He wants his baby, she wants him gone.

No self-respecting cowboy wants to be a rich girl’s dirty little secret. That’s why Nick Benson left Grady Gulch, looking for greener pastures even as his heart was breaking. Little did he know that the beauty he left behind was carrying his child, a son. Or that his wealthy lover would be abandoned by her family because of their forbidden affair.

Now Nick has returned, and he wants to be a father to little Garrett. But Courtney Chambers has been taking care of herself long enough to distrust their renewed passion. Her little boy is her life now. Only when he disappears, does she realize how dangerous love can be....

She was so over him.

She’d moved on and he had no place in her heart, in her life. He deserved nothing from her but the plate of food she slid down in front of him along with the glass of milk and the edge of contempt that welled up inside her. So why, oh why, after everything that had happened did her heart still lurch more than a little bit at the sight of his thick dark hair, his chiseled features and those amazing blue eyes?

She started to leave the table, but gasped in surprise as he grabbed her by the wrist to stop her escape…

Dear Reader,

There is nothing more pure than a mother’s love, and sometimes that love requires sacrifices. In The Cowboy’s Claim, my heroine, Courtney, comes face-to-face with the man who fathered her child, a man she believes abandoned her—and the hot, handsome cowboy wants to be an active participant in his son’s life.

Sometimes as a mother we have to make choices that are difficult for us but are best for the child. I hate when that happens! Still, as Courtney chooses to do the right thing, she not only stirs up an old passion, but also a danger she’d never expected.

I hope you enjoy this book about reunion, and I hope I scare you just a little bit with the suspense.

As always, thanks for your support and keep reading!

Carla Cassidy

The Cowboy’s Claim

Carla Cassidy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CARLA CASSIDY

is an award-winning author who has written more than one hundred books for Harlequin Books. In 1995 she won Best Silhouette Romance from RT Book Reviews for Anything for Danny. In 1998 she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from RT Book Reviews.

Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Nick Benson tightened his grip on the steering wheel and fought against a press of anxiety as the road sign ahead read: Grady Gulch—5 Miles.

A man wasn’t supposed to feel this way when he was returning home after a two-year absence. He should be excited to connect with old friends and family, but instead each mile that took him closer to his hometown knotted the ball of anxiety in his belly tighter.

He hadn’t wanted to come back to Grady Gulch, Oklahoma. In the past two years, he’d begun to slowly build a new life working as a ranch hand on an old friend’s place in Texas.

Home had once been a happy place. Even though the Benson siblings had lost their parents at an early age, Nick’s eldest brother, Sam, had managed not only to keep the family ranch prosperous, but he’d also kept them together as a unit. Now all of that had changed. His sister was dead, his oldest brother was in jail and his other brother had fallen into the bottom of a bottle of booze.

His hands slowly unclenched from the steering wheel as in the distance he saw the massive billboard cowboy that topped the low, flat building of the Cowboy Café.

The café had been as much a part of Nick’s life as his brothers and sister had been. On impulse, as he reached the eating establishment he pulled into the parking lot, deciding that at least he could enjoy a home-cooked meal before driving on to the family ranch and beginning to deal with the difficult issues that awaited him there.

It was just after one in the afternoon, and he’d been on the road since early morning. He’d stopped at a convenience store along the way for soda and a bag of chips, but that was all he’d eaten since leaving Texas just after dawn that morning. As he found a parking space in the lot, his stomach gave a loud rumble of anticipation.

He turned off his engine and looked at the building for a moment, remembering all the good times he and his sister and brothers had shared here. It wasn’t unusual for the four of them to eat dinner together here at least twice a week.

Sam, the eldest and the most serious, played the role of parent, insisting that each of them order a side of vegetables to go with whatever else they had ordered. Adam emulated Sam, wanting to be just like the brother who was two years older than him. Meanwhile, Cherry was the one who would unscrew the top of the salt shaker just before Nick would salt his fries. She would sneak pickles off her brothers’ plates and flirt shamelessly with any cowboy who walked in. By the time the meal was over, they were all laughing together. Then had come the car accident, and the laughter had died.

He shook his head as if he could dispel the very thought of the sister he had loved, the sister he had lost. There had been only two women in Nick’s life who’d owned pieces of his heart, one was the sister he’d lost to death. The other he’d left behind in a fog of grief and despair.

Cherry was gone forever, but Nick had spent the past two years of his life trying to forget the other woman, and there were times in those two years he’d actually thought he’d been successful.

He finally got out of the truck and stretched with arms overhead to unkink the muscle knots that had claimed his body from hours behind the wheel. The scent of onions frying, potatoes and savory sauces filled the air, and his stomach rumbled with a new pang of hunger. Definitely time to fuel up. He had a feeling he was going to need all the strength he could muster to deal with whatever awaited him at the family ranch.

He knew that by walking into the café he’d probably be feeding the gossipmongers, but it wouldn’t be the first time and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Besides, might as well get it over with now, let people know he was back in town. By going inside the Cowboy Café, the word would shoot around Grady Gulch with the speed of a bullet.

As he walked into the restaurant, a little bell tinkled and he swept his black cowboy hat off his head, assuming the owner, Mary Mathis, still had her no-hats-while-eating rule in place.

Sure enough, as he looked at the wall next to the door, he saw an array of cowboy hats hanging from hooks, and he added his own to the unusual décor.

It was just late enough that the lunch rush was gone and there were only half a dozen people lingering either at the tables or at the long, polished counter.

As he made his way across the room to a booth on the other side, he was aware of several gazes following his progress. He slid into the booth and looked at the counter, where a waitress he’d never seen before poured coffee for one of the two men seated there.

He recognized one of the older men as George Wilton, the town’s resident curmudgeon. George had probably been sitting at the counter since early morning, drinking coffee and complaining about anything and everything that crossed his mind. Some things never changed.

He smiled as he saw a familiar pretty blonde hurrying toward him. “Nick Benson! Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Mary Mathis exclaimed.

Nick smiled at the woman who had owned the café for the past five years. “Yeah, I figured it was time I get back here and take care of some business. But before heading to the ranch, I thought I’d fill my belly with some of your food and maybe a piece of your famous pie. Sounds like I’m going to need all the strength I can muster,” he said.

Mary’s smile turned sympathetic. “I’m so sorry for your troubles, Nick. But, there’s no question that Adam needs your help right now. The whole incident with Sam has nearly destroyed him. Rumor has it Adam is spending most of his time at The Corral, drinking himself into oblivion each night. He comes in here every once in a while looking like a broken, very hungover man.”

“That’s why I decided it was time to come home,” Nick replied. “I could tell by the phone calls I was getting from him that things were definitely reaching a crisis point.” He frowned as he thought of his older brother, who had in the past couple of weeks called him day and night, drunker than a skunk and begging him to come home.

“He needs you, Nick,” Mary said, and then looked back toward the kitchen area behind the counter. “I’ve got to get back there. I’m teaching Junior how to make an apple pie, and if I’m not there watching his every move he’ll have that pie crust turned into a smiley face. I’ll send a waitress right out to take care of you.”

“Thanks,” Nick replied. He smiled as he thought of Junior Lempke. The shy, mentally challenged man in his mid-thirties had worked for Mary since she’d bought the place. He’d started as a busboy, with the simple task of clearing tables after diners left. It hadn’t taken long for Mary to recognize that he was capable of doing more under close supervision.

It was nice to think Mary was now working with Junior to do some of the cooking. Although extremely shy and withdrawn with most people, Junior appeared not to have a mean bone in his big body.

Nick pulled the menu from where it stood between the salt and pepper shakers and opened it, although he already knew that his stomach was crying out for one of Mary’s famous burgers and a side of her thick-cut, deep-fried onion rings.

What he didn’t want to think about was the mess that had once been his family. Sam was in jail for attempted murder, Cherry was dead from a car accident and Adam was on an alcoholic downward spiral to disaster. Welcome home, he thought ruefully.

He sensed somebody moving to his side and looked up. He wasn’t sure who radiated more stunned surprise, him or the woman clad in the black Cowboy Café

T-shirt and tight jeans, the dark-haired woman he’d spent the past two years trying to forget.

“Courtney...” Her name fell from his lips in utter shock. “Wha...what are you doing here?”

The surprise that had momentarily flittered across her pretty features was usurped by a black stare that displayed no emotion whatsoever. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m working. Now, what can I get for you?”

Her features might not show any emotion, but he couldn’t help but notice the slight tremble of her hands as she clutched an order pad and pencil.

“But why aren’t you in Evanston?” he asked. Evanston was a small town almost thirty miles away where she had lived with her parents when he’d left town. He’d just assumed by now she’d be married to one of the respectable, financially well-off suitors her parents had paraded before her as potential husband material.

“I’m not in Evanston because I’m here,” she replied tersely. “Are you ready to order or not?”

She was lovelier now than she’d been when they’d dated, before he’d blown out of town on a wild wind of grief. Her dark hair was longer and her features had matured from pretty to almost beautiful. She’d always been slender, but now there was a little more curve to her body.

Why was she waitressing in Grady Gulch when she could be in Evanston, where her father was the mayor and her mother ruled the social scene?

“You know, I’ve never stopped thinking about you,” he said softly. He’d tried. God, he’d tried to forget her.

“You want a cup of coffee to go with that plate of crap?”

He sat back in the booth, as if physically thrown there by both the vitriol in her voice and the hardness that gleamed in her emerald-green eyes. For a long moment he was speechless.

“Order up or move along,” she said. “I’ve got other customers and things to deal with.”

He frowned. “I’ll have a cheeseburger and onion rings and a tall glass of milk.”

“Got it,” she replied and then whirled away to leave the booth as if chased by the very devil himself.

Nick stared after her and wondered what had happened in the past two years that had brought her to this place in time, working as a waitress thirty miles from her hometown.

In the two years that he’d been gone, had the world gone crazy? George Wilton looked perfectly content at the counter as he finished his meal. Adam had become a drunken shadow of the man he’d once been, and the woman he’d once loved with all his heart was in a place where she didn’t belong.

The worst part was he had a dreadful feeling this was just the beginning, that things were going to get crazier before they got better. He’d better prepare himself for more surprises that lie ahead.

* * *

Courtney Chambers placed Nick’s order with Rusty the cook and then sank down in a chair in the kitchen area, her legs shaking so hard she might never walk again.

She should have expected that he’d eventually come back home, especially after Sam and Adam’s recurrent plunge into despair. And she should have expected that if he did come back to Grady Gulch, he’d eventually make his way back into the Cowboy Café.

But she hadn’t been expecting it to be today, and in the very depths of her heart she’d hoped she’d never see him again. Just looking into the brightness of his blue eyes had brought back all the heartbreak, all the anguish he’d left behind when he’d disappeared from Grady Gulch without a word on the day that his sister had been buried.

She’d loved him as she’d never loved another man, had given herself to him and only him with the notion that eventually they’d get married and raise a family together. And then he’d disappeared and she’d never heard from him again.

She straightened in her chair as Mary touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?” Mary looked at her worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Courtney said with forced reassurance. The last thing she wanted to do was bother her boss, the woman who had been equal parts employer and surrogate mother to her for the past two years.

“Are you sure?” Mary raised a pale blond eyebrow.

“I’m good. Just resting my feet for a minute or two while Rusty gets my order ready,” she replied, knowing that it was very rare she simply sat to wait for an order.

Mary eyed her skeptically for a long moment and then nodded and moved back to where she had been working with Junior. Courtney sighed in relief. She didn’t want to lie to Mary, who had been so good to her, but she also didn’t want anyone to know how badly seeing Nick again had affected her. She’d thought she was emotionally dead where he was concerned, but she was apparently wrong.

“Order up,” Rusty said, and Courtney reluctantly got to her feet, knowing she’d have to look at him again. She filled a big glass with milk and then grabbed the plate from the pass window and headed back to the booth where Nick sat.

Why hadn’t he gotten obese in the two years since she’d last seen him? Why hadn’t he grown a beer belly and jowls? Why hadn’t that charming cleft in his chin fallen off his handsome face? Or his broad shoulders turned to toothpicks?

Why, oh why, after everything that had happened, did her heart still lurch more than a little bit at the sight of his thick dark hair, his chiseled features and those amazing blue eyes?

She was so over him. She’d moved on, and he had no place in her heart, in her life. He deserved nothing from her but the plate of food she slid down in front of him along with the glass of milk and the edge of contempt that welled up inside her.

She started to leave the table but gasped in surprise as he grabbed her by the wrist to stop her escape. “It isn’t that busy,” he said. “Why don’t you sit with me for a minute or two?”

“Why would I want to do that?” she replied as she pulled her wrist from his grasp. Her need to escape was overwhelming, but she didn’t want him to see that he bothered her in any way, that he still had any power at all over her.

“I don’t know. I thought maybe we could catch up a little bit.”

“Why?” She forced a light laugh. “I mean honestly, Nick, what on earth would we have to talk about? You’ve been gone for two years. We’ve both moved on with our lives.”

He studied her intently, and she kept her features carefully schooled so as not to display any of the turmoil that twirled around in her stomach. “I should have called you,” he finally said.

Her stomach clenched. “Yes, you should have,” she agreed. “But, you didn’t, and time went by and life went on. It’s all water under the bridge. Now, is there anything else I can get for you?”

“Not at the moment,” he replied after a long hesitation.

She turned and left the booth, but she was aware of his gaze lingering on her, heating the center of her back. She escaped back to the safety of the kitchen and once again pasted a smile on her lips.

Instead of keeping Nick Benson in her mind, she thought of Grant Hubert, the man she’d been dating for the past two months.

Grant was everything Nick hadn’t been...dependable and mature. He was thirty-five, the vice president of the local bank, and he’d been the first man she’d allowed into her life in any way since Nick.

Grant didn’t stir in her the same crazy emotions that Nick had once evoked. Instead he felt solid and predictable, and that was exactly what she needed in her life at this moment.

She knew what had brought Nick back to town, but the Bensons weren’t the only ones who had gone through trauma in the past couple of months.

Certainly everyone had been shocked when Sam Benson had tried to kill Courtney’s friend and fellow waitress, Lizzy Wiles, but before that the entire town had been equally shocked when another waitress from the café had been brutally murdered.

That murder had not yet been solved and hadn’t been related to Sam’s attack on Lizzy. At the time, Courtney, Lizzy and Candy, the murdered young woman, had been living in three of the four little cottages just behind the café.

It had been Candy’s murder and the attack on Lizzy that had prompted Sheriff Cameron Evans to arrange for Courtney to move from the cottage to a nearby motel. In the past two months the motel room, with its kitchenette, had finally begun to feel like home.

Thankfully, when she returned to the booth where Nick had sat enough money to pay his tab and a generous tip for her was all that remained.

She rang up his order, pocketed her tip and told herself she absolutely refused to spend another minute of her time thinking about Nick Benson. Besides, there was plenty to do to prepare for the evening dinner rush. That would keep her mind sufficiently occupied.

Since the time she’d moved to Grady Gulch, she’d come to love the people of the small town. Even George Wilton, who complained about the bitterness of the coffee, the dryness of the meat loaf and the laziness of today’s youth, held a certain charm all his own.

The dinner rush that evening seemed busier than usual, and despite her desire not to think about Nick Benson, he seemed to be the topic of conversation on everyone’s lips.

“They’ve all come to bad ends,” Susan Walker said to her husband as Courtney served them the nightly special. “One dead, one a convict, one a drunk, and Nick always was a bit of a hellion.” She shook her head ruefully. “Guess that’s what happens to kids when their parents die too young.”

“All of them spent too much time down at The Corral,” David Bentz said to his wife as Courtney delivered their drinks to their table. “I heard through the grapevine that Nick has come back to somehow save Adam from himself.” David snorted. “That’s kind of like the pot calling the kettle to ask for advice.”

Courtney grimaced, fighting the impulse to say something in defense of all the Bensons. She’d never liked David Bentz much anyway. He always smelled just a little bit like cow manure.

“How are you doing tonight, Courtney?” Abigail Swisher asked as Courtney stopped at her table.

“Good. And where’s that handsome husband of yours?” she asked. It was unusual for Abigail to show up at the café without her husband, Fred.

“He’s on a business trip, and I decided I didn’t feel like cooking tonight. The house was just too darned quiet.” Abigail gave her a sweet smile and swept a strand of her light brown hair behind an ear. Courtney caught a pleasant scent of spring flowers wafting from the woman.

“Good for you,” Courtney replied. She knew the couple didn’t have children. Abigail had suffered a miscarriage, but rumor had it they were trying desperately for another child.

She took Abigail’s order, and by the time the dinner rush was over Courtney was sick of hearing all the negative stories about Nick—and even more sick that in each case she’d wanted to somehow jump to his defense.

It was after eight when Courtney finally sat down to take a break with fellow waitress Lynette Shiver. Lynette was twenty-three and had been working at the café for only about a month.

She’d been hired when Lizzy had quit her job as a waitress to move in with her future husband, Daniel Jefferson. Lizzy seemed perfectly content helping Daniel around the ranch and planning a wedding for the near future.

“Would you please tell me about the Benson family?” Lynette exclaimed. “That’s all I’ve heard about all night, and I didn’t know what anyone was talking about. Sounds like a nice plate of juicy gossip.”

“It’s actually a tragic story on several levels,” Courtney replied with a sigh of resignation. As much as she hadn’t wanted to talk about Nick, she knew there was no way she could avoid the topic while explaining to Lynette what had happened before she’d come to the small town.

“The Benson family consisted of Sam, who was the eldest, Adam, Cherry and Nick. Their parents died years ago, and Sam took the reins of the family ranch and worked hard to keep them all together. Then two years ago Cherry was killed in a car accident.”

Courtney took a sip of her iced tea and tried not to remember that night. She’d been in her bedroom in her parents’ house and had gotten a text from Nick to meet him at the place where they always rendezvoused away from prying eyes.

When she’d finally gotten to the old Yates place, she’d driven past the old house that had been foreclosed on years ago and never resold and drove straight down the lane that took her to the old barn.

Nick’s pickup was already there, and when she entered the horse stall that had been their special place for the past seven months, he’d grabbed her and pulled her to him as he wept.

They’d made love, silently, emotionally, and then he’d left the barn without saying a word. She’d known his grief was too great for words, and she’d let him go that night assuming they’d have time together the next day or the day after that. And then he was gone from Grady Gulch, from her.

“Earth to Courtney.” Lynette’s voice pulled her away from the painful memories.

“Sorry. Anyway, Cherry was killed, along with Daniel Jefferson’s wife, Janice. Rumor had it that Daniel and Janice had a fight and Janice called Cherry to pick her up. The two left the Jefferson place, it was snowing and Cherry was driving way too fast. They crashed, and both women were killed.”

“That’s definitely tragic,” Lynette said as she raised her coffee cup to her lips.

Courtney nodded. “Daniel was real torn up about it, and so was Sam. But what nobody knew was that Sam blamed Daniel for his sister’s death. Daniel was a broken man, but then he met Lizzy, who was working as a waitress here, and the two of them fell in love. Sam went crazy and tried to kill Lizzy because she made Daniel happy, and in Sam’s distraught mind Daniel wasn’t allowed to ever be happy again as long as Cherry was gone.”

“So, Sam was caught and arrested and Adam’s acting like the town drunk, and now it sounds like Nick has ridden to the rescue, coming home to take care of things.”

“Something like that,” Courtney replied, tired of the Benson family drama and still reeling from the fact that Nick was back in town.

Minutes later, Mary walked over to where the two of them sat. “Thursday nights are usually slow. Is one of you up for going home early?”

Lynette waved her hand to Courtney. “Go on. I know you have important places to be and people to see. I’ll close it up tonight.”

Courtney breathed a deep sigh. “Thanks, Lynette. I wouldn’t mind getting off a little early this evening.”

“Then go, get on out of here,” Mary said. “Lynette and I can handle things for the rest of the night.”

Courtney didn’t wait for Mary to change her mind. She quickly got up from her chair and carried her cup to the counter. “I’m out of here,” she said as she headed toward the front door. “I’ll see you at noon tomorrow.”

She caught her breath as she stepped out into the hot July night. As she walked to her car, the heat that had been trapped in the asphalt all day long radiated up to her tired feet. She couldn’t wait to get home to the motel, kick off her shoes and just relax. But she had one more important stop to make.

She always sent up a silent prayer when she got behind the wheel of her car and turned the key. Thankfully her prayer was answered and the engine turned over. She’d bought the car dirt cheap because she had more important things to spend her money on than transportation.

She sat for a minute, allowing the interior of the car to begin to cool from the air conditioner, before heading to Sophie Martinez’s home.

She consciously tried to keep her mind blank as she drove the distance to the attractive little ranch house situated on several acres just outside the city limits. She was tired of thinking of the past and wanted only to focus on the future.

Tomorrow night she had a dinner date with Grant, and she was off work all day Saturday and Sunday. She always looked forward to spending time with Grant and some downtime on the weekends.

At the moment she didn’t feel the anticipation that a date with Grant usually brought, and she hated the fact that a simple interaction with Nick had somehow managed to throw her off.

She shoved every thought in her head away as she pulled down the long lane that led to Sophie’s ranch house. This was the moment each day that she looked forward to most, arriving here after hours of being separated from the most important person in her life.

Her tired feet nearly danced to the front door, where she knocked softly. The door opened and Sophie greeted her with a surprised smile. “Courtney, you’re a bit early tonight.”

“We weren’t too busy so Mary let me go for the night.”

Sophie opened the door to allow her into the neat living room with modest furnishings. Sophie was a young widow with two small children. Thankfully there had been enough insurance money to allow her not only to keep her house and the surrounding land but also stay at home with her two little daughters for the next couple of years.

For extra money she had become a licensed day care provider, and her family room off the kitchen had been turned into a kid’s playland.

From that room a cacophony of sound escaped. It was the happy chaos of children at play... The squeals of little girls, the laughter of little boys and the squawk of the cockatiel that hung in a cage on a large stand near the window.

“Sounds like you have a full house this evening,” Courtney said as they headed toward the family room. Usually by the time Courtney arrived there was only one or two extra children.

“The Morrises asked if I could keep the twins late tonight. It’s their anniversary and they wanted to have a nice romantic evening together without the boys,” Sophie explained.

As they entered the family room, Courtney’s gaze automatically darted around the room for the fifteen-month-old dark-haired, blue-eyed little boy who owned her heart and soul.

Garrett. He was clad in a pair of cowboy-printed pajamas and sat on the floor playing with a stack of colorful wooden blocks. When Courtney drew closer, he looked up and his face was wreathed in smiles.

“Ma-Ma!” He raised his chubby little arms toward her.

As she picked him up, her heart swelled full in her chest. “Hi, baby. Hi, Garrett,” she said as she kissed the side of his face. “Were you a good boy today for Sophie?”

“Sophie,” he echoed and pointed to his daily caretaker.

“He’s always a good boy when he’s here. He’s the most laid-back toddler I’ve ever met. He’s freshly changed and ready for bed.”

Courtney smiled and gave Garrett a hug. “Thanks, Sophie. We’ll get out of your hair, and I’ll see you tomorrow around eleven-thirty.”

Sophie walked with her to the door, and a minute later Courtney had Garrett in his car seat in the back of the car. By the time she arrived at the motel, he was fast asleep.

She gently lifted him from the seat and carried him into the motel room they called home. Next to her bed was the crib, where she gently placed the sleeping boy and covered him with a light blanket. She laid her finger lightly on his little cleft chin, as if wanting to hide the characteristic that marked his paternity.

For several long moments she gazed at the son who had been conceived the night of Cherry Benson’s death. That night, as Nick had come at her with silent, horrible grief and she’d embraced him, needing to somehow ease his pain, neither of them had thought about birth control.

And when Nick had blown out of town, he’d had no idea that he’d left her with a piece of him that would change her life forever.

He hadn’t called. He’d offered no explanation. He’d just disappeared. And now it was too late. He had left her without a word, broken all the promises they’d made to each other. He didn’t deserve to have a son, and she had no intention of ever telling him of Garrett’s existence.

Chapter 2

The Benson ranch had always been a source of great pride. Not only had it been financially successful, but Sam had worked hard to keep the large ranch house, surrounding lawn and outbuildings in pristine condition.

As Nick got his first glimpse of home, his heart dropped to his feet as he realized it was far worse than what he’d expected. Despite the summer heat, the lawn was a jungle of overgrown weeds and brush. A tractor-style mower sat amid the mess, as if at some point the operator had simply given up on any attempt to restore order.

Nick got out of his truck, momentarily overwhelmed by the neglect around him. Obviously Cherry’s death had yielded far-reaching effects that none of them could have ever foreseen.

For just a minute Nick wanted to jump back into his truck and drive as fast as he could back to his uncomplicated life in Texas. Run...avoid...escape painful and difficult things. That’s what he’d done on the day of Cherry’s funeral. But, that was the man he’d been two years ago. That wasn’t the man he was now.

Straightening his shoulders, he headed for the stairs leading up to the front porch, noting that one of the handrails was missing.

He opened the front door and his nose was instantly assailed by the odors of overripe fruit, dirty socks and sour booze.

“Hello?” he called. “Adam...are you here?”

“In the kitchen,” a deep voice returned.

Nick found his older brother seated at the kitchen table, his fingers curled around a coffee mug and his bloodshot blue eyes narrowed to near slits. “So, the prodigal son has finally come home.” There was a touch of censure in Adam’s voice that Nick ignored.

As Nick went to the cabinet to grab a mug, he tried to ignore the mound of dirty dishes in the sink and the garbage bag that overflowed onto the floor. “Is that coffee fresh?”

Adam nodded. “I made it about an hour ago when I finally decided to get out of bed.”

Nick poured his coffee and then sat in the chair opposite his brother. “Been spending a lot of time in bed?”

“In bed or drunk.” Adam raised his chin as if in defiance.

“Sounds productive.” Nick took a sip of the strong coffee and held his brother’s gaze above the rim of his cup. Adam was thirty-three, but at the moment he looked ten years older.

“You should have been here, Nick.” Adam finally broke the gaze and instead stared at some point over Nick’s shoulder. “You should have stuck around after Cherry died, then maybe you would have seen the sickness in Sam, the sickness I didn’t see.”

Nick sat back in his chair, surprised as he continued to look at his brother. “Surely you aren’t blaming yourself for what Sam has done?”

Adam raked a hand through his thick, dark, unruly hair. “I should have seen that he was sick, that he was howl-at-the-moon crazy. He and I were so close. If I’d known how he felt I might have been able to stop him. But somehow I missed something, and now there’s nothing left of our family. Cherry is gone, Sam has disgraced us all and there’s nothing left.”

“There’s you and me,” Nick replied. “Adam, you’ve got to pull yourself up out of this funk and get back to the job of taking care of this place, taking care of yourself.”

Adam shoved back from the table. “I don’t want to hear you telling me what I have to do. You ran out on us. I figure you’ll be here for a week or two and when you realize how tough it is to live in a small town where everyone’s talking about your family, when things get just a little bit too hard, then you’ll do what you always do—you’ll run out again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bottle of whiskey waiting for me in my room.”

As Adam left the kitchen, Nick remained at the table. Yes, it was definitely worse than he thought. He and Adam had never been particularly close. Sam had been thirty-four and Adam thirty-one when Nick had left town. The two older brothers had always aligned with each other, while Cherry and Nick had bonded together as the younger siblings.

He finished his coffee, rinsed his cup and then went outside, deciding the dishes and the other kitchen cleanup could wait until later. He headed for the stables in the distance, wanting to ride the pastures and check out the livestock.

Surely Adam hadn’t fallen so deep into the bottom of the bottle and his depression that he hadn’t been feeding and caring for the horses and the cattle that provided their livelihood.

He sighed in relief as he walked into the stable and saw that all the horses were in good shape. It took him only minutes to saddle up his old mount, Diamond, and head to the distant pastures.

As he rode with the heat of the sun on his shoulders, he finally began to relax, but he couldn’t help the way his thoughts went back to Courtney. He’d been so shocked to see her working in the café.

As the horse rocked him in the saddle, he thought of the last time they’d been together. It had been hours after he’d learned that his sister had died, and he’d needed Courtney’s warmth, her life force and energy to take away the icy-cold grip of grief.

When he’d left Grady Gulch on the day of Cherry’s funeral, he had no plans to stay away for as long as he had. It had just happened. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and suddenly two years had passed.

A hundred times...no, maybe a thousand times in the time he’d been gone, he’d stared at his cell phone and mentally punched in Courtney’s number, just wanting to hear the sound of her voice, to feel some sort of connection with her.

For months after he’d left Grady Gulch, Courtney had been like the phantom limb of an amputee. But with each day that had passed, it had gotten a little easier to stop himself from contacting her.

After all, he’d always been her dirty little secret, a walk on the wild side that she’d kept private from everyone in her life. The promises they’d made to each other to love one another forever, to eventually marry and have a family together, had been nothing more than silly fantasies they’d spin in moments of happy delusion and sexual satisfaction. The promises, the love, all of it had never left the abandoned Yates barn.

She had been the princess of Evanston, and he’d been the bad-boy cowboy from Grady Gulch, never welcomed to her home, never even introduced to her family or friends, but rather hidden in the shadows of the old barn.

He pushed Diamond a little harder as a slight edge of anger rose up inside him. He’d wanted so much more from Courtney, but she’d been so afraid of what her parents would think, so worried about how the people of her hometown would react if she hooked up with one of the wild Benson brothers who were and always would be nothing more than ranching cowboys.

Consciously shoving thoughts of Courtney out of his mind, he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the herd of cattle in the distance. Even from this vantage point he could tell they looked healthy and happy. At least Adam had been tending the livestock, even if he hadn’t been tending to himself.

He turned his horse around and headed back to the house. Adam was still holed up in his bedroom, and Nick didn’t bother trying to get him out.

The drive from Texas, along with the stress of seeing both Courtney and the neglected house, had exhausted him. He took a long hot shower, and even though it was early, he went to the bedroom that had been his before he’d left town.

Although his intention was just to rest for a while and then get up and get some work done, he fell into a deep sleep. His dreams were of Courtney and the magical seven months they’d spent together. Laughter, lovemaking and spinning fantasies had filled their time.

He awoke with the morning light, the faint taste of bitterness and regret in his mouth. He’d known from the beginning that she wasn’t his to keep; there had just been moments in the past when he’d forgotten that fact.

Adam wasn’t up yet and Nick had a feeling he wouldn’t be for some time, so around seven Nick headed for the Cowboy Café and a hearty breakfast to start his day. As he drove he thought about the dreams he’d had the night before and reminded himself that Courtney was nothing more than a piece of his past.

It was about seven-fifteen when he pulled into the café parking lot. There were only a few other diners that early in the morning. It took him a quick glance around to see that Courtney wasn’t one of the waitresses working.

Good. He could eat his breakfast without feeling her animosity toward him, without thoughts of her disturbing his appetite.

He slid onto a stool at the counter and smiled at Mary, who stood behind it wiping it down with a clean cloth. “Start you off with some coffee, Nick?”

“Sounds perfect,” he replied and watched as she set the cleaning cloth aside, washed her hands in the sink and then poured him a cup of the fragrant fresh brew.

“How was the homecoming?” she asked. Mary Mathis was an attractive woman with blond hair and clear blue eyes. She had a ten-year-old son named Matt, who was obviously her heart. He’d never heard of her dating anyone, even though she was a widow who had shown up in town eight years ago.

“A bit tense,” he admitted. “The house was a mess, but I think my brother is a bigger mess.”

“One way or another, things will eventually straighten themselves out. They always do,” she said with her usual optimism. “At least you’re home now and can maybe help Adam find his way back to the land of the living.”

“He definitely hasn’t shown any signs of being alive or even wanting to resurface since I arrived,” Nick replied drily.

“He’s a strong man. He’s just lost his way a little bit. This thing with Sam definitely shook him up. Now, what can I get you for breakfast?”

Nick ordered the classic café combo of eggs, bacon and a buttermilk biscuit, and a stack of pancakes on the side. He figured he would need all the fuel he could handle to then head back to the ranch and start figuring things out. The ranch needed work and somehow he had to get Adam’s head back in the game of life.

He was halfway through his meal when George Wilton came in and slid onto the stool next to him at the counter. “About time you came home,” he said to Nick. “Your family is falling apart.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Are you home to stay?”

“Doubtful,” Nick said truthfully. “Although I imagine I’ll be here through the fall.”

“Rumor has it you’ve been working in Texas.”

“The rumor is true.” Nick knifed butter over his pancakes as Mary approached to get George’s order.

“Speaking of rumors, I just heard that another waitress from the café was murdered last night,” the old man said. Both Mary and Nick stared at him. “I can guess by the look on your faces that the sheriff hasn’t been in here yet this morning.”

“Who?” The single word yanked from Nick’s throat with a hoarse despair. “Who was murdered?”

“I don’t know. The sheriff didn’t reveal her name. I just met him as I was leaving my house.”

Nick looked at Mary, whose face had blanched of all color. “Is Courtney here now?”

She shook her head. “She works a short shift today, noon to five. I’ve got five waitresses who aren’t in.”

That made it five to one that the murdered waitress could be Courtney. Nick’s heart banged hard, leaving him half-breathless with fear.

At that moment Sheriff Cameron Evans walked through the door. His stern features softened as he looked at Mary. “I guess you’ve heard. We have another one.”

* * *

It had been their usual date. Grant was pleasant, as was the conversation that flowed easily between the two of them. Everything was so uncomplicated with Grant. He was the perfect gentleman and always made Courtney feel at ease, unlike Nick, who felt like an out-of-control tornado that whirled through her body and mind each time he was in sight.

“Terrible thing about Shirley Cook,” Grant said as they lingered over coffee. “I heard she was killed the same way Candy Bailey was... In bed with her throat cut.”

Courtney wrapped her fingers around her coffee mug, seeking warmth as she thought of the unsolved murders. “Sheriff Evans was in and out of the café all afternoon, interviewing each of us to see if we might know who Shirley was seeing, if anybody was giving her problems or anything that might point in the direction of a potential killer.”

“Were you able to give him any information?” Grant asked, his brown eyes sympathetic. He was a nice-looking man with light brown hair and mildly handsome features.

He didn’t make her heart beat any faster. He didn’t stir the crazy passion that Nick always had. But that was okay. What she needed most in her life right now was stable and responsible, and it was ironic that Grant was that kind of man with the kind of job that her parents would have approved of.

“No, I couldn’t help him at all,” she replied to his question. “Shirley was a bit older than me. We didn’t run in the same crowd and didn’t socialize much at work and not at all outside of work. She was a quiet woman who minded her own business and always showed up for work on time.”

A bubble of grief welled up inside Courtney’s throat as she thought of the woman who had died before her time, died so violently...like Candy before her.

“Have you considered quitting your job?”

She looked at him in surprise. “Why would I do that?”

He shrugged. “Two women murdered and both were waitresses at the Cowboy Café. What if somebody is specifically targeting the women who work there?”

“Sheriff Evans thinks it’s more likely that maybe Kevin Naperson killed both women.” Kevin had been Candy Bailey’s boyfriend at the time of her murder, and despite the fact that his father had given him an alibi for that night, Courtney knew he’d never dropped off the top of the suspect list for Candy’s murder.

“Kill another woman who he has no ties with and take the heat off himself for Candy’s murder. It’s an interesting theory.” Grant picked up his coffee cup and took a sip, then carefully set the mug back on the table in the precise position it had been in originally.

“Either that or somebody else is a killer and both women were vulnerable,” she replied.

“And you don’t feel vulnerable?” Grant asked with a quirk of his neatly trimmed eyebrow.

She gave him a rueful smile. “I live in a motel, Grant. There are nights I hear somebody drop their soap in their shower, or the snoring of a man who has rented the unit next door for a night. I feel perfectly safe there. I’m completely surrounded by people.”

“You know, I could arrange for you to be in another place...a better place for you and Garrett. All you have to do is ask me.”

“I know, but really we’re fine where we are.” She wasn’t at a place in her relationship with Grant that she wanted any favors from him. She wanted to be beholden to nobody, taking care of herself as she should have years ago. “And it’s probably time for me to go pick up Garrett. I told Sophie before we left that it wouldn’t be a late night.”

“Then let’s go pick up the munchkin,” he agreed easily.

Within half an hour they were at Courtney’s room at the motel. “You want to come in for one last cup of coffee?” she asked as she held a sleeping Garrett in her arms.

“Sure, that would be great,” he readily agreed.

It had become their routine on Friday nights after dinner for him to come into the motel room and share a cup of coffee before he headed home.

She never worried about things getting intimate. So far their physical relationship had consisted of a couple of chaste kisses when they said good-night.

With Garrett to consider, she’d been reluctant to date anyone, but Grant had been persistent and she’d finally agreed to go out with him with the understanding that things between them would go slow. He’d respected her wishes, and their romance, such as it was, had progressed at a snail’s pace.

With Garrett soundly sleeping in his crib and coffee made, they sat across from each other at the tiny table under the single hanging light in the room and talked about the hot weather, the plans the town had for a summer festival in the next couple of weeks and their own plans to enjoy that day together.

“The bank is sponsoring a stand offering free soda and bottled water, and I’m assigned to work it from nine to eleven that day. But after eleven I’ll be all yours,” Grant said in the soft voice he always used so as not to awaken the sleeping child.

“Sounds like it’s going to be a wonderful day, although it doesn’t seem right to be looking forward to a festival with two unsolved murders in the town.” As she thought of Shirley’s murder, she fought off a shiver that threatened to waltz up her spine.

“We just have to stay focused on the positive,” Grant replied. “Sheriff Evans is a good man and he’ll figure out these crimes eventually.”

“I hope so,” she said fervently.

Even though she was hoping that it was mere coincidence that both Candy and Shirley had worked at the café, there was no question the fact that two of her coworkers had been murdered unnerved her more than just a little bit.

Grant glanced at his watch. “I’d better get out of here. I have to go into the bank early tomorrow.” He got up from the table and carried his empty cup to the sink.

“Thank you, as always, for a lovely evening,” Courtney said as she walked him to the door.

He kissed her on the forehead, the scent of his expensive cologne a bit overpowering. “I’ll call you tomorrow?”

“I’d like that,” she agreed. “The only thing I have planned is maybe taking Garrett to the city park, but I’ll probably wait until early evening when it cools down a bit.”

He frowned. “Take a friend with you. I don’t like the idea of you out and around all alone, especially if you plan on being out after dark.”

She smiled, touched by his concern. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back here long before dark.”

They murmured their goodbyes, and then he left and Courtney carefully locked the door behind him. She’d just carried her cup to the sink when a knock fell on her door.

As she hurried to answer she assumed it was Grant who had either left something behind or had forgotten to tell her something.

She unlocked the door and pulled it open to see Nick leaning casually against the doorjamb. “What on earth are you doing here?” she asked in surprise, praying that Garrett stayed asleep and quiet in his crib.

“Is that who you’re dating now? Grant Hubert?” he asked, as if he had a right to know anything about her or who she might be seeing.

“That’s really none of your business.” She stepped outside and pulled the door halfway closed behind her so that he couldn’t see into the room.

“Your parents must be so proud of you. Grant has a good position with the bank, a real air of respectability about him. Is that why you moved here? To be closer to him?” Although his features betrayed nothing, his voice held just the faintest edge of resentment.

“Exactly what part of ‘it’s none of your business’ don’t you understand? And I’ll repeat it again, what are you doing here?”

“Can I come in for a minute?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied and tightened her grip on the doorknob of the half-closed door. The last thing in the world she wanted was for this man to know about his son.

Garrett didn’t need him in his life. Garrett didn’t need a man who had left her without a backward glance, a man who would probably blow back out of town again before too long.

“I heard about the murder of the waitress this morning, and about the other murder before that,” he said. In the shadows of the night the cleft in his chin looked deeper than usual and his eyes appeared almost black. “I guess I just wanted to stop by and see that you were okay.”

“As you can see, I’m just fine.” Even though she wanted to feel nothing for him, she couldn’t help the way her heart squeezed slightly at the thought that he might care about her just a little.

Not that she cared about him anymore. She’d stopped caring about Nick Benson in the weeks after he’d left when he hadn’t even bothered to call her, when he hadn’t thought her worth any kind of an explanation of why he had left. She’d stopped caring about Nick Benson when he’d shattered her world by walking away without even a backward glance.

“You look good, Courtney,” he said, his gaze appearing soft in the moonlight. His gaze slid down the length of her. “You look real good.”

At that moment a cry came from inside the room. Apparently Garrett had awakened. Nick’s features froze as Courtney’s heart crashed to the ground.

“That yours?” he asked, his voice flat.

“It is.” Her heart beat fast and furious in her chest.

“So, I guess you’ve really moved on.”

“What did you expect? That I’d pine away just because you were gone? I’ve got to go.” Before he could say anything else she slid back into the room and closed the door, then leaned against it and prayed he wouldn’t ask anyone exactly when Garrett had been born.

* * *

Mary Mathis sat across a café table from Sheriff Cameron Evans. He almost always ended his nights here, drinking the last of the coffee after she closed the restaurant.

He was a handsome man, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes that changed with his mood. Tonight they were more brown than green, and his eyebrows were pulled down into a frown.

“It’s just like Candy’s murder,” he said as he wrapped his big, strong fingers around his coffee mug. “No forensic evidence, no obvious suspect.”

“What about Kevin Naperson?” Mary asked, knowing he’d been the main suspect when Candy had been killed.

“I spoke to him first thing this morning and his alibi is that he was in bed asleep, which is going to be pretty much the same alibi of everyone in the entire town. We’ve fixed Shirley’s time of death at 3:12 a.m.”

Mary raised an eyebrow. “That’s pretty specific.”

Cameron nodded. “Apparently while the killer was attacking Shirley he managed to pull the cord to her clock radio out of the wall. That’s the time the clock stopped.”

An edge of grief stabbed through Mary, along with a whisper of fear. It was a fear she could share with nobody, the fear that somehow this was all happening because of her, because of her past sins.

“You okay?” Cameron looked at her with concern.

“Yes and no,” she admitted. “I’m trying not to make this personal, but two of my waitresses have been brutally murdered.”

“There’s absolutely no reason to believe this is about you or the café. Right now we just happen to have two victims who coincidentally worked at the same place. Let’s not make it bigger than it is.”

For one heart-stopping moment she thought he might reach over and touch her, maybe cover her hand with his big, strong one, and for just an aching moment of weakness, she wanted him to.

It seemed like a lifetime that she’d felt even the most simple touch from a man, and of all the men in town, Cameron was the one who made her heart beat just a little faster whenever he was around.

Instead, he rose to his feet with a weary sigh. “I’ve got to get back to work. As always, thanks for the coffee and the moment of sanity in my day.”

She smiled and rose to her feet, as well. “It’s after midnight. You should just go home and straight to bed and start fresh in the morning.”

“You’re right, but that isn’t what I’m going to do. I’m heading back to the crime scene at Shirley’s house to see what we might have missed earlier.”

He lingered at the door, and for a moment she wanted to fall into the softness she saw in his eyes as he gazed at her. “Lock up after me and I’ll see you in the morning.” With another deep sigh, he left the café.

She locked the door and then shut off the last of the lights in the café. She walked through the kitchen and to a door that led to the area of the building she and her son called home.

There was a nice-size living room with a bedroom on each side. Matt had the bigger of the two bedrooms and at the moment was sound asleep in his bed.

She stood in his doorway and watched him, her heart expanding with love. Everything she had done, she’d done for him. Every bad thing she’d ever accomplished, every lie she’d ever told, had all been in an effort to save Matt.

And she’d succeeded. He was a happy, healthy young boy who had no memory of the first two years of his life. And for that she would forever be grateful. He didn’t suffer the kind of nightmares she did from those years. He slept peacefully, as the young and innocent should sleep.

She moved from his room across the living room to her smaller bedroom. Lately it seemed that every night her sleep was disturbed by nightmares. And recently she’d been dreaming not only about the crime that had taken place so many years before, but also about Candy’s murder. Now she had Shirley’s terrible death to add to her landscape of nightmares.

Minutes later, as she slid beneath the sheet and turned off the light next to her bed, she tried to focus on what Cameron had said to her—don’t take it personally.

She hoped that what people were speculating about Kevin Naperson was true. He’d always been the number one suspect in Candy Bailey’s murder. Maybe he’d killed Shirley to take the heat off himself, to make it look as if there was some crazy serial killer in the town offing waitresses.

Or perhaps it truly was just a strange coincidence that both murdered women worked at the café. Mary had twelve women working various shifts, both full-time and part-time, at the restaurant. Grady Gulch was a small town where many women didn’t work outside their homes.

She closed her eyes, determined to get to sleep despite everything that whirled through her head. Her flighty thoughts landed and stayed on Cameron Evans.

He’d made it clear in all kind of ways that he’d like to pursue something romantic with her. Matt adored the sheriff, and there were times Mary longed for nothing more than his big, strong arms around her, that she would love to invite him into her life, into her heart.

But the choices she had made long ago would forever keep her alone. And if by some chance Cameron discovered the truth of who she was and what she had done, he wouldn’t love her, he’d arrest her.

Chapter 3

She had a child.

The fact had haunted Nick throughout the night, and when he awakened the next morning it was with the same thought in his mind. Courtney had a baby.

When had it happened? Did the baby belong to Grant Hubert? Is that why she was living and working in Grady Gulch? So her baby could be close to his father? If that was the case, then why weren’t the two of them already married?

And just how old was the baby? How quickly did Courtney move on after Nick had left town?

What he couldn’t understand was why the idea bothered him so much. She’d been right. He had no business asking her questions about the choices she’d made after he’d left here. He’d lost the right to know anything about her personal life when he’d decided to disappear.

But knowing that didn’t stop the small pang in his heart as he thought of her having a child with another man. He was supposed to have been the father of her children.

Often when they’d spent time together in the Yates barn they’d talked about their future together. They both wanted children, a little boy first and then a girl. They’d buy a ranch and build a family. That had been their dream, but even as they’d talked about it, deep in his heart Nick had always known that it was all just foolish fantasy.

Even when she was twenty-four years old, Courtney’s parents had, for the most part, been running her life, making all the important decisions for her. Their princess daughter marrying a Benson boy and becoming a rancher’s wife had not been part of their master plan. Courtney had been so afraid of disappointing her parents, the relationship she and Nick had shared had been conducted undercover.

He shoved all thoughts of Courtney and her baby out of his mind as he drank two cups of coffee and then headed outside to see if he could make some headway on the lawn.

He reminded himself he wasn’t here to reconnect with Courtney in any way. He was here to pull Adam up from his depression and get the ranch back in good shape. That was all, and that was more than enough. Once he’d done what he’d come to do, he’d hightail it back to his own life in Texas.

The sun was already hot overhead as he walked out the front door and headed for the tractor mower. He didn’t know how long the machine had been sitting out in the elements but was pleasantly surprised when it turned over on the second attempt.

As he mowed, his thoughts whirled in a million directions. The fact that two women who worked as waitresses at the café had been murdered bothered him, especially when he got a visual image of Courtney in the familiar black Cowboy Café T-shirt and jeans that all of the waitresses wore.

It wasn’t his job to protect Courtney or any of the other women in the café. That job belonged to Sheriff Cameron Evans and his team of capable deputies. Nick just needed to mind his own business and let the sheriff do his job.

He was halfway through with the yard when Adam stepped out on the front porch, two cups of coffee in his hands. Nick shut down the tractor and joined his brother on the porch.

“Thanks,” he said as he took the spare coffee from Adam. Even though he’d had his fill of coffee earlier, this felt like an olive branch of sorts from the brother he desperately wanted to connect with.

Together the two of them eased down in the wicker chairs on the porch, and for a moment neither of them spoke but merely sipped their coffee and stared out in the distance.

“I’ll help chop up some of that brush after we finish our coffee,” Adam said after a long, slightly uncomfortable silence. “Sorry I’ve let things go.”

“I’d appreciate the help,” Nick replied.

He finished his coffee, set the empty cup on the porch and then headed back to the tractor, wondering if his brother was really going to help or would disappear back into the house to find another bottle of booze to anesthetize his pain and escape reality with.

His heart filled with hope as Adam walked off the porch and headed toward the barn. He returned a moment later with a long-handled sickle to cut down the thick brush.

The brothers worked together until just after noon, then went inside to a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches and ice-cold lemonade. This time the silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable. It was merely the silence of two men who had worked hard and needed a few minutes to relax.

They worked throughout the afternoon and then at dinnertime showered up and headed for the café.

“You know Courtney Chambers?” Nick asked when they were in his truck.

“Sure, she’s one of the waitresses at the café,” Adam replied.

“Did you know she had a baby?” Nick’s fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.

“Yeah, I remember somebody mentioning something about it at some point or another.”

“You know how old the kid is?”

Nick felt Adam’s gaze on him, but Nick kept his eyes carefully focused on the road. “I have no idea. Ten months or maybe a year or so. Why?”

“Just curious. She served me lunch yesterday when I showed up in town and I thought she was kind of cute.”

“Off-limits, brother. She’s from some hoity-toity family in Evanston and she’s dating Grant Hubert, a banker. I’d lay odds that the kid is his and there’s a wedding going to happen in the not-so-distant future.”

Nick didn’t even attempt to talk about the lump that suddenly appeared in his throat.

“If you plan on sticking around town for a while there are plenty of single, pretty women,” Adam said.

“Then why haven’t you found one?”

Adam gave him a dark glance. “You don’t find many available women in the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. I wouldn’t mind a drink right now.”

“Yeah, well, I would mind. Maybe it’s time to pull your nose out of the bottle and take a look around,” Nick said as he pulled into the café parking lot. “Looks busy.”

“We’re right in the middle of dinner rush,” Adam replied. Together they got out of the truck and went into the establishment, where glasses clinked and conversation buzzed.

Nick spotted a booth being cleaned in Courtney’s section. He quickly led Adam to that booth.

He saw the frown that danced across Courtney’s face as they settled in. What was he doing? He felt as if he were picking at old wounds, tearing away scabs to make those wounds bleed. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

Seeing her again had stirred up so many old emotions, feelings that he hadn’t expected, didn’t realize he possessed. He wasn’t sure what to do with them, or how to resolve them with the present.

At the moment all he could do was place his dinner order with her. She was curt and professional as she took their orders, her gaze never quite meeting his.

As he walked away, Nick looked around the busy café, noticing people he’d never seen before. “Lots of unfamiliar faces,” he said to Adam.

“Two years is a long time. People move away, new people move in.”

“Who is the guy in the wheelchair?” Nick nodded toward a nearby table where a man in a motorized scooter sat at a table alone.

“Brandon Williams. He came to town about six months ago. Nice guy...war veteran. Had his legs shot up with shrapnel and it left him with some facial scarring, but he buzzes all over town in that scooter.”

For the next few minutes Adam told Nick who some of the other unfamiliar people in the café were, and by that time Courtney arrived to bring their drink orders. As she set them down, Nick caught a whiff of her perfume beneath the scent of the cooking food. Jasmine. He’d asked her once what it was because he loved the smell of it on her skin.

She whirled away from the table and he felt the chill that emanated from her. He knew he’d hurt her when he’d left, but she’d obviously moved on pretty quickly. So, why was she holding such a grudge against him now?

And why on earth did he care? He had no intention of sticking around town. She apparently was happy with Mr. Banker Grant Hubert. It was over...long done. She was the past, and Nick tried to live his life never looking back.

* * *

Courtney felt as if she’d suddenly grown ten awkward thumbs and wooden legs that barely functioned, and it was all because he was here.

Why couldn’t he eat at home or at least sit someplace where she didn’t have to serve him, didn’t even have to look at him? Why did he seem to be under her nose every time she turned around?

She wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight, but Mary had called earlier in the day and told her she’d had two waitresses who had called in sick and asked if Courtney could work the dinner rush between five and seven.

Reluctantly she’d agreed because she could always use the extra money. But if she’d known that Nick would be here tonight, she would have just stayed at home with Garrett and had Mary contact one of the other waitresses not working tonight.

As she hurried away from their table and toward Brandon Williams, she was aware of Nick’s gaze following her.

She wanted to turn around and scream at him to stop it, that it wasn’t right that his gaze still had the power to warm her from top to bottom.

Instead she continued in the direction of Brandon. When she reached him she offered him a friendly smile. “Hi, Mr. Williams. How are you this evening?”

It was difficult to discern Brandon’s age as his head was as bald as a cue ball and he had no eyebrows. A scar ran down the side of his plump face and the blue of his eyes radiated warmth. “I’m doing well, Courtney. How is that little fella of yours?”

“He’s great. Talking more and more every day and becoming a bit of a ham. Now, what can I get for you this evening?”

By the time she’d put in Brandon’s order, Nick’s and Adam’s plates were ready for delivery. She steeled herself and approached their booth once again. “Two Saturday night specials,” she said as she placed the plates down before each of them. “Is there anything else you need?”

“I could use a refill on my iced tea,” Nick said.

She looked at his half-empty glass. “Of course, I’ll be right back.” Moments later she returned to the table, with his iced tea glass filled to near overflowing, and then went back to dealing with her other customers.

Nick and Adam lingered, ordering coffee and Mary’s famous apple pie for dessert. Courtney served them once again and then tried to keep her gaze away from Nick as she busied herself taking care of other people’s dining needs.

She smiled at one of her favorite customers, Thomas Manning. Thomas had arrived in Grady Gulch about a year ago. He was in his late thirties, quiet and well spoken and usually had a book in his hand. She took Thomas’s order and left the table.

She couldn’t wait for this rush hour to be over so she could get Garrett back home and get on with the rest of her weekend. All she wanted to do for the remainder of the evening and all day tomorrow was spend time with her favorite little boy.

Still, she couldn’t help but notice several people stopping by the booth to visit with Nick and Adam. On their best day the two were both charmers, easy to talk to and drawing people to them.

The dinner rush seemed to last forever, but finally people began to filter out. She glanced over at Nick and saw that Mary was visiting with the two men.

As the pretty blonde walked away from their table to visit with another dinner guest, Nick’s gaze caught hers and in the depths of his eyes was a burning anger.

He knows.

The words thundered in her head, for a moment stealing all other sound, as if she’d gone momentarily deaf. She broke eye contact with him and walked on shaky legs toward the kitchen.

He knows Garrett is his. She wasn’t sure who might have told him Garrett’s age, but with that information there would be little doubt in his mind that the boy belonged to him. She’d make him doubt, she thought desperately. As long as he didn’t see Garrett, he couldn’t be sure.

“Problems?” Rusty asked as he stepped away from the grill. More than once Rusty had served as bouncer for customers who got out of line. He not only had broad shoulders and arms the size of tree trunks, but his face was enough to intimidate anyone.

He might scare somebody who didn’t know him, but Courtney had seen the soft side he rarely displayed, his utter devotion to Mary and her son, Matt, and all the women who worked here.

“No problems,” she quickly assured him as she tried to still the rapid rhythm of her heartbeat. “I just needed a minute away from the crowd.”

What was she going to do? A frantic energy swelled up inside her as she considered her options. She could lie to him and tell him that a week after he’d left town she’d slept with somebody else. There would be no way he could disprove her words, and she wouldn’t have to give him a specific name.

The only way he’d know the truth for sure was if he actually saw that little cleft in Garrett’s chin. It couldn’t have come from anyone else in the entire town but Nick Benson.

For the first time since she’d left her hometown of Evanston, she thought of going back. Would her parents have finally forgiven her for not being the daughter they’d wanted? Would they accept her and her child into their home to get back on her feet after having kicked her out when they’d discovered her pregnancy?

Surely two years would have brought some forgiveness. Even as she thought of the idea, she dismissed it. She hadn’t heard from either of her parents since they’d thrown her out of their home. Even the birth of her son hadn’t broken the deafening silence of disapproval that had lingered over the past fifteen months.

Besides, she couldn’t go back to living beneath their roof, where she’d always felt inadequate, where she’d never embraced their need for material things and social acceptance, and where they’d never accepted the woman she had grown up to be.

With a sigh she left the kitchen once again, noting with a quick, darting glance that Nick and Adam remained in their booth. She’d already given them their tab so there was nothing else they should need from her.

She focused on the remaining diners in her section and slowly began to relax as she once again met Nick’s gaze and didn’t see any of the fiery anger she thought she’d seen earlier.

Maybe she’d only imagined the flames of rage there. Maybe it had simply been her slightly guilty conscience at work. She picked up the glass of iced tea she’d nursed all through her shift from a small table close to the restrooms.

She took a sip of her tepid tea and for a moment she thought of the two waitresses who would never work here again, women who had been murdered in their beds.

Everyone had hoped that Candy’s murder had either been committed by her boyfriend or perhaps a drifter passing through town. The latest murder seemed to blow the drifter theory out of the water. She set her glass down and fought against a shiver that threatened to walk up her spine as she realized the odds were good that the killer was a local. She might have even served him a meal.

She shook her head to dispel thoughts of murder and smoothed a hand down the T-shirt that marked her as a Cowboy Café waitress. Hopefully it was just a strange coincidence that both of the murder victims had worked here.

It was just before seven when Mary walked over to her. “You can go home now. Thanks for filling in at the last minute. This flu bug that’s going around seems to be getting people down.”

Courtney nodded, but she wondered if the two waitresses who had called in sick had really been sick or had been afraid to come in after the latest murder of one of their own.

She’d heard through the grapevine that Shirley’s funeral was set for next Wednesday, and as far as Courtney knew everyone from the Cowboy Café planned to attend. Mary had already said she intended to close down the café for several hours that day.

“I’ll see you Monday at noon,” Courtney said as she handed Mary her order pan and pen. “Good night.”

She’d almost made it to the door when a firm hand wrapped around her arm and stopped her. “We need to talk.” Nick’s voice simmered with barely controlled emotions just behind her.

She slowly turned to face him and realized she hadn’t imagined that moment earlier when his eyes had flamed with anger. Now they were a cold, icy blue, and she knew if she didn’t think fast on her feet, he’d know the secret she’d planned on taking to the grave.

Chapter 4

Nick held tight to her arm, not wanting to release her until he could bend her to his will, force her to tell him what he wanted to know.

“I told you before, we have nothing to talk about,” she replied, her face taking on an unhealthy paleness.

“Oh, I think we do,” he said, his voice deceptively soft and calm. “I think we have a lot to discuss.”

She glanced around frantically and jerked her arm from his grasp. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about. I’m tired. I just finished up a busy dinner shift. Leave me alone, Nick.”

He watched as she stormed out the door, and he sensed his brother moving to stand just behind him. “Problems?” Adam asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Nick said as the two left the café. “Drop me off at the motel.”

“At the motel? Why? You want to tell me what’s going on?” Adam asked as Nick tossed him the keys to the truck.

“I think Courtney and I have a little unfinished business.” Was it possible? Adam had told him he thought Courtney’s baby was about ten months old, but Mary had mentioned she couldn’t believe that Courtney’s son was already fifteen months old. Was she mistaken?

Fifteen months? Was it possible the child was his? They’d always been so careful about birth control, except that last night when he’d come to her consumed with grief.

There had been no thought of birth control that night. There had been no thought in his mind except his need for Courtney’s arms around him, his need for her to swallow him, to engulf him so as to somehow take away at least a little bit of his pain.

“Unfinished business? I didn’t know you had any starting business with her,” Adam said as he got in behind the wheel. He didn’t start the engine but rather turned and looked at Nick in the passenger seat. “Again, you want to tell me what’s going on? And this time, be a little more specific.”

“At least start the engine so we can get some air-conditioning going,” Nick replied. He drew a deep sigh and stared out the window, his brain whirling with suppositions. Was it possible she’d gotten pregnant that night?

If that was the case then why hadn’t she called him? Why hadn’t she let him know immediately? That was a question that had haunted him even before now.

In the time that he’d been gone he’d never changed his cell phone number, and even though he’d decided not to contact her, to let her go, he’d been surprised and more than a little hurt that she’d never attempted to call him.

Now there was a part of him that was infuriated that she hadn’t called to tell him she was pregnant with his child. Slow down, he told himself. He couldn’t be sure about the facts. He couldn’t be sure that the child was his.

As the interior of the truck began to cool, Nick turned to look at his brother. “Before Cherry’s death, Courtney and I were sort of seeing each other.”

Adam frowned. “Sort of seeing each other? You mean like dating?”

Nick gave a curt nod of his head.

“Why didn’t I know about it? I never heard anything about you and Courtney Chambers.”

“That’s the way we wanted it. We kept our relationship a secret. Her parents would have freaked out if they had known she was dating a no-count rancher like me.” A small burn set off in the pit of his stomach. Had the truth been that she’d been ashamed of their relationship and had only used the disapproval of her parents as an excuse?

“So, what’s the unfinished business?”

“Courtney’s baby.”

Adam raised a dark eyebrow. “What about the baby?”

“Didn’t you hear Mary mention that Courtney’s boy was fifteen months old?”

“Fifteen months...” Adam’s voice trailed off as he did the mental math. “The kid is yours?”

“I can’t be positive.” Nick’s gut churned. “But, I intend to find out. Just take me to the motel, and I’ll find my own way home from there.”

Adam left the café parking lot and shook his head ruefully. “You and Courtney, it’s hard to wrap my mind around it. You just don’t seem like her type.”

“I wasn’t. We were just having fun together for a while.” The words felt like a lie as they left Nick’s lips. “We had no contact after I skipped town.”

“What are you going to do if the boy is yours?” Adam asked.

A child.

A son.

“I’m not sure.” Nick’s head whirled at the thought of the child, but he couldn’t find any real emotional purchase. He was numbed by the very idea. At the moment the thought of him having a son was merely a theory, and until that theory was proven he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it.

Adam pulled up in front of the motel. “It doesn’t look like she’s here.”

Nick opened the passenger door to step out. “She’ll be here.” Sooner or later she had to come home, and he wasn’t about to leave here without answers.

“You want to call me when you’re finished here and I’ll come back for you?” Adam asked. Nick frowned as he saw his brother lick his lips and look in the direction of The Corral.

“Adam, go home and I’ll call you when it’s time to pick me back up.”

For a long moment Adam stared at him, then with a weary sigh of resignation, he nodded. “Okay, I’ll go home and wait for you.”

“I’ll call you for a ride home,” Nick agreed. Nick got out of the truck, and as he watched Adam drive away he admitted to himself that he had momentarily worried that Adam would leave here and drive directly to The Corral for a few drinks. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for Adam drinking and driving.

He moved to the side of the motel and stood beneath a stand of trees, half-hidden by the deepening shadows of the night.

If she saw him waiting for her she might just turn right around and drive away as quickly as she could.

He figured she’d gone to pick up the boy from wherever he went when she worked. The boy. He didn’t even know his name. But, he still didn’t know if he even had a right to know his name.

He’d known in some part of his grieving heart when he’d left here that he’d hurt her, but he’d thought it was best for both of them. She’d been ashamed of him. He’d convinced himself that she’d needed her parents’ approval more than she’d ever needed him.

He’d been stunned when he’d realized he was her first lover. But, there was no reason to believe since that time that he’d been her only lover.

He tensed as he saw her car pull in and park in front of her unit. He didn’t immediately approach her but instead remained where he was and watched as she got out of the car and then opened the back door to retrieve the baby.

She hurried inside as if afraid somebody might see her, as if somehow afraid that he would see her. He’d certainly seen enough to know that the baby wasn’t some wee little thing she carried in one arm. He’d been a little chunk who had to be older than a year.

Timing was everything. He needed to know the timing of her pregnancy. And the time to find that out was right now. He didn’t want to go another minute without knowing the truth.

Drawing a deep breath, still more than a little bit numb at the possibility of what he might discover, he approached her door and knocked firmly.

A curtain shifted slightly and then dropped back in place at the window. “Go away,” her voice said through the closed door.

“I’m here now, Courtney, and I’m not going away,” he replied.

“I’ll call Sheriff Evans,” she replied.

“I have a feeling with two murders on his hands you’ll have a hard time getting his attention.”

His comment was met with silence, and for several long moments he thought she intended to ignore him. But he wasn’t going to be ignored tonight.

Just as he was getting ready to knock on the door once again, she opened it and slid outside into the hot night air, pulling the door halfway closed as she had the last time he’d shown up here.

“I’m curious about your son,” he said, cutting to the chase. He noted that her full, lush lips tightened into a thin slash of irritation. The flash of the nearby red neon sign advertising the Grady Gulch Motel cast a faint blush over her features.

“Why would you be curious about him?” Her entire body language was one of intense defensiveness, but her gaze met his boldly.

A tight pressure filled Nick’s chest, a pressure that was both severe and painful. He knew what the pressure was...it was the question that begged to be answered, and he somehow knew that the answer might change his life forever.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.