Backlash Tender Trap Aftermath - Lisa Jackson Page 0,110
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—”
“No—no thanks,” Cassie said quickly, feeling miserable. She hated turning down Colton’s mother and this chance to help bury some of the bad feelings lingering between the Aldridges and McLeans, but she couldn’t take a chance that Colton might be telling Ivan that he was going to sacrifice himself by marrying Cassie—all because of a baby!
She fairly flew across the arid fields, her hair streaming behind her in the wind. At the fence she ducked quickly, snagging her blouse, feeling the prick of one sharp barb on her back. She didn’t care.
Her fingers fumbled with the reins. The wet leather had partially dried, tightening the knot. “Come on, come on,” she whispered, finally yanking the reins free and jumping onto Tavish’s broad back.
Digging her heels into the gelding’s sides, she urged him into the river, not even noticing the Sage’s icy water against her calves and thighs.
Tavish scrambled up the bank, and Cassie leaned forward. “Come on, boy—now!” As his hooves found flat ground, she slapped the reins against his shoulder and he bolted, streaking down the path through the trees and across the open, windswept fields. Grasshoppers flew out of Tavish’s path. Jackrabbits scurried through the grass to the protection of brambles. The chestnut’s strides reached full length, and tears blurred Cassie’s vision.
“That’s it,” she whispered, riding low, her legs gripping Tavish’s heaving sides,