Once and Always (Women of Character) (2 page)

Her glare was hostile. "It's
not for sale."

"I've been checking around.
You might not have a choice."

Her fingers twisted into the
frayed holes at her knee. "You've been talking to people?"

"My lawyer made a few
discreet inquiries. Sell it to me now and I'll make it a painless
transaction."

"Go to hell."

"The old man tried to hand
deliver me and my father there, or did you forget?"

"I remember everything."
Her eyes, now greenish hazel, held a haunting sadness.

He looked away, hating that he
felt off balance. He needed to retain the anger that had driven him back here
where his life had so drastically changed. Seeing her pain shouldn't matter
after all this time, not after what her family had done to his.

"Good," he said.
"Then we're all on the same page as far as the past goes. I'll make you a
fair offer on the property. You owe me first shot at it."

Her eyes widened in outrage.
"I don't owe you or anyone else a thing! Everything I have I paid for a
long time ago."

"Is that how you sleep at
night?" He asked grimly. "We have a different recall of the
past."

"All the charges against you
and Grant were dropped."

"My father never got over it.
Lack of evidence doesn't clear a man's name. Sometimes a man's good name is all
he has. Martin was an unscrupulous bastard―you know it had to be him who
falsified those breeding records. He turned on my father when he got caught.
Listen to your conscience, Annie . . . I know you have one."

"You don't know anything
about me."

"I can't believe you're
changed that much."

Ω

Anna stared down at the man she'd
loved at nineteen. At one time she had thought they'd always be together. She
knew if she dwelled on what-might-have-been, she'd go insane and some days she
felt damned close to it. Survival was the key, so she pushed away the hurt of
whispered promises made and quickly forgotten. "How is your father?"

Tyler stared up at the clouds as
they skittered across the sky. "My dad teetered between sobriety and the
bottle his entire life. In the end he lost the battle."

"Grant is gone―I'm
sorry Tyler. He was a good man. I admired his extensive knowledge of
animals." Grant had died so young. "He'd been a hero to me." A
quiet man whose life revolved around his horses and his son. She'd heard it
said he was a hell-raiser in his early days, but she'd never seen any evidence
of that. "I-I truly am sorry."

Tyler's expression remained closed.
Blue eyes and almost black hair gave him a face women would always love. She
had certainly thought herself in love with him. Now he'd shaken her by showing
up out of the blue making demands and accusations. She searched his face but
the years had put a hard edge in his voice and an unyielding light in his eyes.
How could anyone love him the way she had loved him?

"So what about the
property?" he asked.

"I'm not desperate."
Maybe if she said it enough times she'd believe it.

One dark brow rose. "So you've
got several offers to choose from?"

"They've been coming in
fairly regularly." Her evasiveness was merely a defense. "But that's
my business."

"I heard you haven't accepted
any offers yet." He placed his hat on his head and adjusted it just so,
and the familiar gesture formed a tight knot in her throat. "And yet here
I am ready to make an offer and I get the idea you want to get rid of me."

"It sounds like your lawyer
made more than a few discreet inquiries." She felt incredibly vulnerable,
as if everyone knew she'd failed to keep the ranch afloat.

She'd managed to keep the memories
locked away. Tyler acted as if he despised her and that hurt. The past was
done, but if not for her, he'd have gone to jail six years ago. They had never
found out who was responsible for the fraud, but lives had been ruined because
of someone's apparent greed.

Anna touched her cheek and just as
quickly dropped her hand, pressing her fist into her thigh. With the bright sun
in her face, she knew he had a clear view of the skin that even the most
skilled surgeon hadn't been able to correct; her once smooth right cheek now a
myriad twist of coarse, discolored flesh, the corner of her mouth puckering
slightly. Ugly. She was under no illusions as to what she looked like. The edge
of the leather reins bit into her fingers. She wanted to be left alone, but
that was no longer an option. At some point she might have to face people and
their curiosity. The question of where she would go was never far from her
mind.

Abruptly, she said, "I've
gotta go. I have to take care of my mare and some other business." She
nudged the horse forward, but Tyler stepped in front of her and grabbed the
bridle's cheek strap, keeping her horse still. His glance seemed to soften as
it rested on her face. She wanted nothing from him, especially the remembrance
of what she used to look like, who she used to be.

"You don't compete
anymore?" he asked.

"No."

"You lived and breathed
barrel racing. I never thought you'd give it up."

"I had no choice . . . don't
you realize that!" She shook her head. "I've moved on," she
added deliberately, indicating her face.

"How did it happen?"

"A fire. Nothing you need to
know about." Her neck and head ached from sitting so stiffly. "Why
did you have to come back?" The cry was almost wrenched from her.

"I've got every right to
return to my roots. Maybe I'll finish what I began. I want to clear my
name."

Finish what he began. He hadn't
come back looking for her. She pulled in a ragged breath, a deep hurt surfacing
and the words spilled out. "You left me without a backward glance. At
nineteen, I barely had any self-esteem, but when I lost both you and Martin I
was devastated." The part inside that had never healed bled a little more.
She hadn't been worth waiting for. "You left so quickly, not even
bothering to phone or write. How could you do that?"

He looked taken aback, but then
narrowed his eyes. "You chose Martin. That spoke for itself."

"He's the one who came and
found me when nobody else wanted me. He brought me here. I knew how much it
would hurt him if I left."

"But it was okay to hurt a
Stanton," he said harshly. "My father couldn't handle that he'd been
blacklisted. There wasn't a ranch within a hundred miles that would hire either
one of us after word got out. This tight community lives and breathes horses
and we both know Martin had influential people in his pockets. With my father's
previous criminal record, the talk and suspicion would have crucified him, and
with my less than stellar past, we left."

"No one set out to ruin you
and Grant. It was such a mess, everything happened so fast."

"The accusations against us
were very well thought out."

"No! We were all hurt."

"Some hurts are pin pricks,
others gaping wounds."

Tightening her fingers on the
reins, Anna vowed he'd never see her gaping wounds. She took several deep
breaths, determined to retain control of her emotions. "Tell me what you
did do after you left. Did you go on to school for engineering?" She had
regained some of her cool and tried to keep her expression passive. How many
times had she wondered what happened to him? How many nights had she cried
herself to sleep, alternately aching for Tyler and hating him? At nineteen it
had hurt to know how easy it had been for him to leave her behind.

His jaw clenched. "No. An old
friend of my dad's offered me a job in California. When we were released from
custody, we headed west with the shirts on our backs."

"I―I came to see you,
but you'd left." Without a word.

"Why would you come? You made
it clear whose side you were on."

"There were no sides!"
Anna said fiercely. "If there were, we all lost."

He laughed. "Don't delude
yourself. There was only one side―the old man's side. You made your
choice quick enough the night he caught us making out in the cottage. By the
way, I see you got rid of the cottage. Too many memories?"

"What you're saying is
unforgivable." It hadn't been making out. She'd loved him and made love
with him. He'd whispered he loved her. "How gullible I must have
seemed." All of it had been a lie. She pressed her lips together so they
wouldn't shake.

Tyler made a sound of impatience.
"I didn't come here to rehash history. If you won't sell then I'll lease
the place. I'll top any offer put on the table."

"Why come back when you act
like you hate it here? Why torment both of us like this?" Anna felt
mortified by what she'd said. She sounded so vulnerable and it was years too
late for personal questions.

He stared at her as if he could
see the vulnerable part of her that used to care about him.

"It's about getting back
something vital that should never have been taken away, my name, my pride. What
better way than me taking over this place and making it viable for everyone to
see? It sticks in my craw the way this town turned its back on us."

"So it's about revenge,"
she stated quietly, disappointed.

"Revenge involves emotion,
and there's no emotion left in me for this place. I could care less about Marsh
Plains."

Or for her. As far as he was
concerned she'd turned her back on him, and therefore he'd wiped her from his
heart.

"You make it sound so simple
and final." Anna hadn't wept over the loss of their love in a long time,
but she wanted to weep now. "As if we're strangers." Their lives
could have been great together, but now the waste felt like such a tragedy.

Anna knew that no matter how much
she didn't want to lease the ranch, the end was near. She had enough money to
take her through two more tax rolls and that was all. This was a last ditch
effort to buy herself more time.

"Think about it Annie. With
the Double B heading downhill fast, how many options do you have left?"

"If you leased the ranch,
what would you do with it?"

He didn't show any surprise at the
abrupt turnaround. "First thing it's going to need is a major
facelift."

"I know what the ranch looks
like." The deterioration was a festering sore.

"I train reining and pleasure
horses and I'd take in boarders for starters. Of course, if people decide to
turn their noses up at a Stanton running this place, then I might have a long,
lonely summer ahead." His mouth twisted. "So you see your success in
keeping this ranch out of tax delinquency depends on my success, or rather the
success of whomever you let have the lease. Would you rather take a chance on a
stranger instead of me? I'd be willing to sign a year-long lease with all the
money up front."

"What if no one will do
business with you?" She could hardly credit she was considering giving him
the lease, but desperation made circumstances tough.

His mouth twisted. "You'd
still get your money." He pulled his hat brim down. "However, I'll
come out on top, even if I have to go out of state to bring in clients."

Anna believed him. Despite his
reasons for wanting the ranch and what he felt she owed him, she understood
what compelled him. He wanted to retrieve his family honor. Whether he would
achieve that objective to his satisfaction, she didn't know. She knew firsthand
how destructive bitterness could be.

"There are other ranches in
the area," she said, "places that don't need as much work as this
place. I can't think you'll be happy here."

"Only the Double B will do.
With that said, along with the lease, I have a proposition for you."

Uneasily, Anna waited.

"We should form a partnership―let
it be known that we're working the ranch together. That way, we present a
united front. At the very least, it will make people question the old scandal.
Your reputation is sterling and speaks for itself. If we pool our knowledge you
can take in your own training and I'll handle mine. The way I see it, we both
win."

Anna's stomach churned and she
feared she'd be sick.

"It's kind of ironic,"
she said. "I remember telling you my vision once. The two of us working to
build a prosperous horse training facility." And raising a family. Was he
mocking her? "How can you expect me to just fall in with what you want?
It's been six years. Tyler, it's not like you can just pick up where you left
off."

"We'd run this strictly as
business. We both know there's no going back. You know barrel horses. You've
ridden the best and you're familiar with the people in that arena. Think about
it, it's your call, Annie. It's a great opportunity if you're willing to take
the chance."

Fear and confusion yawned before
her. The old Anna had had the face and confidence to mingle with top horse
professionals. As she was now, she wanted to stay hidden. She'd lost the edge.
Admitting that was like pushing barbs into her skin. "I―I have to
think about it. . . working again with horses, being in the center of the
hubbub. . .."

It whet Anna's appetite for what
she loved best, but she shoved back the excitement. She knew her limits. She
had created them. She bit the inside of her cheek, wanting the chance so bad
she could taste it. "I've battled to keep my head above water, and putting
myself in the public eye is stressful," she admitted with some difficulty.
"Being around you . . . I don't know if I could do that either."

"If you think long and hard
about your financial situation, you'll have to handle it."

Only three days ago the hot water
heater had died and she'd just spent her extra cash to have a new one
installed. She had about two hundred dollars in her savings account.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath,
she looked Tyler directly in the eye. "While I'm deciding, I suggest you
take a good look around at the house and the barns. As you've noticed the
cottage and the hay barn are gone." The saddle horn bit into her palm. The
cottage where they used to meet.