Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
His son was going to drive him crazy.
Ben had been edgy since they’d left for Denver, a late birthday present to celebrate Cooper’s sixth birthday after finishing kindergarten.
It was the same feeling he got when a pregnant horse was in trouble or a wolf came onto their land looking to mess with his cattle.
Nothing had happened so far, but he was being extra cautious on the roads.
Even Will seemed jumpy, but car trips did that to him after his accident.
Ben shot Will a glance, but his brother turned in the seat before he could read him. “Cooper, your dad is driving here, and it would really help if you and Tank could sit still.”
Cooper curled his arm around the white ball of fur sitting in the middle seat, the view in Ben’s rear mirror almost making him smile. “He’s got a tummy ache, Uncle Will.”
“Of course he does,” Ben drawled—right as the puppy proved it.
A trumpet-like sound erupted from the back. Cooper started giggling as the dog jumped up and started sniffing the spot. The smell of straight sewage filled the car, making the adults groan.
“Roll your windows down, for Pete’s sake,” Reba called out in her obey me or die voice of his childhood. “I swear, every Great Pyrenees the Triple M has had was a stinker. Especially when they get spooked. Clear a room, they can.”
“Not their fault,” Will reasoned, flashing his dimples back at the woman who raised them after their mother left. “They’re just naturally gassy dogs because of their size.”
The early June day was a bit crisp but pleasant when he had his window down, and Ben was glad for the sunshine after the winter months. He waved a hand in his face to disperse the smell. You’d think he’d be used to it with all the cattle and horses he was around. “We should have left him at home.”
“He had to come!” Cooper cried, bouncing in his seat. “He’s still a puppy. Dad, he needs to be with me.”
“Cooper, what’s our special word for the day?” Ben called back to his son, the game he’d created during a blizzard and no school for four days straight, when he was going out of his ever-loving mind.
“Calm,” Cooper muttered, chin down. “I’m trying, Papa.”
He heaved out a sigh and eased back as a truck passed them on the highway. “I know you are. Sorry I’m grumpy. Let’s blame it on your uncle Will for making your papa listen to Tony Robbins on what was supposed to be a fun trip home from Denver.”
“Didn’t we have fun celebrating our favorite buckaroo?” Will nudged him in the shoulder. “Besides, your dad knows why we’re not listening to country music the whole way. We McAllister men have big hearts, and we need a new plan for how to live with them.”
Ben tucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, staying silent. Big heart? More like stupid heart, loving the wrong woman.
God, why was he thinking about Hannah so much lately? Right, because the whole town was talking about her. She’d become a hero saving a little girl, and now the country she’d left him for had expelled her.
Was she coming home?
Was that why he was so jumpy?
“Like I always say, big hearts, big brand,” Reba commented from the back seat.
“Except I thought Tony Robbins was going on about letting go and taking charge, in that order. Now that’s certainly something the McAllister men could use some more of.
Usually they go off half-cocked before they’ve thought things through. ”
“Reba, darling, we’ve been charting a new course,” Will called back, not mentioning his near-death accident over a year and a half ago as the cause of all this change. “Cooper, do you remember the quote I taught you the other day?”
His son bounced in his seat. “You mean when we did our Dude Dos for the week?”
“Yeah,” Will bandied back, flashing the same dimples as Ben’s son. “Lay it on me.”
“Ah…” Ben watched in the rearview mirror as Cooper put his hand to his mouth, thinking. “It is in your moments of decision… Oh, I remember…that your destiny is shaped.”
Will started clapping in praise, and Ben joined in by drumming on the steering wheel.
His son might be a handful, but he was as bright as a copper coin.
All his early childhood assessment tests showed he was advanced for his age.
Not only because he was raised around adults as an only child, but also because Cooper craved challenges and had more questions than Ben had answers to.
Thank goodness for online searching. There was always an answer out there to Cooper’s many questions when he looked, which made him feel like a good dad.
His own father’s answers of because I told you so or that’s the way it is had never satisfied him.
He was determined to give his son better answers, which is why he let Will play Tony Robbins in the car.
He’d hoped to become a better dad because of the motivational speaker and author.
“It’s Vocabulary Bonus Round, Cooper McAllister,” Will called back. “What is destiny?”
Even though Cooper had only finished kindergarten, he’d know the answer. Ben cocked his ear. Kids did say the darnedest things.
“That’s easy, Uncle Will. It’s something so big and so powerful that you can’t run away from it.” He showed his gap-toothed grin when he hugged Tank. “Like Tank being my dog. You and Papa love his papa and mama so much that Ghost and Luna had a puppy especially for me, so I had a dog to love too.”
“Can’t fault logic like that,” Will agreed, kicking his tan cowboy boots out. “Love is the biggest spark when it comes to destiny. You remember that, Cooper.”
“I will!” Then he giggled as Tank gave another trumpet-like announcement, making everyone roll their windows down again.
When Will announced it was time to change drivers, Ben pulled to the side and let his brother take the wheel.
His old habit of checking to make sure his brother wasn’t stressed hadn’t gone away since Will’s car accident.
When his brother gave him a knowing, dimpled smile as they buckled back in, he tucked his black Stetson hat low over his brows and tried for some shut-eye, hoping Reba could wrangle Cooper and Tank to do the same.
He was lucky Reba was along for the ride, taking care of his boy like she had him and Will.
Hell, he was lucky, period. Despite losing Hannah and then messing up his life with Cooper’s mother, he’d done the best he could by his boy.
Cooper was the son any man would wish for, and he was grateful for him every single day.
Running the ranch now, his days were packed to the gills.
No time for regrets or recriminations. God knows he’d vowed to never make another life-changing mistake.
He tended what was his, took care of his boy, and looked to the future, telling himself it was enough.
Most days, it was. That peace helped him drift off…
He jerked awake as they came to a stop. Tipping up his Stetson, he caught Will unfolding from the driver’s side and letting a bounding Tank out followed by Cooper.
“You two go on and stretch your legs,” Will called. “Reba will be along to make sure you don’t get into too much mischief.”
“Like he’s the one I’m worried about,” Reba muttered, hopping out and stalking away with her brown fringe jacket fluttering in the wind.
Ben looked out the window. Snow-capped mountains surrounded them. Agricultural sheds lay scattered around the abandoned property. His edgy feeling turned into a full stomach roil. “Where the hell are we?”
“An old friend’s place,” Will answered, slamming his door and then coming over to his side.
Ben opened his door reluctantly. “Who—” He saw Logan striding toward them with his usual determined gait. “I don’t recognize these mountains. Meaning, aren’t we a little out of your territory, Sheriff Delaney?”
“I’m off duty,” Logan replied, moving his dark jacket aside to show his sheriff badge wasn’t clipped to his belt. “You made good time, Will. We just got here.”
They man-hugged like nothing weird was going on. “You two going to tell me what you’re up to? Now Reba’s comment about mischief makes sense.”
Logan hooked his hands in his jacket. “We had something we thought you should consider.”
The two men shared a look, and suddenly, Ben was excited. Could they be out here for a horse? He’d recently lost out on a gorgeous white Arabian foal he’d wanted for breeding stock to a higher bidder. Will had done his best to cajole him out of his bad mood when he’d stormed around for a week.
His pet project of breeding Arabian and quarter horses was his passion—but breeding was a long game, and it took money from the ranch to get it up and going.
He loved the Quarab mix because it combined the athleticism of the quarter with the endurance and elegant lines of the Arabian.
He hoped it would become a long-term paycheck that could contribute to the ranch’s bottom line, which was narrowing every year due to increasing taxes and agricultural prices.
The McAllisters had always been land rich and cash poor—and he could live with that—but too many new factors were making him lose sleep, most involving power-hungry billionaires like James Taft.
He’d been harassing them to sell him Wild Mountain and the surrounding land to use as his personal playground and develop as he saw fit.
Across Montana, billionaires like Taft were buying up ranches, putting up fences, and bringing in a whole new breed of tourism—luxury Western tourism. The Triple M had enough issues without the rumble of helicopters overhead while tending cattle and keeping the ranch going.
Will put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I want you to know that Dad is on board, as is Gramps.”
Both of them? His belly did another somersault. “So I’m not out here for a horse.”
“Nope, but it’s going to give you more money to bid with so you won’t lose another foal, and it’ll even help the ranch’s bottom line.” His dimples disappeared as he grew serious. “You remember how I promised you a long time ago that I would make something right?”
Tension locked down his muscles. He could only be referring to one promise, and Ben went rigid. “I told you we were never talking about that.”
Hannah—he had to be talking about Hannah. Not when he’d done the unforgivable…
Will’s hand anchored Ben in place. “Too bad. I love you too much to let the status quo continue. Especially now.”
His heart started pounding, but the feeling wasn’t the normal half-life he’d gotten used to—even with all the joy Cooper brought into his life. That other dark half of his heart that had died the day she’d left trembled to life, causing pain to spread throughout his chest. And shame…
All he wanted to do was run.
“What did you do?” he barked sharply, starting to fight when both men put their hands on him and held him in place. “She’s here, right? She’s coming back home after Scotland, isn’t she?”
“Cooper’s out of earshot and sight with Reba, but you should settle down so you don’t upset him,” Will called, wrestling him when he threw an elbow. “You know how sensitive he can be.”
“You brought him here on purpose?”
“I did,” Will answered. “Will you listen to me?”
He told himself he was overreacting, but he was like a panicked horse—all logic gone. “Not on your life,” he spat, yanking on their hold. “I am so out of here. You can ride home with Logan.”
Will tightened his grip. “Logan, I’d hoped for a better response. We’re going to have to do this the hard way, I guess.”
“Oh goody,” Logan answered with an evil grin.
“I’m not seeing her.” Avoiding her had been the only way he could cope when she’d come home those few times before. “We have nothing to discuss.”
His brother only smiled flatly. “You sure as hell do. I’m done with you punishing yourself.”
Logan moved swiftly and put him in an arm bar. He felt something metal snap around his wrist—they were cuffing him? That made him only fight harder as they dragged him to the shed.
“Don’t worry,” Logan told him. “Hannah will be on the other side of the two-way mirror. Some other law enforcement friends have used this property for interrogations—don’t ask. You keep quiet, Ben, and she won’t see you trussed up like a turkey.”
See him? God, not like this, after all this time.
He immediately stopped struggling. They hot-walked him to a metal chair and sat him down. He looked up and felt his heart seize up.
There she was. On the other side of the mirror. The woman who’d once been his whole life, his everything.
Looking more beautiful than ever.
Her wavy auburn hair still reminded him of the sunrise, and her green eyes were like the pines that covered Wild Mountain. That rosebud mouth seemed destined for a smile as sweet as sunshine.
She was curvier around the waist and the hips, all woman now. She’d lost her youthful look—except for her pointy chin, which hinted at the fiery personality that had both challenged him and made him love her with everything he was.
How was he supposed to face her after what he’d done?