Summer Days
“I’m not sure I like the way you say that,” she admitted, following him out of the barn. “It implies some of your horses are difficult.”
“A few are temperamental,” he admitted. “I have a new stallion who’s nothing but trouble. But he’s physically perfect and too smart for his own good.”
“You’re a gambler.”
“Only when it comes to horses. I put nearly everything I have into him, so this gamble better pay off.”
“My cheese empire shows great potential. If this horse does you in, you can come work for me.”
Shane chuckled. “I appreciate that.”
They were standing by the main corral. Sometime in the past few days, summer had arrived in Fool’s Gold. The sky was blue, the temperature warm. It was the kind of day that made her want to go play. But the only companion who interested her in that way had turned out to be a lying weasel dog. Too bad she hadn’t fallen for Shane, she thought glumly. Rafe’s brother was just as good-looking. He was nice and easygoing and safe. Safe, because she didn’t feel the slightest tingle when he was around. Not that he’d shown any interest in her, but that wasn’t the point. Even now, thinking about how angry Rafe made her, she still wanted him.
She told herself these feelings weren’t love. She was smarter than that. All she felt was that stupid bonding thing women did after they had sex with a man. It would pass.
“Do I want to ask what you’re thinking about?” Shane studied her. “You’re looking fierce.”
“I wish I didn’t like your mother so much. It would make it a lot easier for me to maim one of her children.”
“Seeing as I’m about the nicest guy you’re ever going to meet, you must be talking about Rafe. He’s screwed up, hasn’t he? I’m not even surprised.”
“He does that a lot?”
“More than he should, for a guy as smart as he claims to be. Sometimes he holds on too tight. Sometimes he doesn’t hold on tight enough. Mostly, he expects people to do what he tells them.”
Heidi agreed. Rafe probably expected her not to mind that he was going to steal her home from her. She could probably get over that. It was the fact that he’d slept with her while planning to build homes on every inch of her ranch that really fried her.
“Want to tell me what happened?” Shane asked.
“Not really.”
He exhaled sharply. “Good. Because I was just being polite.”
“Sure, blame your mother.”
He chuckled. His dark gaze met hers. “I don’t know what you and Rafe have going on between you, but I’ll tell you this. If he lets you get away, he’s even more stupid than I thought.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Shane stared at something over her shoulder. “Speaking of the boss man, here he comes. Want to really piss him off? Laugh as if I’m the funniest guy you’ve ever met. It’ll drive him crazy.”
The thought of Rafe uncomfortable cheered her enough to make it easy to toss her head back and laugh. She straightened and rested her hand on Shane’s forearm.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“You’re welcome. So, we’re riding tomorrow?” He asked the question in a louder voice, as if wanting the sound to carry.
“Absolutely,” Heidi told him, doing her best to sound enthused. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Good. Then it’s a date. Hey, bro.” Shane shifted his hat back on his head. “I’ve been showing Heidi my horses. And a few other things.”
“I can see that.”
Rafe glared at Shane, who glared right back. Heidi could have used the moment to feed her fragile ego, but knew there wasn’t any point. Shane was pretending, and she had no clue what Rafe was doing. It’s not as if he were genuinely interested in her.
“Then I guess I’ll be going,” Shane said, blinking first.
“I guess you will,” Rafe told him.
Heidi ignored them both and started for the goat house.
Rafe fell into step beside her. “You’re getting along with Shane real well.”
“He’s nice. I like him. I’m going to be looking after his horses while he’s gone.”
“That’s a lot of work.”
“I have the time and I need the money. I want to show the judge all the progress I’ve made on paying back your mother.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “You get that, right? That this is my home and I don’t want to leave? You understand what Fool’s Gold means to me. To have a place to belong, friends. That makes sense to you, right?”
She waited, watching him watch her, hoping for a sign, some hint he wasn’t doing what she thought. That she’d been wrong about him.
“I get it,” he said.
His gaze met hers, his eyes steady, his expression kind. She didn’t know how he could do that, how he could pretend to care and still be planning to take everything from her. Technically, he hadn’t lied. Omission was different. She would guess that, in his world, winning was all about nuance. The wording of the contract, the strength of a clause. But this wasn’t a court of law, and what was on the line mattered to her more than anything in the world.
“One thing I learned from moving around as much as I did as a kid was that the rules were always different. They were rarely universal. What would be considered a lie in one place was an acceptable tweak of the truth in another.”
“Is this about townies again?”
She nodded. “I had a best friend growing up. Melinda. She was the pretty one and sometimes the smart one, but I was okay with that. We were the same age and we liked the same things. Except maybe for college. She was determined to go to a good one, and I was more than ready to be done with school when I got my GED.”
She drew in a breath. As fragile as she was feeling right now, she wasn’t sure she could get to the story. But it was too late to stop.
“You told me about her,” Rafe said. “Isn’t she the one who got into a good college?”
Heidi nodded. “She was studying to be a vet. And there was this guy.”
“There’s always a guy, Heidi. Or a girl. That’s not about being a townie.”
“It was this time. He was popular, and the girls at the college couldn’t believe he’d fallen for Melinda. He swore he loved her. He swore he wanted to marry her. She gave him her heart, and that’s when everything went wrong.”
She paused, not sure how to tell the rest. “She came home for the summer. She was different. Broken. I thought being in love would make her stronger and happier, but it didn’t. I found out that some of the girls at college were bullying her. They were leaving messages on her voice mail, and saying horrible things about her online. They pressured him to break up with her, and he did.”
“Then he wasn’t worth it.”
“Something easy for us to figure out, but not so easy for Melinda. Because the bullying didn’t stop there. Those girls wanted her punished. Even after she left college, they continued to harass her.”
Heidi raised her chin. “She killed herself. After two attempts, she finally succeeded. The police investigated, but the girls had done a good job of covering their tracks and were never charged.”
Rafe swore. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. Because I learned a lot of things from that time in my life. Mostly, I learned that there are consequences to making yourself vulnerable to others.”
“What are you saying, Heidi?”
She wanted to tell him she knew, that he wasn’t fooling her anymore. But telling him that would mean giving away the tiny amount of power that information gave her.
“Nothing,” she said instead. “I have to go call a friend. Excuse me.”
She hurried into the house and went upstairs. Once alone in her room, she called Charlie and Annabelle to tell them that she’d decided to follow their plan and accept their help. She could only pray it was going to be enough.
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER, RAFE WAS NO closer to figuring out the mystery that was Heidi. She was pleasant, but distant. He’d been unable to get her alone, and while he wanted to say she was avoiding him on purpose, he couldn’t be sure.
Not that he had anything specific he wanted to say. But he felt as if she’d dismissed him, and he had no idea why.
She’d gone out to meet friends after dinner, leaving him alone and restless. He’d tried watching TV with his mother and Glen, but couldn’t get interested in the show. He wandered outside, where he found Shane returning from a last trip to the barn.
“You check on your horses a lot,” he commented, slouching into a wicker chair, part of a set that had been delivered the day before.
“New place after a long trip,” Shane said, sitting on the love seat opposite. “They’re nearly every penny I have, on the hoof. I’d be damned stupid not to make sure my investment was doing well.”
“Point taken.” Rafe squinted up at the sky. The sun still hadn’t set and the air was warm. He could hear crickets and something rustling in the bushes. The night would be beautiful—just right for seducing a woman. Too bad the one he wanted had lost interest in him. He stared at his brother. Lost interest right after Shane showed up.
“Want to talk about it?” his brother asked. “Whatever it is that has your panties in a bunch?”
Rafe raised an eyebrow. “I can still take you, little brother.”
“I have my doubts, but I think we’re both too old to test the theory. We’d look foolish rolling around in the dirt.”
“Agreed.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned into them. “It’s Heidi.”
“I figured.”
“She’s���complicated.”
“So’s the situation. Neither of you knowing who’s going to end up with the ranch.”
“I know.”
“That it’s going to be you? Then what happens to her?”
A question he didn’t have an answer for. While he expected to win the case, he didn’t like the idea of her being tossed out. She belonged here, with her damned goats. Which, to him, meant what? That he should change his plans and make room for her? If he left her an acre or two and the caves, that would help. But it wouldn’t be enough. The goats needed more land. From what he understood, she kept them close in the winter. During the rest of the year, she let them wander around the ranch. Once he built his houses, that wouldn’t work.
A problem without a solution, he thought grimly. Not his favorite kind.
“Why are you here?” he asked, mostly to distract himself. “I thought you liked Tennessee.”
“I do, but it’s time for me to get out on my own. I’m looking at buying some land.”
“Here? What if we don’t win the case?”
Shane chuckled. “Then I guess the earth would fall off its axis and spin helplessly into space.” He shrugged. “I like Fool’s Gold. I’d like to settle here, regardless.”
“Have a family?”
“Eventually.”
Rafe looked at his brother. “Including a wife?”
“Sure. You?”
“Same.”
“Why the matchmaker?”
“Because I didn’t get it right on my own, and I don’t know how to keep from screwing up again.”
“Tell me about it.”
Rafe grimaced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to put my foot in it.”
“Don’t sweat it. That was a long time ago.”
True enough, but Rafe had a feeling that Shane still regretted his first marriage. His brother had fallen hard and fast, giving his heart to a wild beauty who didn’t know the meaning of being faithful. Unable to deal with the other men in his wife’s bed, Shane had left her.
Rafe’s own marriage had ended a whole lot less spectacularly, but the breakup still bugged him. Not that he missed her—he didn’t—but the fact that he couldn’t figure out where things had gone wrong.
“I figure a professional will know what to do,” he said. “Nina swears she can help me find someone who’s exactly what I’m looking for.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t trust myself to get it right.”
Shane nodded slowly. “I want to tell you you’re an idiot, but I can’t. I’m not about to trust love again, either. We both need a sensible woman. Someone who’s a friend. No highs, no lows.”
Which should have sounded perfect, but left Rafe with an empty feeling in his chest.
“Let me know how that works out for you,” he said.
His brother laughed. “I don’t have you convinced?”
“Sorry, no.”
* * *
SHANE LEANED AGAINST THE SIDE of the stall. “Seriously, he’s smart.”
Heidi had spent the past couple of hours confirming that she knew all she had to in order to take care of Shane’s expensive horses. She was willing to admit that they were beautiful animals, but were they as miraculous as their proud owner claimed?
“I don’t think so,” she murmured.
Shane pulled a small plastic bag of apple slices out of his shirt pocket. “Wesley, do you want some apple?”
The horse raised and lowered his head.
Heidi smiled. “Coincidence.”
“I knew you’d say that.” He turned his attention back to the horse. “How many slices?”
The horse hesitated for a second, as if considering the question, then hit the stall door twice.