The Rancher Who Took Her In. Teresa Southwick

He was lean and muscular, walking proof that his job kept him fit without having to add a workout routine.

      “Hey, wait up.” She stood and hurried after him.

      “What?” he asked over his shoulder.

      Kate caught up to him, but it wasn’t easy. His long-legged stride made it a challenge. “That’s what I’d like to know. Why are you out here? Is something wrong?”

      “Nope. Habit. I do a nightly inspection of all the ranch buildings.”

      “Where’s Ty?”

      “In bed.” Cabot glanced down at her. “He’s old enough to be left by himself for a few minutes.”

      “I wasn’t judging,” she protested.

      “Maybe not out loud, but I could hear you thinking about it.”

      Just a little. Possibly.

      When he got to the grassy area by the lake, he turned right on the dirt path and headed for the barn and corral. He wasn’t saying anything, and she felt the need to fill the conversational void.

      “It’s a beautiful night.”

      “Yeah.”

      “Do you ever get used to it? Take all this for granted?”

      “Probably.”

      The least he could do was throw her a bone, she thought. But she didn’t discourage easily. A person didn’t win Olympic gold medals by giving up when the going got tough.

      “The lake is spectacular during the day, but with the moon shining down, it just takes your breath away.” Or maybe she was breathless just being near him and trying to match his strides. “The mountains are gorgeous, too. And the air.” She drew in a deep breath. “So clean and fresh.”

      “You’re not wrong about that.”

      “This is a lovely piece of land you’ve got here.”

      He glanced down again. “Sounds like you love the outdoors.”

      “Who wouldn’t?”

      “My ex-wife, for starters.”

      Their arms brushed and she could almost feel the tension in his body, the annoyance he felt at letting that slip out.

      But he had let it slip. “You were married.”

      “A lifetime ago.”

      “What happened?” That was nosy and probably rude, but he knew about her past. Turnabout was fair play. This was the opening she’d been waiting for, and she didn’t plan to let it drop.

      “She didn’t like it here. Wasn’t happy being a wife and mother.”

      “That pretty much sucks.”

      “Pretty much,” he agreed. But there was a harsh edge to his voice.

      “Must be hard on Ty—not having a mom, I mean.” Moments of silence dragged out after the comment, and she didn’t think he was going to answer.

      “He asks questions,” Cabot admitted. “And I answer as honestly as I can.”

      “What do you say?”

      “That the two of us are a different kind of family. But there’s no way a kid can understand why his mother didn’t want to stay for her own son. Hell, I don’t understand.”

      Anger had given way to wistfulness in his tone and that made her wonder if he still had feelings for the woman who’d walked out on him. “Is there a chance that Ty’s mom will come back?”

      “Always, I suppose.”

      Kate was a little surprised when he didn’t add that it would be a cold day in hell before he took her back. “What if she did?”

      His mouth pulled tight for a moment, but when he answered, his voice lacked any emotion. No anger, regret or sadness. Just matter-of-fact. “If she showed up at the front door tomorrow, Ty wouldn’t have to wonder where his mother is.”

      “Do you wonder?”

      “No. I know where she is.” And she doesn’t want to be here. He didn’t say it, but the words hung in the air between them.

      “Where is she?” That question was out-and-out nosy. Every time he answered something, more stuff popped into her head to ask him. At some point he was going to tell her to mind her own business, but until he did she couldn’t seem to stop herself from inquiring.

      “Helena.”

      Montana’s capital. “So it’s not that she doesn’t like Montana.”

      “Nope. Just the ranch and small-town life.”

      “Does Ty know how close she is?”

      “Nope. She hasn’t shown any interest in seeing him and I wouldn’t put him through that unless she did.” He slowed his pace. “There’s no point in it. Rejection hurts.”

      “Yeah.” She’d been rejected very publicly. She was realizing that she didn’t love her ex-fiancé because he hadn’t crossed her mind all that much since she’d arrived in Blackwater Lake and, more specifically, since she’d met Cabot. But at first it had hurt. The humiliation was no fun, either. And she was a grown-up. Ty was a little boy. “Are you ever going to tell him?”

      “If he wants to know.”

      “That seems wise,” she agreed.

      “You’re judging again.” This time there was a smile in his voice.

      “In a good way.”

      “It’s not wise. Just common sense,” he claimed. “If you tell a kid he can’t do something, that’s exactly what he wants to do.”

      “Is that the voice of experience talking?” she teased.

      “Maybe. Maybe not. I think of it more as human nature.”

      They had come full circle, past his house. She’d expected he would go inside and let her see herself back, but he didn’t. Cabot walked her to her front door and stopped.

      “Good night, Kate. Two more days until the kids get here. Get some rest. You’re going to need it.”

      “See you,” she said.

      She watched him turn and walk back up the hill, a solitary man in the dark. Walking with him had been both exhilarating and enlightening. He had been married but was now divorced. She’d wanted so badly to say that he and his son were better off without a shallow, selfish woman like that having any influence on their lives. Only an idiot would run away from the child she’d borne and a man who loved her.

      It was the running part that gave Kate pause. She’d run. Granted, the guy she’d left might be a good match for Cab’s ex—in the shallow-and-selfish department. But still, she’d run. Did he put her in the same category as his ex-wife?

      The thought troubled her, which was both annoying and not very bright. She’d just escaped from complications with a man and shouldn’t let herself lose sleep over what this man thought. They’d only just met.

      And she hoped to be wrong but couldn’t shake the feeling that he might be pining for the woman who’d left him.

      * * *

      On the first day of camp Kate helped the other four counselors greet and sign in the kids, then assign cabins and settle them there. The other employees were all first-or second-year schoolteachers and this was their summer job. She was the only oddball without training.

      It was late afternoon when she walked into the camp kitchen. The dining room was a log-cabin-style building, and the food-preparation area was situated behind the larger room where picnic tables would seat the campers for meals. A patio jutted off, and if