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Ivan turned his attention back to the open newspaper pages, and she ran upstairs and changed, feeling miserable.
She considered calling Colton, but couldn’t risk it, not until her father was away from the ranch. If Ivan heard her end of the conversation, he’d go through the roof. And she couldn’t chance another midnight ride; she might get caught by the McLeans or her father.
A little voice in her mind nagged at her—told her she was just putting off the inevitable, but she wouldn’t listen. She had time, she assured herself. Besides, it was better to be safe than sorry.
* * *
In the next few days her father never left the ranch. And, unfortunately, he expected her to help with the hay and wheat harvest—so she was in the fields as much as he. Cassie spent nearly twenty-four hours a day with him. If Colton had called, she’d been out and missed him.
One evening while her father was doing the chores, she forced herself to take a chance. Her insides churning, she reached for the phone, dialed, and waited.
“Hello.” Denver McLean’s voice rang over the wires. Was it her imagination or did he already sound hostile?
“Hello?” he said again. “Hello?”
Cassie swallowed hard.
“Is anyone there?” Denver asked, his voice angrier than ever.
“Cass?” her father called.
Whirling, Cassie hung up.
“Don’t let me bother you,” her father said, nodding toward the telephone.
Shaking her head, Cassie mumbled. “I was finished anyway.”
“Who was it?”
Cassie thought fast. “Just Beth,” she lied, hating herself for the deception.
Her father chuckled. “You two would tie up the lines around here all day if you had the chance,” he said, and Cassie felt worse than ever.
Her father grabbed his cap from a hook near the door, then disappeared outside again.
Cassie sagged against the wall. Somehow she had to find Colton and tell him the truth—in so doing, she would relieve him of his obligation and set him free to do what he really wanted with his life. Sooner or later they had to talk.
As the next few days passed, she felt more and more guilty. And there was a tiny part of her that kept hoping that even when he knew that there was no baby, he would smile and say, “It’s all right, Cass. I love you. We’ll get married anyway.”
By the end of the week she’d gathered all her courage and found an excuse to go riding alone. The sun was just setting over the western hills, and Cassie knew that it was now or never. She followed the same path she’d taken the night she’d told Colton she was pregnant. Tavish streaked across the fields to the river, where, after snorting his disapproval, he eventually swam with Cassie clinging to his neck.
Her heart was pounding, her hands sweaty, as she tied Tavish’s reins to the fence, ducked under the sagging barbed wire and ran through the bleached stubble of the McLean pasture.
Please, God, let him be home, she silently prayed. Climbing the final fence, she nearly lost her nerve. The yard was empty, but she saw Katherine McLean in the garden near the house.
Cassie combed the tangles from her hair with her fingers, squared her shoulders, and ignoring the fact that the hem of her denim skirt was damp, she forced herself down an overgrown path to the garden.
“Mrs. McLean?”
Katherine, bent over a row of bush beans, cast a glance over her shoulder. From beneath the brim of her straw hat her blue eyes widened a bit. But if she thought it strange that Ivan Aldridge’s daughter was standing in the middle of McLean property, she didn’t show it. “Cassie! How’re you?”
“Fine,” Cassie said, her fingers twisting nervously in the folds of her skirt. She could feel the flush in her cheeks, knew her heart was slamming a million times a minute. “Is—is Colton here?”
Katherine dusted her hands, and her dark brows drew into a thoughtful frown. “No, he left over an hour ago. He was going into town, and then I thought he said he was stopping by your place. He should be there by now.”
Cassie swallowed hard, and the color that had invaded her face drained. “I must’ve missed him,” she whispered, a thousand horrid scenarios flitting through her mind. What if at this very minute Colton was talking with her dad, explaining about the baby, telling Ivan he intended to marry her? She started backing up. “Well, uh, maybe I’ll catch him there.”
Katherine winced and rubbed the small of her back. “Are you sure? You look pale. Maybe you should come into the house for a drink. I know I could use a break. There’s sun tea in the refrigerator—”
