I never expected you to ride this mustang through to the finish.
What had he meant by that? He couldn’t mean he hadn’t expected her to keep to her end of their agreement. That didn’t make any sense. They were married. Something like that couldn’t just be set aside. She watched as Shameless trotted out of the barn, Asa on his back. She held her breath waiting—no, hoping—for a glance, but, without so much as a turn of his head, Asa rode out. She let the curtain drop back into place.
Oh Lord, she didn’t know what to feel inside. She was mad, confused and guilty. The ledger, lying open on the desk, beckoned. Maybe she’d find the road out of this mess in there. Maybe, when Asa got home, they could talk. If they couldn’t put this misunderstanding behind them, she could at least apologize. She crossed to the desk, sighed, flopped down in the chair and spun the ledger toward her. Son of a bitch, she was a fool.
* * * * *
Asa pulled up Shameless in front of the house just as dusk was falling. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt worse. And not because his ribs were screaming. That he could live with. The knowledge that he was failing Elizabeth, that was a whole different animal altogether. A big-clawed, ugly-toothed monster he couldn’t beat back.
Someone had gotten to the railroad. There was no earthly reason why they couldn’t take the cattle two weeks early. No reason for them to have changed their minds from yesterday to today, but they had. Irrefutably. No amount of reasoning or threats would change it. Lord above, he’d tried everything in his considerable repertoire. Shameless pawed the ground, anxious to get to the barn. Asa reined him in. He looked up at the mountains looming beyond the house.
“If y’all are planning to do some guarding, this would be the time to do it.”
The only answer he got was a storm cloud cresting the peak. It wasn’t a comforting sight. He looked around the ranch. It was a damned nice lay. He could understand the desperation Elizabeth’s pa had felt to hold onto it. He could never agree with what he’d done to Elizabeth. For that, he’d like to shoot him on sight, but he could understand what drove him. The same desperation festered in his own innards. Not for the land, though. He wouldn’t kill a man for land. He looked to the house where the lights burned bright and beckoning. For the loss of Elizabeth, he’d kill twenty men. That kind of pain was going to take some getting used to. Probably a lifetime.
She was never going to forgive him for not holding the ranch. She saw him as a hero, someone who could beat all the odds. Only this time, the deck was stacked against him. This time, he wasn’t going to pull it off. And when she learned the truth of it, she’d leave him eating her dust so fast, he’d be choking for a month of Sundays. He nudged Shameless into the barn. It had been sweet while it lasted, though. Mighty sweet.
He settled Shameless, then stood in the barn door and braced himself for the tongue-lashing awaiting him at the house. He deserved every angry word. He should have seen this coming earlier and taken more aggressive steps to halt it. Hunching his shoulders against the cold encroachment of night, he made his way to the kitchen door. Rich scents of dinner swept his way on an errant breeze. His stomach growled and his mouth watered. Damned, he was going to miss eating regular, too.
As soon as his boot hit the top step, the back door opened. He suppressed a groan. He’d been hoping she’d spend the evening avoiding him. He wasn’t in the mood for another argument. He should have known better. Elizabeth had a penchant for facing life head on.
“You’ve got to be freezing.”
As first words went, those weren’t the ones he thought he’d be hearing.
“I’m fine.”
Her hand went to his upper arm. “Come on in.”
He eyed her warily as he crossed the threshold. Like she’d done every day for the last six weeks, she took his hat and set it on the hook on the wall.
“Thank you.” What else could he say in the face of this concern that didn’t make sense?
“Supper’s ready. I hope you like chicken fricassee.”
He sat in the chair, but not before checking it unobtrusively to see if the legs were sabotaged. It was as solid as a rock. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
She placed a mouth-watering concoction in front of him. Two seconds later, she served herself. He’d watched her serve both, so that left out poisoning.
He applied himself to his meal like it was his last, ‘cause, sure as shooting, it was. He was halfway through his plate when he realized she was eating, too. Not picking at her food like he expected, seeing as the way they’d parted, but actually eating. And with enjoyment. He was so shocked, he stared.