Cinderella's Convenient Husband

“Morning,” she said, gulping her coffee and scalding her tongue. She hated it when she did that. Damn, if she was this rattled on her home turf, how was she going to handle the bank?

“Sleep well?” he asked, eyeing her. She wondered if she’d smudged her lipstick on her teeth. Surreptitiously she rubbed her tongue over her front teeth.

“Yes.” She sat down across from him.

“Good, because I have some questions.”

“About?” Not now, she thought.

“The ranch, Lynn. What the hell happened?”

She knew he’d ask. Anyone with eyes would wonder the same thing. But her answers were hard to come by. She was a proud woman—always had been—and telling this smart, handsome man that she’d fallen for a con was not in the game plan.

“Times are tough. NAFTA didn’t do ranchers a favor.”

“Most of the ranches aren’t this bad.”

She glanced over his shoulder at the wallpaper that had once been a bright spring floral print but had faded with time. She had a moment’s fear that she was glimpsing the future. That someday she’d be as old and faded as the wallpaper and have seen just as little of life.

Carefully she considered her words. “True, but most of them aren’t run by one person.”

“The McCoy ranch never has been in the past.”

“Well, it is now.”

“Lynn, unless you want me to place an emergency call to your brother, you better start talking.”

“Why?” she demanded. Seth had been away for a long time, and though she knew he had fond memories of the summers he’d spent here, they couldn’t be reason enough for him to probe into ranch matters.

“What?” he asked.

“You heard me. Why do you care what’s happened?”

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He looked stressed. She wondered if this questioning wasn’t his way of hiding from whatever had driven him from Chicago. No matter what he’d said the night before she didn’t believe he just felt like visiting her brother on an impulse.

“This ranch is important to me.” Seth’s sincerity had never been more apparent.

“Then why haven’t you been back for fourteen years?”

“It’s not my ancestral home.”

“I’m doing my best to save it.”

“What do you think Matt will say when he sees this place?”

“It won’t look like this when he comes home.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I have big plans.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you won’t understand.”

“Trust me, Lynn. I’m on your side.”

“The last time I trusted you, you kissed me and walked away.”

“Is that what this is all about?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying your track record isn’t the best.”

“And yours is?”

“I didn’t walk away.”

“You didn’t come after me either.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation. I’m due at the bank at ten and I don’t want to be late.”

“Just tell me what’s going on. Is it money? Maybe I can help.”

“Why are you here, Seth?”

He was silent.

“That’s right,” she said with a nod. “You have your own secrets and I have mine. Let’s keep them that way.”

“Your family meant a lot to me.”

“I know. But it’s better this way. Besides, you’re leaving today.”

“I could still help you.”

“No, you can’t. But I’ll make a note that you tried.”

Lynn walked away from him wishing she felt a little more confident. Wishing for a miracle she knew she had faint hope of getting. Wishing that Seth wasn’t leaving today.

“Lynn, wait. I’ll drive you into town.”

She’d gathered her purse and a sheaf of documents. This was a Lynn he’d never seen before. He’d be lying if he said she didn’t attract him. She wasn’t the rough-and-ready ranch girl that he didn’t know how to handle. For the moment she was a city woman, like every other woman in his life.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes hidden by a pair of dark glasses. Mystery surrounded her, and Seth wanted to investigate the changes. Would the real Lynn McCoy please stand up?