“Will you stop chucking things at me and listen?”
He took a step forward as if to grab her arm. She swatted him with a flower. She would have hit him again if Asa hadn’t gotten between them and slammed his hand into Aaron’s chest, sending him stumbling back a step. “Don’t you touch her.”
A sharp whistle was the only warning she had before Cougar lobbed a humidor her way. She caught it, but she couldn’t throw it. Not with Asa blocking her way with his big shoulders. Shoulders that were clearly squared for a fight.
She glanced at Aaron and saw the same itching need to exchange blows reflected in his face. “Get out of my way, Asa.”
With obliging quickness, he stepped to the left. “How could you do it, Aaron?” she asked, tightening her grip on the humidor. “How could you do that to me?”
“I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.” He growled, running his hands through his hair. “I asked Patricia what women wanted and— Hell!” He threw up his hands. “Brent seemed heaven-sent. He spoke with fancy words, tossed compliments around like they were candy, and dressed Eastern.”
“You asked Patricia?” she asked in horror. Lord, did the whole territory know her best friend thought her so pathetic, he’d bought her a husband?
Aaron shuffled his feet, blew out a breath, then pulled his arrogance around him like a shield. His gaze locked somewhere over her left shoulder as he admitted, “I wanted you to smile again.”
“So you bought me a husband you thought would make that happen?”
“Yes.”
The humidor was tugged from her grasp. She looked down as Asa’s finger’s squeezed hers gently. She looked over at Aaron, standing before her. She saw the fear of rejection in his eyes as he stood there, pretending he didn’t have a care in the world. She remembered back to her youth, the times he’d stood by her. The times he’d stood up for her.
I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.
Most especially, she remembered her whispering to him once that she wanted a prince in wonderful clothes who wouldn’t stink like cows, and who’d take care of everything so she’d never have to worry about anything again. She’d been so young when she’d told him her dreams. So young and ignorant of her own personality, but he’d remembered and taken to heart his promise to give her all that. He’d had to dredge the bottom of society to find the epitome of a fourteen-year-old girl’s dream, but he’d found it and gifted her with Brent. She sighed. Someday, she was going to have to get through to him that she was all grown up now and her taste had definitely changed.
“I can forgive you Brent,” she admitted. “Especially as I didn’t see through him either.” She doubted she’d ever get over the humiliation of that. “But what I can’t forgive is driving the Rocking C into the ground.”
Aaron’s hands clenched into fists, and even the curls on his head seemed to bristle. “I haven’t done a goddamned thing to the Rocking C!”
There was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice or his eyes. God, she was so relieved to be able to believe him. “But Asa said…”
“I was wrong,” Asa admitted heavily.
“Did I hear you right?” she asked
“I never said I couldn’t be wrong.”
“Not in so many words…”
He silenced her with a hard kiss. “You want to get into this right now?”
“Not particularly.” But later, that was a whole other kettle of fish. “But, if Aaron isn’t the one sabotaging the ranch, who is?” she asked.
“That’s what we have to figure out,” Cougar said, pulling the unlit cigarette from between his lips as he stepped away from the doorjamb.
“And fast from the looks of things,” Aaron interjected.
“The look of what things?” Elizabeth asked.
No one paid her any mind.
“Elizabeth mentioned that Jimmy might bear looking at.” Asa mentioned, releasing her hand and putting the humidor away.
“He’s good with a gun,” Cougar offered.
“He doesn’t have a reason,” Aaron countered.
“Revenge is usually reason enough for most things.”
Aaron cocked an eyebrow at Asa. “And you think losing a job would drive him to killing?”
“That and my objections to his treatment of ladies.”
Never slow on the uptake, Aaron cut Elizabeth a sharp glance. “Jimmy was pestering you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe he got the impression that, being for sale, I was up for grabs.”
“Goddammit, Elizabeth!” Aaron shouted, reaching for his nonexistent hat before dropping his clenched fist to his side. “I did not sell you!”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” she said with infinite sweetness.
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come to me for help!” Aaron growled.
“Elizabeth has a real aggravating habit of thinking she can solve things herself,” Asa said, giving her hand a warning squeeze when she would have answered for herself.