Christmas with the Rancher: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means. Diana Palmer

wrong?” his dad asked.

      Cort glanced at him. He managed a smile. “Yeah. Something.” He sipped coffee. “I went over her dad’s journal with Maddie. We had sort of an argument and I started toward her while I was mad.” He hesitated. “She knocked over a chair getting away from me. White in the face, shaking all over. It was an extreme reaction. We’ve argued before, but that’s the first time she’s been afraid of me.”

      “And you don’t understand why.” His father’s expression was troubled.

      “I don’t.” Cort’s eyes narrowed. “But you do, don’t you?”

      He nodded.

      “King, should you tell him?” Shelby asked worriedly.

      “I think I should, honey,” he said gently, and his dark eyes smiled with affection. “Somebody needs to.”

      “Okay then.” She got up with her coffee. “You men talk. I’m going to phone Morie and see how she’s doing.”

      “Give her my love,” King called after her.

      “Mine, too,” Cort added.

      She waved a hand and closed the door behind her. “Tell me,” Cort asked his dad.

      King put down his coffee cup. “In her senior year, Maddie was Odalie’s worst enemy. There was a boy, seemingly a nice boy, who liked Maddie. But Odalie liked him, and she was angry that Maddie, a younger girl who wasn’t pretty or rich or talented, seemed to be winning in the affection sweepstakes.”

      “I told Maddie, Odalie’s not like that,” Cort began angrily.

      King held up a hand. “Just hear me out. Don’t interrupt.”

      Cort made a face, but he shut up.

      “So Odalie and a girlfriend got on one of the social websites and started posting things that she said Maddie told her about the boy. She said Maddie thought he was a hick, that his mother was stupid, that both his parents couldn’t even pass a basic IQ test.”

      “What? That’s a lie…!”

      “Sit down!” King’s voice was soft, but the look in his eyes wasn’t. Cort sat.

      “The boy’s mother was dying of cancer. He was outraged and furious at what Maddie had allegedly said about his family. His mother had just been taken to the hospital, not expected to live. She died that same day. He went to school just to find Maddie. She was in the library.” He picked up his cup and sipped coffee. “He jerked her out of her chair, slapped her over a table and pulled her by her hair to the window. He was in the act of throwing her out—and it was on the second floor—when the librarian screamed for help and two big, stronger boys restrained him, in the nick of time.”

      Cort’s face froze. “Maddie told you that?”

      “Her father’s lawyer told Cole Everett that,” came the terse reply. “There were at least five witnesses. The boy was arrested for assault. It was hushed up, because that’s what’s done in small communities to protect the families. Odalie was implicated, because the attorney hired a private investigator to find the source of the allegations. They traced the posts to her computer.”

      Cort felt uneasy. He was certain Odalie couldn’t have done such a thing. “Maybe somebody used her computer,” he began.

      “She confessed,” King said curtly.

      Cort was even more uneasy now.

      “Cole Everett had his own attorney speak to the one Maddie’s father had hired. They worked out a compromise that wouldn’t involve a trial. But Odalie had to toe the line from that time forward. They put her on probation, you see. She had first-offender status, so her record was wiped when she stayed out of trouble for the next two years. She had a girlfriend who’d egged her on. The girlfriend left town shortly thereafter.”

      “Yes,” Cort replied, relaxing. “I see now. The girlfriend forced her to do it.”

      King made a curt sound deep in his throat. “Son, nobody forced her to do a damned thing. She was jealous of Maddie. She was lucky the boy didn’t kill Maddie, or she’d have been an accessory to murder.” He watched Cort’s face pale. “That’s right. And I don’t think even Cole Everett could have kept her out of jail if that had happened.”

      Cort leaned back in his chair. “Poor Odalie.”

      “Funny,” King said. “I would have said, ‘Poor Maddie.’”

      Cort flushed. “It must have been terrible for both of them, I suppose.”

      King just shook his head. He got up. “Blind as a bat,” he mused. “Just like me, when I was giving your mother hell twice a day for being engaged to my little brother. God, I hated him. Hated them both. Never would admit why.”

      “Uncle Danny?” Cort exclaimed. “He was engaged to Mom?”

      “He was. It was a fake engagement, however.” He chuckled. “He was just trying to show me what my feelings for Shelby really were. I forgave him every minute’s agony. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I didn’t realize how deeply a man could love a woman. All these years,” he added in a soft tone, “and those feelings haven’t lessened a bit. I hope you find that sort of happiness in your life. I wish it for you.”

      “Thanks,” Cort said. He smiled. “If I can get Odalie to marry me, I promise you, I’ll have it.”

      King started to speak, but thought better of it. “I’ve got some book work to do.”

      “I’ve got a new video game I’m dying to try.” Cort chuckled. “It’s been a long day.”

      “I appreciate you going over to talk to Maddie.”

      “No problem. She just needed a few pointers.”

      “She’s no cattlewoman,” King said worriedly. “She’s swimming upstream. She doesn’t even like cattle. She likes chickens.”

      “Don’t say chickens,” Cort pleaded with a groan.

      “Your problem isn’t with chickens, it’s with a rooster.”

      “I’d dearly love to help him have a fatal heart attack,” Cort said irritably.

      “He’ll die of old age one day.” His dad laughed.

      “Maddie said that developer had been putting pressure on her to sell,” King added solemnly. “I’ve put on some extra help to keep an eye over that way, just to make sure her breeding stock doesn’t start dying mysteriously.”

      “What?” Cort asked, shocked. “She didn’t say anything about that.”

      “Probably wouldn’t, to you. It smacks of weakness to mention such things to the enemy.”

      “I’m not the enemy.”

      King smiled. “Aren’t you?”

      He left his son sitting at the table, deep in thought.

      Maddie was working in the yard when the developer drove up a week later. She leaned on the pitchfork she was using to put hay into a trough, and waited, miserable, for him to get out of his car and talk to her.

      “I won’t sell,” she said when he came up to her. “And in case you feel like high pressure tactics, my neighbor has mounted cameras all over the ranch.” She flushed at his fury.

      “Well, how about that?” he drawled, and his eyes were blazing with anger. He forced a smile. “You did know that cameras can be disabled?” he asked.

      “The cameras also have listening devices that can pick up a whisper.”

      He actually seemed to go pale. He looked at the poles that contained the outside lighting and mumbled a curse under his breath. There was some sort of electronic device