Red Hot Rancher. Maureen Child

Panic was rising in his chest, but Caden fought it down. He and Emma had been together a long time. He’d always believed that they were working toward the same goals. This had come out of nowhere for him and he didn’t know what the hell to think. “What about the dream of building up my family ranch?”

       “That’s your dream, Caden,” she said simply and tore a hole in his heart.

       That was a slap. She’d had plenty of ideas, had jumped in enthusiastically with plans. “We’ve been talking about this for years,” he reminded her. “We were going to do it together. Create something special.”

       “I know.” She touched him and her hand on his arm was like a fire that was bone chilling. “But this is important to me, too, Caden. I have to find out if I’m good enough.”

       Couldn’t she see that she’d never be as important in Hollywood as she was right here? To him?

       “So you’re just leaving.”

       “You could come with me...”

       He laughed at her. “I can’t leave.”

       “And I can’t stay,” she said. “If I don’t go now, neither one of us will be happy.”

      * * *

      He cut off the memories and buried them under a layer of fury. She’d made it seem like she was doing him a favor by walking away. As if the dreams they’d forged together for years hadn’t been as important as the ones she’d nurtured all to herself.

      Well, she’d ripped his heart out that night and he’d had to shut himself down to get through it. But he had. He’d made a damn good life without Emma and it was only going to get better. And once he’d faced her and had his say, he could get back to it.

      When he steered his top-of-the-line, black Dodge Ram truck up the drive to her father’s ranch, he noted the peeling paint on the fence rails and the weeds choking out the front flower bed. The Williams place had been slowly going to hell since Emma left. Just another black mark against her.

      Frank Williams had pretty much given up when his oldest girl had run off to Hollywood. He’d expected her to take over, to merge their ranch with Caden’s as they’d always planned.

      Emma had torn up a lot of dreams when she left to find her own.

      Still, Caden felt a pang of guilt. He should make more time to check in on Frank and do what he could to help out. Frowning to himself, he made a mental note to send a few of his ranch hands over in a day or two to paint the corral fence. Get it done before winter, he told himself, or the damn wood would rot and warp and the whole fence would have to be replaced.

      “The perfect metaphor,” he muttered. When Emma left, they’d all had to rebuild. She’d taken off to chase a dream and left the rest of them wondering what the hell had happened. Now she was back.

       With a baby.

      He parked the truck, turned off the engine and just sat there for a minute, staring at the house where he’d spent so much of his life. It was old and sturdy, yellow, with white trim because that’s how Emma’s mother had liked it best. There was a big front porch and a second story where the bedrooms were. He knew this house as well as he knew his own.

      He and Emma had been a couple since the year she was a freshman in high school. He’d been a “manly” junior and took substantial mocking from his friends for being interested in a “kid,” but he hadn’t cared.

      Emma was all he’d been able to see back then and until the night she’d walked away, that hadn’t changed. But things were different now. Emma had left once before. Why should he believe she was here to stay now? No, what was between them had curled up and died five years ago.

      Yet even as that thought rose up in his mind, his body was tightening at the prospect of being near her again.

      While he sat there, watching the house, the front door flew open and Gracie, Emma’s younger sister, raced toward him. Caden got out of the truck in time to catch her when Gracie threw herself at him.

      “I can’t believe this,” she muttered against his chest. “She just showed up last night like it was nothing and we’re supposed to be happy she’s here.” She pulled her head back and glared up at him. “I’m not. I’m furious.”

      At twenty-five, Gracie was a beauty, with short, curly brown hair and green eyes a shade paler than her sister’s. He’d been a big brother to Gracie all their lives and he could see that there was pain as well as fury in her eyes.

      He knew how she felt. “Gwen ran into her at the market this morning. Said she’s come back to stay.”

      Gracie let him go, took a step back and swiped a solitary tear off her cheek. “That’s what she says, but why should we believe her? She left before, didn’t she?”

      He didn’t know if it was good or bad that Gracie was pretty much echoing his own thoughts on the matter.

      “Dad’s happy to see her anyway.” She shoved her hands into her jeans pockets and tossed her windblown hair off her forehead. “He actually got out of bed this morning.”

      That was news. Frank had given up on life about a year after Emma left. Little by little, he’d withdrawn more and more from everyday life. He’d started out hoping Emma would see she’d made a mistake and come running home. But finally, the older man had realized that his girl was probably gone forever and all the life in him had just drained away. Not even Gracie had been able to coax him out of the depression he’d dropped into.

      If Emma left again, it’d probably kill her father this time.

      “She can’t be here, Caden,” Gracie was saying. “What if she finds out? She’ll tell Dad and then—”

      “You should tell your dad,” Caden whispered. He was the only person Gracie had trusted with her secrets and he’d never betray her. But he did think she was handling them all wrong and didn’t mind saying so.

      “I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Especially not now.”

      “Hello, Caden.”

      Just like that, everything in him went still and cold. He hadn’t heard that low-pitched, sultry voice in too damn long, but it had the same effect on him it always had. He turned to look, saw Emma standing in the open doorway and his mouth went dry. His jeans were suddenly too tight and drawing a breath seemed near impossible.

      The last time he’d seen her was on his television screen. Emma had been starring in a vapid, ridiculous sitcom, and as hard as it had been for Caden to admit, she had been really good in it. So good, he’d watched the show exactly once, got stinking drunk and never turned the damn TV on again. She’d left him for Hollywood and it burned his ass that she’d done well.

      Now she was back, and why did she have to look so damn tempting?

      Her dark brown hair was longer, falling well past her shoulders now, in the wild, thick curls she’d always hated. She wore a long-sleeved red flannel shirt and a pair of black jeans that hugged her hips and long, shapely legs. Her old boots completed the outfit and somehow it felt to Caden as if she’d donned a costume to fit in.

      Maybe the Hollywood Emma was the real person now and this woman in front of him was the one acting out a part.

      And as much as he wanted her, Caden braced himself against old emotions, desires and faced her now with the cold, empty memories flooding his mind. Her greenish-gold eyes were still as clear and beautiful as ever, but as he met her gaze, Caden saw secrets there. Something he’d never seen before.

      He didn’t like it.

      “You’re not going to say hello?” she asked.

      The voice that had haunted his dreams. The woman who had haunted