Only 06 - Winter Fire

Hunter interrupted. “It’s the least I can do for the woman who saved my brother’s life.”
    â€œI’ve been amply repaid for that.”
    â€œUte, Conner, come with me,” Hunter said. “We’re only in the way here.”
    Sarah started to object, then shrugged.
    â€œSis?”
    â€œGo with Ute and Hunter,” she said to Conner. “I won’t be far behind you.”
    â€œI’ll put your saddle on one of the mules,” Hunter said. “But if you need it, my brother is a fool.”
    She watched the three men file out, leaving her alone with the man she loved.
    A man who didn’t love her.
    â€œWhat in hell are you thinking about?” Case asked bluntly.
    â€œI’m going to buy land and raise horses. In California, I think. Perhaps Oregon.”
    â€œYou’re not making sense.”
    â€œIt makes perfect sense to me. I like ranching.”
    He made an impatient, chopping gesture.
    â€œYou know what I mean,” he said. “You have the start of a good ranch here. If you want to raise horses, Cricket is as fine a stud as you’ll find west of the Mississippi.”
    Sarah took a hidden breath and confronted what she had hoped to avoid.
    Damn Hunter anyway , she thought wearily. What business is it of his whether Case and I have a shouting match before we part?
    â€œLost River ranch isn’t mine,” she said.
    â€œHalf of it—”
    â€œâ€”belongs to you,” she interrupted. “The other half belongs to Conner.”
    â€œWhat!”
    Under other circumstances, the look of shock on Case’s often expressionless face would have amused Sarah. Now it simply was painful.
    â€œI gave Conner half the ranch after he—after Hal died,” she said.
    â€œYou knew he killed your husband?”
    Sarah’s eyelids flinched.
    â€œI knew only one of them came back,” she said. “I thank God every day that it was Conner who survived.”
    â€œHal was trying to pistol-whip him. Conner fought back. The gun went off. It was an accident.”
    She swayed and took a broken breath.
    â€œThank you,” she whispered. “I always hoped my brother didn’t kill for me. But, God help me, I was so grateful…”
    Case stepped forward and gripped Sarah’s shoulders, holding her as though he was afraid she would fall.
    â€œForget this nonsense about leaving,” he said roughly. “Conner and I will settle for a third of the ranch each.”
    â€œNo.”
    He blinked, then looked at her through narrowed, gray-green eyes.
    The eyes that met his were the color of storm clouds. If she had looked weak a moment before, she no longer did.
    â€œWhy not?” he asked. “Conner would be the first to offer.”
    â€œJust what kind of future did you have in mind?” she asked sharply. “All the, uh, comforts of home and none of the responsibility?”
    A dull red appeared on Case’s cheekbones above his beard. He let go of her and stepped away as though he had been burned.
    â€œI didn’t mean it that way,” he said.
    â€œWhat did you mean?”
    He raked his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration that made Sarah’s heart turn over with a bittersweet combination of love and loss.
    But nothing of her feelings showed on her face.
    â€œI don’t want you to leave,” he said.
    â€œPut what you want in one hand and spit in the other and see which fills up first,” she suggested ironically.
    â€œ Damnation . You aren’t listening to me!”
    â€œThat’s because you aren’t thinking very clearly.”
    â€œAnd you are?” he retorted.
    â€œYes. You don’t want marriage, because marriage means children.”
    His breath came in hard.
    â€œYou don’t want an affair,” she continued, “because sooner or later I’ll get pregnant.”
    Case went still.
    â€œWe can’t just pretend we were never lovers,” she said. “At least I can’t. What you give to me is…the flight of a hawk. I couldn’t bear being so close to that kind of ecstasy and yet having it always beyond my reach.”
    â€œSarah,” he whispered.
    Hoping against hope, she waited.
    He said no more.
    Nor did he need to. The words he had once said were burned in her memory: I don’t have love left in me. I don’t want it. I’ll never again love anything that can die