after it had gone missing. Jack recalled the self-satisfied gleam in Judge Hyett’s eyes the morning he’d sentenced him. Jack had felt lucky he’d gotten only two years.
As the large table of ranchers paid and began to leave, Jack saw Hitch McCray headed for their table and swore under his breath.
“Jack French,” Hitch said, smiling around a toothpick stuck in the side of his mouth. The rancher was on the south end of his thirties. He ranched with his mother on land just down the road from the French place. Ruth McCray ran her son and her ranch with an iron fist. When Hitch could escape her, he sneaked away to chase women and drink, both to excess.
But none of those were the reasons Jack couldn’t stand the sight of the man.
“Hitch McCray,” he ground out through gritted teeth.
Jack had heard all the stories, even while in prison, including Hitch’s driving-while-intoxicated arrests. Not that he could blame the man for drinking. If Ruth McCray had been his mother, he would have tried to stay drunk, too.
Word around town was that Ruth was on the warpath over Hitch’s brushes with the law, as well as his drinking and his taste in women. Hitch chased after any woman he saw. But if he ever caught one, his mother wasn’t about to let him keep her. Ruth had never approved of any woman her son had brought home—and, no doubt, never would.
“So you’re back?” Hitch said, sounding surprised.
“This is where I was born and raised. Why wouldn’t I come back here?” Jack asked.
Hitch shrugged, his gaze sliding across the table to Carson. “Well, if you decide you want to sell your family’s place...I know it’s not much, but I might be interested.” He looked at Jack again. “You let me know. You two have a nice day,” he said, and laughed as if he’d said something funny.
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Carson said as Hitch left. “You don’t know for sure that he had anything to do with you going to prison or what happened to your old man.”
Jack nodded. No, he didn’t know. Not yet, anyway.
Bethany brought out their breakfasts. They ate, talking little. Jack found himself watching the woman he’d met last night in the alley. Kate LaFond. At least that was the name she was going by now, apparently.
It wasn’t until he and Carson had finished their breakfasts and left that Jack could no longer help himself. He had to ask more about the new owner of the Branding Iron.
“I’ve been trying to place her since W.T.’s funeral,” Carson said. “I know I met her somewhere in the eleven years when I was away from Montana. But I’d swear her name wasn’t Kate LaFond.”
“You can’t remember where?”
“No, and it’s driving me crazy.”
“Why don’t you just ask her?” Jack suggested. When Carson said nothing, Jack eyed him more closely. “You think she was in some kind of trouble back then?”
“Or now. Why else change your name?”
Good question, Jack thought. “Maybe you have her confused with someone else.” Hadn’t he heard her say something like, “You have the wrong woman,” to the man in the alley last night? “She could just have one of those faces.”
Carson laughed. “Yeah, right.” Kate LaFond had the face of an angel. “But I suppose it’s possible,” he added doubtfully.
“Is that the rig she drives?” he asked as they walked past a newer model red pickup.
“Yeah,” Carson said and frowned. “Jack?”
“What?”
“I know that look. Don’t get involved with this woman.”
Jack nodded. Clearly the woman had secrets and some questionable acquaintances, considering the man she’d been arguing with last night. But right now he was more curious about what he’d seen in the bed of her pickup. A shovel covered in fresh dirt. Kate LaFond had been doing some digging—but not in the flower beds at the front of the café, which she’d let go to weeds.
“Where does she say she’s from?” he asked Carson.
“She doesn’t. No one seems to know anything about her. She just showed up after Claude Durham died and took over the café. Not even nosy Nettie Benton at the general store has been able to find out anything about her.”
“A woman of mystery,” Jack said, smiling with relish.
Carson swore under his breath. “Why did I bother warning you?”
How could Jack not be curious about her? He’d been warned to keep his distance by not only his friend, but also the woman herself.
* * *
KATE LAFOND WATCHED the two cowboys leave. She didn’t have to ask about the blond, blue-eyed handsome one who’d come in with Carson Grant. She’d already heard more than enough about Jack French.
“Just like his father,” one of the older ranchers had said, with a shake of his head, this morning before Jack and Carson had come in. She’d been busy refilling coffee cups at the large table of regulars who met in the café each morning. They’d mentioned they’d heard Jack had gotten out of prison and was back.
“Delbert French was one wild son of a bee in his day. He could ride anything and damned sure wasn’t afraid to try. But he couldn’t stay out of trouble for the life of him. The acorn didn’t fall far from the tree when it came to Jack.”
“Sad what happened to ol’ Del,” another rancher agreed. “Wonder if his boy plans to keep the family place.”
Hitch McCray had spoken up. “Smartest thing Jack could do is clear out. His father never amounted to anything on that piece of land. I doubt Jack will take to ranching any better than his old man did. He’d rather be a saddle bum.” Apparently, it was no secret Hitch wanted to buy the old French place.
Kate remembered how the others had gone quiet with disapproval. Hitch was the youngest of the regulars. She got the feeling that they didn’t particularly like him but put up with him because of his mother.
“Jack has as much right to be here as anyone,” Taylor West had said into the silence. “He’s paid for his mistake. If he really was the one who took that bull to start with.”
“Why would you say that?” Hitch had challenged. “He was caught dead to rights.”
“If Jack did rustle that bull, he was either drunk or just foolin’ around,” Taylor said. “Either way, Judge Hyett went awful hard on him. I suspect if Jack hadn’t been dating Judge Hang ’Em Hy’s daughter he would have gotten off with jail time served.”
The table had gone quiet after that. Kate had finished filling the coffee cups and gone to pick up their orders. By the time she’d returned with their breakfasts, the conversation had moved on to the weather.
Overhearing the earlier discussion now made her more curious about the man who’d come to her rescue last night. She’d been angry that he’d
