Jarrod had placed hunting cameras controlled by motion in several areas of his ranch. One place was the tree near the makeshift pen the rustlers had made. They might not come back to that pen, but if they did he might be able to get a shot of something useful. He’d also placed cameras near herds and in some other places he remotely thought might work for a great shot. And before he picked up Cassidy he told Gil where he wanted cattle moved in the morning. The traps were set.
Now he would wait. His efforts led to no sleep last night as covering ground on horseback was time consuming, but in his mind, it was the easiest way to do what he wanted in case his place was being watched.
He’d stayed in the shadows and he hadn’t used a light. If there was one thing he knew, it was this property. He’d roamed it since before he should have been allowed to roam it on his own. And then later, camping out on the property had been a favorite pastime he and his brothers shared.
His mind wasn’t on rustlers now. Cassidy rode beside him in the truck and he was completely distracted.
She’d just about knocked his socks off when he picked her up. She had on a pair of white jeans and a pink blouse that reminded him of spun cotton candy. And he had a big weakness for cotton candy.
“You are beautiful.” He couldn’t help himself.
She stiffened at his compliment. “Thank you. I got the room finished.”
“That’s great. Makin’ progress.” He wondered why compliments bothered her. Was it just from him or all men? He turned onto the blacktop. The main headquarters of the ranch was on the opposite side of the ranch from where he lived. They traveled three miles, then turned left onto another country road. Finally the large metal entrance of the ranch came into view in the distance. Pops’s home and the main complex of the massive ranch could be seen up the hill.
“What did you do on stakeout last night?”
She’d thought about him—or at least about what he’d been doing. He liked that.
“I put out hunting cameras. But again, this is totally confidential. I haven’t even told Bo and Tru so, again, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this to yourself.”
She looked pensive. “Sure. But surely you don’t think they would—”
“No. Not at all. I haven’t told them because I don’t want to bother them right now. Tru leaves for the exhibition in the morning and Bo has a major order deadline to get out. This is my problem. They don’t need to be bothered.”
“Whatever you say.”
He smiled at her agreement. They rode in silence until he reached the entrance of the ranch. He drove between the steel gate with the massive steel overhang that had the ranch name in logo form on it, a four with a heart extending from the long side of the numeral. His grandmother had come up with the design. As they drove up the lane, he saw Cassidy straighten, looking up the lane at Pops’s home on the right. Past Pops’s home and on the left was the red barn that held Bo’s Four of Hearts Ranch Stirrups business. And then a hundred yards farther down were the stable and arena where Tru’s horse training business was housed. Jarrod wasn’t seeing any of it as his hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“The place looks great. I remember coming here when we were kids and your pops taught me to ride.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But things are a little different now. The red barn is the stirrup business. The stable is Tru’s domain. And he and Maggie live in the foreman’s house on past the arena.”
“Abby told me she and Bo live with Pops now.”
He parked the truck. “I hate that he has to have someone living with him.” He stared out at the pasture beside the house.
“Yeah, I get that,” she said quietly. And then she reached out and touched his hand that was still tightly clasped around the steering wheel. “He’s a good man. I know how hard this must be for you.”
Jarrod went completely still. Looking at her hand on his, his throat went dry at her touch and her words. He met her gaze. “Extremely. But if there is one thing Pops never did it was hide from anything. He faced his life full-on. I didn’t always do that, and I regret it.” If she only knew how much.
She pulled her hand away, looking as if she wished she hadn’t touched him, and her fingers shook as she unbuckled her seat belt and rushed out of the truck. Her touch had simply been out of comfort, but he wanted it to be more. His resolve intensified as he followed her up the back steps.
Her red curls were dancing between her stiffened shoulder blades with each purposeful step she took away from him.
“Hey there,” Maggie called, opening the door before they could knock. “We are so glad you’re here.” She hugged Cassidy like they’d known each other forever.
“I am glad to make it. Goodness, it’s been a very long time since I was in this house.”
Jarrod took off his hat and hung it on the hat rack as the two women chattered together faster than bees could swarm.
“I think I’ll go join the fellas.” He held Cassidy’s gaze for a moment. Electricity sparked between them like lightning hitting a steel rod. Pain or uncertainty or something—distrust maybe—flashed in those eyes before she looked away. He forced his boots to move, carrying him out of the danger zone.
Cassidy was so glad not to be alone with Jarrod any longer. From the moment he’d looked at her like she was the prettiest female on earth she’d been a bit befuddled.
And then, just now, he’d had a hungry look in his eyes. As if he needed her.
As if he wanted her more than breath.
Her insides were quaking with the intensity of what she thought she saw.
Jarrod wasn’t a man who showed his emotions. He would have made a great poker player. So she knew what she’d just experienced was rare.
And that shook her immensely.
But Jack had also been able to hide his emotions, she reminded herself. Even after she’d finally figured out his lying, cheating ways, she’d sometimes fall for his lies—late nights at the office, business trips working on mergers and acquisitions—and when she questioned exactly who he was merging with, he’d accused her of imagining things and being overly jealous. He said he loved her and he worked hard to provide for her and the kids they would have soon.
Kids. She closed her eyes to shut out the heartache of that. She’d finally realized that almost everything he said was either a lie or a carefully concocted word set intended on getting her to do what he wanted. Having a wife looked good to his bosses. Having one he could dupe continually and still have his icing too . . . well, that worked well for him. And in his mind he was justified. After all, she got the blessing of his presence in her life so that made everything right. What a joke.
Narcissist. She’d heard the term and looked it up. It had been as if she’d been reading Jack’s biography. And he wasn’t alone. People like him had an MO, a mode of operating.
Okay, so even though she wasn’t interested in ever having a relationship with a man again, that didn’t mean all men fell into that category, and certainly not Jarrod. Nothing about him was narcissistic.
Just because he had control over his facial expressions and his emotions didn’t mean he was a manipulative, lying jerk. She had to make certain she didn’t let herself believe bad things about people without justification. That wasn’t fair of her just because of what she’d been put through.
Even if Jarrod kissed her and broke her heart, she understood he and Jack were nothing alike.
She watched Jarrod walk toward the room where the laughter was coming from. If she remembered right, that was the den, where all of Pops’s trophies from his years of cutting horse competition were. Her heart was pounding.
Why had she reached out and touched him? It sent all the wrong signals. But it had been a reaction to the pain she saw in his eyes when he talked about his grandfather. It had not been meant to send a message that she was looking for anything from him. Certainly not that temperature rising, completely unnerving look she’d just glimpsed.
“You’re looking mighty troubled,” Maggie said, drawing Cassidy from her thoughts.
Cassidy looked at her. “No, just confused.”
A smile played at the corners of Maggie’s lips. “Jarrod’s a wonderful man, you know. I’m really not certain why he’s never married. Like with all of these Monahan men, that baffled me. Though I am eternally grateful Tru didn’t marry sooner. He says his heart was waiting on me.”
“That’s wonderful for the two of you. Really. But me, I’m not—”
“Not what.” Abby had come into the room. “The men are all entertaining Levi so I thought I’d come see what you girls are getting into.” She looked from Maggie to Cassidy. “Not what?”
“Cassidy is confused about her feelings for Jarrod, I think.”
“I’m not.” What was Maggie saying?
Maggie grinned. “I can hope, can’t I? You bring out emotion in him I haven’t seen before. I saw that scorcher that passed between the two of you just now.” Maggie waved a hand as if fanning herself.
“Really,” Abby said. “And I missed it.”
“No, it wasn’t like that.”
Maggie cocked an eyebrow. “Careful, you are about to tell a fib.”
Cassidy shifted uncomfortably. Abby and Maggie chuckled together like they were sharing a joke.
“What?” She looked from one to the other.
“Nothing,” Abby said. “You should come say hi to everyone. Stop looking so tense.”
“That’s right.” Maggie gave her a gentle nudge with her elbow. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, so relax and forget what I was saying. We’re going to have a fun evening.”
Cassidy wasn’t so sure about that now. But she forced a weak smile and tried to hide the sudden need to run—from herself.
The men were all sitting around watching Levi build a tower with blocks on the floor in front of Pops. Immediately she felt a little better. The toddler was adorable, and he beamed up at them as they entered.
Pops did, too, as did all the fellas.
“Hi, Cassidy,” Bo called, then shot her a grin as Abby walked over and sank onto the ottoman beside his chair, leaned back against his chest, and he hugged her. “We’re glad you’re here.”
“We sure are, Cassidy.” Tru got up to welcome her. “Great to see you. Take my seat there beside Pops. I’ll sit over here with Maggie.”
“Uh, okay. Um, it’s good to be here.” She wasn’t exactly sure about that now either, seeing as he’d abandoned his seat for her and that meant she was now about to be sitting next to Jarrod on the couch. He was watching her reaction to her dilemma, and she was quite certain he knew she didn’t want to sit beside him. But there was no other place.
Jarrod’s gaze held hers as she carefully sat down on the end of the couch, which wouldn’t have been bad if Jarrod hadn’t been sitting in the center of the couch. Instead of sitting at the far end from his brother, he’d obviously sat in the middle so he could be closer to Levi and Pops.
She tried not to think about him, or the fact that she was now sitting closer to him than she had been in the truck on the way over here.
She shifted her thoughts to Pops and the tot. They looked like two kids on the playground. Each was infatuated with the other. Kind of like she suddenly felt about Jarrod.
Drat. What was she thinking?
Levi carried a block over to Pops and grinned at him. “You have,” he said, as if even the toddler knew he was dealing with something precious that needed special attention.
“Hi, Pops. It’s good to see you again,” Cassidy said.
Pops looked up and studied her for a moment. “I met you. Before.”
She could almost see his mind working to find her in his memory. “Yes, sir. The other day at the vet clinic. I’m Roxie’s niece.”
A light went on in his eyes. “Roxie, it’s been awhile.”
“Oh, no, I’m Roxie’s niece. Cassidy,” she added gently. He frowned and confusion slackened his expression. She felt bad for having corrected him.
“Pops and Levi build empires with those blocks.” Maggie gave her an encouraging smile. Cassidy had never dealt with Alzheimer’s and wasn’t at all sure how to behave. She took her lead from everyone else.
“Abby, Cassidy spent a lot of summers here. Pops taught her to ride.” Bo grinned.
“That’s right,” Tru said. “How many times did you get to come down here for a visit when you were a kid, Cassidy? I remember your aunt Roxie would get so excited when she knew you were coming for a stay.”
“I think I got to come four times . . . or maybe it was five times.”
“Six.”
Every eye turned to Jarrod. Cassidy saw a slight darkening of his skin at the base of his neck and knew for a man like Jarrod that was about as close to a blush as he was ever going to get.
“I remember,” he said, looking at her with stormy eyes. “The first time you were ten and you crawled through the fence looking like a redheaded, wild child with that curly mop of yours. You nearly scared us to death when you came bursting out of nowhere.”
Everyone laughed and he even smiled slightly at the memory. She cringed at what they must have thought of her. She’d been a disaster as a child. She couldn’t look away from him, even as embarrassed as she was.
“Then two summers later you showed up again and drove us crazy trailing around behind us when we were trying to work. You wouldn’t go away and you followed us until we had to take you on a roundup. You spooked the cattle and caused a stampede.”
It was her turn to blush. “I remember. I was twelve by then and a complete disaster. I had forgotten a little of that trail ride. On purpose, I think.” She laughed and so did everyone else.
“I remember that,” Bo said, jumping in. “Abby and Maggie, y’all should have seen her. She was trying so hard, but she couldn’t ride very well. She got points for guts and perseverance, though.”
“Yes, she did,” Tru interjected. “But her horse got spooked and made a run for the woods. It scared the cattle, which broke into a stampede, and Jarrod had to go chase her down and pull her horse to a stop before poor Cassidy broke her neck.”
Cassidy’s huge crush on the good-looking eldest Monahan brother had been rock solid after that. Six years difference in age as adults wasn’t that much, but for a teen like Jarrod it was a lifetime. Needless to say, he hadn’t thought of her as anything but the little girl he felt sorry for and was kind to. Her stomach tipped remembering how that had felt for her . . . young love. It had been excruciating.
“You’re welcome to come over and ride anytime,” Tru said, bringing her back into the conversation that she’d let lapse.
“Thank you. That sounds fun. I just have a lot to get done right now.”
“Riding’s good.” Pops broke in with a teasing glint in his eyes. He reminded her so much of Jarrod, though Jarrod was even more serious than she’d remembered him. And from what she could tell he didn’t smile enough. She wondered about that. Was it her? Or maybe the pressures he was under.
The evening passed quickly and it was fun. They shared lots of teasing and memories. Jarrod was noticeably quiet, but no one acted as if that was abnormal.
Conversation wasn’t all about her, thankfully. Maggie and Tru talked about the new baby and how the teen mother would get to come and be a part of the baby’s life if she wanted to. “That’s very important to me,” Maggie said. “It’s not for everyone. But Jenna, one of the girls I’m very close with, is in college right now, and she goes periodically to see her baby. It’s working out wonderfully. But others don’t want to know the parents of their babies. They don’t feel like it’s fair to the baby. It’s a tough call.”
“But this is how we wanted to do it,” Tru said, lifting Maggie’s hand to his lips and kissing it.
Oddly, the sweet, loving gesture made Cassidy’s heart ache.
They were gathered around the dinner table, enjoying the enchiladas and rice and beans Maggie had prepared, talking about the Fourth of July celebration.
Jarrod’s gaze had met hers then, causing her heart to gallop. He’d looked away quickly and had been careful not to look at her again after that.
When the evening was over she thanked everyone and then Jarrod grabbed his hat and led the way to his truck.
He held the door for her, not saying anything as she got in, but her mouth went dry as she brushed past him. As he strode around the truck, she feared when he got into the cab he would be able to hear her heart thundering.