Cord sat next to her, careful that they weren't touching. "Did you tell anyone?"
She nodded. One hot tear spilled over her cheek. "My dad. He didn't believe me. I w-wanted to go home."
She brushed the tear away. Her dad had remarried when she'd been a sophomore in high school. Her stepmother, Sandy, had only waited a few weeks before she'd started manipulating Molly's father. She used every tool in her arsenal to turn him against Molly.
It had been five years of Dad slipping away, falling further under Sandy’s spell.
When Molly had been crying on the phone with her dad, she'd heard her stepmother in the background. "She's probably making it up. She's an attention-seeker, you know."
She'd known then that she wasn't going to receive any help from that quarter.
She took a shaky breath. "I filed a restraining order. He disappeared for a few days, and I started to feel safe again. I took my finals."
She inhaled a shaky breath. "And then he came back. Trapped me in the bathroom of the little cafe where I worked."
He'd hit her once across the face. She'd fought back with everything in her, and the commotion had brought a manager in.
Toby had fled. The police had been called.
"The policeman couldn't find him. And if the restraining order hadn't protected me in the first place, what was I supposed to do?"
She'd called home again. She'd had to try. Her father had flat out refused to let her come home without finishing the semester.
"I left in the middle of the night." She'd left most of her stuff in the dorm room. She hadn't dropped any of her classes. She'd just run.
Molly had a stalker.
Cord was surprised at the strength of the fury burning inside him as she revealed the truth.
He didn't know her well, but he saw her gentle spirit with Hound Dog. Had seen the way her eyes lit those first hours when she'd looked around the ranch.
Someone was targeting her. Had assaulted her. Had threatened her.
No wonder she'd had such a strong reaction in town.
He was just as furious with her family. Why would her father refuse to help her? He didn't have to know the answer. Some people—like Mackie—didn't deserve to be parents.
He had the weirdest urge to grab her and hold on. He hadn't felt anything like it since he'd been a boy and West had gotten into a scuffle on the playground at school.
Sure, he'd seen his share of tears from the women he'd dated, but they'd always been used as a way to manipulate him.
Molly was trying to hold it together all by herself. Trying not to cry.
He rubbed one hand on his bent knee. "Do you really know how to fix up those piece-of-junk tractors?"
She still wasn't looking at him, but her head turned slightly in his direction. Like maybe he'd piqued her curiosity. "I've done repairs on my truck since I was fifteen. And some tractor repairs on our ranch. Anything I don't know, I'll bet I can find a video online. Why?"
Was he really going to do this?
He cleared his throat. "Turns out the ranch is underwater. It's... bad."
He was so angry with Mackie that he felt it flush his face.
"The bank won't make any further extensions on the mortgage, which means I need cash sooner rather than later."
She laid her cheek on her knee, finally making eye contact with him. "It's gonna cost money to buy parts. And take some time to track them down."
He nodded. "I need to be back in Houston by the end of the month. If you can get three or four of them in good condition, it would get my head above water.” If he could find a buyer who wouldn't mind this place in the condition it was in… Maybe he could get out from under the No Name with his credit and bank account intact.
It was a glimmer of light on the top of the ocean. Unfortunately, he felt like he was drowning in the depths. It was a chance, even if it was a slim one.
"Don't you have anyone you can call?" It was as if she were turning his earlier inquiry back on him. Didn't you tell anyone? "I thought... Iris asked about your brother, didn't she? How come he isn't here?"
West.
Cord gritted his teeth. "He's in the military. And the ranch is in my name, not his."
"Wouldn't he help, if you asked?"
Probably not. "It's complicated. I doubt he can get leave. And it's complicated."
Her raised eyebrows reminded him he was repeating himself. He'd barely spoken to his brother in a half-dozen years. West might help him if Cord begged on bended knee.
Or he might laugh in Cord's face.
He tapped his thumb on his thigh. "You can stay through the end of the month. Rent-free. If you rebuild the tractors for me. And as long as trouble didn't follow you here."
She frowned. "I don't think h-he followed me. I watched for his car, in traffic. For about two hundred miles."
Good. Then the three weeks until his deadline might allow her to regain her equilibrium. Get back on her feet.
She suddenly brushed her hair over her shoulder and stood, leaving him to push to his feet, too.
"I'll think about it," she said.
What was there to think about? Oh.
"Molly."
He felt hot under the collar as she glanced his way. But he met her curious gaze head-on.
"I want you to know you don't have to worry about me."
She wrinkled her brows.
"You know. About me coming on to you." He didn't think his face could get any warmer.
The last thing he wanted was for her to feel afraid here.
Her eyes were huge in her face, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "We're not compatible. Like that."
Liar, liar.
7
Main Street was packed, and Cord had to bite back a groan as he pulled the truck into a tight spot
