Page 42 of Her Boss, Her Rancher: Sunrise On The Ranch

She’d been so cautious, so careful about their emotions, but what had been an unplanned fling had taken on a life of its own. It revolved around him, around her winning his hard-earned laughter, digging out more frequent smiles, touching him deeply—and then destroying everything with notes that made it clear she’d had ulterior motives for the job. It was all the proof he’d ever need to validate his original belief that Emma didn’t fit—not on the ranch, not in the community, not in the lifestyle and, above all, not in his life. Worse, she was terrified it would be the last nail in the emotional coffin where he’d buried his belief in himself as a man of worth. For that, she’d never forgive herself.

She stood, intent on going to him at the same time as a sharp knock sounded. The reverberation had her racing, half-blinded by tears, for the front door. She yanked it open, his name already on her lips.

“No, ma’am. I’m sorry. My name is Alex. I’m with Sagebrush Limousine service. I was contracted to take you to the airport.”

She fought to keep her knees from buckling. The check hadn’t been Cade’s official goodbye.

This was.

CADEVIBRATEDWITHunchecked fury as he watched the shuttle driver load Emma’s bags into the large SUV. Emma hadn’t mustered the nerve to come up here and defend herself.

After reading the notes and making a couple of calls to incoming guests, Eli had come to the same conclusion Cade had. The guests had confirmed that Emma’s firm had solicited them for this event. And that the firm was bidding on upcoming events for each respective company. But the bids didn’t involve the ranch. Nor did they involve Emma. Cade had insisted Eli ask. The clients had been working with her vice president, Michael Anderson. The man had done the follow-up work on the Covington contract. All of it.

Cade had maintained it was possible Emma didn’t realize what had been done in her absence.

Eli had only scoffed. “This is corporate America, brother. She knew what she was doing long before she got on the plane at LaGuardia.”

“You left her a note, Cade. You told her we wanted her explanation, more specifically thatyouwanted her explanation, about what her notes meant.” Reagan glared at Eli. “You’re cynical, Eli. That doesn’t mean you have to be a bastard to the woman your brother loves.”

Eli went still even as Cade erupted off the couch. “I don’t love her!”

“Settle down, bro,” Ty said from his reclined position near the hearth, eyes closed and his fingers laced together over his lower abdomen. He crossed one foot over the other and cracked his eyelids so only slits of his dark brown irises were visible. “You’re a lot of things, but you’re not a liar. Ever. Not even to...” He trailed off and he let his head loll to the side so he could look out the front window toward the single lit guest cabin. “No,especiallynot to yourself. You’ve always taken the full brunt of the truth.” He sat up and leaned his forearms on his knees as he faced Cade. “I never thanked you.”

Cade’s heart stopped beating. It must have, because he suddenly couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear over the rushing noise in his ears, couldn’t see past the black spots that dotted his vision. He managed to croak out a single word. “What?” Feminine hands guided him to sit, but he gently slipped free of their grasp. “What did you just say, Tyson?”

His younger brother’s head dipped low. “You heard me.”

Cade rounded on his eldest brother. “You want to explain?”

Eli glanced at Reagan. She gave a short nod and left the room. Eli looked at Cade, his face traced with the unbearable weight of a burdened conscience. “I didn’t break your trust. He heard us last night, Caden.”

“Half the place heard you last night,” Ty muttered.

“Not helping,” Eli said to his younger brother softly before rising to face Cade. “Ty came to me, demanded answers.” The older man rolled his shoulders and looked away before speaking. “I can’t lie to him, Cade. Not even to salvage your misguided sense of honor.”

“Misguided?” Cade bit out. “You should have come tome, Tyson. I’m the one you heard spill his guts.” Cade’s chest ached so bad he thought his heart was failing him. “Why? Why go to Eli when he was never here?” He rubbed the heel of his hand over his heart hard enough to ball up his shirt and chafe skin.

“Hell, Cade. I didn’t—don’t—knowhowto go to you with this stuff.” Ty’s soft admission seemed painful.

Cade stepped forward and wrapped his little brother in his arms, holding him as they both shook with the effort to divert the tears. In the end, it was pointless. Emotion overwhelmed the three brothers when Eli’s large hands lay gently on each man’s shoulder. Wounds long scarred over were opened, memories Cade had buried were resurrected, branded and burned by the love these two men, his two brothers, had for him.

He watched out the picture window as the hired SUV drove away and carried in it the one chance he might have had at setting the rest of his life straight. Had she come to him, he would have found a way. Even in the midst of this unexpected heartbreak and renewal, he would have chosen her. All he’d asked in the letter he’d left for her was that she allow love to be enough, that she make the choice to put him in front of her career.

But she hadn’t.

14

THECHECKEMMAhad left lying on the cabin floor was mailed to her three times. She returned it four. It was then that the brothers, or Reagan as the bookkeeper, must have realized she’d never accept it and stopped resending it. Part of her longed to find it in her mailbox simply as a means of connection to the memories. That part was small. The majority of her was reduced to one giant, exposed nerve every time she saw the ranch’s logo. It wasn’t enough of him. It was too much.

She’d planned to fire Michael Anderson as soon as she got the evidence against him she needed. Instead, the clever bastard handed her sales figures proving he’d created viable contacts through the ranch’s inaugural event—which had been a huge success even though no representative from her firm had been there—and through Michael’s other accounts. Through the summer months that followed, the firm’s revenues climbed more than 58 percent. He assumed that secured his position, but Emma was in control now. She knew what he’d attempted to do to her with the ranch contract. All she had to do now was wait for the right moment.

In the meantime, she’d refunded to the Covingtons every dime they’d paid plus 7 percent interest. They deserved to makesomethingfor what they’d been put through. Quietly, she also directed traffic to their website and their bookings page, and had continued to anonymously send brochures to premier travel agencies around the world as she learned more and more about how the ranch account should have been handled in the first place.

As the last of summer folded away and the mornings became crisp, she was walking to work, her mind wandering where it always did when undisciplined—straight to Cade Covington. She couldn’t help but wonder what the change of seasons would be like in northern New Mexico versus Manhattan. Here, the pungent smell of hot asphalt and the craze of summer tourism had finally begun to die down. The air seemed cleaner, and the last of the afternoon heat quickly faded to the first chilly reminders that winter was next and would have her due. There? No doubt the trees would change, the aspens burning yellow in the setting sun, the cottonwoods would turn a rich orange, the hardwoods would be a medley of colors interspersed by both tall and shrubby evergreen cedars. The grass would soften to a buttery yellow before going dormant long before the first hard freeze. Tourism would peak and then die until the first snowfall. Not that she’d checked, looked up pictures or kept an eye on their weather, or anything.

How would the ranch do over the winter? Would the Covingtons benefit from her hard push for holiday family gatherings in the scenic Southwest? Or would they choose to close the ranch for Christmas and have a family holiday of their own? So many questions she’d never have the answers to, never be part of.

Then there was the upcoming wedding. Reagan’s last name would officially become Covington on the second Saturday of October. It was impossible not to envy the woman. Beyond the constant regret she lived with regarding Cade, Emma was most sorry to miss the wedding.