Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,42
the ranch to offer her condolences.
“Mama, don’t you dare say that,” Cassie said. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“Well, it just breaks my heart to see Karen this way,” her mother said. “The burden of running this ranch was heavy enough on the two of them. How she’ll keep up alone is beyond me. Of all you girls, she was the one I thought was set for life with a nice, steady man by her side. No offense to you, Emma, or you, Lauren, but Caleb was the kind of man all of you should have been looking for.”
“No question about that,” Lauren agreed. “I certainly had a knack for picking losers.”
“Mick wasn’t a loser, but he wasn’t exactly the dependable, steady guy that Caleb was,” Emma said of her own ex.
“What’s that about a steady man?” Cole inquired, coming up behind Cassie. He rested his hands on her shoulders, massaging gently.
Ever since they’d gotten the news about Caleb, Cole had been a rock for Karen and all the rest of them. Leaving Cassie and Jake overnight with her mother in Denver, he had accompanied Karen and the others to the hospital in Laramie, then handled all of the funeral arrangements. He seemed to anticipate what needed to be done and took care of it without waiting to be asked. The only thing Karen had refused was his offer to send over help for the ranch.
She had been adamant about that, insisting that the ranch was her responsibility and that she needed to learn to deal with the work on her own. Nothing anyone said could dissuade her.
“I don’t like the way she looks,” Cassie said worriedly. “She’s exhausted. She can’t stay here by herself, and that’s that.”
“Well, we know she’s not going to leave, so I’ll just have to move in,” Lauren said. “I imagine I can still do a few ranch chores.”
They all stared. “You?”
“Why not me?” she asked indignantly. “I grew up on a ranch. It hasn’t been that long. I still know one end of a cow from the other.”
“But, Lauren,” Emma protested, “what about your career?”
Lauren waved off the question. “It’ll be there when I get back or it won’t. I already have more money than I can ever spend. I’m staying here, and that’s that.”
Gina and Emma agreed to stay that night, as well, so Cassie left with her mother and Cole for the hundred-mile ride back to Winding River. It was late when they arrived, and her mother went straight to bed, but Cassie lingered on the porch with Cole. Jake was spending the night next door, so they were alone.
“Do you honestly think Karen will be able to manage that ranch on her own?” she asked Cole, settling into the swing.
He sat next to her and set the swing into a slow, easy motion. “Ranching is difficult work under the best of conditions. She’s going to need help. I get the impression she doesn’t have the money to hire on additional hands, and she flatly refused my offer to send one of my men over, even temporarily.”
“Maybe she should consider selling. She always wanted to travel. In high school that’s all she ever talked about.” Even as she said it, though, she knew Karen would never sell the ranch that Caleb had loved. Even if it drained her financially and physically, she would keep it because it had been his dream. But Karen’s misplaced sense of loyalty could wind up killing her.
“She won’t sell,” Cole said with certainty.
Cassie sighed and met his gaze. “I know, but it might be better if she did.”
He tucked a curl behind her ear. “We don’t always do what’s best, even if it’s plain as day to us what that is.”
Something in his voice told her he was no longer talking about Karen. “What would you do differently if you could?”
“Fight for you,” he said without hesitation.
Cassie’s breath caught in her throat at the regret she heard in his voice. “Would you?”
His gaze locked with hers. “I should have done it back then. I knew it the second I left town, but by then it was too late. Then I got that note and, well, all I could do was hate you for what I thought was an even worse betrayal than my own.”
Cassie debated telling him what she had learned from his father. Part of her was reluctant to stir up the ashes of the past, but he deserved to know the truth, especially after all he