Caitlyn's Prize

Whiskey Red, a prize thoroughbred, her father’s last gift to her, trotted into the open corral. Cait hurried into the barn and Red followed. Within minutes, she had her saddled.

Cooper Yates and Rufus Johns, her only cowhands, came out of the tack room. “Hey, Cait, what are you doing?” Coop asked. “We just checked the herd.”

She swung into the saddle. “I’ll catch you later.” Kneeing Red, she bolted for fresh air.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Coop shouted after her.

She didn’t pause. Red’s hooves kicked up dirt as they picked up speed, moving faster and faster. If she was lucky, maybe she could outrun the pain in her chest.

Thirty minutes later, she lay in the green grass along Crooked Creek, her body soaked with sweat, her heart bounding off the walls of her lungs.

She sucked in a much needed breath and stared up at the bright May sky. The temperature was in the upper eighties, a perfect day.

A squeak of a laugh left her throat. Perfect? Far from it.

Your father sold me your oil and gas royalties.

Now what should she do?

I’m taking it all. It’s just a matter of time.

Not as long as she had breath in her body.

She sat up and stared at the plum trees growing close to the creek, dried dewberry vines nestled beneath them. She and her sisters often got sick from eating too many sweet plums in the summer, and they’d gotten drunk a time or two sneaking Etta’s dewberry wine.

Memories. High Five. A piece of her childhood.

Her life.

It seemed as if her father had reached out from the grave to try and still control her. He’d never understood her need to be a person in her own right and not a trophy on some man’s arm.

The fight for independence probably began when she was small. Her great-grandfather, Elias Cotton, had had three daughters, and it was a woeful happenstance that God had given him daughters instead of sons to carry on the tradition of High Five.

Dorothea, Caitlyn’s grandmother, had married Bartholomew Belle. Bart eventually bought out the sisters, and he and Dorie had run the ranch. After several miscarriages, they were blessed with a boy, Dane. All was aligned in the heavens. At last there was a son.

But once again fate struck. Dane had the misfortune to produce daughters. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Dane and Meredith, Caitlyn’s mother, had been high school sweethearts. They broke up when Dane went off to college. Years later they met again and married, but it wasn’t meant to be. Meredith died giving birth to Caitlyn.

He didn’t grieve for long. Six months later he’d married Audrey, but again the marriage didn’t last. Audrey was very religious and didn’t take to Dane’s gambling trips to Vegas and Atlantic City, or to his weekly poker games with his buddies. A year later she moved out with her newborn daughter, Madison.

Dane met Julia, Skylar’s mother, in Vegas, and felt he’d finally met the woman for him. Julia was from a Kentucky horse family, so it had to be a match made in heaven. It wasn’t. Although Julia knew Dane’s bad habits, she didn’t enjoy living with them on a daily basis. After two years, she’d packed her things, including her baby daughter, and left.

Three wives. Two divorces. And three daughters, all with different mothers. After the third wife, Dane gave up and accepted his fate. Without sons, High Five was doomed.

Cait had heard that all her life and didn’t understand it. She’d told her father many times that she could run High Five as well as any man. That always brought on a sermon about how a woman’s place was in the home, producing heirs.

That stung like a rope burn. But nothing had ever changed her father’s thinking.

Then she’d fallen hard for Judd, to the point that all she could see was his dark eyes, all she could feel was excitement when he looked at her. He was three years older, more experienced and more man than she’d ever met before.

Judd was popular in school, but he never glanced her way. Then one summer Renee threw a party and the Belle daughters were invited. Judd asked her to dance and Caitlyn thought she was in heaven.

After that, they met often, and before long heated kisses were taking her places she’d never been before. She was so in love that she never questioned Judd’s love or his attention.

He had a power about him that frightened and attracted her at the same time. When she was around him she couldn’t think. All she could do was feel.

And that caused her to fall right into her father’s plan. Marrying Judd would unite two powerful ranching families, and High Five would continue to prosper.

Cait was prepared to fulfill her duty. She loved Judd and wanted to spend her life with him. Her first year in college was fun, but nothing was more exciting than rushing home to spend a weekend in his arms. It was bliss. It was perfect.

Then Dane had said there was no need for her to return to school in the fall, that doing so would be a waste of money. She needed to focus on Judd, a home and babies. They’d had words, and she’d run to Judd, wanting him to take her side.

But he hadn’t. He didn’t understand her viewpoint. Why wouldn’t she want to think about a home for them and babies? he’d practically shouted. That’s what a married woman should want.

In that instant Cait saw her future. She would be like his mother, Renee, ruled by her domineering husband. She would decorate his home, serve his dinner guests, warm his bed and produce children. As Judd’s trophy wife, she would want for nothing. Except being treated as an equal.

Caitlyn made the toughest decision of her life in a heartbeat. Taking off her engagement ring, she’d said, “I can’t marry you. I can’t marry a man who doesn’t respect me as a woman.”

She waited for the magic words, his profession of love and respect, but they never came. He slipped her beautiful ring into his jeans pocket and walked out of the room. Her heart broke, but she held it all inside.

Her father wouldn’t speak to her for six months. Judd spoke to her for the first time today. But she’d gotten that education and she’d traveled. In the end, it brought her home to High Five.

Her grandfather had passed on and Gran had grown older. Cait was needed at home. Her father was gambling heavily and the ranch was neglected and in disrepair.

Cait had a degree in agriculture management and worked her butt off to keep High Five afloat, but her father’s debts were slowly taking them under.

Then they got the news: Dane had lung cancer and was given mere weeks to live. Cait was blindsided by grief, love and anger. Through it all she was determined to prove to him she could be the son he’d always wanted.

Sadly, he never saw her as a competent woman and rancher—only a beautiful daughter who needed a husband.

Lying in the grass, remembering, Caitlyn glanced toward the sky. “You never gave me a chance. And now…”

Tears stung the back of her eyes, but she refused to shed a single one. No one was taking High Five, especially not Judd.

Reaching for Red’s reins, she stood. In a flash, she was headed back to the ranch. She had to call her sisters. Maybe together they could save their home.

But the ranch wasn’t Madison’s or Skylar’s home. They’d been raised by their mothers, and spent only summers and a week at Christmas here. Cait had always looked forward to those times. Back then money hadn’t been a problem and their father had spoiled them terribly, giving them anything they’d wanted. But their best times had been just being together as sisters, racing their horses and exploring all the special places on the High Five ranch. It was always sad when the others left to return home for school in the fall.

For Caitlyn, the ranch had always been her home.

And always would be.

She glanced east to the Southern Cross.

Cait knew she had a fight on her hands, the biggest one of her life. There was no room for error, no room for losing.

And no room for feminine emotion.

CHAPTER THREE