The Rancher's Blessed Event

Emily shook her head with disapproval. “As if that would do Kenneth any good now. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A horse for a man. Is that your way of thinking?”

“Something like that.”

“I can’t imagine you laying one angry hand on a horse. You always loved them. And they you. I guess that’s why they’ve made you rich and famous.”

He walked toward her then and for a moment the smile spreading over his face made her forget he’d ever been gone.

“Who says I’m rich and famous?”

She shrugged, wishing she could keep quiet around this man. She didn’t want him getting the idea he’d been in her thoughts down through the years. “Oh, everyone here in Lincoln, I suppose.”

“Then everyone is wrong. I’m just one good cowboy out of many.”

More than bothered by his closeness, Emily stepped off the hearth and away from him. “I’m going to go make a pot of coffee. It’s nearly time for lunch and then I have to feed the cattle.”

“Who’s been doing your feeding?”

“My dad. But I told him not to come today. I want to take care of things myself and I can’t do that moping around the house.”

She didn’t look strong enough to drive a pickup, much less pitch a bale of hay off the back of it. But maybe her appearance was deceiving. Cooper certainly hoped that was the case.

He followed her out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. Built on the north side of the house, the room was naturally colder than the others. Rubbing his hands together, Cooper went over to a gas heater on the wall and was dismayed to see it wasn’t burning.

“Why don’t you have the fire on? It’s miserable in here,” he muttered.

As Emily filled a blue granite percolator with cold water, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “A fire means gas and the cost of LP is outrageous now. If you’re cold put more clothes on.”

Emily had always been a practical woman, but this was ridiculous. “Damn it all, Emily, do you think I can’t buy a tank of gas?”

He went over to the cabinets and jerked open a drawer he remembered being a catchall. Thankfully it still was and a box of matches was there among the odds and ends. He carried them back to the heater, lit it and turned the control knob to high position.

Her hands on her hips, Emily glared at him in silence. Cooper lifted his brows at her.

“I have on all the clothes I want to have on,” he said.

“You might own half of this ranch, but I’m the one who pays the bills. I’m not going to buy extra gas just so you can sit around dressed like you’re in the Bahamas.”

Cooper glanced pointedly down at his flannel shirt. “I haven’t seen too many of these on the beach before.”

Whirling her back to him, she poured a stiff amount of coffee grounds into the pot, then plopped the lid down and whammed the whole thing on a burner on the cookstove.

“Emily, I just told you I can pay for the gas. It’s no problem.”

“I’ll not have you paying for anything! Not while there’s breath in my body,” she hissed, her back still to him.

The venom in her voice stunned him. He’d expected her to be harboring a few bad feelings toward him. But not this bad.

“You’d rather freeze and keep your pride, I suppose,” he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “You’d rather sit around in a cold, drafty house and take the chance of getting bronchitis or pneumonia than take a few dollars from me.”

A few dollars wouldn’t fill the propane tank, Emily wanted to shout at him. It would take several hundred and he knew it. But now that he was so successful, maybe he considered that amount as next to nothing.

Turning, she lifted her eyes to his. “Look, Cooper, the minute you start paying part of the bills, you’ll get the idea you can tell me what to do. I won’t have that.”

He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t do anything for you, is that it?”

His voice was still edged with sarcasm, but she could hear something else in it, too. A need of sorts that made her heart want to weep. Ten years ago she would have given anything to have him concerned about her welfare. But he’d been too busy planning his own life and his own career. She’d been left high and dry and he’d never looked back until now. Did he honestly think she would want to accept anything from him after the pain he caused her?

Anger pushing her away from the cabinets, she went over to stand in front of him. “Buy the damn gas if you want. Just don’t start giving me orders, understand?”

Seeing her intention to walk away, he grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her back to him. Her bosom heaving, she glared up at him and tried to jerk away, but he wouldn’t slacken his hold.

“You’ve grown as hard as nails, Emily. Why? Has your life here been that bad?”

Compared to the grip he had on her arm, his voice was soft. The sound of it caught at something inside Emily and she knew above all things now, she had to hold on to her composure. She could never let herself break down and admit to him that her marriage to Kenneth had grown into a painful one.

“I’m not being hard, Cooper. I’m being realistic.”

His eyes gently roamed her upturned face and as they did he wondered what had happened to the soft, beautiful woman who dreamed and hoped and looked at life with stars in her eyes. And in that moment, he knew he’d give anything to see that woman again.

“I never thought I’d come back and find you like this,” he murmured.

She swallowed as bittersweet emotions balled in her throat. “I never thought you’d come back, period,” she countered.

Cooper didn’t profess to know women. Down through the years he’d had little time for the opposite sex. He’d never really been around any of them enough to learn their likes and dislikes, what they were thinking and feeling. But at one time in his life, he’d known Emily. And as he took in the pain on her face, it struck him that Kenneth wasn’t the one that had made her like this. He had.

“Emily, I—”

Before he could say another word, Emily tore loose from his grip and fled the room.

Cooper was still staring after her when the sound of the coffee boiling out the spout and onto the cookstove finally snared his attention.

He went over and adjusted the burner to a slow perk, then pulled a coffee mug out of the cupboard. Apparently Emily was no longer in the mood for coffee, or him.

But whether she wanted to or not, she was going to have to get in the mood for him, he thought grimly. Because there was no way in hell he was going to leave now.

A few minutes later, as Cooper was finishing his coffee, Emily returned to the kitchen. Except for two bright spots on her cheeks, she looked as white as bleached flour. A couple of old coats were thrown across her arm and tall rubber boots were on her feet.

Tossing one of the coats at him, she said, “You wanted to help. Put that on and come with me.”

Unaffected by her order, he remained in his chair, his hands cradled around the coffee mug. “It’s time for lunch.”

“We can eat whenever we get back,” she said in a clipped voice.

If she’d been a man, Cooper would have taken the coat and thrown it straight at her. As it was, he got up from his chair, snatched away the coat that was still on her arm and pushed her into a chair.

“We’re going to eat. Now!”

“I’m not hungry,” she retorted.