Chapter Two

      A time to meet...

      Falcon glanced at the wagon-wheel clock on the wall. He and his mother handled the books for the ranch, and it took a lot of time. More time than he wanted to spend in an office. He’d rather be enjoying the outdoors.

      Five years ago they’d built a new barn and made an updated office upstairs. He could see out over Rebel Ranch, but it wasn’t the same as being out there.

      His mother got up from her desk. “I’m going to check on the boys. It makes me nervous when they work so close to the McCray property.”

      Falcon leaned back in his leather chair. “I’ll catch up with you as soon as Hancock calls. He wants to schedule a day to pick out the Hereford heifers for his ranch. It shouldn’t take long.”

      As soon as his mother closed the door, Hancock called and set a date with Falcon. He hung up and the phone immediately rang again. Falcon answered without glancing at the caller ID. “Hello.”

      There was silence on the other end. “Hello, is anyone there?”

      “Uh...uh... I...”

      The voice was female so Falcon thought it was someone looking for Paxton or Elias, which was a regular occurrence. “You’ve reached Rebel Ranch. Who do you want to talk to?”

      “Falcon, this is...Leah.”

      A line from an Alan Jackson song ran through his mind: “Where were you when the world stopped turning?” For Falcon, everything stopped at that moment. He didn’t care about a buyer wanting heifers or his brothers facing the McCrays. All he could hear was This is Leah.

      He’d waited years for this call and now that it had come he was speechless. His nerves tightened like stretched barbed wire and his emotions were hard to contain. Anger, confusion and curiosity held him in a grip. He sucked air into his aching lungs.

      “Falcon, are you still there?”

      Her voice was just the same, soft with a Southern lilt. She’d been reared in Alabama and she never lost that cadence in her voice. It was sexy as hell, but today it only annoyed him.

      “What do you want?”

      “I’d like to talk.”

      “Where are you?”

      “I’m at the new park in Horseshoe.”

      His heart pounded off his ribs in fear. Talking to Leah was the last thing he wanted to do, but she wasn’t far from Eden and he had to make sure she didn’t get any closer. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

      Hanging up, he took a minute to absorb what had just happened. She was back. Leah was back. It happened so fast he was reeling. There could be only one thing she wanted and that was to see her daughter. And he was going to make sure that never happened. He would not let Leah hurt Eden like she had hurt him. That was his one thought as he ran for his truck.

      * * *

      LEAH PACED AROUND the park. She couldn’t sit still. Her nerves felt as if they were tied into a big wad, like Christmas lights that could never be untangled. She looked around the park to calm herself. It sported colorful swings, slides, park benches and picnic areas. There was even a water playground for the kids. Water spewed up from several flat concrete fountains you could run through. She’d seen this in Houston and she never imagined they would have one in little Horseshoe, Texas.

      Things had certainly changed since she’d been gone. She’d noticed a lot of new storefronts and several old stores had closed. Horseshoe would always be home, though. When she was twelve, her mother had died and she and her dad had moved there to live with his sister. Her dad had thought it would be good for Leah to have a woman around. In ways it had been, but in others it had been debilitating. Why was she thinking about...? A truck pulled up to the curb and her thoughts came to an abrupt stop. It was Falcon.

      There was no mistaking him—tall, with broad shoulders and an intimidating glare. She swallowed hard as his long strides brought him closer. In jeans, boots and a Stetson he reminded her of the first time she’d met him in high school. Being new to the school system, she’d been shy and hadn’t known a lot of the kids. It took her two years before she’d actually made friends and felt like part of a group. Falcon Rebel had been way out of that group. The girls swooned over him and the boys wanted to be like him: tough and confident.

      One day she was sitting on a bench waiting for her aunt to pick her up. Falcon strolled from the gym just as he was now, with broad sure strides. She never knew what made her get up from the bench, but as she did she’d dropped her books and purse and items went everywhere. He’d stopped to help her and her hands shook from the intensity of his dark eyes. From that moment on there was no one for her but Falcon.

      Now he stood about twelve feet from her and once again she felt like that shy young girl trying to make conversation. But this was so much more intense.

      Be calm. Be calm. Be calm.

      “I’m...I’m glad you came,” she said, trying to maintain her composure because she knew the next few minutes were going to be the roughest of her life.

      His eyes narrowed. “What do you want?” His words were like hard rocks hitting her skin, each one intended to import a message. His eyes were dark and angry, and she wondered if she’d made the right decision in coming.

      Gathering every ounce of courage she’d managed to build over the years, she replied, “I want to see my daughter.”

      He took a step closer to her. “Does the phrase ‘over my dead body’ mean anything to you?”

      At his uncompromising tone her courage faltered, but she stood her ground. “I’ve already seen her, Falcon. But I would like the opportunity to visit with her for a few minutes to explain about the past. She has a right to know the truth.”

      “Where did you see her? And when?”

      She slid her shaky hands into the pockets of her pants. “I was coming to the ranch this morning and then I saw a red pickup with a young woman. I knew it was her, so I followed her to school.”

      “You didn’t...”

      “No, I didn’t introduce myself. I wouldn’t do that.”

      “Really?