“Oh my gosh, is that why the two of you went rushing out of there the other day? I thought you’d suddenly decided you needed to be alone.”
Lauren blushed. “Well, that was one reason, but it was Jake’s slip about his parents’ belated marriage that really got us out of there.”
“Did you explain the circumstances about why Cole didn’t marry Cassie?”
“Not in great detail. He didn’t want to hear it, anyway.”
“Then I’ll tell him,” Karen said. “He can’t go on blaming Cole for what happened, especially not if it’s going to cause a rift between him and our friends. I will not have you coming back here only to get involved with someone who refuses to socialize with the rest of us.”
Karen’s gaze suddenly narrowed. “If the issue is money, why doesn’t he resent Grady?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Lauren admitted. “But he thinks Grady’s a decent guy and he’s crazy about you. I think he’s simply chosen to overlook the size of your bank account.”
“Well, he’d better learn to overlook money altogether. It’s not important—at least it shouldn’t be. And it certainly shouldn’t be the thing that stands between two people and their happiness.”
“Amen to that,” Lauren said. Now she just had to come up with some way to convince Wade of it.
Wade was tired and cranky and hungover when he got back to the Blackhawk ranch in the morning. He was almost relieved that Lauren wasn’t at the house to see him in this sorry state.
Only after he’d showered, shaved and forced down some food and coffee did he begin to worry about where she might be. During the hour or so of sobriety he’d had before the beers at the Heartbreak had caught up with him, he’d managed to admit to himself that he was being totally unreasonable about Cole Davis. Nobody knew better than he did that a man shouldn’t be judged on a first impression or on a past over which he’d had no control. Right before he’d gotten stinking drunk and taken a room in town for the night, he’d vowed to admit that to Lauren. He intended to keep that vow…assuming he could find her.
She wasn’t in the barn, and when Wade checked the main house, Karen regarded him with an unmistakably cool expression and said she had no idea where Lauren had gone.
“Care for a cup of coffee?” she asked. “You look as if you could use it.”
“Sure,” he said, reluctantly taking a seat at the table and watching Karen warily.
Karen handed him the coffee, then took a seat opposite him. “You’re the second person I’ve dealt with this morning who evidently had a lousy night.”
“Oh?”
“Lauren looked like she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.”
Before he could comment on that or apologize for his role in it, Karen seared him with a look. “I don’t like seeing my friends upset.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not the one who needs to hear that,” she said.
He nodded. “Which is precisely why I came looking for her.”
Her eyes softened then, and she gave him a more approving look. “Good. Then I don’t need to break your kneecaps or anything.”
“I notice you didn’t say you’d have Grady do it,” he said.
“Absolutely not. I fight my own battles…and my friends’,” she added pointedly. “If I hadn’t been satisfied with your answer, I would have taken pleasure in making you suffer.”
He knew better than to grin. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See that you do. Now get out of here and resolve this before it gets out of hand.”
He did allow himself a chuckle at that. “Yes, ma’am.”
With his head still pounding, he walked slowly back toward the barn. Since Lauren’s car was still parked beside his place, she had to be around here somewhere. A masculine curse from the paddock behind the barn had him racing around the side of the building. He skidded to a stop, his breath lodged in his throat as he took in the scene.
Grady was halfway over the fence, his face ashen as Lauren waved him off. She had a saddle on Midnight’s back, but the huge horse wasn’t one bit happy about it. He repeatedly reared up, his hooves slicing through the air with deadly potential for disaster.
“Lauren, get the hell out of there,” Wade ordered, his voice low.
She didn’t even spare him a glance. Instead, her entire focus was on Midnight, and even Wade had to admit that was where it belonged under the circumstances. With one hand on the horse’s reins, she kept up a nonstop barrage of soft coaxing. The wild-eyed horse was having none of it.
Wade thought for a split second that his heart was going to pound so hard it would knock right through the wall of his chest. Never in his entire life had he been so terrified. If Lauren got out of there in one piece, he was going to be sorely tempted to kill her himself.
“She’s absolutely fearless,” Grady murmured, awe in his voice.
“She’s a freaking lunatic,” Wade retorted.
“I thought so, too, at first, but watch. Midnight’s starting to listen to her. He’s settling down.”
Wade didn’t see it. He could barely even make himself look at the scene. “Five seconds,” he muttered. “Then I’m going to go in there and bodily drag her out.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Grady ordered. “Not if you expect to keep working for me.”
“Then I’ll quit,” Wade said, hoisting himself onto the railing.
He was about to swing over and drop to the ground, when he felt Grady’s hand on his arm.
“Look,” his boss said quietly.
Midnight was perfectly still. He’d allowed Lauren close enough to drape an arm over his neck. When she held out a cube of sugar, he took it from her as calmly as if he hadn’t been close to killing her not even seconds before.
Even so, Wade didn’t breathe again until Lauren had removed the saddle, patted
