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CHAPTER ONE IT WAS ONE OF THOSE MORNINGS.No, Josie Whitford corrected herself as she poured another round of coffee into Mr. Benetta’s cup, smiling even though she had a hammering headache, that was a laughable understatement.It was one of those years. The ones in which you just couldn’t catch a break, couldn’t get ahead, couldn’t even run fast enough to stay in place. Ones where you felt yourself stumbling, slipping backward, as if life were a treadmill set on the highest speed, programmed to cycle out the weak.Of course, the morning itself was lousy, too. Raindrops as fat as marbles, true Texas raindrops, bounced off the oily pavement, and the windows of the Not Guilty Café had turned gray and runny. They reminded Josie of the last plate she’d carried to the kitchen, prune juice splashed into the remnants of over-easy eggs. For a minute, just remembering, she thought she might get sick.Oh, God, she wasn’t finally catching that flu, was she? She’d managed to avoid it all winter, but l
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO TWO HOURS into his own engagement party, Chase Clayton was bored and restless and having trouble hiding it.He had agreed to put on a tie and make nice with all their friends for Susannah’s sake—she loved parties—but the truth was, he was bored stiff.Besides, there was work he needed to do. Well, needed might be an exaggeration. Trent, his ranch manager, was too good to leave much for Chase to worry about.But there was work he’d rather do. Every time another person in this endless line of well-wishers came up, slapped him on the back and offered the same carbon copy congratulations, he smiled politely, but his mind was a mile away, wondering how things were going on the reroofing of the south stable.When his phone vibrated on his belt, it was like getting a governor’s reprieve. He eased back his jacket and sneaked a peek at the text. Trent had a problem and needed a minute. Chase could say no, but he wasn’t going to. Fate had thrown him a life raft, and he was jumping on.“Wo
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE CHASE ENDURED the next hour the way he’d endured most of the crises in his life—he kept busy.He played host the best he could. He soothed the hysterical—Jenny Wilcox was hyperventilating and her husband, Pastor Wilcox, wasn’t far behind. He deflected the curious. He tried to get as many guests as possible to go home. This became much more difficult once the rumor began to circulate that the mysterious woman lying upstairs in the north guest room, being tended by Dr. Marchant, was Chase Clayton’s discarded, suicidal lover.And he refused to dwell on worst-case scenarios. Josephine Ellen Whitford, twenty-five years old, from Riverfork—all information they’d learned from her driver’s license—was going to be okay. She had seemed dazed, scraped and bruised and maybe concussed, but surely not damaged enough to be in danger.Whatever mischief she’d come here to start, he would face when it presented itself. If it ever did. He still hoped he might have misunderstood her last, slurr
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR IT TOOK SEVERAL MINUTES for Chase to clear the room. Obviously, once Josie had dropped her bomb, no one wanted to leave before the mystery was sorted out.The lawyer, in particular, resisted. He used euphemisms, but Josie wasn’t an idiot, so she understood. He was trying to warn Chase about being alone in a bedroom with a woman like her. According to Stilling, Josie probably planned to wait thirty seconds, scream “Rape!” and live off the hush money for the rest of her life.But apparently no one ordered Chase around in his own house, even for his own good. Though he never once raised his voice, pretty soon everyone was filing out, slowly and still chattering, offering last-minute advice.Everyone except the woman Josie had seen earlier, standing just behind Chase in the doorway. As soon as the auburn-haired beauty entered the room, Josie recognized her. She was Susannah Everly, Chase Clayton’s fiancée. Apparently she was going to be the official witness.Josie wondered whether
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE CHASE HAD MADE IT crystal clear. Under no circumstances was Josie to get up before Dr. Marchant came in the morning, checked her out and gave her the green light.But by nine, she was too restless to stay put a minute longer, even in this comfortable guest suite, a bedroom and bath that together were nearly as big as her whole apartment.She’d been awake for hours, since the first bout of morning sickness swept through her around dawn. During the night, someone had placed a tray of soda crackers and a pitcher of ice water beside her bed, and by six she felt strong enough to nibble the edge of one of the little saltine squares.After that, the house had been too full of noise, doors banging and people calling to one another, trucks pulling up in the drive, horses whinnying and phones ringing. The ranch was coming awake for the day.A few minutes later, the sun woke up, too, and her pretty room filled with clear lime-colored light that danced on mirrors and curlicue silver pictu
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX “NO, NO…put the tallest ones in the center.” Imogene nudged Josie out of the way and began shifting the long spikes of larkspur in the silver vase. “See? Like this. And be sure to let them breathe. Not too crowded. See?”“Yes, I see.” Josie nodded. “Got it.”That sounded more confident than she actually felt. But since she had begged Imogene for something to do, and this was the chore she’d been given, she didn’t want to let the housekeeper down.When Josie woke up from her nap, she’d come downstairs looking for Chase. But Imogene said he was gone…no one knew exactly where, or when he’d be back. Imogene’s hands were busy kneading dough, and she suggested that Josie sit on the front porch and read, in much the same tone she had probably shooed away an annoying little Chase and his collie years ago.Josie had tried to obey. She’d sat on the wide, white front porch, comfortably ensconced in a wicker settee and watched the wind blow through the bluebonnets.For about half an hour.Th
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN JOHNSON BROUGHT the roan into the outdoor round pen to demonstrate the problem. The side boards would cut down on distractions.It took only about two minutes for Chase to see that the trainer was right.Damn it. The horse still looked gorgeous. Healthy. Athletic. Good conformation. He had a light mouth—Johnson hardly had to touch the reins. Chase already knew that the stallion had been trained for cutting by somebody who knew his stuff. He used his hindquarters well, stopped on a dime with his hocks buried in the sand, and kept his head low, even on his backups and spins.Even better, he liked it. That was the magic. Any good trainer could teach a horse to cut cattle, but only God could make him like it.Then came the heartbreaker. At a prearranged signal, Eli Breslin, the nineteen-year-old ranch hand who had broken the mechanical cow yesterday, entered the pen, wearing a bright red shirt. Instantly the confident, cooperative roan began to balk. He backed up, shook his head
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT CHASE HAD BEEN IN AUSTIN with Josie that afternoon, talking to a sketch artist, who tried to make a visual out of Josie’s description of Flim. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like anyone he recognized, although it bore a superficial resemblance to Alexander.Josie felt dissatisfied. The sketch was close, but not really right. Maybe she wasn’t describing him right. But both she and the artist had done the best they could. Chase decided to start by tracking down Alexander. At the moment it was their only real clue.They were on their way home when he got Susannah’s text message. He could read between the lines. Sue was a nervous wreck, not knowing what Nikki might do. He asked Josie if she minded making a detour by Greta Sugarton’s house.What a trouper she was. Though he could tell she was tired, she wouldn’t hear of letting him take her all the way back to the ranch. Nikki should come first.Unfortunately, Nikki had already left the party. Chase checked everyone out—and opened
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE THE OLDE MISSION WOODS development, where Chase’s cousin, Alexander, now worked as a salesman, had no olde mission, no woods and not much development, either.Chase slid his truck into one of the parking spaces and surveyed the area irritably. Wouldn’t you just know Alexander would end up working at a place like this? Selling smoke and mirrors to the unsuspecting masses.For the moment, Olde Mission Woods was just a barren stretch of land a few miles northwest of San Antonio. The owners had put up a two-story concrete-block box, slapped some adobe siding on it, added arched windows, a bell tower and a turquoise sign that said Sales Center.Instant Olde Mission.That and three windswept models of medium sized ranch homes were the only buildings in sight, although the brochure boasted an architectural rendering of a shady green neighborhood bustling with mommies and kids on bicycles and expensive SUVs in the driveways.“What a joke,” he said. “Olde? Maybe about two weeks. Mission
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN THE RIDE HOME WAS QUIET, the empty road stretching out like a bleached ribbon in the moonlight. He turned on the radio, found a nice soft rock station and dialed the volume just high enough to discourage talking. What the devil would they say? He did not intend to talk about that kiss, and it would have felt totally fake to talk about anything else.He shouldn’t have worried. Josie seemed as determined as he was to pretend the kiss hadn’t happened. Besides, she was obviously exhausted, and within ten minutes she’d nodded off, her head tilted against the side window.That left Chase with an hour and fifty minutes of pure solitude, to lecture himself for being such a goddamn fool.The highway lights flashed rhythmically against her face, first spotlighting, then obscuring that sweet mouth, those long, dark lashes. Now you see her, now you don’t. It kept Chase’s nerves on edge, to the point that he had to make an effort not to look.He searched for a country station. But some guy
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN AFTER THE BLOWUP with Nikki, Susannah was almost too distracted to focus on anything. As she pulled into the Bradley lot, with her forty-two-ounce jugs of lemonade, coffee and ice water on the seat beside her, she was still reliving the argument, thinking of all the brilliant comebacks she should have used.The whole thing made her furious, and her body thrummed with tension. As a result, her foot was heavy on the pedals, and she was going far too fast. She took the corner too sharply.And she came within a rabbit’s whisker of colliding with another car, pulling in from the other side.The Coleman jugs tumbled everywhere as she hit the brakes. Her head snapped forward, and she felt the cool kiss of the windshield against her brow. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the sound of shattering glass.But nothing happened. The other car braked sharply, too. Her shoulder belt held her in place. The car rocked slightly, settling, like a cup knocked sideways, but not hard enough
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE CHASE WAS HOT, and tired and frustrated, and ready to call it a day. There were at least fifty people out here, helping to frame Drew Bradley’s new house. Surely they could manage without him for the rest of the afternoon.He wanted to get home and find out what the hell had happened between Trent and Susannah. Not that either one of them was likely to tell him the truth. They just might be the stubbornest two people on the planet. They kept everything inside.Which was why, after eleven years, they still hadn’t been able to work out their problems. And why they probably never would, not in a hundred more.But just as he was about to track down Liam, the framing contractor who’d come all the way from Madisonville to head up today’s crew, and ask him to put someone else on measuring rafters, he saw Josie walking toward him. Her hands were full of red, yellow and white boxes.Imogene’s famous lunches. A roar of approval went up from the workers, most of whom had eaten Imogene’
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN JOSIE LOVED TO DANCE.Riverfork didn’t have much going for it, but every Saturday night the Barbecue Barn rolled up the tables and held a “Stomping Good Barn Dance” that actually lived up to its name. The Taylors, who owned the restaurant, were her friends, and Josie never missed a week if she could help it.So when Susannah invited her to the Burn Center’s barn dance fund-raiser, she had accepted eagerly. This was one place where she could definitely hold her own.Especially tonight, when, for the first time in a long time she felt good, and she knew she looked good. She had on a new pair of jeans that she’d bought in town the other day, when she and Chase had gone to visit the sketch artist. She even had a new shirt—a turquoise-blue sleeveless tank top with a fairly daring V-neck. It had taken the very last penny she owned that wasn’t needed to pay the bills, but it was worth it. Both pieces fit just right, especially now that Imogene’s food had put a few pounds back wh
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN THEY LAUGHED AND SANG all the way home, as if they were drunk, even though neither one of them had touched liquor all night. Josie had the baby to consider, and Chase…well, he hadn’t had a drink for ten years, not since the night of Paul’s accident.He loved to see her so happy, especially after the tension of their dance. Somehow she’d seemed to shrug it off, and she’d wholeheartedly thrown herself into having fun.Maybe she realized that, if she was going back home on Monday, this might be her last chance to feel so free, to dance and laugh and set aside all thoughts of the future.He wanted her to make the most of it. So he’d fed the happiness everything he could find, trying to prolong it. He brought her delicious food and exotic virgin cocktails. He’d introduced her to all the most entertaining people, and he’d asked the band to play the songs he knew she’d liked.But the real hilarity had started when she finally won a door prize. The really great stuff at the dance
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE DAY OF THE AUCTION preview was overcast and chilly, a marked contrast to the balmy spring days that preceded it. Josie borrowed one of Chase’s jackets, and when she put it on she got a poignant twist in her midsection. It smelled like him, and that was a smell she would always associate with unfulfilled longing.The preview was being held at a local auction house, and the field was crowded with sheds and tents, round pens for showing and arenas for riding. Consignors, buyers, staff, vets and food vendors bustled about, giving the whole thing a circus atmosphere.Chase and Josie ambled around the edges, stopping now and then to look at horses he liked, or to talk to owners he knew. He filled her in on interesting tidbits about the horses—who actually seemed a lot like people, she thought. Some were mean, some were sociable, some born to be great, and others spoiled by bad training. Some of them even had obsessive-compulsive disorders, brought about by stress or boredom
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN IT WAS, CHASE THOUGHT, like finding the right combination to a safe. Once they had a name, the steel door swung open, and the rest of the information cascaded into their hands.Four hours later, the bastard was theirs.Ironically, he lived in San Antonio. They had probably been within five miles of him the day they came to check out Alexander.His house looked much like the others on his street. Small, ordinary, well kept. A few azaleas, looking their best right about now, and a satellite dish on the roof.You sure couldn’t tell from the exterior that a scumbag lived inside.As they reached the front stoop, they heard the television droning through the half-open window. A little Honda, not too old—not even as old as Josie’s car had been, sat in the carport, so they were pretty sure the bastard was home.Chase glanced at Josie. She appeared surprisingly calm. Maybe she was numb. She’d been very quiet on the drive over.“You ready?” He gave her a smile.“Ready enough,” she said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN AFTER LUNCH THE NEXT DAY, Susannah drove her Jeep right up to the ranch manager’s office, yanked on the emergency brake and killed the engine. She knew Trent was here. His Mercedes hugged the side of the building, the sleek machine drowsing elegantly under the warm sun. It even looked like him, she thought. Glamorous and bored on the outside, dangerously powerful and primitive on the inside.She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and set her jaw. Then she jumped down, before she could change her mind.She didn’t knock. She just shouldered open the door and walked straight past his secretary, all the way to his desk.He looked up, with one sardonically cocked eyebrow. Of course, she thought. He was far too cool to admit to being surprised to see her.“Hey, there,” he said. He slowly scanned her from head to toe, taking in the tailored shirt, the pleated linen slacks. “I liked your miniskirt better.”“I don’t give a damn.”“I know.” He smiled. “Is that all you wanted t
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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