Rancher's Second Chance

The damned things had to be here somewhere. Cursing himself for never taking the time to sort out the years of accumulated junk jammed into every nook and cranny of the battered rolltop desk, Rafe Garrett yanked out another drawer, rifling through papers in search of the ones he wanted. Abran Santiago, laid up with a broken hip, was sending another vet out in his place and Rafe needed to lay his hands on the vaccination records for his bison. Another yearling had turned up sick today and if this new vet didn't have any better idea of how to stop the illness from spreading further and killing more of his calves, Rafe's little experiment with establishing a bison herd on Rancho Pintada was going to be over in short order. As he pushed his hand to the back of the drawer to drag out the last of the papers his fingers brushed something cool and hard. Frowning, he pulled it out and found himself staring at a heart, shaped from pale-pink quartz and strung on a thin silver chain. It had been shoved in the back of the drawer for so long he'd almost forgotten it. Almost. Touching it with the tip of his finger, he found himself flooded with memories thirteen years old. And all of them were ofher. The delicate thing curved against his work-roughened hand looked wrong. Like Julene Santiago in his armsit didn't belong. It had been hers, of course, lost here that last night he'd held her. Holding it now opened him up to the pain he'd thought he'd finally become immune to. It exposed as lies all the times he'd told himself he'd forgotten her. That he didn't remember how her bare skin felt warm and soft against his. How it felt to tangle his hands in her hair, the dark smoothness of it. How it wound around them like a living thing when they made love. That she didn't matter to him anymore. You'll never be good enough for her. You're just a ranch hand like your daddy. You'll never have anything worth giving her. You'd best remember that and stay away from that girl. He hadn't stayed awaythen. And it had eaten him up inside because he knew it could never be the forever they both had wanted. Until, finally, he'd found the guts to let her go. Except she hadn't gone. She was always with him. He'd never truly wanted another woman since. And sometimes he hated her for that. He started to crush the necklace in his fist and throw it aside once and for all. The memories stopped him in mid gesture and instead, he very gently returned it to its hiding place, slowly closing the drawer as if by doing so he could finally lay the past to rest. He couldn't, but he could pretend. Forgetting the papers, Rafe grabbed up his Stetson and headed for the barns. He deliberately took the path that kept him as far away as possible from the main ranch house. He was determined to avoid a confrontation with Jed today, rehashing the same old argument over what Jed considered Rafe's foolhardy idea to establish the bison herd along with the cattle and horses raised on Rancho Pintada. If he kept away from the house, it should be easy enough. Jed spent most of his time there these days, laid up from the chemotherapy treatments. "Hey, Rafe! Wait a minute." Rafe felt the tension in his neck and shoulders ratchet up a notch, immediately knowing it was his youngest brother, Josh. But he stopped short of the barns, turning to answer the call. "What now? And don't bother telling me if it's something the old man wants." "Okay, I'll skip that part." Josh Garrett flashed a cocky grin as he strode up to Rafe. They were family because of Rafe's adoption, but Rafe always figured that anyone who didn't know that would never believe they were brothers. Josh nearly matched him in height, but Josh was lankier, his tousled whiskey-colored hair and green eyes a sharp contrast to the dark coloring bestowed by Rafe's American-Indian heritage. "You know, you dFoster, Nicole is the author of 'Rancher's Second Chance ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373248414 and ISBN 0373248415.