Cowboy Brigade. Elle James

platter of roast beef and potatoes to the table and set it in the middle, the fragrant onions and spices wafting up, assaulting her senses. She hadn’t eaten since early that morning and the way her stomach churned now didn’t bode well for a satisfying meal, no matter how well prepared.

      The girls had eaten macaroni and cheese while she’d prepared the meal for the adults. They’d play in their room while the men discussed the day’s progress and plans for the next. Sometimes Lacey and Lyric joined them when they had a special meal, but not tonight. Until Lindsay had the opportunity to tell Wade he was a father, the less he saw of them the better.

      Her heart thudded against her ribs as boots clumped on the porch outside the open front door. The ranch workers knew to be on time for dinner if they wanted a heaping helping. If not for the garden, the milk cow and the side of beef they’d put in the freezer a few months ago, they’d be facing beans and cornbread every meal.

      With the bank account down to nothing, Lindsay didn’t know where she’d come up with money to buy pantry staples. They had run out of tea and flour and the coffee supply neared empty.

      Gramps led the men into the dining room where they assembled around the table. Gramps stood at the head of the table, leaving a seat at his right for Lindsay. Frank aimed for the seat beside Lindsay, but Dusty beat him to it, resting his hand on the back of the chair, staking his claim.

      Frank grabbed the seat across from Lindsay.

      Gramps raised a hand. “Take the chair at the end, Frank. I want the Coltrane boy to sit here and fill me in on what he’s been up to.”

      Frank’s eyes narrowed, but he backed away, purposely bumping into Wade’s shoulder as he passed him and took the seat at the end of the table. He plunked down.

      Gramps’s mouth tightened and he remained standing as did all the other men and Lindsay. “You know the routine, Dorian.”

      Frank’s cheeks reddened and he climbed to his feet. “Damn stupid, if you ask me.”

      “I didn’t, now, did I?” Gramps nodded at Lindsay.

      The tension in the air was thick enough that Lindsay could cut it with a knife. How the hell could she sit through an entire meal across from Wade? She might as well forget about eating. With her head bowed, she quietly asked the Lord’s blessing for the food. As the men all muttered a rumbling amen, she added a silent prayer for help in handling this latest of crises on the Long K Ranch.

      Lindsay sat and the men all dropped into their chairs reaching for the nearest platter of food. Gramps served himself a portion of the roast beef and potatoes and offered to serve Wade at the same time. “How long has it been since you’ve been home, Wade?”

      Lindsay could have answered her grandfather’s question down to the year, days and hours. Her gaze crossed over the bowl of corn she was scooping onto her plate.

      “Five years,” Wade replied, his gaze meeting Lindsay’s.

      Lindsay broke the eye contact first, her cheeks burning. The last time Wade had been to the Long K Ranch, she’d been engaged to Dr. Cal Murphy, certain Wade Coltrane would never step foot in Freedom, Texas, again. When he’d left to join the Army, he’d said he never wanted to come back to this two-bit town.

      Lindsay had moped around for years, praying he’d return. Her heart broke a little more with each passing day. One year passed, then another and she’d given up hope that Wade would come back for her.

      Her friends encouraged her to date other men to get Wade out of her system. Desperate to shake the depression, she’d gone along with them when they set her up on a blind date with the new doctor in town, Cal Murphy.

      He’d been everything Wade hadn’t. Cal had a calming effect on her, where Wade stirred her blood and made her heart race. Cal was easy to date, demanding little from her, and not pushing sex. Wade made every female hormone in Lindsay’s body light up like fireworks.

      When Cal had asked her to marry him, it seemed like the natural progression. She said yes, knowing deep down that her heart still belonged to another.

      Then Wade had blown into town on leave from the military. He’d been angry about her engagement, they’d argued out by the barn, she’d ridden off in a huff on her favorite mare.

      Wade had followed.

      He’d declared his love, swept her off her feet and they’d made love long into the night.

      Not until the cool mist of dawn did Lindsay realize her mistake. She’d made love to Wade while engaged to another man. Guilt made her sick to her stomach. Angry at herself and at Wade for confusing her, she’d told Wade to go away and never come back.

      A little over five years ago…

      “Didn’t you join the Army?” Gramps asked.

      Wade jabbed a fork into his food, but didn’t bother to lift it to his lips. “Yes, sir.”

      “What were you, Infantry?”

      “No, sir. Special Forces.” Wade pushed his food around, his jaw tightening.

      Lindsay didn’t have to avoid his gaze; Wade didn’t look up from his food as Gramps asked questions. Why so evasive? He’d been so proud to be a member of the Army and that he’d been selected to be a part of the Special Forces.

      He’d been deployed to Iraq when he’d left Freedom five years ago. Had his deployment changed all that? Had it changed Wade?

      Lindsay allowed herself to study him for the first time since he’d returned.

      Wade Coltrane had always been lean and muscular. Although his shoulders were broader, he seemed even thinner than usual, the shadows beneath his eyes, the scar over the right eyebrow and a nick in the curl of his ear were new. How had he gotten those? Had he been injured by a roadside bomb?

      Her heart squeezed in her chest. All those years she hadn’t received news of his exploits. With no family left in Freedom, news about Wade dried up.

      Had he found another woman? Someone who would have worried about him, sat with him in the hospital and held his hand through the nightmare of recovery? Or had Wade been on his own like he’d been since his father’s death when he was only seventeen?

      “I was in the Army once,” Frank boasted from the other end of the table. “Fighting a losing war over there in the Middle East. Damn waste of time. Just need to nuke them all and be done with it.”

      “That your answer to any difficult situation, Frank?” Dusty asked. “Nuke ’em?”

      Frank shrugged. “Beats standing around in boots in one-hundred-and-thirty-degree temps.”

      “You can’t blow things up and expect everything to work out in the end,” Lindsay said. “Killing doesn’t resolve anything.”

      “No, but it makes you feel a whole lot better, don’t it?” Frank laughed. When nobody else did, he frowned and muttered, “It’s an eye for an eye. Don’t you believe in payback?”

      Gramps slammed his hand on the table. “Hell, yeah, I’d like to dish out a little payback.” Lindsay cringed. Here he goes again. Not a day went by her grandfather didn’t moan about the greatest wrong ever done to him.

      “Wouldn’t be hurtin’ for money if the Lockharts hadn’t stolen our oil,” the old man grumbled.

      “Gramps, they didn’t steal our oil. They bought that land from you. They didn’t discover oil on it until later.”

      “One year later.” Gramps snorted. “Practically gave them that land.”

      “And we needed the money.” She handed Gramps the platter of roast beef, hoping he’d change the subject. “Have some more supper, Gramps.”

      Wade looked up from his plate. “On my way through town this morning, I heard Lila Lockhart was involved in an accident last night.”

      Lindsay