the future. Billie was getting married—to someone else.
She glanced at him, a question lighting her eyes, then laughter burst out of her, the full, throaty sound stirring his interest again. “Oh, God, you remember that?”
“How could I forget you trying to ambush Jake and me like a Comanche on the warpath?”
Shaking her head, she grabbed the reins and headed out of the barn. “Come on, I’ll saddle your mount.”
“Which one am I riding?” he asked, stepping into the warm sunlight. The rays caught the gold shimmering highlights in Billie’s blond hair and the intensity of her blue eyes.
“Diablo. You remember him, don’t you?”
How could he forget Jake’s surly black gelding that liked to kick and bite more than Billie the Kid? He nodded, wishing he’d brought his old rusted spurs. “Meanest bronc this side of the Red River.”
Her mouth twitched as if she couldn’t decide if she should smile. He figured she’d hold her laughter till he got thrown and busted his butt. She looped Calamity’s reins loosely over a post, grabbed a rope and walked down the fence line. “Come on, we’ve got to catch him first. He’s not very sociable these days.”
When had Diablo ever been? Nick stuck his hands into his pockets. He was in for a long afternoon.
Billie whistled, and the shrill sound pierced the quiet barnyard. Birds fluttered toward their perches in the barn loft In a nearby corral, a smattering of black cows and calves flinched. Diablo stood in the middle of a patch of green and chomped on sweet clover. Nick blinked. The once solid-black gelding was now gray, almost white in places.
Billie climbed the fence and jumped down into the corral. “He’s hard of hearing, too.”
“You sure it’s safe to ride him?” Nick asked. “He looks...fragile.”
“Don’t let him fool you. He’s stronger than he looks,” she said, giving Nick a pointed stare. He caught her meaning. Billie was stronger than she looked, too, always had been. “Besides, Diablo likes the challenge.”
Great, Nick thought. Wasn’t Billie enough of a challenge for one day? He opened the gate for her to lead the gelding out of the corral. The horse acted as docile as an old hound. “You think you can race and win, with me riding this poor, pathetic excuse for a horse, huh?”
“No such thing.” But she flashed him a devilish smile.
A few minutes later, mounted, they rode through a copse of live oaks and toward the green pastures. The horses’ hooves crunched acorns as they walked. Nick’s gaze trained on Billie, riding just ahead of him, as he rolled with Diablo’s slower gait. The saddle cupped Billie’s backside, framing her bottom, accenting the shifting motion of the horse. Nick groaned and concentrated on the thick green grass, the cornflower blue sky, the stark white fence surrounding the north stretch of the ranch.
“That a new fence?” he asked, noticing the rails where there used to be barbed wire.
She nodded. “Jake and I put that in right before...” Her voice faded, then she resumed. “It was expensive but in the long run it’ll require less maintenance. And I don’t have to worry about a cow breaking through and getting out onto the highway.”
“Unless an eighteen-wheeler plows through it.” He grinned, agreeing with her decision.
“Then I’d have more problems than an ornery cow on the loose.”
“What are you going to do with the ranch once you get married?” he asked, prodding Diablo alongside the chestnut mare. Out of the corner of his eye, he detected the abrupt stiffening of Billie’s spine.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t see Schaeffer letting his wife herd a bunch of smelly cows,” he confessed, slanting his gaze to her face.
Her jaw squared, and her eyes flashed. “No man lets me do anything. It’s my choice...whatever I do. With the Rocking G or anything else.”
Her crisp tone signaled that the discussion was closed. He ignored the warning. “Are you selling out?”
“No.” Her answer came quick. Too fast, almost defensive, in his opinion.
His eyes narrowed, but he couldn’t read her expression. She shuttered her emotions behind a determined mask. “You’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this place. It’s your heritage.”
“I know that Better than anyone.” Her shoulders slumped as if beneath a great weight. “But...”
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. We’re keeping the ranch in the family. Doug can p-p—” She clamped her mouth closed and looked out over the north range.
He studied her for a long moment. “I didn’t know you were unhappy here.”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Nick.” She cut her eyes toward him. “How’s the construction business these days?”
“Growing,” he said, making a mental note that she hadn’t denied she was unhappy.
“Do you like living in Houston?” Reining Calamity near a patch of clover, she draped her wrist over the saddle horn.
He shrugged as Diablo stopped to graze beside the mare, and turned in his saddle to look at her. “It offers a lot of opportunities.”
“I would imagine so. For a single man.” A faint tinge of pink brightened her cheeks. Her gaze softened. “We heard about the divorce, Nick. I’m sorry.”
He tightened his grip on the reins. “So am I.”
“Is marriage as hard as everyone says?” she asked.
“For me it was.” Shifting on the hard saddle, he said, “Your mom would be a better one to ask. She made a marriage work for twenty some-odd years.”
“But you know what it’s like starting out in the nineties.”
He set his mouth in a stern frown. “Yeah, it’s hard.” He took the opportunity to drive home his point. “That’s why it shouldn’t be entered into lightly.” He leaned toward her, until he was close enough to smell the musky scent that fogged his brain. “Level with me, Billie. You don’t really love Doug Schaeffer, do you?”
She closed her fist over Calamity’s reins and heeled her mount into a faster pace. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t act like a blushing bride.”
“Well, maybe because of the way you behaved earlier, I didn’t think you wanted to hear me gush about my groom.”
“That’s probably true,” he admitted, matching her stride.
A sudden need gripped him. A need to know she really didn’t love Doug. For a split second he wondered if he was jealous, then dismissed it as concern—a feeling any big brother would have. “Tell. me you’re not going
