LITMIR.BIZ

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took a calculated risk, nothing more.”

      She blinked, trying to understand. From the family room came the sound of music. Vivaldi, she registered absently. “Why?” she asked finally.

      “Now, that’s a question I asked myself a lot during that first year when it came time for him to make his monthly mortgage payment.”

      “He was late?”

      Frank shook his head. “Not once, but I suspect there were a lot of months when he had to choose between eating and meeting his obligation.”

      She stared at him, seeing the kind eyes and the strong features. “But the risk…you must have had a reason.”

      “He had hungry eyes.” Something flickered in his own eyes, and for an instant, his jaw tightened. “Nobody had to tell me he’d had a rough time as a kid. Or that he was desperate for a place of his own, a piece of earth and sky and security where he could put down roots, a place no one could take from him.” His smile was sad. “It’s hell growing up knowing no one wants you.”

      “Oh, Frank,” she whispered, deeply touched, for him, for Cassidy—and more than a little confused. “Does Mother know what you did?”

      “No one knows, except Charlie and me—and Cassidy.”

      That threw her. “When did you tell him?”

      “I didn’t. He found out a few weeks before you two were married, when he went to the bank for a second mortgage in order to finance some renovations on the house.”

      “He was angry?”

      “You might say that, yeah,” Frank drawled before lifting the mug to his mouth again. “Had this notion I felt sorry for him, and his pride wouldn’t let him accept charity.”

      Karen rubbed her toes along the chair rung. “Men and their pride.”

      Instead of grinning as she’d expected, Frank responded with a frown. “Sometimes, when a man’s had a lot to overcome, pride’s the only thing holding him together.” Absently he rubbed at a thin white scar along his jaw.

      “Did you feel sorry for him?”

      “No.” She heard the trace of annoyance in his deep voice and knew he’d put it there deliberately. “I told you I understood him, but what I told him was the truth, too. What he got from me was a loan, nothing more—with enough interest tacked on to have him sucking in hard.”

      I’ll bet, she thought, seeing Frank in a new light. “And?”

      “And he chewed on the furniture for a while, added a couple of points to that interest and told me to write it up as a separate note.” He grinned. “Made me a tidy bit of change on that cowboy of yours.”

      She smiled, but it seemed he wasn’t finished. “I’ve made a fortune on reading people—what they say they want and what they really want. Cassidy wants you. I’d stake every penny I made on that.”

      She held the mug to her cheek and wondered if she would ever be able to talk about her failed marriage without feeling sick inside. “Then why am I sitting here talking to you instead of out at the ranch where I belong?”

      He arched a brow. “Good question. Got an answer you’d care to run by me?”

      “A lot of them, some that even make sense.” She took another sip and held her breath against the intoxicating heat sliding down her throat. “He just wore me out, I guess. I got tired of defending myself for wanting to do what I could to make the world a better place.”

      He nodded. As practically a member of the family, he knew all about the problems that had led up to their separation.

      “I have pride, too, Frank. Maybe more than I should, but I simply couldn’t stay with a man who held me and my goals in contempt.”

      “Are you so sure he did?”

      “He…he told me I reminded him of his mother and that he hated her.” She felt her stomach lurch as she revisited the scene in the den in her mind. “He used our daughter as a weapon to blackmail me into doing what he wanted, and when that didn’t work he threatened to take my daughter away from me.”

      “And you can’t forgive him for that?”

      “No. Yes.” She frowned. “I don’t know.”

      “Poor kid, you’re really hung up on the guy, aren’t you?” He slipped the words out so softly that it took her a moment to react.

      When she did, it was with a bleak smile. “Does it show?”

      “In neon lights.”

      She drew a shaky breath. “All I was asking was that he bend just a little,” she said in a small voice.

      He regarded her in sympathetic silence for a long moment, then picked up both mugs. “It’s just an observation, Kari, but it seems to me Cassidy was doing nothing but bending from the moment you decided to go back to med school. And he’s been bending ever since.” He paused by her chair to drop a kiss on her hair. “You might want to think on that some when you get to feeling lonely.”

      Chapter Thirteen

      Cassidy had just turned off his computer on Monday morning and was thinking about the week just starting out when the phone rang, demanding his attention. Since it wasn’t yet 6:00 a.m., he figured the call was important. With a scowl, he snatched up the receiver before the second ring.

      “Sloane here.”

      “Cass, it’s Rio Redtree.”

      He’d met the Grand Springs native a few years back when Rio sat in for Bren Gallagher during one of their poker nights. Never one to warm to a stranger quickly, Cassidy had found himself liking the younger man immensely by the end of the evening. Since that time, they’d spent many a night glaring at each other across a steadily mounting pot. More often than not, to Cassidy’s chagrin, Redtree had gone home with more money in his jeans than he’d brought while Cassidy’s pockets tended to be all but empty.

      Curiosity surfaced in his mind as he leaned back in his chair and made a stab at massaging away the hard ache at the base of his skull that was his constant companion.

      “How’s it going?” he asked, because it was expected.

      “Can’t complain. And you?”

      “Overworked.” And missing his wife so much he was sick with it.

      Redtree chuckled. “There is that.”

      “You got a reason for calling a hardworking rancher in the middle of the night?”

      “Like you were asleep.” The other man cleared his throat. “Something’s come up I think you ought to know about.”

      Instantly alert, Cassidy narrowed his gaze. “I’m listening.”

      There was a brief hesitation, as if Rio was searching for words. Cassidy felt the first prickling of concern and sat up straighter.

      “It concerns Vicki, mostly,” Rio confided finally.

      Fear stabbed deep. He warned himself not to bolt before he knew where he was heading. “Concerns her how?”

      “Easy, Cass, it’s probably not serious, but—”

      “Answer the question, Redtree.” He heard the threat in his voice and made a conscious effort to control himself as he added, “What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

      Rio’s sigh did little to stem Cassidy’s growing alarm. “Vicki’s class was here at the Herald last week on a field trip, and while the other kids were learning about computer pasteup and design, she slipped away to talk to me. Said she recognized me because I played poker with her daddy.”

      Cassidy heard the crunch

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