,” he growled. “She should have told me the truth about her college degree and that she’d never actually trained dogs before.”

“Yeah, because you would have hired her in an instant if she had.” Tag spared him a glance that had far too much smart-aleck in it. “Have you assessed the dogs at all? I mean, how do you know she didn’t train them? What if she’s actually pretty good at it and we’re standing around here playing the part of herd dogs when we don’t have to?”

Zero dug in his heels, about to contradict that nonsense with the truth. But all at once, the truth didn’t seem so obvious, not after Tag had systematically dismantled all his arguments against Delilah. She’d even said his grandpa had worked with them, a tidbit he’d glossed over as he’d tried to reconcile the bombshells she’d kept dropping.

Maybe he should have asked a few more questions, but when she’d walked away, the last thing he’d wanted to do was chase after her.

Okay, actually that’s exactly what he’d wanted to do, but he’d forced himself to sit tight and let her go.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right,” he agreed grudgingly, and the world did not in fact screech to halt the moment he admitted he might not have all the answers. “I’ll grab a couple of them and see what’s what.”

Since Delilah wasn’t around to see him do it, Zero tucked the bag of treats they’d bought at Miller’s the other day into his pocket. When he lifted the latch to let Captain Barbossa out of his stall, the Australian Shepherd bounded out, clearly done with being cooped up.

“Figured you’d be my best bet.”

Zero gave him the command to sit, like he’d seen Delilah do, and without any fanfare, the dog did it. Just plopped his butt right down and cocked his head, staring straight at the pocket with treats, almost like he knew exactly where they were.

The dog was smart, he’d give him that. “Let’s see how smart you are when you meet the cattle.”

Captain Barbossa heeled behind Zero’s left leg as if he’d been doing it his whole life—and Zero had been issuing commands as long, when in fact, this was his first rodeo, something he’d elected not to share with the dog.

That was the key—never let on he had no idea what he was doing. Or at least that was his current plan.

Tag sat on the top rail of the fence, hat tipped back as he watched Zero and the Captain trot across the pasture.

“It’s not a dog show,” he grumbled in Tag’s direction.

“Oh, I beg to differ.” Tag snickered. “It so is. I’m putting my money on Delilah for this one, but either way, it’s going to be worth seeing.”

Ingrate. “Sure, bet against your best friend who also happens to be your boss.”

But if Tag was right, and Captain Barbossa could work with the cattle, that meant the dogs had learned some things from Delilah. Even if Grandpa had worked with the dogs, it hadn’t been around cattle—there hadn’t been any on the premises then.

And that meant Zero had possibly overreacted to her confession, which would be a bad thing to discover at this point.

But his heart leaped into overdrive, hope swelling along with it.

The moment he got Captain Barbossa into the pasture with the cattle, the dog started barking like crazy, then ran around in circles as if he’d been wound up like a toy. The cows stared at the Shepherd, chewing placidly, tails flicking back and forth. The bull, who usually didn’t do anything interesting, stuck his head down and butted the ground near the dog, which might possibly be considered an act of aggression. Or his ear itched. It wasn’t like Zero had a lot of experience with this himself.

“That doesn’t seem like a money-winning display of skill,” Zero commented as Tag ducked between the rungs of the fence to join him inside the pasture.

“Give it a minute,” Tag said with a shrug. “This is all new to everyone.”

“When did you get so optimistic?” And philosophical to boot.

“The woman I have my eye on might have given me some encouragement earlier,” he mumbled. “I guess I’m riding a little high. Sue me.”

“As long as you invite me to the wedding,” Zero said with a grin. “It’s all good.”

There was a very long pause that had Zero doing a double take as Tag shifted uncomfortably in the sunlight.

“Well, considering who it is, you might not think so.”

“Sheridan,” Zero guessed as it dawned on him why his friend was acting so weird about it. “It’s barely been a year, Tag. She couldn’t have possibly given you encouragement.”

“I didn’t say she jumped me behind the barn,” Tag countered hotly. “Encouragement in this case is me seeing that she’s smiling more lately. That tells me that she’s getting through it. Maybe there’s hope eventually. That’s all. And besides, all I care about is if she’s happy. I hate seeing her so broken like this all the time.”

You and me both.

This was a situation for another place, another time, when Zero had the mental capacity to sort out how he felt about Tag sniffing around his little sister. Especially with Hunter to consider and the fact Sheridan shouldn’t even be single.

Tag’s announcement had distracted them both from the show going on in the south pasture. Zero clued in something was happening when one of the cattle let out a rib-shaking moo. That’s when he realized Captain Barbossa had been dashing in a large circle—around the cows. Gradually moving them toward the corner of the pasture. Like a genuine herd dog.

“Will you look at that?” Tag breathed, elbowing Zero as if there might be the slightest possibility he hadn’t been paying attention. “He’s doing it. Maybe not exactly like you see on TV, but we can work with this, right?”

“Yeah,” Zero murmured, scared to speak too loudly in case it messed something up.

Particularly his heart. Which seemed to be beating pretty erratically for a number of reasons. If this actually worked…he hadn’t dared dream he’d eventually be on the other side of this thing called get the ranch in order. He’d planned for it, sure. But lately that looked like putting one foot in front of the other, never glancing up to see how far he’d gotten because he just…couldn’t.

“We should see how the others do,” Tag suggested, and Zero nodded.

Captain Jack Sparrow joined the party, equally as enthusiastic about being out of his stall. He was just as messy in his approach as the other Captain, but the dogs worked the cattle pretty well together and didn’t seem overly unhappy about the fact Zero only remembered to give them treats occasionally, as opposed to every time they moved the way Delilah had seemed inclined to do.

It was a start, and Zero had a new respect for Tag’s point earlier about riding high on encouragement that might seem faint to others.

“Should we go for third time’s a charm?” Tag asked after the dogs had successfully moved all three bovines to the east pasture with no help from the humans. Sure, it had taken forty five minutes, but as Tag had suggested, they could work with this.

“Might as well know what we’re dealing with.”

But Will Turner sauntered out of his stall with an attitude Zero recognized a mile away, and it had Not Even stamped all over it. Elizabeth Swann was a little more grateful to be let loose, but she immediately flopped down on her back in the sawdust, exposing her belly. For a human to scratch if he recalled Delilah correctly.

Zero rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable.”

“She likes me the best,” Hunter called out from behind him.

He turned to see not only Hunter, but Sheridan gliding quietly behind him as they both entered the barn, Tag bringing up the rear. Zero met his sister’s gaze, a wealth of things passing between them. This was the first time he could remember her coming to the barn since…since.

It was time to stop framing everything as before and after. They could all do with sticking a stake in the ground and saying no more. This could be the first day of moving forward instead of living in the past. That was the kind of thing Sheridan needed him to take the lead on.

“Tag came and got us,” she explained quietly. “Said that today was a big day and we didn’t want to miss it.”

Oh, man. His throat went hot and slick as he registered they’d actually come here for him. To support him as he took his own steps forward. He reached out and snagged her hand, squeezing it briefly, unable to find the words. She squeezed back, and somehow, words didn’t seem all that important at the moment.

Hunter dashed past the adults and slid to the ground to indulge the spoiled Labrador in her shameless tummy scratch-begging. The kid laughed as Elizabeth Swann licked him, staring up at Hunter with soulful dog eyes. Yeah, he got it. He’d lost that one to Hunter.

It didn’t seem so bad, though, as Sheridan gave her son a misty smile, then tilted her head toward Zero to murmur, “Do you believe this?”

“Delilah had been working with them both,” he told her grudgingly as he recalled the many times he’d stumbled over the pair of them together in the barn. And what she’d told him at dinner. “She’s been training Elizabeth Swann to be Hunter’s emotional support dog.”

Whatever that meant.

“What?” Sheridan’s hand flew to her cheek. “Why would she do something like that? Did you ask her to do that?”

“No.” But he should have, judging by the light that had clicked on in both Hunter and Sheridan’s gazes, simply by being in the same space as the dog. “She made that call on her own.”

And he might have made a mistake in forcing her to stop, an admission that came with a renewed spike through the heart. This was all Delilah. She’d been quietly giving him and his family what they actually needed, not what he’d told her they needed.

Will Turner chose that moment to stick his nose in Sheridan’s hand. She stifled a yelp and then laughed, dragging her hand across the dog’s head, which the German Shepherd leaned into until Sheridan committed to full-on attention. Within moments, Sheridan crouched down to murmur at the dog, stroking his head as the dog lapped it up.

“I think you’re supposed to give him treats,” Zero commented wryly and held the bag out to Sheridan.

She grinned up at him as she took the bag and his heart nearly burst out of his chest to see her looking so much like herself.

“When did he turn into such a sweet boy?” she asked as the dog wolfed down the treat and then flopped at her feet to gaze at her adoringly, clearly not interested in anyone else in the room.

“I think he prefers women,” Zero said as it clicked why Delilah had always seemed to have such a way with him. “He’s nothing but a big flirt.”

Or he’d been abused by a man at one point, but he kept that to himself. It was enough to know Will Turner’s animosity toward him might have different roots than basic incivility. But that meant he’d probably lost Will Turner to the emotional support bandwagon, too.

Sheridan kept stroking the dog, her smile still intact, and he couldn’t find anything wrong with that. It was a huge shift in his mindset about…well, everything. A good one, though.

Delilah had crashed through his plans, taken his heart hostage, and generally upended his entire life. But instead of thanking her, he’d let her go. That was the mistake.

“Delilah trained him to be more docile,” Tag announced to the room at large. “Just like she trained the Captains to work together, and Elizabeth Swann to lie down any time people are in the room, so Hunter wouldn’t be startled.”

Zero swung around to stare at his friend. “How do you know all of that?”

“I told you.” Tag shrugged. “I watched her train them.”