The Rancher's Spittin' Image. Peggy Moreland
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people believed the story?”
“Why not? Nobody ever knew the two of you were sneakin’ around behind Lucas’s back, ’cept me.”
Jesse scowled at the mention of Lucas. “I didn’t see him when I was over there, though I kept expecting to feel the barrel of his rifle pressed against my back.”
Pete looked up in surprise. “You mean Lucas?” “Yeah,” Jesse muttered irritably. “Lucas.”
“Kinda‘ hard to do from the grave.”
Jesse jerked his head around to stare at Pete. “You mean Lucas is dead?”
“Been gone nigh on twelve years now. Had a heart attack not long after the girl brought the baby home to the Double-Cross.”
Shocked by the news, Jesse could only stare. “If Lucas is gone, then who’s running the place?”
“Mandy. With the help of Gabe, of course.”
Jesse dropped down on a bale of hay, his legs too weak to hold him. Lucas was gone, had been for twelve years. Jesse dropped his head in his hands on a groan. If only he’d stayed, he told himself, instead of hightailing it out of town. Without Lucas there to keep them apart, maybe he and Mandy could have been together.
No, Jesse, I can’t.
Mandy’s refusal seared its way through his mind and he raked his fingers through his hair as if he could tear the words from his memory. Mandy was the one who had sealed the end of their relationship, he reminded himself. Not Lucas.
He pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to the bunkhouse,” he muttered to Pete. “You coming?”
Pete stared sadly at Jesse’s retreating back. “Yeah, I’ll be along as soon as I finish up here.”
“Maybe we should call Merideth,” Sam offered quietly.
Mandy whirled from the window and the darkness beyond. “And what could Merideth possibly do?”
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