Page 11 of At the Rancher's Pleasure

Sarabeth pushed her hand into her hair and rubbed her scalp. “Well, you know he’s always blamed me for not fighting harder for them when Rusty and I split up. I haven’t wanted to get caught in the blame game, but I’ve told him some of what went down but not everything. I still don’t think he realizes how hard it was fighting Rusty with minimal resources and no power.”

“I’m still angry that that judge gave Rusty custody of the kids and not you. That was a prime example of how wealth and influence and old boys clubs work.” Jaynie huffed, looking annoyed. “But Ross is an adult now, Sarabeth, with a child of his own. He’s old enough to understand the truth,yourtruth and I’m glad you told him. And, seeing that he and Rusty are not talking—”

“Yeah, I heard that Rusty disowned him because of his relationship with Charlotte. Ugh... I could just...stab him.”

Jaynie looked around, worried. “Jeez, hon, don’t make statements in here like that! If something happens to Rusty, you’ll be the number one suspect.”

“I’d be the number one suspect anyway,” she muttered. “They always look at wives and ex-wives first. And we watch too many crime shows, Jaynie, we really do.”

Sarabeth grinned. She and Jaynie were both huge devotees of true crime documentaries and were convinced they could pull off the perfect murder.

Not that they would...

“So, how are you going to mend fences with Ross?”

“I’m still tiptoeing my way around that,” Sarabeth admitted. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Just keep reinforcing the truth. Keep telling him that Rusty started cheating on you a few months after your wedding, that he couldn’t keep his pants zipped. Tell him that the gossip he spread around about you made living in Royal untenable so you moved to Dallas, purely to stay close to them. That every time you made arrangements for them to visit you, or for you to visit them, Rusty had an excuse to cancel those visits, telling you they had plans, or weren’t interested or were sick. That he put so many barriers between you that, eventually, the wall became too high for you to climb.”

Sarabeth felt tears well, angry and annoyed at her younger self. She’d been raised by a pushy mother who believed that her face was her currency—if she couldn’t win pageants then marrying a rich man was just as good—and putting up with a man’s infidelity was the price one paid for having access to his money and enjoying financial security. Sarabeth violently disagreed, and her relationship with her mother deteriorated rapidly to the point of barely interacting. And for far too many years, she’d had little interaction with Ross and Gina.

She counted her blessings every day that she and Gina were now in a good place, but she’d failed Ross. And she felt so ashamed. “I should’ve done something different, something else.”

“Maybe.” Jaynie shrugged. “But you were so damn young when you married Rusty, no more than a kid yourself. Give yourself a break, Sarabeth. You’re trying to make amends and that’s all you can do.”

“But what if Ross refuses to let me be a part of his life?” Sarabeth voiced her biggest worry, the one that kept her awake at night. She wanted to get to know Charlotte and to love, cuddle and spoil her beautiful grandson.

“Have faith that it will all turn out okay, girlfriend, and it will,” Jaynie told her, pulling her half-empty glass toward her. “Changing the subject...”

Sarabeth cocked her head, frowning at the naughty glint in the other woman’s eyes. What in tarnation was the troublemaker going to say next?

“So, I think you should have an affair with Brett Harston.”

Sarabeth nearly spluttered her salted caramel milkshake all over the table. “What!Why?”

“Because he’s hot, he’s single—”

Sarabeth threw her hands up in the air. “He broke up with his fiancée the day before his wedding a couple of weeks ago.”

“Pfft, he and Lexi Alderidge never made sense to me.” Jaynie waved her objection away. “The best cure for heartbreak, not that I think either of them is heartbroken—”

“Lexi must be.” Sarabeth crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at her friend. How could she not be? She’d been expecting to get married, for God’s sake!

“Brett was Lexi’s rebound guy after her divorce. I bet she’s more embarrassed than heartbroken,” Jaynie stated empathetically. “She needed someone to prop her up after her divorce, and she and Brett drifted toward each other and somehow, God knows how, they started thinking marriage was a good idea. Good thing that Brett saw the light because they aresonot right for each other.”

Darling Jaynie, so decisive. But, despite her friend’s ability to read people and situations, she hadn’t walked in their shoes, slept in their bed, so she couldn’t know for sure what had happened between them. It had to be more complicated than that...

Not that Brett’s love life was any of her business. Now or in the future, as she informed her friend.

Jaynie laughed. “We’ll just see about that.”

No. They wouldn’t.

Because there was nothing to see. It was just a kiss, dammit.

An earth shuddering, toe-curling kiss but still...just a kiss.

Four

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