LITMIR.BIZ

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caught a few mighty fine ones, too.”

      “So I’ve heard.”

      He smiled, the wrinkles around his eyes cutting deep into the almost-translucent flesh. “Lived life on my terms, sorry as it was. By rights I ought to be drowning in regrets. Wasn’t for taking your advice about what to do with my ranch, I would be.”

      “I can’t take credit for you turning your life around.”

      “You don’t have to take it, by jiggers. I’m a-givin’ it to you. I offered to give you the Dry Gulch Ranch free and clear. You turned me down. Didn’t leave me much choice except to try your idea.”

      “I suggested you leave the Dry Gulch Ranch to your family. That’s not a particularly inventive idea.”

      “Sounded like crazy talk to me. Leave this ranch and what lottery winnings I had left to a bunch of strangers who wouldn’t have tipped their hats if I’d passed them on the street.”

      “Until they got to know you.”

      He nodded and rubbed his weathered, bony chin. “Blessing was I got to know them. Listen at me, talking about blessings. You have really rubbed off on me. Surprise, ain’t it, after me being a worthless rounder most of my eighty-plus ornery years?”

      “You were never worthless.”

      “I done plenty of stuff I’m not proud of, but I must have done something good along the way, like pick the right women to birth and raise my kids. You gotta admit, I got me some real winners. Got the smartest and cutest durned grandkids on the planet, too.”

      “Next to mine,” Carolina teased. “So you really do have no regrets?”

      “I’d like to trade a few more years with my family for all the ones I’ve wasted, but I’m good with what I’ve got.” He turned to watch a woodpecker in a nearby pine tree. “Would be lying if I didn’t say I have one other regret, though.”

      “What is that?”

      R.J. scratched his chin, his fingers poking into the loose pads of skin at his neck. “I’d just like the chance to sit around the table and chew the fat with Jake, one-on-one. At least make a stab at getting to know my firstborn, find out why he’s so set against being part of the family.”

      Carolina swallowed hard, feeling his pain and fighting her own swelling anger. R.J. hadn’t been much of a father to any of his children when they were growing up, but what kind of adult son could just turn his back on his dying father? She tried not to think ill of anyone, but Jake Dalton was the exception.

      She’d gone so far as to call him herself last week, planned to beg if necessary to get him to pay R.J. a visit before it was too late. He’d been cool and aloof, until she’d pushed.

      Then he’d struck out at her, accusing her of having done enough already to screw up R.J. and the rest of the Dalton clan. She might have found out what he meant by that if her temper hadn’t flared to the point that she’d hung up on him.

      The man was arrogant, coldhearted and infuriating. If his mother was anything like him, no wonder R.J.’s first marriage had ended in divorce.

      Of course, so had his other three marriages, so she definitely couldn’t absolve R.J. of fault.

      “How’s your friend Mildred Caffey?” R.J. asked. “Has that no-good, wife-beater ex-husband of hers tried to get in touch with her since he got out of prison?”

      “He hadn’t the last time we talked, but I know she’s worried that he will. It’s been good for her that she’s been so busy working on a project with me.”

      “You don’t think she’ll go back to him, do you?”

      “No. She’s much smarter and more emotionally stable now then she was when they were together.”

      “Thanks to you.” R.J. swatted at a honeybee that had been flitting among the blossoms of the potted petunias scattered about the porch. “You go around rescuing every stray you see.”

      “Only the ones who want my help. And Mildred isn’t a stray. She just made some bad choices along the way.”

      “Sure as shooting, she did. I knew Thad Caffey was bad blood the first time I met him. Don’t know why a nice young woman like Mildred ever married a no-account skunk like that.”

      “Love sometimes blinds people.”

      “Reckon you’re right about...” He stopped midsentence, ran bony, knotty fingers through his thinning hair and stared into space.

      He stayed silent so long Carolina feared he was fading into one of the spells he had far too often these days. Times when he drifted into another world, one where he didn’t recognize his own family. One where he visited a woman from his past or from his dreams.

      Carolina imagined this phantom as a first love, one who had carved out a space in his heart and never fully let go. Perhaps someone he’d loved the way she’d loved Hugh.

      Finally R.J. turned and looked at Carolina, his eyes clearer now, as if he’d returned from the secret caches of the memories that had claimed him.

      “He’s gonna be out to kill you, Carolina.”

      “Who?”

      “Thad Caffey. I was in the courtroom the day the jury found him guilty. I saw the way he looked at you, his face contorted and his eyes wild like he was a panther about to spring. I figured he blamed you for her testifying against him.”

      “If he thinks I encouraged her, he’d be absolutely right. I won’t be intimidated by Thad Caffey.”

      “Or any other man around these parts.” R.J. sputtered a raspy, guttural sound that might have been a chuckle or a cough. “All the same, keep an eye out for trouble.”

      Carolina looked up at the sound of approaching hooves and gladly let the topic drop as R.J.’s son Adam came riding up on a handsome gray mare. He tipped his hat and dismounted.

      “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

      “Absolutely not,” Carolina assured him. “Always good to see you.”

      “And you. Hadley’s been talking about having you over for supper one night soon, but she says you’re jumping through hoops getting ready for that summer riding-camp program you’re organizing.”

      “I have to be in Austin for their area training session starting tomorrow. This is a busy time.”

      “Busy myself. Spring on the ranch,” Adam said, knowing she’d understand that said it all. He joined them on the porch, stopping to lean against the railing. “Just came by to see if you want to go check out a new foal that was born last night, Dad.”

      “Long as you don’t expect me to ride that mare of yours to the barn.”

      “Nope. We’ll take your truck.”

      “Good. I’m about as steady as a cat on skates these days. Carolina can go with us. She’s always keen on any kind of baby.”

      “Yes, but I have to beg out today,” Carolina said. “Too many errands on my to-do list. But I know you’ll be in good hands.”

      She stood when R.J. did and gave him a quick hug and a kiss on his sallow cheek. Her anger swelled again at the thought of Jake Dalton and his refusal to pay a visit to the Dry Gulch Ranch and R.J. The loss was definitely his.

      The Daltons were one terrific family—second in her heart only to her own.

      She said her goodbyes and went back to her black Mercedes sports car. Her phone rang before she made it back to the highway.

      “Hello.”

      “Glad I caught you, Carolina. This is Jack Crocker, and I got a bit of bad news for you.”

      “What’s

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