Hot shame poured through her veins. She’d hated him for ten years. How could one kiss make her forget so easily?
“What’re you two doin’ in there?” Beulah called from outside the barn.
“Nothing,” Cait hollered back immediately, then realized she’d echoed Win’s word.
Her face heated, she stalked out of the barn. Beulah had jumped down from the buckboard and was attempting to lift a sack of grain. As Cait approached her, a coughing ?t stopped the older woman and she grabbed a crumpled hanky from her sleeve and held it against her mouth and nose.
“It sounds like you’re getting croupy,” Cait said in concern. “Would you like to come into the house for some tea?”
Beulah shook her head. “I’d best get going.” Her voice was muf?ed by the handkerchief she held to her face.
There were only two sacks left in the wagon, and Cait tossed one over her shoulder. Win, who must’ve come out of the barn soon after she had, grabbed the other one. Cait ignored him as she carried the grain sack into the barn. She hurriedly dropped it beside the other two and rejoined Beulah, who was stuf?ng her handkerchief back up her sleeve with trembling hands.
“I can saddle Pepper and ride back to your place with you,” Cait offered.
Beulah snorted. “Why in the world you wanna do that, girl? There ain’t nothin’ wrong with me but some dust gettin’ up my nose.” Shaking her head and muttering, the cantankerous woman climbed into the buckboard. She picked up the reins and eyed Cait closely. “Now, you best behave yourself, girl. I got to run back into town in a few days so I’ll stop by to see how you and Taylor’s doin’.” Beulah raised her head and gave Win, who lounged against the barn door, a warning look.
“I’ll be good,” Win said with a wink.
Beulah leaned down toward Cait and said in a loud whisper, “Don’t you let him be talkin’ you into anythin’ you don’t want.”
Surprised by the oddly phrased warning, Cait only nodded.
Without so much as a wave, Beulah hiyahed her patient mule into a lazy walk. Cait, feeling a frisson of worry for her friend, watched until the buckboard disappeared from view.
Win, buttoning his shirt, joined her. “Now I remember her. She’s that crazy lady from down near Otters Gulch.”
As children, Cait and Win had only known Beulah as that crazy lady from Otters Gulch. It wasn’t until after Win had disappeared that Cait had come to know Beulah Grisman as an eccentric, independent woman with a heart the size of a saddle blanket.
“That’s what we used to call her,” Cait admitted, then added, “She may be a little strange, but she’s not crazy. We became friends after you left.”
Win’s brows furrowed, probably wondering how they came to know each other, but Cait wasn’t about to enlighten him. That chapter of her life was closed.
Cait knew she should shelve the box of goods she’d picked up at the mercantile, but standing in the shade with Win was oddly comforting in spite of the shocking kiss they’d shared earlier.
“How is Deil coming along?” she asked.
Win slid his thumbs into his front pants pockets and stood hipshot, with one knee bent. “I’m going to try to forefoot him again tomorrow morning.” He paused and his gaze felt like a caress, sending a shiver down her spine. “I could use your help.”
Cait’s muscles tightened, hoping she had the strength to face the demon again. “I’ll be here.”
With the predatory grace of a wolf, Win stepped in front of her. “Can I count on you?”
Her heartbeat climbed a notch or two, but she met his intense gaze squarely. “Seems to me I should be asking
“I guess I deserved that.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I had my reasons, Cait.”
“You could at least tell me what they were.”
He tipped his head back and stared at the hot blue sky. “It was nothing you did, Cait.” He chuckled softly. “You did everything right. Too damned right.” Win’s steady gaze settled on her. “You were so young. Hell, we were both kids. But I was older and knew better. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you.”
Even after all the heartache he’d caused her, she believed his remorse. He was older than her and had often taken the blame for the mischief they’d gotten into together. She laid her hand on his forearm. The light hairs tickled her palm and his skin’s warmth brought a burst of heat with it. “What happened that night was as much my fault as yours, maybe even more so. I was the one who had to tempt you with that stupid dress.”
“It wasn’t a stupid dress, and it sure as hell more than tempted me.” He chuckled, and creases appeared at the corners of his eyes. “Where did you get it?”
Cait stared at his laugh lines, suddenly faced with the tangible evidence that they were no longer ?fteen and seventeen. They’d both grown up, but scars remained.
“It was in my mother’s trunk. Pa never could throw any of her things away.” Cait remembered the one and only time he’d tried to sort through her mother’s belongings. After opening the trunk, he’d quickly closed it and hurried outside. Cait had followed him and stood in the doorway, shocked to hear her big, strong father sobbing in the deepest shadows of the porch.
“Do you still have it?”
Win’s question startled Cait out of the past. “Yes, but that was the only time I wore it.”
“I ?gured you’d wear it to the town dances and all the boys would line up to dance with you.”
Cait peered into Win’s face, trying to determine if he was teasing or serious. “I never went to any dances.”
“Why?” Win asked, genuinely puzzled.
She shrugged. “I didn’t plan on marrying, so it didn’t make any sense to go.”
“Why?” he repeated.
Becoming annoyed, Cait snapped, “Because.”
Win held up his hands, palms out. “Whoa. Don’t be getting all riled up again. I didn’t mean anything. I’m just trying to ?gure out why someone as beautiful as you isn’t married yet.”
She felt Win’s burning gaze on her back as she walked to the cabin, but there was nothing more she owed him. She picked up the box containing ?our, sugar, and coffee she’d left on the porch and carried it inside.
As she put away the goods, she allowed her memories free rein. She remembered how she’d had to lie to her father for the ?rst time in her life to hide her humiliation. How she’d cried every night for nearly a year before the pain became tolerable. How the love she’d had for Win had burned away, leaving ashes of hate.
But their kiss in the barn showed that beneath the hate, love’s embers still smoldered.
Cait couldn’t afford to fan those embers back to life. Even if Win still held some affection for her, he would undoubtedly ride away again. And this time, even the embers would become extinguished, leaving nothing but the empty shell of a bitter woman with no hope of a family.
Chapter Five
FOUR NIGHTS LATER, Cait bolted upright in bed. She sat there in the darkness, disoriented, trying to determine what had awakened her. A horse’s scream split the night’s silence and Cait scrambled out from under the muslin sheet and wool blanket. She jerked on her boots and trousers, but didn’t take the time to don a shirt over her gown.
She grabbed the ri?e propped beside the bed and dashed out of the cabin. Pausing on the porch, she searched for Deil in his pen and found him looking toward the trees. The shrill cry sounded again. It came from the mares’ corral, the direction Deil faced.
