The Bridal Path: Sara (22 page)

“No secret,” Dani assured her, but her guilty expression said otherwise.

“Danielle Wilde, you never could lie worth two hoots. What’s going on? Does it have something to do with Jake?”

“Why would you ask that?” her sister inquired blandly.

“Because unless I’m dying, I can’t think of anything else you’d all be keeping so quiet about. What exactly happened on Saturday?”

“You were there. You know what happened.”

“I fell, remember? I was knocked unconscious. What did I miss?”

Suddenly, she had a terrible thought. She’d been only vaguely aware of the time that had passed as she’d fought to stay on the back of that miserable bronco. When Jake had told her she’d won, she’d assumed she’d managed to last the full eight seconds before being thrown.

“I lost, didn’t I?” she said with absolute certainty. If her brain hadn’t been so addled by that fall, she’d have known it right off. He’d had a perfect, championship-level ride. She’d seen every incredible, spectacular second of it herself.

Dani’s sigh was answer enough.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “Why did Jake tell me I’d won?”

Dani smiled. “I don’t know for sure, of course. But if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it was because he loves you.”

Dani’s guess should have thrilled her, but it didn’t. Her heart sank. If Jake had made such a wonderful, foolish, grand gesture then he was all but declaring it was over between them. She dimly recalled the sad expression on his face as he had walked away that day. Giving her the ranch had been his way of saying goodbye.

Over the next few days, as she struggled to come to grips with what she’d learned, depression settled in. She had what she wanted. Three-Stars was finally hers. It should have been enough. Surely she couldn’t have hoped to lose just so Jake would be part of her future along with the ranch. And if she was missing him now, how deep would the hurt run weeks from now? Years from now?

At first when he didn’t stop by for a visit, she worried that her father had stepped in and fired him on her behalf. Now she knew better.

“He’s gone, isn’t he?”

“Since two days after the contest,” Dani admitted. “He signed over Three-Stars and left. No one has heard from him since, not even Annie. She’s fit to be tied. She loved him as if he were a son. She’s furious with Daddy, too. She blames him for setting all of this in motion in the first place. You should hear her slamming things around in the kitchen. It may be quiet up here, but it’s anything but down there.”

Sara felt as if the breath had been stolen straight out of her.

“Jake is really gone?” she whispered, staring at Dani with dismay.

“He told Ashley it was for the best. She tried to get through to him, she really did, but he’s as stubborn as all three of us combined. I’m sorry, sweetie.”

Sara refused to accept the fact that it was over. Once she was on her feet, she began making it her business to track Jake down. She went about it with the same grim determination with which she’d tackled learning to ride that stupid bronco.

Jake was enough of a celebrity that he was bound to be spotted fairly easily anywhere in rodeo country. It shouldn’t take more than a few days to pick up his trail.

She hired a private detective to be sure that the discovery of that trail came sooner, rather than later. She couldn’t risk having Jake push whatever he felt for her into some cold, dark place deep inside him where he could shut it away and pretend it didn’t exist.

“Damn, you’re jumpier than a flea,” her father declared after observing her silently across the breakfast table for the third morning in a row. His expression sobered. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

Sara saw no point in trying to hide it. “I think I’ve loved him since the first day he rode onto our land,” she admitted. She lifted her chin defiantly. “I’m not going to give up on him without a fight.”

Her father smiled at that. “Did you hear me asking you to? If you fight for him as hard as you fought for the ranch, he doesn’t stand a chance.”

He paused for a minute, then added, “It’s not going to be easy getting him to admit his feelings for you. I tried to do it and couldn’t get through to him.”

To Sara’s amusement, he sounded thoroughly peeved about his failure to make any headway with his matchmaking.

“Jake’s developed a tough hide to protect himself from hurt,” he concluded. “He’ll fight you.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Sara said, then added with grim determination, “But he’s never come up against a woman who loves him as much as I do.”

It took one long, endless week for the private detective to trace Jake to a small town in Montana. “He’s negotiating for a ranch outside of town,” the man told Sara. “The owner’s anxious to sell and Jake is offering cash, so it shouldn’t take long for the deal to go through.”

And once it did, it would be all but over, Sara realized. He would have his own land.

If he was paying cash, it couldn’t be the spread Three-Stars was, but maybe that didn’t matter to him anymore. Maybe he was ready to settle for second best. She couldn’t let him do that. Maybe it was time to issue another dare.

She found Jake after two days of hard driving to the northwest corner of Montana, so close to Canada she wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t crossed the border. Though the sky was a brilliant summer blue, there were still patches of snow on the ground. She shivered just looking at it.

According to the detective who’d waited for her arrival, she was too late to stop the deal for the ranch. The owner had turned over the keys to the place that morning. Jake was already out there.

She found him all alone, chopping wood, his bare shoulders glistening with sweat from the blaze of sun that fought the late spring chill. Filled with relief, she nearly wept just at the sight of him. Her heart skipped a beat, and then another.

At the sound of her car’s approach, he glanced up and regarded her warily. Amazingly enough, he didn’t seem all that surprised to see her. His expression didn’t change as she walked over to him.

“What’s up?” he asked as if they’d parted only yesterday.

The casual question didn’t fool her. He was as tense as if he’d just spotted a rattler.

“I’ve been looking for you.” She gestured around at the small, but tidy house and nearby barn. “You move fast.”

“No point in delaying the inevitable. You find something that’s right for you, you grab it.”

“Is that so?” She fixed an even, considering gaze on him. “Am I the exception, then?”

The muscle working in his jaw told her she’d hit a nerve. Somehow, though, he managed to keep his expression perfectly bland.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” he claimed.

“Then maybe we should back up a step. Start at the beginning, so to speak. I heard something from my sister a few days ago. I was wondering if it’s true.”

“You ever known your sister to lie?”

“No. But I’d never known you to lie, either. That’s why I’m asking you straight out. Who won that bronc-riding contest, Jake?”

“You did, fair and square,” he insisted.

Sara noticed he didn’t look her in the eye when he said it. She nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

He appeared a little smug at having put one over on her. She killed that notion right off by adding, “Dani was telling the truth.”

He swallowed hard at the flat statement, but that was the only reaction she got from him. She stepped closer until he was forced to meet her gaze. “You, on the other hand, are a bald-faced liar, Jake Dawson.”

He blinked hard at the cool accusation. “A man would get shot for calling a cowboy a liar without cause.”

“You want to talk about proof? Fine. Does the difference between eight perfect seconds and six sloppy ones ring any bells? My brain might have been addled by that fall, but sooner or later I was bound to catch on.”

He sighed heavily. She took that as an admission. “Why, Jake? Were you so repulsed by the idea of marrying me that you were willing to give me the ranch just to get out of the deal we’d made?”

His expression darkened. Before she realized what he intended, he’d hauled her into his arms and kissed her with such savage intensity that her head was spinning. Every muscle in his body tensed as his mouth plundered hers. That pretty much answered any questions she had about whether he’d developed a sudden aversion to her.

“Oh, my,” she whispered, when she could speak at all. Weak-kneed, she clung to him.

“Don’t ever get it into that fool head of yours that I don’t want you,” he said fiercely.

“Then why?”

“Because it would be a mistake, that’s why. You and I are nothing alike. I’m not marriage material. You’re classy. I’m a broken-down ex=nrodeo champ.” He regarded her with obvious regret written all over his face. “Shall I go on?”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to,” Sara said. “So far I haven’t heard anything to justify your welshing on our bet.”

“Dammit, Sara, it just wouldn’t work.”

“Because your folks had a lousy marriage?”

“That and because you deserve better,” he insisted.

“Whatever happened to being partners? If I’m good enough to be your partner, then surely there’s enough trust and liking between us to make a marriage work.”

“It’s not the same,” he said stubbornly.

Sara shook her head. She thought she’d taken the biggest risk of her life a few weeks earlier, but apparently the real test was still in front of her.

“The way I figure it,” she began in a soft, deceptively lazy voice, “you owe me one. And if lying is cause for taking a shotgun to a cowboy, then cheating is just as bad. Am I right? Code of the West and all that.”

Jake eyed her warily. “I suppose.”

“Well, it seems to me you’ve cheated me out of a wedding ring.” She reached into her car and retrieved the shotgun she’d brought along for just this moment. She’d loaded it with blanks just in case she had to fire it to prove a point.

Jake’s mouth dropped open. “Sara,” he began, backing up a step.

“You ever heard the expression
shotgun wedding?
” she inquired, her finger settling comfortably against the trigger. She wouldn’t hesitate to fire it if she had to and both of them knew it, though Jake still seemed to be in a state of denial.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

She grinned. “Jake, you of all people should know just how daring I am.”

“But why?”

“Because the minute I realized what you were willing to sacrifice for me, I had to admit that I was in love with you, flat-out, head over heels in love. I don’t intend to let you and my ranch get away.”

“I gave you the ranch,” he reminded her, though a grin was beginning to work at the corners of his mouth.

“I’m greedy,” she declared. “I want your heart, too.”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t quite believe this latest turn of events. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“If you don’t carry me inside and make love to me, you surely will be,” she agreed.

And so he did.

* * *

A long time later, Jake was lying beside the sexiest, most passionate woman he’d ever known wondering about the subject of risks.

He’d taken a chance when he’d run off at fifteen with no skills and fewer prospects.

He’d taken an even bigger risk the first time he’d climbed on a bull’s back.

And he’d thrown caution to the wind when he’d offered a challenge to the sassy, daring woman in bed beside him. He glanced down at her and smiled.

No doubt about it, he had well and truly met his match. Sara could put her shotgun away. They’d have to hog-tie him and throw him in jail to keep him from getting to the church on time.

Sara squirmed against him, setting his senses on fire. When he glanced down, he noticed that her eyes were open and there was a satisfied smile on her lips.

“I was just wondering,” he said, his hand curving possessively over her breast. “How do you feel about long engagements?”

“Hate ’em,” she said at once.

Jake grinned. “Good.”

“Of course, we do have one major detail to work out.”

“What’s that?”

“We seem to be overburdened with property.” She glanced curiously around the small bedroom. “I like this. It’s homey.”

Jake’s hand stilled against heated flesh. “What are you saying?”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “We could stay here. There would be fewer complications. It would be a fresh start.”

He studied her face intently, trying to read what was going on in that complicated head of hers. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Something tells me we might end up tussling over whether Three-Stars was mine or yours. This place would be ours.”

“We’d be starting from scratch,” Jake reminded her.

She shrugged. “I don’t mind hard work.” She stroked a finger down the center of his chest. “I’m especially fond of the fringe benefits.”

Jake pondered this latest turn of events. Staying here would be an answer. It would prevent Three-Stars from ever coming between them and yet…

“No,” he said. “I can’t let you do it. Three-Stars is your home. You fought for it. I love it as much as you do. We’ll make it ours.”

Sara scooted onto her knees and gazed down at him. “You’re sure?”

“Darlin’, when you’re around the only thing I know for sure is how badly I want you, but yes, I think we belong at Three-Stars.”

She straddled his hips. “I don’t know, Jake. I’m growing rather fond of this bed.”

“Then I suppose we’d better make use of it,” he said agreeably. “It seems like the perfect spot for a honeymoon.”

“And for romantic getaways when all the kids are driving us to distraction?”

Jake stilled. “Kids?”

“Of course,” she said blithely.

Vaguely intrigued by an idea he’d always dismissed right along with the possibility of marriage, Jake stared at her in mock horror. “This is a new wrinkle. I thought Dani was the maternal one in the family.”

Sara leaned down and brushed a kiss across his lips, then whispered, “You don’t think I’m going to let those perfect genes of yours go to waste, do you? Auntie Dani can baby-sit every time we want to sneak up here and make another baby.”

“And you see this happening often?”