Page 67 of Cowboy Don't Go

“No, we stopped for lunch on the way. Hey, have you seen Cooper? I wanted to show him what Kholá is doing. Look.” Using only his legs, he backed the horse up around in a circle. “Isn’t she amazing? Cooper said it would take a while for her to do that, but she got it right away.”

Shay sniffed and chucked a knuckle beneath her nose. “That’s awesome, Ry. But listen, about Cooper . . .”

“Ray promised we’d go fishing this afternoon, too. Maybe you and Cooper can come.”

She couldn’t look him in the eye. Thinking back to her son’s demeanor only a few months ago, before Cooper and Ray, before Kholá and everything that had happened in-between, the difference in this boy was like the shift that Dorothy took in the Wizard of Oz as she moved from her black and white world into a world of color. Ryan’s world had brightened and opened to all the colors because of Cooper, and she had just taken that away from him.

No, not her. Cooper had done that.

“I think they might be tied up with something else this afternoon. Hey, why don’t we go into town and find you some new football cleats. You’re outgrowing yours.”

“Not today. He promised. I was just going to go over and—”

“Grandma’s over there now,” she said, cutting him off. “They’re talking. This isn’t a good time.”

Ryan narrowed a look at her. “What’s going on, Mom? What aren’t you telling me?”

*

“Were you ever going to tell me, Ray?” Sarah asked, her hand still on the doorknob behind her.

Ray’s hand froze on the teakettle he’d just put on the stove. “Tell you? Tell you what?”

“The truth. About why you wouldn’t see me in prison? About Tom blackmailing Evan Clulagher and you both.”

“What?” He turned to stare at her. “Tom wasn’t—”

“No more lies, Ray. It’s time for the truth. I know now that Tom knew about us. I suspected that for a long time. But Evan’s alive. I just met him, in fact, up at the round barn.”

“You what? Sarah—!” He moved toward her with real concern.

“I’m fine. But as you might imagine, it was not a pleasant meeting at all.”

“What the—He’s here? In Marietta? Is that who has been breaking into—”

“Yes. It’s all right. He’s in custody now. Trey Reyes and Cooper saw to that.”

“Trey . . . who?”

She blinked at him. “You didn’t know about him?”

“Who is he?”

“A private investigator that Cooper hired.”

Ray shook his head. “Ahhh. I told him. I didn’t want him to hire any—”

“Well, he did. And now, it’s done, Ray. He found evidence that proves your innocence. And Evan is finally going to pay for the lies he told about you.”

For a long, lifetime of a moment Ray stared at her, hardly believing what she was saying. “No.”

“Yes. It’s true.” She reached out a hand to him and he took it, pulling her close. She felt his shoulders shake as emotion passed through him. It had been a long road. Much too long a road for Ray. After a moment, she rubbed a hand against his back and pulled back to look at him.

“You knew that Tom knew about us. Didn’t you? Did he come to you? Tell you that he knew?”

Ray lowered his head. “It was before the trial, but after Evan vanished. I’d heard a jailhouse rumor from one of Evan’s lackeys that there had been someone out there blackmailing Evan over the rustling. Someone named Tom, but they didn’t know a last name. And somehow, I just knew it was your Tom. I called him and he came to see me. I knew he could clear my name. He knew I wasn’t part of it. But he basically came to gloat and to tell me that he knew I was innocent. But he wanted me to know that he would never, ever help me to clear my name. Because of you. Because I’d stolen you from him. He didn’t actually admit to the blackmail, but he did say that if I ever tried to implicate him it would ruin you and the kids and the whole Hard Eight ranch would go down. Was that what I wanted? he asked. To ruin you? To have you arrested?”

“Oh, Ray . . .”

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