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“Abby, I always knew you to be fair. I’m asking you to walk with me, to hear me out. Fifteen minutes. Is that too much to ask?” He’d never begged before, but he had to make her see.

She could give him that much. A part of her wanted to hear the rest. “All right. Fifteen minutes.” She checked her watch. “It’s more than you deserve.”

They began to walk away from the round pen and the barn, down a jagged path toward the stream that snaked through the ranch. The smell of mesquite peppered the air with its pungent aroma, mingling with the scent of wild honeysuckle. The heat of the day was at half power with the retreat of the sun and a light breeze cooled things down. The hoot of an owl echoed from a distance as night birds twittered in the trees.

A perfect night for an imperfect couple.

Jesse touched her elbow to guide her toward a large rock alongside a weeping willow at the water’s edge, but she jerked away. At the rock, she turned to look at him. “I thought you wanted to talk. You’ve already wasted several minutes.”

He faced her, gauging his words. She was actually going to hold him to a time limit. Beneath the hurt in her eyes, he saw anger and hoped he could erase it. “I lied about my name, but that was all I lied about, Abby. I never lied about how I felt about you. I fully intended to return and tell you who I really was after I’d made sure my father had survived his heart attack. But about fifty miles from home, a drunken driver in a pickup hit my convertible head-on.”

Her eyes widened at this news, but she stood silent.

He could have told her about how they’d had to rebuild his nose, about his clavicle broken in two places, his collapsed lung, the removal of his spleen, the four surgeries on his leg that would never be exactly the same and the crushed vertebrae in his back that would likely give him pain for the rest of his life. He could have, but he chose not to. The last thing he wanted was her pity.

“Ironically, I wound up in the same hospital as my dad, only he got to go home before me. I was pretty badly banged up, in a coma for over a week, then months of healing and physical therapy.”

She didn’t want to feel sympathy for him, but she couldn’t help it. Months recovering from a head-on collision. And she’d had no idea. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I couldn’t for the first few weeks, but I phoned as soon as I was able. I talked to Lindsay. She told me you’d gotten married and moved away.”

Abby shifted her eyes to the stars in the cloudless sky, studying them as if the answers were spelled out there. “I tried finding you. I called every Hunter family in northern California. I checked on the Internet on a link for traveling ranch hands. Naturally, I came up empty-handed.” She wrapped her arms around herself, as if to ward off a chill even though it was quite warm.

“I’m sorry, really sorry, Abby. I even sent you two letters.”

Frowning, she turned back to him. “Here, at the ranch?”

“One here and one to the university even though they told me you’d quit. I was hoping they’d forward it. But I guess you’d already gotten married. They both came back marked ‘not at this address.’” He dared to touch her arm, needing the contact. His skin was cool and she didn’t pull away this time. “Your husband, this Tom Price that Casey told me about, you must have met him when you went back to the university soon after I left, right?”

“Something like that.” Abby moved away from the rock, away from his touch, turning her back to him. “You’d hurt me. I felt so alone and…”

“…and you married him on the rebound?” Perhaps that was a presumptuous assumption, but after they’d been so close, Jesse couldn’t believe she’d tumble into love that quickly.

She didn’t answer him. She didn’t have to. “Then you had to go through his death. Were you with him when he drowned? Did you come back here after that?”

Abby didn’t want to go into the details. “I came back home because I was pregnant with Grace.” Finally, she slowly turned around. “What exactly did Lindsay say to you? Do you remember?”

“Oh, yeah. She told me I wasn’t welcome around here, not to phone or send mail or come by ever again.”

“I… I guess she was trying to protect me.”

“From me? Why? I didn’t think your family even knew we were seeing one another.”

“Mom and Dad didn’t, but Lindsay’s enterprising. She probably saw us leaving to meet down by the river or maybe in the hayloft.” No, she didn’t want to think about those times. “Listen, I understand why you couldn’t come right back, but I still don’t see why you lied about your name. That’s…that’s…”

“That’s the way it’s done in ranching circles, Abby.”

“But it’s dishonest. It’s like spying to pick up another rancher’s secrets.”

Jesse shook his head. “What secrets? Ranching is ranching. I wasn’t running around taking notes and jotting things down. I was trying to see if we could handle raising cattle much as your father does here. To see if cattle would fit in with our herd.”

He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, and maybe he hadn’t. All in the eyes of the beholder, Abby thought. She rubbed at a spot over her left eye where a headache was forming. “Well, that’s all well and good, but I’m sorry. I can’t trust you, Jesse. And if my father should find out, he’d feel as betrayed as I do.”

“I think you’re wrong. I’m not ashamed of what I did, not any of it. I’ll go to your father right now and tell him everything and…”

“No! No, don’t do that. He’s got enough problems right now. You may have noticed at dinner that he’s distracted and worried.”

Jesse frowned. “What kind of problems is he having?” Vern had confided in him, but he wondered if Abby knew.

“I’m not sure. He won’t talk about it, but I think it has to do with money. He’s lost several good men. Don’t tell him about this right now. I don’t want to add to his worries.”

“All right.” He stepped closer, took both her hands. “What about us, Abby? Do you forgive me?” When she hesitated, he went on. “We were close once. I’ve missed you.” He saw the wariness in her eyes and knew he’d put it there.

She wasn’t without her own secrets, her own deception. She had no reason not to forgive him. How could she continue to blame him when he’d been in that terrible accident? But she certainly wasn’t about to fall under his spell again. Once you’ve been burned, it would be stupid to stick your hand back in the fire.

“Yes, I forgive you.” Gently, she removed his hand. “But that’s as far as it goes, Jesse. You’re here to help Remus and nothing more. There is no us anymore. Good night.” Turning on her heel, she started walking back, then shifted into a run.

Jesse watched her go. Had he made any headway today? Hard to tell. When he’d known Abby six years ago, she’d been a soft-spoken girl, sweet-tempered and gentle. This Abby was a woman who’d buried a husband, had a child, started a business and knew her own mind.