He’s returned to Texas to save his family’s ranch.

A reunion with his ex isn’t part of the plan.

To save his ranch from ruin, tech billionaire Luke Weston needs Scarlett McKittrick—brilliant veterinarian...and the lover he left behind. Their sizzling attraction hasn’t changed, but Scarlett has. Now she’s a business owner, a mom...a woman he craves. But Luke’s dark legacy could endanger Scarlett’s new life and end their second chance at love...

SARA ORWIG, from Oklahoma, loves family, friends, dogs, books, long walks, sunny beaches and palm trees. She is married to and in love with the guy she met in college. They have three children and six grandchildren. Sara’s 100th published novel was a July 2016 release. With a master’s degree in English, Sara has written historical romance, mainstream fiction and contemporary romance. Sara welcomes readers on Facebook or at saraorwig.com.

Also by Sara Orwig

Callahan’s Clan miniseries

Expecting the Rancher’s Child

The Rancher’s Baby Bargain

The Rancher’s Cinderella Bride

The Texan’s Baby Proposal

Texas Promises miniseries

Expecting a Lone Star Heir

Billionaires and Babies miniseries

Married for His Heir

Texas Cattleman’s Club: The Impostor miniseries

Reunited…with Baby

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Reunited…with Baby

Sara Orwig

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07642-5

REUNITED…WITH BABY

© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

MILLS & BOON

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Extract

One

On a Wednesday, the first of August, Luke Weston gazed out the window of his Gulfstream jet as his pilot flew east to Royal, Texas. Looking down at the wide-open, mesquite-tree-covered landscape, it struck him that he was flying directly over the Double U. The ranch that he had grown up on and was now returning home to save.

As he stared out the window, he wondered if he should let the Texas ranch go once and for all. It was no longer home to him. Ever since graduating from Stanford six years ago, he’d been living in Silicon Valley, where he’d been working tirelessly to build his company into the tech-world juggernaut that it was today. He had no desire to live anywhere else.

Even so, he couldn’t bear the thought of the Texas family ranch being auctioned off because his drunken father had mortgaged the Double U again and then couldn’t keep up with the payments. Thank heavens, he wasn’t like his dad. But when he was young, his dad hadn’t been a drunk—a scary fact that was impossible to forget. And his grandfather on his dad’s side had been a drunk later in life, too. A drunk who was killed in a bar fight. Bad blood.

Luke’s thoughts shifted to his hometown friends, especially Will Sanders. Unable to attend Will’s funeral because he had been in Europe, Luke had heard about Will crashing his own funeral in Royal and all hell breaking loose. Who had been impersonating Will? That had been the big question, but answers were pointing in one direction.

This morning, before Luke left California, Will had phoned to inform him that his lifelong friend Richard Lowell had been the one passing himself off as Will. But then Rich had disappeared and no one had a clue where he was now. Another friend had also gone missing—Jason Phillips. At present, only the police and those close to Will knew about Rich, and they were still keeping it quiet while they tried to piece together all that had happened. Will had confided in Luke that Rich had tried to kill him on their annual fishing trip, pushing Will overboard and leaving him to drown. Will was rescued and survived to come home to his own funeral. The body had been cremated, so all they had left were ashes and bones to try to identify.

Adding to the mystery, Will told Luke that funds had been pilfered from the Texas Cattleman’s Club in Royal and they believed Lowell was the responsible party. Upon hearing that, Luke told Will he thought he could help him find the missing imposter via the antifraud software that he and his team at his company, West-Tech, recently created that could aid in following money trails. Will had been interested in learning more, and they agreed to discuss it in person once Luke arrived in Royal.

Once again, Luke reviewed his three purposes in going back to Texas. First, he felt compelled to save the ranch that had been in his family for more than a century. He wondered in what condition he would find the family ranch. How were the animals faring, and how many cowboys still worked on the ranch? Did his dad owe them back pay?

Second, he wanted to do everything he could to help Will find Rich Lowell. The first order of business was to contact the PI who had been hired to aid in the investigation.

And the third reason for returning to Texas was that he felt duty-bound to go visit his dad in the assisted-living home where he had been residing ever since he had been diagnosed a year earlier with cirrhosis of the liver, a debilitating disease. As always, when he ticked off his plans, he had a deep awareness of another Royal resident, Scarlett McKittrick.

Scarlett was one resident he should avoid at all costs, but he suspected that wasn’t going to happen. She was the best vet in Royal, Texas, so he would most likely need her professional expertise.

As he pictured her in his mind, the memories assailed him. Memories of holding a naked Scarlett in his arms, kissing her, her intense, instant response to his every caress. Luke drew a deep breath. He was not the man for her, and when they parted, she had been furious with him for walking out on her instead of marrying her. Even so, what he wouldn’t give for one blissful night with Scarlett before he returned to his carefree, no-strings-attached existence in Silicon Valley.

But he couldn’t afford to be distracted with thoughts of his ex. He had to pour all his time and attention into trying to salvage the Double U. Luke still felt a low-burning anger at his dad because he had long ago paid off the ranch and owned it outright, but Luke had made the mistake of letting his father keep everything in his name. Luke hadn’t realized what was going on and that his father was pawning things off, selling livestock, mortgaging the ranch to the hilt. Luke felt partially responsible for turning a blind eye and not coming home the moment his dad had been moved to the assisted-care facility. But he’d put on a good show, and Luke had believed him when he’d said that everything was fine.

However, when Luke hadn’t been able to contact anybody at the ranch, his internal alarm bells had gone off. Then he got a call from Nathan Battle, sheriff in Royal, who broke the news that he was going to have to put the ranch up for auction.

Luke told Nathan he would be there in two days to pay off the ranch and take care of all the outstanding bills. As soon as he ended the call with the sheriff, Luke had made arrangements with his pilot to fly to Texas the next day.

He just hoped and prayed he would be able to clean up the mess his father had left in his wake.

After landing in Royal, Luke called Cole Sullivan, the PI, as he’d told Will he would do, and made an appointment to talk to Cole tomorrow afternoon in Brinkly, Texas, a small town near Royal. He then phoned Will to tell him he had arrived, and the two men made arrangements to meet tomorrow before Luke met with the PI.

As soon as Luke left the airport in the new black pickup he had purchased by phone, he headed to his family ranch. As he reached the Double U and drove up the ranch road toward the house, he gazed out at the front pasture. It was worse than he had imagined. The first two horses he came across were so severely malnourished their ribs were showing, and they stood listlessly with their heads hanging down. Luke feared they would not live one more night.

He drove on to the house, passing fences that were down and a stock tank shot full of holes. Nearing the homestead, he saw a large part of the exterior wall had been ripped away, and it felt as if a knife had plunged into his gut.

Swearing harshly, he realized he’d had no concept of the full extent of the disaster at the ranch. After taking several deep breaths to help himself calm down, he placed a call to Scarlett McKittrick’s veterinary clinic and felt his frustration rise yet again when he learned she was out of the office.

Luke turned his pickup around and sped toward the McKittrick place. When he crossed the cattle guard, he slowed down. As he drove up the McKittrick’s ranch road, and drank in the familiar surroundings, it finally felt as if he was coming home.

Bombarded by memories, Luke gazed at the gravel road, but all that he could see were Scarlett McKittrick’s thickly lashed hazel eyes. It had been a decade since he had last seen his high school sweetheart, and his life had changed beyond his wildest imaginings. Yet, no matter how much time had passed, there was no way to ever forget her.

He swore under his breath, every part of him aching with bittersweet longing for Scarlett. He had felt certain he had gotten over her, but if he had, why were memories rushing at him like floodwaters from an open dam?

A sudden wave of nostalgia crashed through him as he thought about all that had transpired between them. Back in high school, Scarlett had said she was in love with him. And for a while during his junior year, he had allowed himself to get swept up in dating her and had returned her love fully. But then, in his senior year, reality had set in.

He had a rotten background, while Scarlett had a good, solid one. Her father died when she was young and her brother, Toby, stepped up and filled in as much as he could, while Scarlett’s mother quietly took over and ran the ranch with Toby’s help. Luke didn’t want to mess up Scarlett’s life. He was afraid of the bad blood in his family showing up in him.

As his high school graduation approached, Scarlett knew he was leaving for college, but she didn’t want him to go. And even though she made it clear she wanted them to have a future together, he never expected her to tell him she wanted them to marry right after he graduated. As far as he was concerned, she was too young and inexperienced to know what she wanted for the rest of her life. She could set him on fire with a kiss, but he still saw her as a kid at sixteen. She seemed far younger than his eighteen years.

He didn’t want to marry for years, if ever. His parents’ marriage had been unhappy all his life. At first, they fought. Later, they drank and fought. He didn’t think either one had been faithful to the other. He didn’t want to pass his genes on or marry someone like Scarlett and ruin her life. Only sixteen and hopelessly in love, she didn’t understand. Consequently, they didn’t part on good terms—something which he deeply regretted to this day.

They’d both moved on. After graduation from Stanford, Luke built his West-Tech company and he struck it rich when he invented a revolutionary—and affordable for the masses—smartphone that left his competitors in the dust.

Meanwhile, Scarlett had pursued a career in veterinary medicine. Which didn’t surprise him in the least. A real softie for animals, she always tried to help any creature that needed it, loving little kids and animals as much as he loved electronics and the challenges in the tech world. As she’d been building up her vet business, she had apparently gotten engaged but was now estranged from her fiancé, Tanner Dupree, some oil heir who’d left her stranded at the altar. In Luke’s eyes, no one would ever be good enough for Scarlett—definitely not himself. The oily scumbag who had deserted her didn’t deserve her, either. Walking out on her on her wedding day—the guy had to be selfish and rotten to the core.

Sighing, Luke knew he was hardly one to throw stones since he’d left her, too. He still believed that was the right thing to do because, given his tainted family history, he would never be good enough for her. But honorable intentions aside, if he was being completely honest with himself, Scarlett was still by far the sexiest woman he had ever known. Even after all this time, he could get hot just thinking about her.

He had been the first guy she’d ever been with, when they were still in their teens. He remembered holding her close, her slender body melting against his. While he was here, could he entice her back into his arms for a night down memory lane...? Groaning, he quickly squelched those illicit thoughts. When he had gone to California, he’d spent too many sleepless nights in college lying awake wanting her, fantasizing about her, fighting the urge to call her because he didn’t feel worthy of her because of his family background. He didn’t want to mess up Scarlett with his bad genes. He finally had put that behind him, and he didn’t want to stir all those feelings up again.

It wouldn’t be fair...to either of them.

With a shift of his shoulders, he forced his thoughts back to the present, determined to focus on the here and now.

As Luke approached the McKittrick house, dogs of all sizes ran toward the car. He knew they had to be strays taken in by Scarlett, and he couldn’t keep from smiling while he felt a twist in his heart. He stepped out, speaking softly to the barking dogs that quieted down, the friendliest ones already wagging their tails and letting him scratch their heads.

Scarlett walked out onto the porch and stopped at the top step. His heart thudded. For an instant he couldn’t speak or breathe and felt as if he was in a dream, except he knew she was real and only a few feet away. He had to curb the impulse to close the distance between them, sweep her into his arms and kiss her endlessly. She was absolutely breathtaking. When he looked into her wide, hazel eyes, he had the impact of a punch to his gut, and it was obvious she, too, drew a deep breath. As she inhaled, her blue blouse grew taut over her figure that had filled out into lush, gorgeous curves. He remembered a kid, a naive, fun young girl, but this was a woman who made his blood hot and fanned desire into flames.

While his gaze locked with hers, he lost his breath again. The urge to crush her against him was overwhelming, and he knotted his fists and focused on staying where he was. His heart pounded as his gaze swept from her head to her toes. She was wearing a blue cotton short-sleeved shirt, tight jeans and boots, and her pixie hairdo complemented her high cheekbones and big hazel eyes. Eyes that were now filled with fury.

He was dazed, stunned by the reaction she stirred in him. He had thought he was over her long ago. If he was, what was going on right now to his heart, his breathing and his lower extremities? And it was obvious from her irate expression that she also was having some kind of reaction.

Except not the kind he particularly wanted.

“You get off the McKittrick property, Luke Weston,” she snapped. “And you can just go straight to hell.”

“Scarlett, I need your help,” he said, talking fast before she cut him off. “My dad is in an assisted-living facility and he’s let the ranch go. The animals are dying and need attention—”

He knew when he mentioned the dying animals he had her. The anger left her expression, replaced by worry. She never could hide her emotions, and she was a sucker for any animal in trouble. The yard filled with dogs was proof of that.

She clamped her lips together and stared at him.

“I saw a few horses, and they look so severely malnourished that they can’t even hold up their heads.”

She closed her eyes for an instant as if in pain. When she opened them, he knew he had gotten through to her. “I took an oath to help animals. I’ll get my instruments.”

“You can ride with me, and I’ll bring you back when you’re through. Just save some of the horses or let’s put them out of their misery. I don’t know which ones to put down,” he said, only half meaning it because he was certain that would convince her to help.

“You don’t put any down. I’ll take care of them.”

“There’s no feed in the vicinity. I need to get some. I’ll take you with me to get supplies.”

“This place is the same as it was when you lived here, and you know where to find feed and hay. Go load your pickup with whatever you need for your livestock tonight. While you do that, I’ll get my things and then I’ll join you,” she said.

“Thanks, Scarlett. I appreciate it because I need a good vet. Those horses are in dire shape. You’ll see.”

Nodding, she turned away. He drove to the barn and hurried inside. One glance at the loft and memories bombarded him. The most persistent memory was of making love with Scarlett, but he had to stop torturing himself because they had no future. He wasn’t the man for Scarlett. He had done well in business, but that wasn’t all there was to life. Always, he came back to thinking about his parents. His dad did well enough in business for years even after the alcohol began to cloud his judgment.

Damn, Scarlett looked good. As angry as she had looked when she first saw him, he didn’t think he would have any choice except to remain cool and impersonal if he wanted her help. But that was easier said than done. He better do that for his own good. He went through hell leaving her before. Now they were adults and the stakes were higher. He didn’t want to get involved and have to go through another goodbye and that’s all he could hope for with her.

When they reached his family ranch, was he really going to be able to keep his hands off her?

* * *

Scarlett went inside to speak to her mother, who was bathing little Carl. For an instant worries fled as she smiled at her precious, adopted baby boy. Her heart squeezed when Carl smiled at her and held out his little arms. “I can’t take him, Mom. Luke Weston is here. He’s in town and said his dad let the ranch go and the animals are sick, maybe dying now. He came to ask for help. Mom, I have to help those animals.”

Her mother frowned and shook her head. “I know you’re not going to ignore the livestock, so do what you have to and then come home. You don’t need to get involved with Luke Weston again. He broke your heart, Scarlett. Don’t let him come back and hurt you again.”

“I won’t. He lives in a different world now and he’ll go right back to it,” she said, thinking about the big, strapping man standing in her yard, instead of the young boy she remembered from their high school days. He was wickedly handsome, and her heart had pounded to such an extent that there was no way to ignore what she felt.

As Scarlett talked to her mother, she cut up apples from a bowl her mom kept on the counter. She bagged the apples and smiled at Carl.

Kissing her little boy’s chubby cheek, she dodged when he grabbed for her hair. She and her mother both laughed, but she saw the worry in her mother’s eyes as she left.

Scarlett fought the urge to tell Luke she couldn’t go, but when she thought about the horses that might be hurt or hungry, she knew she had to help. She didn’t want Luke putting any animal down unless it was hopelessly suffering and she couldn’t save it.

She felt a tangle of emotions—shock because her pulse had raced at the sight of Luke when she had convinced herself that she was completely over him. And then there was the anger. It was always churning beneath the surface when she thought of him. Of how he’d left her behind. She didn’t want to react to him or remind herself that he was more handsome than ever. He was a man now, not a boy, and so incredibly hot.

Scarlett closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, no, no,” she whispered. She didn’t want to find him better looking than ever, more appealing. Breathtakingly sexy. She didn’t want her heartbeat to race. All of that manifested itself, leaving her gasping as if she were sixteen again, lusting like a starry-eyed schoolgirl over the most irresistible boy in Texas.

Little reminders of Luke still popped up in her life, but for all these years since he’d left Royal, she had ignored them. So she had thought she was totally over him, but how wrong that was. All he had to do was step out of his pickup and stride up to the porch, and she was ready to either melt into a quivering mess, or run and throw herself into his arms.

She didn’t want him to come back to town and cause that kind of reaction simply by laying eyes on him. When he looked at her, he felt something, too. She knew him well enough to know he’d had a reaction to seeing her, which just compounded her desire for him.

Could she work a few hours with him on his ranch and keep a wall around her feelings? She never wanted to suffer through another heartbreak over Luke like she had when he’d left Texas all those years ago. She had cried herself to sleep every night for more than a month.

Scarlett hurried to the closet to grab her new jeans and a shirt she liked, and then she looked down at the clothes in her hands. Whoa...what had gotten into her? Dressing better because of Luke was just asking for trouble.

“Nope, not happening,” she said aloud and shoved the jeans and blouse back in the closet. She couldn’t resist looking at herself in the mirror, though, and running a comb through her short hair. She guessed there weren’t any women he took out in California who had freckles and pixie haircuts. She sighed because it wouldn’t matter how she looked, she wasn’t the woman for Luke. She wasn’t risking her heart a second time because he would never make her a permanent part of his life. She had little Carl to think of now and how what she did would affect him.

Hurrying to her office, she tried to focus on what she might need at his ranch as she grabbed her bag.

Before she left she paused, pressing her forehead against the wall. “Don’t let him break your heart again. Take care of the animals and then come home. Treat him as if you’re with a stranger,” she whispered and then shook her head as she hurried out of her room. Who was she kidding? She knew she couldn’t heed her own advice, but if she could just remember he was totally off-limits and keep her guard up, she might avoid more heartache. He hadn’t loved her before—now he definitely never would since he was completely out of her league. She knew he was the newest addition to Forbes’s billionaire list. Luke could have any woman he wanted, she was sure. In fact, she had seen his occasional picture in magazines or the news and knew he dated gorgeous celebrities and some very beautiful socialites.

Holding her bag of instruments, medications and ointments, she rushed out. Luke leaned against his pickup and was looking down at his phone. She couldn’t keep from stealing a glance down the length of him, admiring his broad shoulders, his narrow waist and his long legs. When he saw her, he jammed his phone into a back pocket. He straightened and his gaze drifted slowly over her as she approached him, and all her advice to herself to pay little attention to him evaporated.

Everywhere his gaze drifted over her, she tingled. Part of her wanted to turn around and go right back to the house and lock the door. Part of her wanted to yell at him to get off their property and go straight to hell because he had hurt her badly. Yet another, more urgent, part of her just wanted to rush into Luke’s arms, pull his head down and kiss him senselessly. She sucked in a breath, and her hand tightened on the handle of her bag while she struggled to think about something besides Luke, his hands and mouth and her pounding heart.

He opened the door to the truck for her, and when she came close, he reached to take the black bag from her. When his big, warm hand closed on hers, she thought her knees would buckle. It was the first time in years—since he’d left for college—that he touched her, and the slight contact sent a sizzling current racing to settle low inside her. Longing rocked her, and she had to take a deep breath and clench her fists.

“I’ll put your things in back,” he said, his voice raspy, which happened when he was aroused. She couldn’t answer him and merely nodded. They knew each other so well. He knew she was having a reaction to being with him, and she knew he was having his own reaction to her. That made the moment hotter and more intense, and kept dredging up memories of their lovemaking when he had lived in Texas.

Again, he took her arm to help her into the pickup—help she didn’t want or need. Help that made her quiver and have to fight more memories of his hands on her. When he closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side, she inhaled deeply and watched him. A breeze tousled his dark blond hair over his forehead. He looked sexy, more handsome than ever—something she didn’t want to acknowledge. Luke was tall, with scruffy stubble on his jaw, and he had gorgeous blue-green eyes, broad, powerful shoulders and well-shaped hands. Hands that could carry her to paradise. In short, Luke was a fantasy come to life.

He slid behind the wheel, closed the door and started the pickup, glancing at her. He sat too close, looked too enticing. “Thanks, Scarlett,” he said in a husky voice that still wasn’t his normal speaking voice and she knew it.

She nodded. “Let’s get this over with,” she said curtly, staring out the front window, fighting to ignore him as much as possible. What was happening to her? She was over him, over the hurt he caused when he left for California and said goodbye without a second thought. The old familiar anger and pain made her sit up straight and look out the window as he drove away from the house.

“Stop at the barn, and we can get some bales of hay,” she said.

“I did. They’re in the back of the truck. I loaded up hay and feed, and then drove back to your house to wait for you.” He spared her a quick glance. “I’ll reimburse you for everything. I appreciate not having to go back to town to get supplies. I’m guessing there’s nothing at the ranch—just on the drive in, the place looked abandoned. There were signs of vandals, and the animals have been left to die,” he said gruffly. “I was just there a few minutes, but it’s clear I have a catastrophe on my hands. I want to save what animals we can.”

Scarlett knew Luke so well that she could tell he was angry with his father. When they drove past the barn on her family ranch, she stared ahead, sitting stiffly, fighting yet another wave of memories.

“You still have the big barn,” he rasped.

“We’re not going down memory lane,” she snapped without looking at him. But she was already down it. Her fingers knotted and she fought the urge to glance again at the barn she saw every day of her life, yet it held special memories of an unforgettable night.

Her whole family had been away for a barn dance. Early in the evening, Luke had coaxed her to leave with him. They had gone back to her place because everyone had gone to the party. Instead of driving to the house, Luke had stopped at the barn. The minute they stepped inside, he pulled her into his arms to kiss her. Later, he spread a blanket on the hayloft and drew her to him again to make love to her, her first time.

Looking away from the barn, she tried to think of something else and forget that night so long ago, forget memories of his slow, sweet kisses that made her want him with her whole being, memories of his strong arms around her, his mouth on her, his seductive hands all over her body.

“How are your mom, and Toby and his wife?”

“They’re fine,” she answered, glancing at him. “Toby and Naomi have a little girl, Ava.” While Luke watched the road, her gaze swept over him, once again taking in the short stubble that covered his jaw, his tousled, dark blond hair that she could remember running her fingers through too many times to count. His shoulders were broader now, thicker. Desire rocked her and she took a deep breath. Realizing once again where her thoughts were going, she turned swiftly to stare out the window, not really seeing the landmarks they passed, but remembering being held in his arms, her head back against his shoulder.

She gave a tiny shake and struggled to get her attention off of her ex. He would leave as suddenly as he had come, and she didn’t want one tiny bit more hurt in her life because of Luke Weston, especially now that she had a son to care for.

She looked at familiar land, places she had grown up, and in seconds Luke dominated her thoughts yet again.

She had to resist his appeal. In no time he would be back in his private plane, headed to California, back to his ritzy life, back to glamorous models, celebs and rich socialites, eventually marrying one who could give him the children he’d want.

“You’ve done well in California. You did the right thing to move out there. It suits you as much as all this suits me,” she said, knowing the Silicon Valley world was his world.

“I guess you’re right, Scarlett. It’s my real home,” he said without looking at her. He sounded casual, but his hand was tight on the steering wheel, so obviously he felt something, too. “Common sense says to sell the ranch and forget it. I won’t live in Texas again. But...I can’t sell it. I just can’t let the family place go. It’s been in our family since the 1800s.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “I paid the house off three years ago, and damned if he didn’t go out and mortgage it to the hilt again. He hasn’t kept up his payments—no surprise there. He’s let the help go. I just found that out before I came.”

“Sorry, Luke,” she said, again without looking at him. How polite and cool they were being with each other. “So you’re going to keep the ranch, even though you’ll go back to California? You think you’ll come back to the ranch someday?” she asked, watching him and curious about his answer even though she knew she shouldn’t care at all. They would never again mean anything to each other. Unfortunately, the jump in her pulse today showed she still had to work at getting him out of her system.

“No, I never will, but at this point in my life, I just don’t want to let it go. I know that doesn’t make sense, because California is absolutely my forever home.”

“You don’t need to be in a hurry. Your dad is still around. It may mean something to him.”

“Booze is the only thing that means anything to him,” Luke said, and she heard the anger and bitterness in his reply. “He’ll never be able to live alone again.”

After they left the McKittrick ranch, they rode quietly. Her thoughts were in turmoil because she couldn’t lose that intense awareness she had of Luke. She never had been able to ignore him, and she definitely couldn’t now. Why couldn’t she ever see him as just another guy? She had to get over him or get hurt again. She could never be the woman for him because of her fertility problems. One man who loved her enough to ask her to marry him had already walked out on her. Luke hadn’t been interested when he had never been out of Texas and was getting ready to leave the family ranch. Now, he wouldn’t have any permanent interest in a small-town female vet who couldn’t bear his children. If she got involved with him, he would love her and leave her and in doing that he would get to know her baby. If she let Luke in her life again, when he said goodbye, he would not only break her heart again, he would break little Carl’s heart. That could be a lifetime hurt for her and her baby.

Scarlett tried to avoid remembering Luke’s kisses, but whenever she glanced at his handsome profile or his sexy mouth, the memory was vivid, tantalizing, still painful after all this time. She looked at his big, masculine hands on the steering wheel, but shifted her attention swiftly because she could remember those hands on her body, working their magic. An undercurrent of longing taunted her.

She released a quavering breath. Why did her heart race when he had merely brushed her fingers with his? She remembered how much she’d hurt when he left when she was sixteen. She didn’t want a bigger hurt now.

She couldn’t understand her own reactions to him. She wasn’t in love with him—she barely liked him because of the bitter fight before he left for California. How could he set her pulse pounding just by reappearing? She had to get over him. She didn’t want to spend years longing for a guy she knew as a boy in high school. A guy who didn’t want her.

They rode in silence until he turned and headed up the road toward the house where he had spent his boyhood.

The first sign of neglect was a rusty pickup smashed against a tree. She saw bullet holes where kids had probably placed bottles on it or just shot out the windows and used the truck for a target. The wheels were gone. Weeds grew up in the road that was barely visible in spots.

“Evidently, after Dad let the hands go, he sold some of the horses to subsidize his alcohol addiction.” Luke scowled. “I used to send money home, but he just bought liquor with it, so I stopped. I’ll get a crew out here as fast as I can, but right now I wanted you to see if we can’t save some of these horses. But honestly? I don’t know how the horses I saw can last through the night. No one works here. The damn ranch is deserted—the animals left to starve and die.”

She could hear the anger and pain in his voice and couldn’t blame him for his reaction. She was equally shocked by the terrible conditions.

In minutes, Luke approached a pasture with half a dozen horses standing near a stock tank that needed water. The windmill had broken boards and wasn’t working. She gasped. “Oh, no,” she whispered without knowing she had spoken when she saw the horses with ribs painfully revealed and two with their heads hanging. All the horses looked severely malnourished. The stock tank had holes in the side.

“Sorry to pull you into this because I know it’ll tear you up, but I need your help here,” Luke said.

“Oh, my heavens. Look at the horses,” she lamented. “It breaks my heart. You know I’ll help these animals,” she said, horrified to look at the condition of the horses. She felt sympathy for Luke, even though she didn’t want to get caught up in his problems. But what he had come home to was ghastly, and he had tried to help his dad to keep the ranch in good shape.

She could certainly understand his anger and disappointment, and gave a silent prayer of thanks for her own family. They helped each other and did the best they could and always could be counted on. “Oh, Luke, this is unbelievable. I had no idea this ranch had just been abandoned. We’re neighbors. Our ranch adjoins yours, and nobody in the area has said a word about it. Why didn’t someone speak up? The last hands that left here—why didn’t one of them contact you? How could your dad neglect everything so badly?”

“Because he’s a sick old drunk who doesn’t care about anybody or anything except his next drink,” Luke bit out, and she was sorry for saying anything because Luke was obviously suffering over finding his home in shambles.

“I’ll get the pasture gate,” Luke said, getting out to drag open a sagging, battered gate made with barbed wire. He returned to drive the pickup in and close the gate.

“Sorry, Luke,” she said stiffly when he was behind the wheel again. She spoke without looking at him, trying to avoid thinking about what he was going through. “We’ll start. Let’s get to work.”

“I’ll patch those holes enough to get water in that tank so they can drink. I sent Dad money to get fiberglass tanks and look what we’ve got—the old corrugated metal the cows have pushed against and bent years ago. Damn, I wasn’t sure what I’d find here, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Every dime I sent home must have gone for booze.”

She looked around and saw three horse carcasses. The live horses had moved away from them and they were decomposing, probably torn by predators and birds.

“You have dead animals.”

He sighed. “Damn. I can get a temporary crew out here to help.” He parked near the horses and a few watched them while two slowly moved toward them. Luke was already on his phone, calling someone who worked for him to start trying to hire a crew of cowboys to do temp work.

When she approached the horses, her sympathy shifted to the animals, and she could hardly blame Luke for being so upset at his father for letting this happen. When Luke was a kid, the Double U had been a fine ranch. His dad was a good rancher, and he knew what he was doing to his livestock when he neglected them. At least he had to have known when he was sober. She spoke softly and got her bag of apples, but the horses couldn’t raise their heads. She knelt to open her bag and get a needle to give shots that would help more than anything else.

“I’ll get these horses to the pasture by the barn. There’s water there. I’ll get halters on them and lead them back, and you drive the pickup. You can follow the road here to the house,” he said. “If there are any horses we can’t move, we’ll try to take care of them here.”

It was almost an hour later when they climbed back into his pickup and drove toward the house.

“I came home every year for the first three years while I was in college, and it was never like this. Things were messy at the house, but otherwise, he kept things in relatively good shape.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We had some good hands and a good foreman. I never stayed more than a night or two, so he must have pulled himself together.

“Several years ago at Christmas, I sent a plane for him and brought him to California. He said everything here was fine. He couldn’t wait to get back here and cut short his stay. Gradually, we’ve grown more apart than ever, and I haven’t been home. If I did make contact with him, he always said everything was going okay.” Luke worked his jaw back and forth. “I should have kept up with him better and maybe I could have prevented some of this. I could have hired someone to come out here and run the ranch.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I should’ve known. He always could carry on a decent conversation when he was dead drunk. I should have guessed what was going on.”

“Luke, I’m sorry. This is a disaster.”

“We’ll just have to hunt for the animals. I doubt if there are any cattle left. I’m sure they’ve all been stolen. The horses probably were passed over at first for cattle. By the time anyone turned attention to the horses, they may have been in such bad shape no one wanted them. I just barely glanced at the house, but I’ll walk through in case there are any animals in it.”

Scarlett cringed when the house came into view. One wall was shattered, as if someone had tried to drive through it. Windows were smashed. Steps to the porch had collapsed. The front door was missing. Bullet holes dotted the walls, and boards had been ripped from the porch floor. Someone had thrown black paint at the house, and a big splash of paint had spilled down a wall. A living room chair was upside down in the yard, one leg broken, another leg missing.

“Oh, my heavens, Luke...” she commiserated softly. Certainly it gutted him to look at his childhood home so badly damaged.

“While neglect did a lot to the house and barn and outbuildings, vandals and thieves caused the rest,” he said grimly. “My dad, because of his damned drinking, has just let our home—a damn fine ranch—go to hell.”

Knowing how she would feel if it had been her home, she ached for him. “I’m sorry, Luke. How awful for you to come home to this.” Impulsively, she squeezed his wrist and Luke turned, his blue-green eyes intent on her, causing a chemical reaction. The minute she touched him, the moment changed. Sympathy vanished, replaced by sizzling desire. But she didn’t want to be swept off her feet by him again. She’d been through too much heartache because of Luke to go through more.

When his gaze locked with hers, she drew a deep breath, conscious of Luke and nothing else. Worse, she was absolutely certain he felt something, too.

“I’m sorry for you, and I’m sorry for your dad. Have you seen him yet?” she asked, her words tumbling out too fast as she tried to get back to anything less intimate. But that slight touch of his wrist brought a truckload of memories pouring over her, and she felt her anger with Luke lose a bit of its intensity.

She felt sympathy for him. It would be devastating if she came home to find the McKittrick ranch in ruin. She tried to pay attention to what he was saying about seeing his dad.

“No, that’s on my list of things to do while I’m here. What he’s done—or more accurately, not done—is going to make seeing him again even more difficult than I expected. He must be in terrible shape to let all this happen.”

“Well, let’s look for the horses or whatever livestock that’s still here,” she said, struggling to get back to business.

He nodded. “I stopped here briefly before coming to get you. I want the house torn down. I can’t stand to see it in ruin. The memories from there weren’t all that great anyway,” he said, and her heart lurched at the bitterness in his voice. She curbed the impulse to reach out and squeeze his wrist again. It was obvious he hurt badly.

“There’s a half bath in the barn, so at least we have a little in the way of facilities for us. There may be running water and electricity in the bathrooms in the house. Right now, however, we better find what animals we can while it’s daylight. I’ll try to get them back to the pasture by the barn, where you can do what you have to do and I can feed and water them. Can you stay longer?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll stay. I want to save as many horses as I can,” she said.

“We’ll take the pickup now. Later, I’ll probably have to search on horseback because there are places on the ranch where I can’t drive. I may have to go buy a horse because none of these can carry me on its back.” He released a breath. “But for now, I’ve got rope in the back of the truck, some feed and a saddle if I need it, all sorts of supplies.”

“All right,” he said, “let’s get started.” He turned his truck and as he drove she looked for any livestock. They hadn’t driven a half mile when she gasped. “Luke, stop. There’s an animal. It’s a dog, and it’s dead. I think it looks like it might be Mutt.” With a pang, she remembered the dog that followed Luke around when he was home.

They got out of the pickup and walked closer. Luke knelt and ran his hand over the dog’s head. “Oh, dammit to hell. That’s Mutt. He was old and weak, and I guess coyotes got him.”

She knelt to look over the carcass more closely, and she hurt even more for Luke because this was the ranch dog that he claimed as his.

“I left him here when I went to California because the ranch was up and running and in good shape,” he said, his voice raspy with regret.

“The ranch was in good shape because you were here,” she said quietly, still looking at the dog.

“The guys liked him and he was happy here. I thought he’d be better off. He looks starved. He was old and weak, but something’s really torn him up.”

“Luke, he’s been shot. Someone shot him, and they may have done it because he was old and he may have been sick. There’s one shot and it’s a killing shot, so this wasn’t random or someone being mean. I think he was torn up by buzzards and coyotes after he was shot.”

Luke leaned closer to look as she pointed to the wound. “I hope he didn’t suffer. I loved the old mutt. He was a good dog.” He released a shaky breath. “I’m going to bury him. I have a shovel, and I’ll wrap him in a tarp and bury him back at the house.”

She heard the catch in Luke’s voice, and a lump rose to her own throat. They both stood, and she looked up at him. Without thinking about it, she touched his wrist again. “I’m sorry. I know you loved him.” The minute her hand rested on his, she knew she shouldn’t have touched him, even though it was obvious he was hurting badly. His wrist was twice the size of hers, warm, his wrist bone hard. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, and he gazed at her intently.

“I haven’t loved much in my life, but I loved him,” he said roughly, his voice grating and a muscle working in his jaw. She couldn’t get her breath, and she couldn’t understand the intensity of his gaze or his remark that he hadn’t loved much in his life. Was he just talking about a dog—or was there more to his statement?

She wanted his arms around her so badly it frightened her, and she stepped away quickly, going back to the truck. “Tell me if I can help,” she called over her shoulder.

She was breathing hard as he walked to the back of his pickup. Pulling work gloves from his pocket, he got a tarp to wrap the dog. In minutes, he slid behind the steering wheel and drove on in silence.

Why did it feel as if Luke had been away only days instead of years? Those empty years had vanished in too many ways. The worst part was the realization that she had never really gotten over him, something she had struggled desperately to do.

She had never felt this way for Tanner, and she had been engaged to him. Was it because Luke had been the first love in her life? Or did it go deeper than that?

They rode together in silence, only a couple of feet of space separating them in the pickup, but there was still a permanent, deep chasm dividing them.

He hadn’t loved her and he never would, so why couldn’t she forget him? She clearly meant nothing to him—that alone should stop the volatile reaction she had to him and the desire that still steadily simmered through her veins.

They bounced over the rough ground, and she looked around carefully, trying to see any sign of livestock. In another twenty minutes she spotted horses to the east. “Luke, over there.”

“Yeah, I see. They’re in a fenced pasture, so let’s keep looking and see if we can find some more and get them back with these. They may be in bad shape, but hopefully we can get them to the barn.” He continued to drive, and she gazed around, looking for any more signs of life.

“Luke, I see horses through the trees,” she said a few minutes later, and he swung the pickup in the direction she pointed.

For the next six hours they worked—rounding up horses, finding a few cattle, getting them back to the barn—trying to do it all while it was still daylight. When the horses were finally in the corral by the barn, the cattle in a pasture, Luke closed the corral gate and turned to her.

“You start checking the horses while I get feed to them. They’ve got water now in that tank. Shortly, it’ll be dark, so I’ll get lanterns out now and have them ready, and we can keep working if you can stay. If not, I’ll take you home. I’d appreciate your help if you can.”

“I can stay.”

He looked at her and reached out to hug her. “Thanks, Scarlett,” he said.

As his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against his solid, hard body, her heart thudded. His strong embrace made her tremble and want to wrap her arms around him and hold him tightly against her heart. How was she going to work with him into the night without stirring all those old feelings she had for him?

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.