“Didn’t see much point to keeping it without you around to manage things. I’ve got enough irons in the fire,” Grady insisted. “Now that you’re back, things are different. Besides, from what I hear, they won’t have that horse long. Somebody’s going to come along and snap it up. You’ll be kicking yourself if it’s not you.”
“I don’t see why you’re pushing so hard, but I’ll drive over later and check him out,” Wade promised, then glanced curiously at Karen. It had almost sounded as if she’d uttered a sigh of relief. Or maybe it had just been a plain old sigh. She was pretty far along in the pregnancy now, and all her movements seemed to be a struggle. That must have been it, he concluded, then turned back to Grady.
“I thought that ranch was up for sale back when we bought that stock. Did Otis or that son of his decide against it?”
“No, it sold,” Grady told him. “The new owner’s starting up a horse ranch. There’s some fine stock over there already. Now that you’ve got that check in hand, I thought you ought to go over and take a look, just see what’s available.”
“Okay, okay, I said I would.” Caving in to the pressure, Wade grabbed his hat and headed for the door, then glanced back at Karen, who was watching him intently. “You’re not going to deliver that baby today, are you?”
She looked startled by the question. “No, why?”
“You seem a little jumpy, and I heard that sigh a bit ago. If you were having pains or anything, you’d tell Grady, right?”
“Of course I would,” she insisted.
“She’d better,” Grady said, his expression dire.
“Okay then,” Wade said. “I’ll head on over to the Grigsby place. Do you know the new owner’s name?”
“No,” they chorused so emphatically that it stirred his suspicions at once.
“Haven’t met ’em yet,” Karen said, then patted her swollen belly. “I haven’t been getting out and about the last few weeks. I’ll be anxious to hear all about them and what they’ve done with the place.”
Wade grinned at her. “Then I’ll be sure to take notes on the paint and the curtains. Anything else in particular you’d like to know?”
“Oh, just what you think of them,” she said.
He nodded. “I’ll report in the minute I get back,” he promised, chuckling over her blatant curiosity. Nosy as she was, he could imagine how frustrating it must be for her not to have been over to check things out for herself.
An hour later Wade pulled into the winding driveway of the newly named L&W Ranch. He could see a few of the improvements right off. New fences had gone up. The pasture was greener. And there were indeed some fine-looking horses.
The house itself had been painted, yellow with white shutters and white trim on the porch. A couple of comfortable-looking rockers sat side by side with a good view of the pastures. Whoever had bought the place had put some money into it, no doubt about it. It would be a fine place for a family. A part of him regretted that he wouldn’t be the one living there. The potential he’d seen back a few months when he and Lauren had come for the horse auction had been fulfilled.
When he rounded the house, parked and stepped out of his truck, the first thing he noticed was that the horse in the corral was Midnight. There was no mistaking the sleek animal. Nor was there any mistake about the woman who was about to get into the saddle on his back. His heart leaped into his throat, quickly followed by panic. The latter overrode his dismay.
He was about to bolt in their direction, but Midnight stood perfectly still, clearly unfazed by his rider. Lauren leaned down to whisper in the horse’s ear. As if he understood her perfectly, he whinnied a response. Lauren laughed and caressed his neck. Just as he had months ago, Wade shuddered with envy at that touch. What kind of fool did that make him? He was still jealous of a horse, and all over a woman who’d betrayed him and no doubt hadn’t given him a second thought since.
Lauren glanced over at him then, her expression solemn. “Welcome home.”
He had the distinct impression that she was referring to more than his return to Winding River.
“Care to go for a ride?” she asked.
Wade didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to make of her presence here, of her attitude, of the sneaky way Grady had gotten him over here…of anything. This Lauren wasn’t the superstar he’d seen weeks ago in that tabloid or on the color TV in his motel room. This was the down-to-earth woman he loved with everything in him. What was the use of trying to deny it? If the depth of that love hadn’t changed in all this time, it wasn’t going to.
But because he wasn’t going to risk his heart a second time, he settled for asking, “Why are you here?”
“I own the place. Well, I’m half owner of it, actually. The other owner’s been away.”
His gaze narrowed and his heart began its own little two-step. “Is that so?”
“I’m hoping he might be back to stay now,” she said, her gaze on his, her expression uncertain. “Is he?”
His hands bunched into fists. He jammed them into his pockets to keep from reaching for her. “What are you saying, Lauren?”
“That this ranch is half yours,” she said as casually as if she were announcing that she’d bought him a new CD by his favorite country singer.
“Why?”
“Because it seems to me a deed ought to be in the names of both the husband and the wife, so there’s no mistaking that it’s jointly owned.” She frowned. “You did see the gate, didn’t you? It’s the L&W Ranch now.”
As the absurd
