A Rancher To Trust. Laurel Blount

necessary. Once the divorce papers are drawn up, I’ll just need your notarized signature, and it’ll be a done deal.”

      “All right.” He had stayed seated and was looking up at her, his expression carefully blank. “I’ll make sure you get it.”

      “Thanks.” Bailey reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out a crumpled scrap of paper and a pen. “Write down your email address, and I’ll be in touch. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really need to get back to work.” She hesitated awkwardly, unsure what she should say or do next. How exactly did you end a conversation like this with some kind of dignity? She had no idea.

      Finally, she reached out a hand and laid it gently on his bicep. It felt like touching a sun-warmed rock. “Goodbye, Dan.”

      She turned away and headed across the yard to the unfinished fence. Leaning over, she snagged the work gloves she’d dropped on the ground...what? Twenty minutes ago, maybe?

      It felt like a lifetime.

      Her hands were shaking so much that she had a hard time getting her fingers into the right slots. When the gloves were finally on, she reached for the post-hole diggers. As she jammed them back into the hole she’d begun, she heard the boards of the porch steps creak.

      Okay, good. Dan was leaving. She held her breath, waiting to hear his truck door open and close.

      “Bailey.” He spoke from so close behind her that she jumped like a startled deer. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to spook you. But...what you said back there. You were wrong. I did come back.”

      She flashed him an irritated glance. “What are you talking about?”

      “I drove around for a few hours. Did some drinking.” His fingers were clenched down so hard on the weathered brim of his hat that his knuckles were white. “But then I came back to the motel room. It was about three thirty in the morning, and you were curled up asleep on the bed with wadded-up tissues all around you. You’d been crying—hard—and you almost never cried. I’d done that to you on our wedding day, because I’d fought with you about driving back to Pine Valley and facing up to your parents.”

      “Dan, like I said, there’s no point in—”

      He cut her off. “I told you I wanted to go west, start fresh someplace new, just the two of us. But the truth was, I was just a coward. I was scared if we went back to Georgia, your parents would talk you into getting out of the marriage. Why wouldn’t they? I was a nineteen-year-old boy with a pretty serious drinking problem, a bad reputation and zero skills that would help me land a job. And standing there looking down at you, I knew they were right. I was going to ruin your life.”

      He stopped. When he spoke again, his voice was rough with conviction. “I don’t think I ever sobered up as fast in my life as I did that night. And yeah, I left you there. It was the hardest thing I ever did. I’m really sorry I hurt you, but when I think about some of the things that happened to me after that, some of the places I ended up before I finally got myself turned around... Well, I can only thank the good Lord that I didn’t hurt you even worse.”

      Bailey stared at him, the post-hole diggers still clenched in her hands. What was she supposed to say to that?

      After a second or two, he cleared his throat. “About this divorce thing. Lawyers can get pricey. I’d like to cover the cost.”

      “I’m not asking you to do that.”

      “I know you’re not. But I want to, just the same. How long will it take get it all settled?”

      Bailey blinked and swallowed hard. “I don’t know. I’ll have to meet with the lawyer and see how soon he can draw up the papers. Did you leave me your email?”

      “I wrote it down.” He offered her the scrap of paper she’d left behind on the porch step. She took it, careful not to brush his fingers with hers, and tucked it back into the breast pocket of her shirt.

      “Okay. I’ll be in touch once I know more.”

      “Would it speed things up any if I stayed in Pine Valley until the papers are ready?”

      Bailey bit her lip. He wanted to stick around town? The idea made her uneasy. “That’s not necessary. Besides, you’ve probably got things you need to tend to back home.”

      “Nothing more important than this. I came here to do whatever I could to set things right, Bailey. I can stay for as long as you need me to.”

      “Like I said, all I need is your signature, and we can handle that long-distance.” She hesitated, but in the end she couldn’t resist adding, “But if you’re serious about setting things straight around here, you should stop by and make your peace with your brother before you leave.”

      Dan flinched. “Abel still lives around here?”

      “He does, but not at the old cabin. He lives on Goosefeather Farm with his wife and kids now. He married Emily Elliott a few years ago.”

      “Is that so? He always was crazy about Emily, but he never figured she’d look twice at him. And he’s ended up with Mrs. Sadie’s farm to boot. He loved that place.” Dan’s wary expression softened. “Isn’t that something? Well, I’m glad it all worked out for him.”

      Bailey hesitated, but the sadness in Dan’s eyes and her long-standing friendship with Abel overrode her reluctance to meddle. “You should stop and see them, Dan. It would mean the world to Abel.”

      Dan shook his head absently, his eyes lingering on the semicircle of pines crowding the edge of the sparkling pond. “I doubt that. But maybe I will. I came here to face up to the messes I left behind. If Abel wants to take a swing at me, it’s no more than I deserve.”

      “I think Abel might surprise you. But if you don’t mind, could you keep our situation quiet? I wasn’t kidding before when I said I didn’t tell anybody about our marriage. Abel doesn’t know, either, and since it’s all about to be over and done with anyway, I don’t see much point in telling him about it now.”

      “I don’t imagine I’ll be on Abel’s property long enough to do a whole lot of talking, so don’t worry yourself. He won’t hear about it from me.”

      Bailey nodded. “Thanks. If there’s nothing else, I really do need to get this fence up.”

      “Need some help? Because I could—”

      “No.” She cut off the offer quickly. “I’ll manage. But thanks.”

      “All right, then. I’ll leave you be.” He settled his cowboy hat back on his head. His eyes were instantly shadowed, but she could feel them on her face, studying her. “I’ll be seeing you, I reckon.”

      Her heart jolted at the idea. “Like I said, I’ll be in touch once I’ve heard back from the lawyer.” She stuck out her gloved hand. “I know things are—different between us now. But I’m glad to see you’re doing so well, Dan. I truly am.”

      He took her hand and held it gently for a second or two. Even through the roughness of the glove, she could feel the strong warmth of his fingers. “It’s good seeing you, too, Bailey. Doing so well.”

      Flustered, she nodded. She pulled her hand free and turned back toward the fence line.

      “Be careful.” He spoke quietly behind her just as she jammed the diggers into the dirt. “Set those posts in good and straight. Take it from me, it’s a lot of trouble trying to fix up the crooked ones later.”

      Once Dan’s pickup had rumbled out of the driveway, Bailey sucked in a long, deep breath and bent to rest her head on the wooden handles of the post-hole diggers. She stood that way for several long minutes until her heartbeat slowed back down to something closer to normal.

      Then she straightened up, wiped her eyes briskly on her sleeve and went back to work.