skillet. “Sweetie, your dad and I are working very hard to make us a family. That takes time, but it’s what I want. It’s what we both want.”
“Promise?”
She hugged him tightly. “I promise. Now go on upstairs and do your homework. I need to run out for a little while.”
The minute Jake had grabbed a handful of cookies and a glass of milk, she snatched her jacket off a hook by the kitchen door and went to the barn. She saddled up a horse, because it was much faster to get to the Double D by cutting across their adjoining fields than it was to drive clear out to the highway and around.
She had never been quite so furious. Even after learning of the role that Frank and her own mother had played all those years ago in keeping her and Cole apart, she had struggled to understand their perspective, but this was too much. This was an attempt to scare her son, to make it seem as if his family was about to fall apart and that the only person he could rely on was his grandfather.
Her breath turned to steam as she urged the horse into a gallop that ate up the distance to the Double D ranch house. All she could think about was shaking Frank until his teeth rattled. Not that she could do it, given their difference in sizes, but she was darn well willing to give it a try. At the very least, she intended to give him a tongue-lashing that he wouldn’t soon forget.
Oblivious to the fact that there were still lingering patches of ice on the ground, that snow had started falling again, she rode harder, her temper climbing.
When the horse lost its footing, she wasn’t prepared for the sudden skid, the frantic attempt by her mount to stay afoot. The next thing she knew she was flying through the air, trying desperately to curl her body to protect the baby as the ground rose up to meet her.
But she misjudged. When she slammed into the rocky ground, she broke the fall with her hand and felt the bone snap. The pain was excruciating. And for the first time in her life she fainted.
Cole hated himself for falling in love with Cassie all over again. How could he be so weak that a woman who’d betrayed him not once, but twice, could still manage to steal his heart? He wanted so badly to accept the love she was offering, to move on, but a part of him insisted on fighting her every step of the way.
It had to stop. They couldn’t go on like this. It wasn’t fair to either of them, nor to Jake.
Cole came home after a two-day business trip to California prepared to let her go so they could both find some peace. He walked into the house to find the kitchen empty with no sign of dinner on the stove. He heard music from upstairs and gathered Jake was in his room doing his homework, though how the kid could think with that sound blaring in his ears was beyond Cole.
He climbed the stairs two at a time, knocked on Jake’s door, then opened it without waiting for a response. He doubted his son could hear him over the music, anyway.
Sure enough, Jake didn’t even look up from his books. Cole crossed the room and switched off the CD player. Jake blinked and stared at him, his expression brightening.
“You’re home. When did you get here?”
“A few minutes ago. Where’s your mom?”
“Isn’t she downstairs?”
“No.”
The response seemed to make Jake vaguely uneasy.
“Jake, what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Did you two fight?”
“Not exactly. I just asked her about some stuff Grandpa said. I think maybe it made her mad. Maybe she went to see him.”
“What did Grandpa say?”
“That you guys were gonna get a divorce and I was gonna stay with you. She said he was wrong.” Worry puckered his brow. “He was wrong, wasn’t he?”
Cole bit back a curse. Given what he’d been thinking when he walked in the door, his father hadn’t been that far off—though only about the divorce. Cole didn’t intend to try to keep Jake. Now was not the time to get into that, though.
“When was that?” he asked instead.
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. What time is it now?”
“After seven. It’s already dark out.”
“I guess it was about four. I went by Grandpa’s after school for a riding lesson, then he brought me home.”
Three hours? Cole thought,