Branded. Annette Broadrick

sank to the side of her bed, shaken by the realization of who was calling her.

      When she didn’t immediately respond, he added, “This is Jake Crenshaw. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

      As if she wouldn’t know the sound of his voice. Adrenaline shot through her as she thought of possible reasons he would be calling her at this time of night.

      “What’s happened?” she said with dread. “Is it Dad?”

      “No, no. Nothing like that.” He paused and she wondered what was going on. She hadn’t spoken to Jake in years. “I, uh, I’ve got an emergency on my hands out here. I hate to ask this of you, but would you mind coming out to the ranch?”

      She checked the time and winced. “Now?”

      He cleared his throat. “I know it’s late but I really need you.”

      “What’s wrong?” She had never heard those words from Jake before and they shook her.

      When he didn’t answer right away, she wondered if he’d hung up. When he did answer, he was frustratingly vague. “I’d rather show you once you get here, all right?”

      It was her turn to pause and think about his request. She was exhausted and therefore vulnerable. Let’s face it, she would be vulnerable around him no matter when she saw him.

      “I’d like to help you out, Jake, but I’ve been working nonstop since seven this morning. Can this wait until tomorrow?”

      “No, it can’t.” He sounded impatient and irritable, which meant he was being his normal and oh-so-charming adult self, not the boy she’d grown up with. When she didn’t reply, he said, “This is something personal. You were the first one I thought of when I knew I needed help.”

      Ashley put her hand over her heart and tried to breathe. She wasn’t prepared for this. Someday, maybe, when she was…oh, sixty-something…she’d be able to deal with her reactions where Jake was concerned.

      “I’m sorry—” she began when he interrupted her.

      “I know we haven’t been as close these past few years as we once were, Ashley,” he said.

      Ashley pulled the phone away from her ear and frowned at it in disbelief. Talk about understatement!

      He continued to speak and she forced herself to listen. “I hoped that you would be willing to help me out based on the friendship we once shared.”

      Wasn’t that just like a man? Oh, yeah, I carelessly trampled on your heart with my size thirteen boots, but, hey, you’ve patched it up just fine, so how about giving me another go at it.

      “Jake,” she began, “I really don’t think—”

      “Ashley,” he said, suddenly sounding panicked. “I just received the shock of my life tonight. Tiffany was here earlier and told me that we have a daughter who will soon be four years old. She left her here and I haven’t a clue what to do for her or about her or with her.”

      Ashley was glad she was sitting down. Jake had a daughter? She struggled to breathe around the sudden constriction in her throat.

      “The thing is,” he continued, “she’s going to wake up in a few hours in a strange place to see a man she doesn’t recognize.” His voice deepened. “I’m hoping you’ll come out and be here when she wakes up.”

      Oh, dear. She was definitely in trouble here. That low, intimate tone of his had always melted her heart. This conversation was not going well at all. “You mean stay at Dad’s?” she finally asked.

      “I mean stay here with me and Heather. That’s her name, by the way. Heather Anne Crenshaw.”

      Ashley closed her eyes. What should she do? She was too exhausted to think straight. Being anywhere around Jake—and in his home, no less—would be so painful for her.

      But this wasn’t about Jake.

      He has a daughter. The daughter she’d dreamed someday they would have together. Sure, she’d been a naïve kid at the time who’d thought his casual acceptance of her in his life meant more than it had. Harsh reality had set in years ago, but his having a daughter seemed to trigger a whole bunch of memories she’d hoped she’d buried.

      “All right,” she finally said, resigned to the coming ordeal. “I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for scarring her for life because she had to face you first thing in the morning.” A hint of a smile hovered on her lips.

      She heard the relief in his voice. “Thank you, Ashley. I promise you won’t regret this.”

      Oh yeah? She was already regretting it, but he’d hit a weak spot she’d always had for children. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said and hung up.

      She glanced down at her clothes and wearily shook her head. After a day in the office and an evening around large animals, she had to clean up before going anywhere. Although she’d scrubbed up at each place, her clothes were far from clean.

      Ashley walked into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She was glad she’d had her hair cut last year, saving her precious time and worry with her busy schedule. The short style was definitely a wash-and-wear hairdo.

      Deep shadows beneath her eyes reflected her weariness. She closed them briefly. You can do this. Dredge up some energy somewhere and do it.

      She stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the water flow over her while she did her best to make her mind blank.

      Instead, more memories flooded her.

      Jake at twelve, following their dads everywhere they went, with her four-year-old self trailing along behind. Riding in front of him in the saddle, asking jillions of questions, making him laugh. He’d been tall for his age, with a shock of thick blond hair that invariably looked untidy, the most gorgeous eyes that changed from a smoky blue to a silvery gray, depending on his mood, and a smile that could stop a female’s heart at twenty paces.

      Not that any of that registered with her at four years old. All she knew then was that she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

      By the ripe old age of seven, she’d known that this was the person she would marry someday and told everyone who would listen. Now she wondered how fifteen-year-old Jake had dealt with the teasing he must have gotten back then. If he’d been embarrassed by her remarks, he’d never let on to her.

      Jake had made her childhood magical. He’d taught her how to ride a horse, rope a calf and how to safely handle and shoot a rifle. He’d cautioned her never to leave the settlement alone without protection from the wild animals that lived in the hills. They’d spent many hours following various animal tracks until she could recognize what had made them and how to avoid the dangerous ones.

      He’d been in college when Ashley was twelve and her mother left. As soon as he heard about it, Jake had come home to check on her and make sure she was able to cope. With his help and the ongoing concern of his family and her dad she’d eventually adjusted to being left behind.

      Her childhood ended when her mother left. She wondered what she would have done during that time without her dad and the Crenshaw family.

      Her love for Jake grew steadily stronger as the years went by.

      She’d looked forward to her sixteenth birthday for years, having decided that sixteen was the time when she would be truly grown up, the time when Jake would see her as a woman, when he might declare his feelings for her and promise to wait for her until she was finished with school and they could be married.