Reunited...With Baby

“Sorry to pull you into this because I know it’ll tear you up, but I need your help here,” Luke said.

“Oh, my heavens. Look at the horses,” she lamented. “It breaks my heart. You know I’ll help these animals,” she said, horrified to look at the condition of the horses. She felt sympathy for Luke, even though she didn’t want to get caught up in his problems. But what he had come home to was ghastly, and he had tried to help his dad to keep the ranch in good shape.

She could certainly understand his anger and disappointment, and gave a silent prayer of thanks for her own family. They helped each other and did the best they could and always could be counted on. “Oh, Luke, this is unbelievable. I had no idea this ranch had just been abandoned. We’re neighbors. Our ranch adjoins yours, and nobody in the area has said a word about it. Why didn’t someone speak up? The last hands that left here—why didn’t one of them contact you? How could your dad neglect everything so badly?”

“Because he’s a sick old drunk who doesn’t care about anybody or anything except his next drink,” Luke bit out, and she was sorry for saying anything because Luke was obviously suffering over finding his home in shambles.

“I’ll get the pasture gate,” Luke said, getting out to drag open a sagging, battered gate made with barbed wire. He returned to drive the pickup in and close the gate.

“Sorry, Luke,” she said stiffly when he was behind the wheel again. She spoke without looking at him, trying to avoid thinking about what he was going through. “We’ll start. Let’s get to work.”

“I’ll patch those holes enough to get water in that tank so they can drink. I sent Dad money to get fiberglass tanks and look what we’ve got—the old corrugated metal the cows have pushed against and bent years ago. Damn, I wasn’t sure what I’d find here, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Every dime I sent home must have gone for booze.”

She looked around and saw three horse carcasses. The live horses had moved away from them and they were decomposing, probably torn by predators and birds.

“You have dead animals.”

He sighed. “Damn. I can get a temporary crew out here to help.” He parked near the horses and a few watched them while two slowly moved toward them. Luke was already on his phone, calling someone who worked for him to start trying to hire a crew of cowboys to do temp work.

When she approached the horses, her sympathy shifted to the animals, and she could hardly blame Luke for being so upset at his father for letting this happen. When Luke was a kid, the Double U had been a fine ranch. His dad was a good rancher, and he knew what he was doing to his livestock when he neglected them. At least he had to have known when he was sober. She spoke softly and got her bag of apples, but the horses couldn’t raise their heads. She knelt to open her bag and get a needle to give shots that would help more than anything else.

“I’ll get these horses to the pasture by the barn. There’s water there. I’ll get halters on them and lead them back, and you drive the pickup. You can follow the road here to the house,” he said. “If there are any horses we can’t move, we’ll try to take care of them here.”

It was almost an hour later when they climbed back into his pickup and drove toward the house.

“I came home every year for the first three years while I was in college, and it was never like this. Things were messy at the house, but otherwise, he kept things in relatively good shape.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We had some good hands and a good foreman. I never stayed more than a night or two, so he must have pulled himself together.

“Several years ago at Christmas, I sent a plane for him and brought him to California. He said everything here was fine. He couldn’t wait to get back here and cut short his stay. Gradually, we’ve grown more apart than ever, and I haven’t been home. If I did make contact with him, he always said everything was going okay.” Luke worked his jaw back and forth. “I should have kept up with him better and maybe I could have prevented some of this. I could have hired someone to come out here and run the ranch.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I should’ve known. He always could carry on a decent conversation when he was dead drunk. I should have guessed what was going on.”

“Luke, I’m sorry. This is a disaster.”

“We’ll just have to hunt for the animals. I doubt if there are any cattle left. I’m sure they’ve all been stolen. The horses probably were passed over at first for cattle. By the time anyone turned attention to the horses, they may have been in such bad shape no one wanted them. I just barely glanced at the house, but I’ll walk through in case there are any animals in it.”

Scarlett cringed when the house came into view. One wall was shattered, as if someone had tried to drive through it. Windows were smashed. Steps to the porch had collapsed. The front door was missing. Bullet holes dotted the walls, and boards had been ripped from the porch floor. Someone had thrown black paint at the house, and a big splash of paint had spilled down a wall. A living room chair was upside down in the yard, one leg broken, another leg missing.

“Oh, my heavens, Luke...” she commiserated softly. Certainly it gutted him to look at his childhood home so badly damaged.

“While neglect did a lot to the house and barn and outbuildings, vandals and thieves caused the rest,” he said grimly. “My dad, because of his damned drinking, has just let our home—a damn fine ranch—go to hell.”

Knowing how she would feel if it had been her home, she ached for him. “I’m sorry, Luke. How awful for you to come home to this.” Impulsively, she squeezed his wrist and Luke turned, his blue-greeneyes intent on her, causing a chemical reaction. The minute she touched him, the moment changed. Sympathy vanished, replaced by sizzling desire. But she didn’t want to be swept off her feet by him again. She’d been through too much heartache because of Luke to go through more.

When his gaze locked with hers, she drew a deep breath, conscious of Luke and nothing else. Worse, she was absolutely certain he felt something, too.

“I’m sorry for you, and I’m sorry for your dad. Have you seen him yet?” she asked, her words tumbling out too fast as she tried to get back to anything less intimate. But that slight touch of his wrist brought a truckload of memories pouring over her, and she felt her anger with Luke lose a bit of its intensity.

She felt sympathy for him. It would be devastating if she came home to find the McKittrick ranch in ruin. She tried to pay attention to what he was saying about seeing his dad.

“No, that’s on my list of things to do while I’m here. What he’s done—or more accurately, not done—is going to make seeing him again even more difficult than I expected. He must be in terrible shape to let all this happen.”

“Well, let’s look for the horses or whatever livestock that’s still here,” she said, struggling to get back to business.

He nodded. “I stopped here briefly before coming to get you. I want the house torn down. I can’t stand to see it in ruin. The memories from there weren’t all that great anyway,” he said, and her heart lurched at the bitterness in his voice. She curbed the impulse to reach out and squeeze his wrist again. It was obvious he hurt badly.

“There’s a half bath in the barn, so at least we have a little in the way of facilities for us. There may be running water and electricity in the bathrooms in the house. Right now, however, we better find what animals we can while it’s daylight. I’ll try to get them back to the pasture by the barn, where you can do what you have to do and I can feed and water them. Can you stay longer?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll stay. I want to save as many horses as I can,” she said.

“We’ll take the pickup now. Later, I’ll probably have to search on horseback because there are places on the ranch where I can’t drive. I may have to go buy a horse because none of these can carry me on its back.” He released a breath. “But for now, I’ve got rope in the back of the truck, some feed and a saddle if I need it, all sorts of supplies.”

“All right,” he said, “let’s get started.” He turned his truck and as he drove she looked for any livestock. They hadn’t driven a half mile when she gasped. “Luke, stop. There’s an animal. It’s a dog, and it’s dead. I think it looks like it might be Mutt.” With a pang, she remembered the dog that followed Luke around when he was home.

They got out of the pickup and walked closer. Luke knelt and ran his hand over the dog’s head. “Oh, dammit to hell. That’s Mutt. He was old and weak, and I guess coyotes got him.”

She knelt to look over the carcass more closely, and she hurt even more for Luke because this was the ranch dog that he claimed as his.

“I left him here when I went to California because the ranch was up and running and in good shape,” he said, his voice raspy with regret.

“The ranch was in good shape because you were here,” she said quietly, still looking at the dog.

“The guys liked him and he was happy here. I thought he’d be better off. He looks starved. He was old and weak, but something’s really torn him up.”

“Luke, he’s been shot. Someone shot him, and they may have done it because he was old and he may have been sick. There’s one shot and it’s a killing shot, so this wasn’t random or someone being mean. I think he was torn up by buzzards and coyotes after he was shot.”

Luke leaned closer to look as she pointed to the wound. “I hope he didn’t suffer. I loved the old mutt. He was a good dog.” He released a shaky breath. “I’m going to bury him. I have a shovel, and I’ll wrap him in a tarp and bury him back at the house.”

She heard the catch in Luke’s voice, and a lump rose to her own throat. They both stood, and she looked up at him. Without thinking about it, she touched his wrist again. “I’m sorry. I know you loved him.” The minute her hand rested on his, she knew she shouldn’t have touched him, even though it was obvious he was hurting badly. His wrist was twice the size of hers, warm, his wrist bone hard. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, and he gazed at her intently.

“I haven’t loved much in my life, but I loved him,” he said roughly, his voice grating and a muscle working in his jaw. She couldn’t get her breath, and she couldn’t understand the intensity of his gaze or his remark that he hadn’t loved much in his life. Was he just talking about a dog—or was there more to his statement?

She wanted his arms around her so badly it frightened her, and she stepped away quickly, going back to the truck. “Tell me if I can help,” she called over her shoulder.

She was breathing hard as he walked to the back of his pickup. Pulling work gloves from his pocket, he got a tarp to wrap the dog. In minutes, he slid behind the steering wheel and drove on in silence.

Why did it feel as if Luke had been away only days instead of years? Those empty years had vanished in too many ways. The worst part was the realization that she had never really gotten over him, something she had struggled desperately to do.

She had never felt this way for Tanner, and she had been engaged to him. Was it because Luke had been the first love in her life? Or did it go deeper than that?

They rode together in silence, only a couple of feet of space separating them in the pickup, but there was still a permanent, deep chasm dividing them.

He hadn’t loved her and he never would, so why couldn’t she forget him? She clearly meant nothing to him—that alone should stop the volatile reaction she had to him and the desire that still steadily simmered through her veins.

They bounced over the rough ground, and she looked around carefully, trying to see any sign of livestock. In another twenty minutes she spotted horses to the east. “Luke, over there.”

“Yeah, I see. They’re in a fenced pasture, so let’s keep looking and see if we can find some more and get them back with these. They may be in bad shape, but hopefully we can get them to the barn.” He continued to drive, and she gazed around, looking for any more signs of life.