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“It’s okay.” Cassie forced a smile that threatened to fall from her face. The back of her eyes burned when she thought of her mother and especially when she thought about making love to Colton McLean. “But you’re wrong about Colton.”
Bonnie, a heavyset woman with a once-white apron strapped around her thick waist, deposited onion rings and Beth’s drink on the table.
Beth handed her a couple of dollars, then poured a thick glob of catsup into her paper-lined plastic basket. “If I were you, I’d forget about Colton,” Beth advised. “There are other fish in the sea.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Beth sighed. “Colton’s just not for you.”
Cassie didn’t believe her. She’d seen the way he’d looked at her, felt the electricity charging the air between them, known the ecstasy of lying in his arms.
But another week passed and she didn’t hear from Colton. Because she loved him with all of her heart and she felt she was carrying his child, Cassie thwarted her father. Though he’d ordered her not to chase after Colton McLean, she couldn’t stop herself. Not with a baby on the way.
Lying on her bed, listening to the sounds of the night through her open window, Cassie waited until her father was asleep, then sneaked down the stairs and hurried outside.
Erasmus yipped at the sight of her, and Cassie jumped.
“You scared the life out of me!” she whispered. “Hush!”
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jean jacket, she crossed the yard, letting moonlight guide her into the barn.
She couldn’t chance starting the engine of the truck, so she slipped a bridle on Tavish, her favorite chestnut gelding, then led him outside. Not bothering with a saddle, she swung onto the chestnut’s broad back and dug her heels into his sides.
The gelding bolted; his hooves thudded against the dry fields as he fairly flew over the hard ground. The dry summer wind streamed through Cassie’s hair, and she blinked against the tears collecting in her eyes.
She knew what she was doing was dangerous. The horse could trip in the darkness, throwing her. Or her father might wake up and discover her gone. But she had to talk to Colton.
Closer to the edge of the property, she pulled back on the reins and slowed Tavish so he could pick his way through the pines near the river. She heard the roar of the rushing Sage.
Tavish stepped from between the pines, and Cassie saw the river in the moonlight, the turbulent white water splashing over stones and slicing through the dry earth.
The horse shied near the edge of the river. Cas
sie talked softly to him, patting his sleek neck. “Come on, boy. We can do it. We have before.”
Tavish tossed his head before stepping into the river. The dark water swirled around his legs and belly. As she twisted the reins in her fingers, the first icy touch of the Sage brushed against her bare legs. Tavish stepped deeper, then began to float.
Cassie felt his legs stretch as he swam, carrying them across the current and toward the opposite shore. “That’s it,” she said, encouraging, soothing, though her throat was dry, her lungs constricted. “Hold on—just a little more . . .”
Finally his hooves struck bottom. Scrambling over the rocks, Tavish lunged from the river. Once on land, he shook, snorting and blowing, the bridle jangling loudly.
“Good boy!” Cassie cried, climbing off his back and tying him to the sagging fence separating McLean property from Aldridge land. “Wait for me.”
Her canvas shoes squished as she slipped under the barbed wires. She ran through the fields by instinct. Her heart was pounding, and though her shorts were damp from the cold water, she began to sweat. What if Colton wasn’t home? What if he wouldn’t see her? What if, God forbid, he was there with Jessica?
“Don’t go borrowing trouble,” she told herself as she approached the center of the McLean Ranch. The stables, barns and outbuildings loomed ahead, glowing eerily beneath the security lamps. Beyond the buildings and across the yard, lights gleamed in the windows of the McLean house.
Cassie nearly lost her nerve as she climbed the final fence and started across the yard. She was sure someone would look out the window and see her. And then what?
She was almost to the front door when a car approached. Headlights bobbing, engine whining, the sports car sped up the hilly lane leading to the house. Cassie’s heart sank, and she ducked behind a tree, silently praying she wouldn’t be seen.
The car screeched to a stop not far from the tree. A car door banged open.
“I never want to see you again!” a woman screamed, and Cassie recognized the voice as belonging to Jessica Monroe.
“Don’t you?” Colton drawled.
Cassie’s knees gave out. She leaned against the rough bark for support. So it was true. He was seeing Jessica! After he had made love to her. Her stomach roiled, and she thought she might throw up right there on the lawn.
