Branded. B.J. Daniels
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green eyes and a temper.
“The damn fool,” Colton said to himself. What made it worse was that his father was plainly head over heels in love with the woman. And Emma … well, she seemed set on changing things on the ranch. He shook his head. Emma McDougal Chisholm had no idea what she’d signed on for. If she did, she’d be hightailing it out of town before sundown.
As Colton neared the highway on the long dirt road out of the ranch, he saw the postman, Albert Raines, pull up to the huge mailbox marked Chisholm. Albert waved to him and Colton slowed, pulling alongside as the postman got out and walked toward his pickup.
“Got a bunch of mail as usual,” the tall, skinny postman said. “I was told to see that you got this personally, though.” He handed Colton an envelope from the Postal Service.
At first he thought the postman was joking with him. “This about some new stamp designs?”
“Nope,” Albert said with all seriousness. “It’s a letter addressed to you that got lost. I brought it special.”
“Thanks.” He tossed it on the seat. He’d gotten other mail that had been caught in some machine and mangled and had ended up in an envelope just like the one Albert had handed him. No doubt it was a bill of some sort, since Colton rarely received anything else.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Albert sounded disappointed. “I heard it’s been lost for fourteen years.”
Colton chuckled. “I’m sure it will keep if it’s been lost that long.” He waved goodbye as he left and headed down the road to his house. He’d taken over one of the houses when his father had purchased a neighboring ranch a few years back. The house needed work, but Colton had needed space.
While the Chisholm ranch house was huge and rambling, it wasn’t big enough for him and his brothers. All of them had moved out when they’d heard about their father’s marriage, but they all still returned to the main ranch house for meals. Emma had seen to that.
After cleaning up, Colton headed into Whitehorse, anxious to get his errands done and get back for dinner. Emma had announced that she and the cook were baking apple pies. The way his brothers put away food, the pies wouldn’t last long. Emma demanded that they all sit down to dinner each evening at the huge log dining room table at the ranch.
Crossing Emma had proved to be a bad thing, he thought, smiling at the memory of her turning the hose on him and Tanner. Emma wasn’t very tall, but she was feisty as a badger—and just as dangerous when she was riled up. He figured that was one reason his father had fallen for her—and the reason this marriage didn’t stand a chance in hell.
It wasn’t until later, after picking up supplies, stopping to see if his saddle was fixed yet and having a cup of coffee while he waited at the local café, that Colton climbed back in his pickup and saw the envelope.
He thought about just tossing it. What was the point in looking at a bill that had gotten lost in the mail years ago? Hell, fourteen years ago he’d been eighteen, too young to have bills and who would have sent him a letter?
Curious now, he tore open the envelope and dumped out the contents.
A once-white small envelope tumbled out on his pickup seat. The moment he saw her handwriting, his heart stuttered in his chest and he found himself heaving for breath, the effort almost doubling over from the pain of his banged-up ribs. He stared at the handwriting, the return address and finally the postmark. The letter had been mailed fourteen years ago in May—right before Jessica left Whitehorse without even saying goodbye and he’d never seen her again.
He felt the heartbreak as if it had been only yesterday as he carefully eased open the back flap and took out the handwritten letter inside.
Colton,
I’m sorry we fought. But I can’t stay here at the house any longer. It’s only getting worse. I’m running away. I hope you’ll come with me. I’ll be waiting for you at our special place Friday night at midnight. If you love me, you’ll meet me there and we’ll go together. I have a surprise for you and can’t wait to tell you.
Love,
Jessica
Colton felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest all over again. He let out a howl of pain as he reread the words. Jessica hadn’t just taken off without a word. She’d sent this letter. Only he hadn’t gotten it.
They’d had a fight the day before she left school, left Whitehorse, left him. He had been beside himself. He’d even braved going over to her house, knowing the reaction he’d get from her father.
Sid Granger had answered the door, his wife, Milli, behind him. “What the hell are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough, you son of a—” His wife had grabbed his arm, trying to hold him back, but she was no match for her husband.
Sid had grabbed a baseball bat and chased him out to his pickup. “Jessica’s gone and if I ever see your face around here again, I’ll kill you.”
In the days following, Colton had called the house, begging Sid to tell him where Jessica had gone. But the phone calls had ended with angry words and the slamming down of the receiver. They blamed him for Jessica leaving? He couldn’t understand why. She’d loved him. It was whatever was going on at home that had made her run away.
A few weeks later, he’d seen Mrs. Granger coming out of the Whitehorse Post Office.
“Please. Tell me where she’s gone,” Colton had pleaded.
“Go away.” Millie Granger had glanced around as if she was afraid Sid would find out she’d talked to him. “Jessica’s gone. She isn’t coming back. And even if she was, she wouldn’t want anything to do with you.”
Colton hadn’t believed it at first. He’d been inconsolable for weeks.
“She obviously wasn’t the right woman for you,” his father finally said after watching him mope around. “Trust me, her leaving is the best thing that could have happened. You both were too damn young to be so serious.”
As weeks had turned into months, Colton had been forced to accept that the first woman he’d ever loved no longer wanted anything to do with him.
Now he stared at the letter and understood what had happened, why she’d never tried to contact him. She’d reached out to him, gone to their secret spot that night, only to have him fail to show.
How long had she waited for him, thinking he would come for her? The thought of her alone there that night, waiting for him, broke his heart all over again. He couldn’t bear that she’d gone away believing he hadn’t loved her, that he wouldn’t have been there for her. He had promised to take care of her, look out for her, and when she’d needed him, he hadn’t been there.
I never got the letter.
He hadn’t been to their special place for fourteen years—not since their fight and her disappearance from his life. As he drove out of town toward the ranch, he remembered the times they’d met there in secret. He would spread a blanket out for them beneath a stand of huge old cottonwood trees alongside the creek.
Even after all these years, he could remember the sound of the breeze in the leaves overhead, the sweet scent of the wild grasses, the cool coming up off the creek, the heat of her body against his.
It was in the shade of those trees that he’d first told her he loved her. They’d both been seventeen the first time they’d made love under that tree. It had been the first for both of them. Jessica had cried afterward and told him he would always be the only one for her. He’d told her he’d never let anyone hurt her again.
Colton drove past the Granger place, glancing in the direction of the house, as he had done for the last fourteen years. The house was set back off the road, almost hidden in a stand of trees. He never passed it without thinking of Jessica.
As he drove by the barbed-wire fence that marked the end of the Granger