Branded

“I mean stay here with me and Heather. That’s her name, by the way. Heather Anne Crenshaw.”

Ashley closed her eyes. What should she do? She was too exhausted to think straight. Being anywhere around Jake—and in his home, no less—would be so painful for her.

But this wasn’t about Jake.

He has a daughter. The daughter she’d dreamed someday they would have together. Sure, she’d been a naïve kid at the time who’d thought his casual acceptance of her in his life meant more than it had. Harsh reality had set in years ago, but his having a daughter seemed to trigger a whole bunch of memories she’d hoped she’d buried.

“All right,” she finally said, resigned to the coming ordeal. “I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for scarring her for life because she had to face you first thing in the morning.” A hint of a smile hovered on her lips.

She heard the relief in his voice. “Thank you, Ashley. I promise you won’t regret this.”

Oh yeah? She was already regretting it, but he’d hit a weak spot she’d always had for children. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said and hung up.

She glanced down at her clothes and wearily shook her head. After a day in the office and an evening around large animals, she had to clean up before going anywhere. Although she’d scrubbed up at each place, her clothes were far from clean.

Ashley walked into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She was glad she’d had her hair cut last year, saving her precious time and worry with her busy schedule. The short style was definitely a wash-and-wear hairdo.

Deep shadows beneath her eyes reflected her weariness. She closed them briefly. You can do this. Dredge up some energy somewhere and do it.

She stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the water flow over her while she did her best to make her mind blank.

Instead, more memories flooded her.

Jake at twelve, following their dads everywhere they went, with her four-year-old self trailing along behind. Riding in front of him in the saddle, asking jillions of questions, making him laugh. He’d been tall for his age, with a shock of thick blond hair that invariably looked untidy, the most gorgeous eyes that changed from a smoky blue to a silvery gray, depending on his mood, and a smile that could stop a female’s heart at twenty paces.

Not that any of that registered with her at four years old. All she knew then was that she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

By the ripe old age of seven, she’d known that this was the person she would marry someday and told everyone who would listen. Now she wondered how fifteen-year-old Jake had dealt with the teasing he must have gotten back then. If he’d been embarrassed by her remarks, he’d never let on to her.

Jake had made her childhood magical. He’d taught her how to ride a horse, rope a calf and how to safely handle and shoot a rifle. He’d cautioned her never to leave the settlement alone without protection from the wild animals that lived in the hills. They’d spent many hours following various animal tracks until she could recognize what had made them and how to avoid the dangerous ones.

He’d been in college when Ashley was twelve and her mother left. As soon as he heard about it, Jake had come home to check on her and make sure she was able to cope. With his help and the ongoing concern of his family and her dad she’d eventually adjusted to being left behind.

Her childhood ended when her mother left. She wondered what she would have done during that time without her dad and the Crenshaw family.

Her love for Jake grew steadily stronger as the years went by.

She’d looked forward to her sixteenth birthday for years, having decided that sixteen was the time when she would be truly grown up, the time when Jake would see her as a woman, when he might declare his feelings for her and promise to wait for her until she was finished with school and they could be married.