Heartsong (Singing to the Heart Book 2) (7 page)

With a mental shake to get the horrible images out of her head of her beautiful Angus cattle dirty and living in mud and their own excrement, she nodded. “I tried to call the head of the company to find out what they have planned for the place, but I got nowhere. I’ve left at least five messages since the sale and haven’t gotten a single call back. What would you do if it were you?”

He shook his head and watched as Beau reached under the bottom rail with his tongue to capture a few blades of grass growing around the fence post. “I wouldn’t do it, but I don’t have the responsibility you do.”

No statement was ever truer, but she wasn’t signing any contracts yet. The idea of leaving the ranch scared her to death. Would the judge think she was stupid for not taking a good-paying job on the ranch? Or could she prove that she can make it on her own merit?

“I haven’t decided, but I can’t wait until I do. If I leave, I have to have a job.” She’d cashed out the retirement fund Sam had set up for her. It wasn’t much and wouldn’t last her more than two months if she decided to leave the ranch, but it added a bit of padding to her bank account.

As she reached for Beau’s reins, a wave of sorrow hit her. There wouldn’t be anything left of the ranch she loved in a few months. She’d seen too many beautiful spreads destroyed by the corporations buying them up and turning them into nothing more than cattle factories.

“These people even bought Jesse’s Bobo.” She swallowed at the lump in her throat.

“That goofy duck you gave him for Easter a few years back?”

“Yep.” When Jesse was five years old, he’d gotten the biggest thrill from the duckling following him around the yard as he looked for the eggs Frankie had hidden. For the past several years, the duck had seemed more content to stay on the small lake in the pasture closest to the house rather than waiting to waddle after Jesse, but Jesse still loved it and letting it go would be just one more hurtful thing. “I’m so glad your sister took Frankie’s cats and you took Sam’s dogs. I would’ve loved having them if Momma wasn’t so allergic...”

“You know we’ll love them, Micki.”

She knew, but it seemed like she was giving away everything her sister and husband loved. Looking toward the big white house through the orchard, she sighed. She wasn’t ready for starting over. “The household goods are going to auction on October first.”

“I saw the sign at the gate. I’m sorry, Micki.”

Not wanting the sympathy she heard in his voice and wishing she’d kept the sorrow she felt to herself, she glanced back at him and headed toward the barn with Beau trotting beside her. “C’mon. I’m done here.”

Once they were in the breezeway, he began to remove the bridle and saddle. She led Beau into his stall. Cash filled the trough with water, then the feed bucket with grain. While she used a currycomb to groom Beau, Cash took the horse’s protective boots and bridle into the tack room. He had been unusually quiet for the past few moments. For as long as she could remember, which had been most of his life, Cash was a chatterer.

Hoping she hadn’t hurt his feelings, she leaned against a stall door and crossed her arms over her chest. When he returned from the tack room, she said, “What’s on your mind?”

He glanced down at his boots and kicked the straw covering the concrete floor. “I wish I could’ve bought this place--stock and all.”

She pushed away from the stall and dropped her arms. “Why?”

He looked at her, and she wished she could see his brown eyes, but the brim of his hat hid them in a shadow. “Then you wouldn’t need to worry about anything.”

She swallowed so hard it hurt. Cash was one of her closest friends. “Cash, I...”

He let out a sigh loud enough she’d heard it from across the space of the breezeway. “I know you think I’m a kid. I love this place, too, Micki. I’ve been working here since I was thirteen.” He cleared his throat and closed the distance between them. When he was standing before her, boot to boot, he pushed back her hat and met her eyes. “I hate seeing you like this. You worry about everyone, but you don’t think about yourself.”

Glancing away, she bit her bottom lip. “I’m okay.”

But she wasn’t okay. Ever since Gabe had walked back into her life, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. He’d promised to help her with Jesse, but he went back to his high life, leaving her to work everything out again.

Her heart ached over losing Jesse to her father, and the loss of her family in the crash. Helping the women from church pack away Sam and Frankie’s life had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She was also scared her mother wasn’t being truthful about her level of pain. Momma had become withdrawn, her speech more slurred, and her appetite was nearly nonexistent.

Closing the stall door, she met his skeptical expression and reiterated a little more forcefully, “Cash, I’m okay.”

They left the barn together, and he looked around. “What do you have in mind for today?”

“We need to get some hay out to the cattle across the creek. With this drought, they’re burning through that piss-ass poor grass over there.”

He rubbed his hand over the back of his sunburned neck. “How much hay do we have?”

Micki shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. They were so faded that the blue was washed almost white in places. “Enough for two weeks. After September thirtieth, feeding the stock will be the problem of the corporation.” She swallowed and looked toward the bunkhouse. Eddie Rodrigues loaded a warn La-Z-Boy onto the back of a pickup. He was the last of the full-time hands to move.

“Where’s Eddie going?”

She kicked at a clump of dry dirt with her boot. “He got a job on a ranch somewhere south of Dallas with his cousin.”

He shook his head. “Eddie’s been here forever.”

“Yeah, I know. He didn’t want to go but didn’t really have a choice. Even though the new owners offered jobs, none of the hands applied for them. We all hate these faceless corporations that are buying up ranches and farms and destroying them.”

“Damn.” He cleared his throat and wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. “Do we still have to vaccinate the cows?”

God, why couldn’t things have stayed as they were? “The cattle have to be counted and vaccinated by Wednesday. Eddie and I did about a hundred fifty of them yesterday.”

“That gives you less than a week to do the rest.” He paused and faced her. “We can start with those cows across the creek today.”

She kicked at the dusty gravel in the driveway with the toe of her worn boot and slapped him on the shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s go get something to eat first.” At the steps of the cottage, she turned to him, squinting into the bright morning sun to look up into his face. “I’m glad you’re here. I don’t know how I would’ve survived if I would’ve had to take care of this place on my own.”

Pink flared to life in the cheeks of his baby face, and his earlobes turned red. He looked at the ground and shrugged. “What are friends for if we don’t help each other out?”

* * * *

“Hello.” The soft and sleepy word sounded through Gabe’s cell and did all sorts of things to parts of him that had no business responding to anything Michaela Finn said.

“Hi, Michaela.” He shifted in the leather seat of the BMW convertible and cleared his throat of the gruffness. He must have strained his voice singing the last song during the concert tonight.

“About damned time you call me,” she snapped without preamble, and he smiled. Michaela always was a straight shooter.

When the light changed, he flipped on his turn signal and maneuvered into the driveway of the hotel. The streets of downtown Cheyenne were virtually deserted.

She yawned and didn’t bother hiding it from him. “It’s one thirty in the morning.”

He winced and slowed the rental car as he pulled into the parking garage of the luxury hotel where he and the band were staying. “Sorry it’s so late. I just listened to my messages.”

“Nice to see I rate in importance to you. I called at ten a.m. this morning.”

“I’m sorry. I was busy all day. My concert was tonight.”

He may have been busy, but that didn’t stop him from thinking about her. About the way she took care of Jesse and how right it all looked.

Or how much it would hurt her to lose him.

She sighed and her voice softened. “Actually, I probably would’ve missed your call anyway. I helped move cows all day.” He wanted to tell her not to worry so much about the cattle, but before he could speak, she asked, “Have you found out anything? How can we get Jesse back?”

He sucked in a breath and pulled the BMW into his parking space. “I have a plan, but it involves me adopting Jesse. Alone.”

A rustling and the soft creaking of bedsprings sounded over the line. From the buried past, an exhumed memory hit him as hard as a fist when the image of Micki in her bed and dressed in one of his T-shirts jumped to the front of his mind. How many times had he peeled the soft cotton from her body and kissed the tanned skin, tasting, teasing, until she’d begged him to take her? His groin jumped to life, and he had to concentrate on his plan.

Before he could tell her he’d bought the ranch and she wouldn’t have to move, she seethed, “How can you do this to me? I thought you believed the road wasn’t any place for a kid. Damn you, Gabe! You know I love him. Frankie would’ve wanted me to have him. You’re doing this to spite me, is that it?”

Why did she always have to assume he was trying to hurt her? Maybe he shouldn’t even try to keep her involved. Gritting his teeth and gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white, he decided to stop trying. Even if he told her his plan, she’d refuse to be a part of it. She’d never take anything from him, and damn it, he was tired of being punished for leaving her. “My decision has nothing to do with you. He’s my brother, and I want to do what’s best for him.”

“That never mattered before! You hated my sister and your own father.”

In his mind, he saw her sitting in bed and clutching her cell phone. Looking sexy as hell with her long blond hair tumbling wild over her shoulders and her blue eyes fiery with anger.

He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to stop the erotic images. She’d never be his again, if she ever had been. The only person who mattered was Jesse. “Damn it, Michaela, I love him and I’ll do anything for him.”

“What kind of life can you give him, Gabe?”

Now,
that
was a million-dollar question. He turned the engine off and sat under the spotlights of the garage. As he stared at the concrete wall, he got his body under control but not the seething anger boiling his blood at her lack of faith in him. Reese was right. He didn’t need her to raise Jesse. Gabe loved him. He had a home and enough money to provide for him. What else did he need? Considering Michaela’s feelings had done nothing but cause him a shitload of grief, it was about time he started thinking about what was best for his brother. “A home. A good education. He’ll never want for anything.”

“I can give him those things as easily as you.”

“How? You refused to take me up on my offer to support him. Do you plan to use his inheritance?” He crossed the line with the accusation, but he didn’t give a goddamn. He’d had enough of her playing the martyr.

“I can’t believe you think I’d touch his money.” She was quiet for a moment, and he figured she was squaring her stubborn shoulders to blast him with some other crap. “I’m not going to deny things will be tough, but a lot of kids are raised in tough situations and do just fine. At least if he’s with me, I’d be the one raising him. Have you hired his nanny for when you’re partying with the latest slut? Or will you just pawn him off to the next bimbo you marry for advancement of your career?”

He’d wondered how long it would be before she brought up his ex-wife. Too wound up to hear Michaela’s thoughts about her, Gabe set his back teeth and hit the disconnect button.

With a frustrated push, the door opened and he climbed out of the sports car. Why had he told Michaela his plan to adopt Jesse? He should have known how the conversation was going to go to hell.

All she’d ever done was find fault in everything he did. Michaela thought he slept his way to the top. Hell, a lot of people thought that, especially after the release of the stink bomb that was his second album. So, why did her belief that he did cause a sharp pain in the middle of his forehead like someone was poking him with a penknife from the inside of his skull?

He made his way to the bank of elevators and pushed the
up
button.

The vision of moonlight shining through the window next to their bed in the bunkhouse and turning her skin silvery flashed before his eyes. In the pale light, he’d kissed his way from her firm breasts down her belly to the hot, wet, sweet place between her legs.

“Shit,” he hissed through his teeth and tapped the
up
key again. He dragged in a breath, glad no one was around to see the bulge he sported in his tight jeans. How could he have a hard-on for a woman who irritated the hell out of him?

Maybe he should find a woman and get himself laid. But he knew a meaningless fuck with just anyone he wanted wouldn’t help. Hadn’t for a long time, if ever. He wanted one particular woman.

As the door slid open, he scowled and stepped in.

Hell would be enjoying snowball fights and the devil would be ice fishing on the River Styx before he’d ever touch Michaela Finn again.

Music blaring over a sound system greeted Gabe when he stepped off the elevator. Gritting his teeth, he rushed to the door of his luxury suite. He dug his key card out of his jeans pocket and opened the door, dreading what he’d find on the other side.

Scantily dressed women danced provocatively with his band members and the men of Gabe’s production crew in the living room. Alcohol freely flowed and cigarette smoke hung at the ceiling of his non-smoking room like a low ominous storm cloud.

“Isn’t this great?” Joel Horner, the bass guitar player in Gabe’s band, rushed over and flung an arm around Gabe’s shoulders. His long dark hair hung around his face, reminding Gabe of a hair band member from the eighties. Joel flashed a cocky grin. “You’ve been way too glum lately. So, we planned a little pick-you-up party.”