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“Don’t I?” Ivan’s hands were shaking. He rolled his fingers into his palms, and his jaw clenched and relaxed several times before he found his voice. “Use your head, Cassie. Colton McLean doesn’t care for you.”
“You don’t know anything about him!” she cried.
Ivan cocked both eyebrows. “I know this—you’re not to see him.”
“You can’t stop me!”
“You’re still a minor, Cassie. You’re living under my roof, by my rules.”
She clenched her fingers tight around the cup, her knuckles white. She swallowed hard. “I love him, Dad,” she admitted, cringing a little when she saw his shoulders slump.
“You’re too young to know about love.”
“Mom was seventeen when she married you.”
“And look what happened. She ran off with John McLean. Then, when he was through with her, she didn’t bother coming back.”
“And so you blame everyone with the McLean name.”
“The same blood runs through their veins.” He stood and jammed his hat onto his head. “You’re not to see Colton McLean again, hear?”
“And what if I do?”
His old eyes saddened. “Don’t be forcing the issue, Cassie. It’s a mistake to choose between family and a man who doesn’t want or need you.”
“You’re wrong about Colton!”
“Am I?” Ivan paused at the door. “Then if he wants you, he’ll have to court you. I won’t have you sneaking off behind my back!”
Colton didn’t call. Not that day, nor the next, nor any day that week. Her father never mentioned his name again, but Cassie thought of him constantly. She rode along the fence line, hoping to catch a glimpse of him working on the ranch, and she spent hours in town with her friends, hoping to run into him. Once in a while she’d see him and he’d be staring at her, but guilt would change his expression and he’d quickly look away.
Two weeks later she was seated in a corner booth in Jerry’s, a local burger hut. Cassie had purposely chosen this booth near the window facing Main Street so that she could stare outside and watch the traffic, just in case Colton or someone from the McLean spread drove into Three Falls.
She sat there for fifteen minutes, sipping cola, pining for Colton, when Beth Lassiter, her best friend, breezed through the front door.
Spying Cassie, Beth waved, dashed to Cassie’s booth and slid excitedly onto the red plastic seat. “I’ll have a Coke and onion rings,” she said to Bonnie, the waitress, then trained worried blue eyes on her friend. “Guess what?” she whispered, her brown ponytail falling forward, her cheeks flushed.
“What?” Cassie swirled her straw in her drink, watching the ice cubes dance.
Beth bit her lower lip. “Colton McLean’s dating Jessica Monroe.”
Cassie gasped, her stomach turning over. Her hands began to shake, and she hid them beneath the table and tried to appear as calm as possible. “No—”
“I didn’t believe it, either, but I got the word from Ellen.”
Ellen was Jessica Monroe’s younger sister. There were three Monroe sisters in all. All blond, blue-eyed, petite and gorgeous. Jessica was the oldest and probably the prettiest.
“That’s impossible,” Cassie said, finishing her Coke. She wouldn’t believe that Colton had betrayed her—couldn’t. Already she suspected that her lovemaking with Colton had cost her more than her virginity. Her period was late, and Cassie was certain that she was pregnant.
Beth rolled her eyes. “Look, Cassie, I know you’ve got a major crush on Colton, but you may as well forget it. He’s only got a term or so left in college in California and then he’s history. He won’t be coming back here.”
“You don’t know that—”
“Sure I do. He’s as much as told everyone he’s met that he’s going to be some hot-shot journalist. Face it, this town bores him.”
“Maybe he’s changed.”
“Are you kidding? Cass, what’s gotten into you? He’s more like his Uncle John than the rest of his family and—oh, jeez, I’m sorry,” Beth said, grimacing. “I—I forgot about your mom.”
