The Rancher's Blessed Event

“You know how Kenneth never would let a horse get the better of him,” she began. “But this one was mean all the way through. I’d begged him to get rid of it but—” Her eyes on the mug in her hands, she shrugged. “He didn’t listen to me.”

Cooper joined her at the table. “Was this a green horse he was breaking?”

It seemed incredible to Emily that she was sitting here talking to him as if he’d never really been away. As if nothing had ever happened between them. Down through the years she’d imagined him coming home so many times and how it might feel to see him again. Yet none of her imaginings came close to the strange mixture of pain and joy surging through her at this moment.

“No. It wasn’t a young horse he was just breaking,” she answered. “He used the gelding to work cattle and ride fence line. But the animal was temperamental and Kenneth had to watch him every second. The day he...I’d gone into Ruidoso and he’d planned to go check on a bull he’d been doctoring. We don’t really know what happened. It appeared the horse spooked for some reason and started bucking. Kenneth fell and it snapped his neck.”

Cooper drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. His brother had always been a good rider. But even the best of horsemen got caught off guard at times. He knew that as well as anyone.

“Are you the one who found him?”

She shook her head. “I was out looking for him. Along with my dad and Uncle Roy and several of his deputies. Daddy was the one who found him.”

He sipped the cocoa and rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “It’s hard to picture Kenneth not being able to handle a horse. He was always so good with them.”

In spite of Cooper’s long absence from the Diamond D, Emily could see he was feeling a loss for his brother. Her heart almost softened toward him. Almost, but not quite.

“It wasn’t really the horse that killed him. It was the liquor,” she said bluntly.

Cooper’s gray eyes narrowed on her pale face. “Liquor? What are you talking about? My brother never drank.”

Glancing away from him, she lifted the mug of cocoa to her lips. After she’d managed to take a couple of swallows, she asked, “How do you know?”

Rage at the loss of his brother, his home, and all that had happened ten years ago surged up in his craw like bitter acid. “Kenneth was your husband, but he was also my brother,” he said stonily. “I knew him.”

The bit of compassion she’d felt for him a moment ago vanished. “Yeah. Back when? Before you became a big rodeo star? Well, I’m sorry, Cooper, but the brother you knew wasn’t the one that fell from a horse and broke his neck.”

Something flickered in his gray eyes. Doubt? Guilt? Whatever it was sliced into Emily like the edge of a rusty razor.

“What are you trying to say? Had Kenneth become an alcoholic?” he asked.

She realized what her words were probably doing to him. Cooper had always looked up to his older brother. From what he’d once told her, Kenneth had been a steadying influence to him after their parents had died. Then later, when Cooper had decided to try his hand at bronc riding, Kenneth had urged him on like a proud papa. If either of the Dunn brothers had possessed a wild streak, it had been Cooper, not Kenneth.

Emily’s blue eyes were suddenly snapping with anger as she looked at him and it dawned on Cooper this was the most emotion he’d seen on her face since he’d arrived.

“No. Kenneth wasn’t an alcoholic, but it was in the makings. I told him not to ever get on that horse if he’d been drinking. But he did anyway. A man with drunk reflexes shouldn’t be on a gentle nag, much less a loco cow horse.”

Cooper felt physically ill. When the news of Kenneth’s death had reached him all he could think was what a senseless way to die. But now—what Emily was telling him made it far worse. “You know for a fact Kenneth had been drinking? You’d said you were gone to Ruidoso. You couldn’t have seen him.”

Emily pushed aside her unfinished cocoa and got up from the table. “The autopsy report stated there was enough alcohol in his bloodstream to make him well past the legal point of drunkenness. I’m sorry, Cooper, but that’s the way it was.”

He stared up at her in disbelief. “You’re sorry!”

Before she could make a reply, he jumped to his feet and grabbed her by the upper arm. “That’s all you can say, you’re sorry?” His face bore down on hers. “What the hell were you thinking, Emily? Why did you let him get on a horse in such a condition? What were you doing?”

Her features cold and stiff, she ripped her arm from his grasp. “What were you doing, Cooper?”

Her pointed question stunned him. His hand fell away from her arm, but his gray eyes mercilessly held onto hers.

The sick look on his face didn’t give Emily any pleasure and she decided they had both said enough for one night. None of it mattered anyway. Kenneth was gone. And so would Cooper, too. Probably by the end of the day.

Turning away from him, she started out of the room. Before she reached the door, she said, “I made up the bed in your old room. If you want any breakfast, I’ll have it ready by seven.”

Cooper wanted to call her back, but he didn’t. It was late and he could see she was exhausted. Now wasn’t the time to press her about his brother. But he would before he left here. And he’d make damn sure he got some answers.

The next morning Emily was frying bacon when Rose, her stepmother, called. Holding the portable phone with one hand, she forked the frying bacon with the other.

“I’m just checking on you,” Rose said. “Did you sleep last night?”

Emily closed her eyes and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. For twenty-three years Rose had been her mother in every sense of the word and throughout that time her love and gentle kindness had never wavered. Nor had it ever failed to touch Emily’s heart.

“A little,” she told her.

Picking up the weariness in her voice, Rose said, “You need more than a little sleep. Your dad is going to the horse sale with a friend so I’ve got the day to myself. Why don’t you go back to bed after you eat and I’ll come over and see to the chores for you.”

“You did that yesterday,” Emily reminded her.

“And it didn’t hurt me one little bit Now tell me if you need me to bring you anything and I’ll be over in an hour or so.”

Emily dropped a piece of bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels. “No,” she said quickly. “Don’t do that. I’ll be fine.”

“But honey, I want to help you.”

“I know,” she said, then decided she should explain. “Cooper came home last night.”

The line went quiet as Rose digested her daughter’s abrupt news. “Is he there now?”

Emily glanced over her shoulder to make sure the man hadn’t slipped into the kitchen without her knowing. “Yes.”

“How long does he plan to stay?”

“He hasn’t said and I haven’t asked.”

Rose went silent for another long spell. “How does he seem to be taking Kenneth’s death?”

“I think he’s still in a bit of shock about it.” And Emily was still in a shock over seeing Cooper again.

“Well, I know the two of them were close at one time. But frankly, I’m surprised the news brought Cooper home. He’s never bothered before. And what can he do now?”

“I’ve been thinking the very things you just said.”

“So you don’t really know his intentions?” Rose asked.

“Not yet.”

Rose groaned. “Oh Lord, Emily, I wished the man had stayed gone. Harlan isn’t going to like this one little bit. He hasn’t forgotten how Cooper hurt you. And if he’s come back with plans to take over his half of the ranch—well, all I can say is I see trouble.”

His half of the ranch. Like a cold north wind, the words rushed through Emily. It was true that Cooper and Kenneth had shared ownership of the ranch since their father had died fifteen years ago. But Cooper had never seen fit to take any interest in the place. Neither with money nor his presence. She couldn’t see that changing just because Kenneth was no longer here.