The Rancher's Surrender

them. You're anal-retentive about that stuff.'

Zoe considered testing her weapon on her sister's pretty head, but changed her mind when the stranger called out again, much closer this time.

'Hello?'

For some reason, the husky, grainy voice tickled Zoe's tummy, and she clutched Maddie and Delia in a vise grip.

'I know you're here, I saw your headlights from my house.'

When no one answered, the man's wide shoulders rose and fell sharply with a sigh, as if he were annoyed. 'Cade sent me out to check on your arrival. I'm your neighbor, Ty Jackson.'

Delia shot Zoe a triumphant glare, pulled her hands free, adjusted her still-perfect hair and stood, only to fall back down to the patio when Zoe yanked hard on her arm.

'Are you crazy?' Zoe demanded in a harsh whisper. 'You can't just blindly trust him.'

'But he knows Cade-'

'Honest to God, Delia, I have not a clue as to how you managed to survive in Los Angeles.' Furious, Zoe clenched both sisters now with fisted hands. Fear did that to her, kicked up her temper.

Fear and regret, for if anything happened to either Delia or Maddie, it would be her fault because it had been she who had insisted they go on this crazy adventure. Crazy, stupid adventure.

The man stepped up onto the patio, looking larger than life with the yellow lights of his truck highlighting him from behind. He stood on the rickety old porch, his easy, loose-limbed stance revealing a tall, rangy body with legs and arms that seemed to stretch forever.

None of the women budged, or even breathed, but he turned unerringly toward them, allowing the light to fall over him.

'See?' He lifted his hands, apparently to show he meant no harm, but his irritation was unmistakable. In one of his hands was a heavy-duty flashlight, which he left off. 'Just your friendly neighbor, not the boogeyman.'

Zoe recognized his name, knew that he was the caretaker of this property, and due to the terms of Constance's will, he was to remain manager for one year. Still… her fingers dug into her sisters' arms, silently daring them to move.

When they didn't come forward, the man crouched low on the protesting wood planks, as if he instinctively understood how overwhelmingly male he seemed. His unbuttoned plaid shirt spread wide over a white T-shirt that revealed an expanse of well-muscled chest and shoulders. His faded jeans encased powerful legs that strained taut in his hunkered position. The light fell over his face, casting his dark, chiseled features in bold relief.

'Come on,' he said. 'It's late. Let's do this.' He blinked into the darkness, his glittering eyes somehow landing directly on Zoe. 'Maddie and Delia, right? And… Zophina?'

Delia snorted, and Zoe, masked in the dark patio, pinched her.

'Look, would I know your names if I wasn't telling the truth?' he asked, exasperation clear.

Good point, Zoe supposed, but she didn't move.

His head dropped between his shoulders for a moment, his frustration tangible. Then he tried again. 'You know that I've been working part of this land with mine, leasing it from Constance for years. And you know who Constance was… your grandmother, or one of yours, anyway.'

In the dark, the women looked at one another. Certainly he had to be who he said, for what stranger could know all this?

'Quite the mystery, isn't it?' He shook his head, then glanced over at them as if to make sure he had their attention.

He'd never had anything but.

At their lack of motion, he looked around him at the land. 'Constance tried like crazy to find her granddaughter over the years. It's hard to believe she didn't live long enough to see it through.'

Would a bad guy really show such insight? Zoe didn't know and refused to take a chance. But his voice mesmerized her as he continued to speak into the dark night.

'She didn't even know her granddaughter's name, only the month and year of birth and approximate last sighting of her son's girlfriend.'

Los Angeles.

Emotions tumbled through Zoe, and she knew it was no less for her sisters, for each of them wanted to know more about Constance, more about where they had possibly come from. Delia nudged her, and even in the darkness, Zoe had no trouble deciphering Delia's glare.

Trust him.

She wasn't ready yet.

'You still there?' He craned his neck as he shifted, trying to see into the shadows where they huddled ridiculously together. 'Well, what else can I tell you… Okay, from what I understand, you were all left in a group home at approximately the same time and age. Took poor Constance more than twenty years to get that much information, but she never gave up.'

The silence seemed to drown out the night noise, except for the ever-present rush of water. The crickets stopped. Even the owl went quiet. And there on the porch, surrounded by the only two people in the world who had ever cared about her, Zoe squeezed their hands tight and closed her eyes.

Each of them had been a deserted three-year-old. The remembering hurt, when that hurt should have long ago been healed. But now they knew that one of them had had someone searching for her, desperately.

That hurt, too, for Zoe could only imagine how different life would have been for the girl who might have been found by a loving, frantic grandmother.

They had no idea which of them it was-Maddie, Zoe or Delia-but it didn't matter now. They were sisters of the heart and soul, and they'd stick together until the end.

The ranch belonged to all of them, and together they'd learn more about their grandmother.

'I'm guessing you're hoping I'll talk myself out and disappear.' Slowly, Ty Jackson shook his head. 'No can do, ladies. Cade told me your plane had been delayed, and he was worried about you getting up here at night, which by the way was a stupid thing to do, drive up here in the dark.'

Delia and Maddie shot a look at Zoe, who bristled. It was one thing to be stupid, but it was entirely another thing to have it pointed out to her by a stranger. She had her sisters to do that.

'Cade wanted me to call him back.' He shifted impatiently. 'Can we get on with it now? It's late, and frankly, ladies, I'm tired of listening to myself talk.'

Zoe could feel her sisters' resistance melt away, but she held on to hers with all her might. Despite his obvious caring for Constance, he was big, he was a man, and he was barely managing to control his irritation at being bothered so late at night.

Trust was a big issue for Zoe, it had been for as long as she could remember. Alone in this world except for Maddie and Delia, she had managed to eke out a calm, quiet existence. And if her life was a little, well… empty, if she'd never learned to really have faith in another human being since the day her mother had dumped her at age three, failing to come back for her as promised, she could live with that.

Bottom line-Zoe rarely believed in another, especially a far-too-good-looking cowboy with a voice that could melt the Arctic.

In the beam of light, he quirked a dark, challenging brow and continued to speak in that rough-timbered voice, the one Zoe imagined could convince a less-hardened woman to give him the moon.

'You plan on sleeping there on the porch, that's just fine with me,' he said with a shrug of those impressive shoulders. 'But I wouldn't be neighborly if I didn't try to warn you… that wood there's littered with rats. Big, fat, hungry ones.'

With a muffled shriek, Delia launched herself toward the light, brushing and swiping at her legs, for if there was one thing that could shatter Delia's calm, it was a rodent.

Maddie's mouth opened in a silent scream as she followed Delia in such a rush she nearly fell headlong into their 'neighbor,' who easily caught and uprighted her.

Both women continued to shiver and squeak, placing themselves behind the man, who slowly rose to his feet, a grin firmly in place.