A Husband Made In Texas. Rosemary Carter
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arrears.’
‘I know that. But in the end Bill wouldn’t have lost any money. I was always utterly determined to pay every cent, including interest on back payments.’
‘How did you plan to do that?’
‘Profits from the ranch. Things are starting to come right, Flynn. Slowly, I admit, but it’s happening. It’s been an uphill battle ever since Dad died, but I’m hoping my financial situation will improve.’
‘You can’t blame Bill for having some doubts.’
The flush in Kaitlin’s face deepened. ‘If he felt that way, why didn’t he say anything? We could have talked. Bill knew how things were at the ranch. Knew that Dad had...’ She bit her lip. ‘He understood that I needed time.’
‘How much time, Kaitlin?’
‘I don’t know exactly.’
‘Bill didn’t know either, and the situation was beginning to worry him.’
She shouldn’t be surprised, Kaitlin realized. The signs had been there for some time, only she had been too preoccupied to notice them. There had been a strange restlessness in Bill and Alice, his wife, when she did see them, a way they had of not meeting her eyes when they talked. Bill and her father had been boyhood friends, classmates, their friendship was one of the few constants in her life. When her parents had died, Bill and Alice had been there, phoning her, extending invitations. Yet now that she came to think of it, she could not remember the last invitation: she had been too busy to wonder about it.
Kaitlin looked at Flynn. ‘You may not believe me, but I didn’t know about the mortgage until after my father’s death.’
‘I see.’
‘Until then I’d had almost nothing to do with the running of the ranch’
‘No part in the finances?’
‘None,’ she admitted.
She would not tell Flynn, who seemed to be holding her destiny in those very competent-looking hands, of her dismay when she had sat in the office of her father’s lawyer and learned that she had inherited the ranch. A hollow inheritance, for the ranch was so heavily in debt that it didn’t belong to her in the true sense of the word. Apart from the ranch, there had been nothing else.
Helplessly she had looked across the desk at the lawyer. ‘I don’t understand... It seems impossible...’
‘It’s the way it is, Miss Mullins. I’m sorry.’
‘I always thought we were secure. We lived well. There was money for parties and travelling and for college.’
‘There was money once,’ the lawyer agreed, ‘but much of it was used for the wrong purposes. There was also a lot of debt.’
‘What are you saying, Mr. Barclay? I need the truth.’
‘Your parents were living way beyond their means. I often warned your father to be more careful, but he kept insisting that things were fine. The mortgage was never meant to be more than short-term assistance, he was certain things would come right.’
But her father had been killed when he had skidded off the road on his way back to the ranch one stormy night. His truck had been found in a ditch. Witnesses said the vehicle seemed to veer suddenly on a slippery section of the road, before rolling over onto its side. Kaitlin had pretended to accept the explanation, but privately she had wondered if grief over her mother’s death had made her father careless. He had had no time to put his affairs in order.
Kaitlin looked at Flynn, shivering when she saw the enigmatic expression in his eyes, the implacability in the firm jaw. ‘You’re saying that Bill was eager to rid himself of the mortgage.’
‘Correct.’
‘That’s when you appeared on the scene. Flynn Henderson to the rescue.’
Flynn shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by her sarcasm.
‘Some coincidence that you just happened to come along at the right time,’ Kaitlin went on grimly. ‘Why don’t I think that’s the way it was?’
‘Because you’re too intelligent to believe it.’
He grinned at her, a grin that warmed his eyes and deepened the lines around them. If only, Kaitlin thought, he didn’t have the ability to send her heart somersaulting in her chest.
‘Then it wasn’t coincidence.’
‘Of course not. I’ve kept my eyes on the ranch ever since I left. I knew about the mortgage.’
‘How did you know?’
‘Wasn’t difficult, Kaitlin. A person can make a point of knowing certain things. Besides, word gets around. When I thought Bill Seally was getting nervous I went to talk to him. To his credit, I had to speak to him several times before he made his decision.’
Despite the heat of the day, Kaitlin was feeling colder by the minute. ‘Five years, and all that time you were just biding your time to take over here.’
That grin again. ‘Five years ago all I had was a burning ambition. I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a corner of one barn let alone the whole ranch.’
That was one thing that puzzled her: how on earth had Flynn managed to acquire what must surely be a small fortune?
Before she could ask the question, he said, ‘Do you remember what I told you the last time we were together?’
‘In the bar? You were with that red-haired woman. I think her name was Marietta.’
‘So you remember that.’ The eyes that held hers were unreadable.
‘Sure, why not?’ She strove to make her tone as casual and matter-of-fact as she could. Flynn did not have to know about the pain that knifed her at the very mention of the other woman’s name.
‘I think it’s interesting that you would remember Marietta in such detail.’ Still he held her gaze. ‘But I wasn’t referring to her. Kaitlin, do you remember what I said?’
‘Why don’t you jog my memory?’
‘I promised you I’d be back for the ranch five years later. Five years to the day. I kept my promise, Kaitlin. Looking at your face, I know you never thought I would.’
Kaitlin. felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared at the tall cowboy.
‘So that’s why you’re here,’ she said, when she could speak.
‘Right.’
‘You could have written. Or phoned.’
‘I could have, I guess, but I decided to break it to you in person.’
‘Without a thought to my feelings,’ she accused unsteadily.
Flynn didn’t answer, but there was an odd expression in the eyes that watched her.
Over the emotions that raged inside her, Kaitlin said, ‘You knew I’d be shocked, but you wanted to see my face when you told me. What are you, Flynn—some kind of sadist?’
Flynn only shrugged.
Kaitlin’s hands curled tightly against her sides. ‘Anyway, now you’ve told me, you can go.’
‘We have to talk, Kaitlin.’
‘Not today, Flynn. Definitely not today. You have to give me time to think.’
For a long moment he looked down at her. Then, to her relief, he picked up his Stetson.
At the door of the house he turned. ‘I’ll be back.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘HI, COWGIRL.’
Paintbrush