wondered if Kara, in all her whirlwind visits, had taken the time to notice. If she had, surely she would give the old man the one thing he wanted most. Couldn’t she see the old cowboy was lonely for family? Permanent family, not someone who ran in and out when the notion struck.
“You’d like her to live closer by, wouldn’t you, Pete?”
“Reckon I would.” The tobacco jutted the old man’s lip as he spoke. “A long time ago Kara promised me a grandson. Had some silly notion that she’d let me down by not being a boy. She didn’t, of course. Why, I wouldn’t trade a hair on her head for a houseful of boys, but now that she has me a grandson, don’t seem right to keep him in Oklahoma while I’m down here in Texas. A boy needs a man’s influence, you know.”
“What about Riddley? Doesn’t he spend time with the boy?”
“Nah.” Pete shook his head. “I don’t know what happened between Josh and Kara, but I do know one thing. She’s mighty bitter about it. Won’t let the man near that child.”
“Did you ever ask her what happened?”
“Figured if she wanted me to know, she’d tell me.”
Ty stroked the smooth, warm horseflesh while his mind absorbed all Pete’s revelations. He knew about young boys needing a man’s influence. Pete had been that man in his own life, a surrogate father throughout his rough-and-tumble high school years. Without Pete he might have become even more like his old man than he was.
Sam Murdock had cheated on his wife for as long as anyone could remember. When Ty was thirteen, Sam went off to a rodeo in Odessa with his latest flame, and Ty hadn’t seen him since. The gossips of Bootlick had predicted that Ty’s good looks and natural charm would lead him down the same path. “Blood will tell,” they liked to say each time Ty was within earshot.
His mother had been wise enough to know that a boy needed a real man’s influence, and she’d asked Pete to put him to work on the Tilted T, where he’d learned to focus all his wild teenage energy into roping, riding and ranching.
He’d fallen in love with Pete’s daughter, too, taken her innocence and left her crying. That act of disloyalty, both to Pete and to Kara, haunted him still, adding to his fear that the Murdock blood in his veins was too strong to overcome.
Yep, Ty owed old Pete a lot more than a place to live and a foreman’s job. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for the grizzled old man at his side.
The seed of an idea began to form in the back of his mind.
Pete wanted Kara and his grandson to come home for good. Kara wanted the ranch for her son. And he wanted to find out if he was man enough to settle down. He could only think of one way to do it all.
“Pete, what if there was a way to give both you and Kara what you want? And maybe me, too?”
Furrows appeared in Pete’s forehead. “You ain’t fixing to tell her about the ranch debts, are you? We had an agreement.”
“No. Nothing like that. But I am fixing to take a little gamble and see how badly Kara wants this ranch for her boy.”
“What ya got in mind?”
“A little proposition that will force her to bring Lane down here to live for good.”
“Ooo-wee, Kara Dean don’t like being forced to do anything. You’re gonna make her mad, I can already tell that.”
Ty laughed lightly, suddenly looking forward to the next encounter with the sizzling Kara. “Yeah, I suppose I will.”
“Then I wish you luck, boy. She’s still as full of spit and vinegar as ever.” Pete laughed and slapped the top rung of the iron fence. The gelding jerked back at the hollow metal sound ringing out over the paddock.
“Well, I’m heading to the house.” Pete spat one last time and clapped Ty on the shoulder. “Sally’s fixed a cherry cobbler and I reckon another piece before bed won’t kill me. You want to come up for a bite?”
“Sounds good, but not this time, Pete. Thanks anyway.”
When Pete limped off into the darkness, Ty resumed his position along the fence rail, this time staring up into the inky sky. He spotted the Big Dipper and swung his eyes along its pouring side in search of Polaris. Finding it brought back memories.
Watching stars had been a favorite pastime of his and Kara’s. Among other things. His mouth tilted upward. They’d been stupid kids, wildly in love and recklessly romantic. He recalled lying on a horse blanket along the creek bank after they’d made love. A few feet away their horses nipped at the thick clover, and the sound of bullfrogs was the most romantic music he’d heard before or since. The moonlight bathed Kara’s face in gold, and her green eyes glistened with tenderness as she dreamed out loud, planning their future.
“Look, there’s our star.” Kara pointed upward.
“Make a wish.”
“You already know what I wish.” She rolled toward him, her words sliding over his skin like a silk shirt. “I want us to get married and have a baby boy with your black eyes and dark skin.”
He kissed her nose. “And we’ll name him Lane.”
“After our favorite cowboy, Lane Frost.”
And she’d done it. She’d given her son the name they’d chosen together all those years ago when the stars and moon looked exactly as they did tonight. Even now the pain of that betrayal stabbed at him like a hundred pitchforks.
That she’d married so soon after he left had hurt like nothing else before or since. At the time, he’d been convinced she was angry, vulnerable, and maybe even punishing him for leaving. But when she’d had the guy’s baby and had given him the very name they’d picked out together, something inside Ty had withered up and died. She’d been his, and no other man had a right to give her a baby.
As he stared upward into the Milky Way, a falling star zoomed past, glowing desperately in the white heat of its last hurrah. He watched it burn itself out, then searched the sky until he found their star. And then he made a wish.
Chapter Four
Kara snuggled deeper into the pillow and smiled, relishing the scent of fresh morning air that wafted through the half-open window. The air was cool, the bed warm and the early morning redolent with bird-song. She couldn’t remember when she’d slept so well, a puzzle considering the adrenaline that had surged through her veins the previous day.
She’d expected to lie awake half the night reliving the look and feel of Ty Murdock, of the way he’d kissed her, of the way she’d responded, of how furious and delirious he could make her all at the same time. Instead, after a cup of warm cocoa, she’d fallen into her familiar old bed and slept soundly, dreaming beautiful, happy dreams that now fluttered elusively around the edges of her consciousness, just out of reach.
Yawning and stretching, Kara sat up and gazed fondly around at the room that defined the girl she once was.
An ancient poster of Luke Perry as Lane Frost from the old movie 8 Seconds smiled down at her, the edges brown
