Page 49 of The Soldier and the Cowboy

“Hold still and let me pity you proper,” she said, leaning forward to press her lips to his. He reached for her to draw her closer. She leaned into him, practically lunging for him.

“Do you have any idea how long I...” he tried.

“Yes,” she said, interrupting him with another kiss.

“How much I…”

“Yes,” she said, interrupting him again.

“Dang, girl,” he said.

She laughed and let go of his stomach to cradle his face in her hands, making it easier for her lips to reach him. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her in return the way she wanted, like he meant it for keeps. They paused a few minutes later,breathless and shaking. He rested his forehead on hers.

“I should have known you’d be the one to make the first move,” he said.

“I think we both saw it coming a mile away,” she said.

“I…” he began, but he wasn’t able to complete that thought, either. A noise to his right alerted them of someone else’s presence. They looked up to see his brother atop a horse, staring down at them with a mix of shock and disapproval.

Cam slid off his horse. Cal shot to his feet, Bailey toppling haphazardly to the ground. The two brothers faced off, neither saying a word. Bailey got to her feet slowly between them. Cam’s eyes darted to her.

“It’s not how it looks,” Cal finally said.

“Really? Because how it looks to me is like your wife was murdered and you’re making out with your head of security, the woman who’s been living under your roof the last few weeks.”

“Okay, I guess it is how it looks,” Cal said.

“I should go,” Bailey inserted, but he caught her hand.

“Stay, this concerns you too,” he said. He took a breath. “Cam, there’s a lot you don’t know.” He paused again and took another breath. “Isabel and I broke up a couple of years ago. She moved out, we’ve been living apart, been separated all that time. But even before that, things weren’t good. Probably the last five years we’ve had issues, major, horrible issues between us.”

“But she was at our wedding eighteen months ago and everything seemed fine,” Cam said.

“I paid her twenty thousand dollars to come with me and pretend we were still okay.”

“Why?” Cam breathed.

“I told myself it was because I didn’t want to rain on yourand Maggie’s parade, to ruin your special day with sadness and bad news, to make myself the focus in any way. But the truth is I was too proud to let you know how badly I failed, and too ashamed to admit how far I’d sunk. I thought if I kept pretending everything was okay then everything would eventually be okay. But everything was very much not okay.

“We bickered over the ranch. Isabel threatened to take it. I used that as an excuse to hang on to an unhealthy relationship that ended ages ago. It felt like so much failure, too much. Then lately I learned Isabel got hooked on drugs. She took up with the head of the cartel.”

“In other words her death has nothing to do with you or the ranch,” Cam said.

“I think she probably made him mad, did something to turn him against her, and he thought it was a two birds with one stone situation. He’d get rid of her and use it to goad me,” Cal said.

“How and where does Bailey factor into this?” Cam said. They were grown men, both in their thirties, but he had always looked up to Cal, ridiculously so, and he couldn’t stand to have his idol tarnished so badly with the thought of an affair.

Cal paused and glanced at Bailey. “Bailey showed up, and I began to realize holding on to everything I needed to let go was causing everyone concerned a lot of harm. But I still couldn’t seem to let it go. I just…I wanted everything to magically be okay. But I swear to you I didn’t cheat on Isabel with Bailey, at least not physically. What you saw just now was a first. She’s been a friend to me when I needed one and…more, at least in my heart, even if I didn’t act on it.” He looked at Bailey who gave him an encouraging smile in return.

“Do Mom and Dad know?” Cam asked.

Cal shook his head. “They stopped coming to the ranch awhile ago because of Is and it was easier that way, easier to keep things quiet.”

“I wish you had told me so I could have been here for you,” Cam said.

“I do, too. And I’m sorry I kept it from you, sorry I’ve been so proud and secretive and stupid.” He reached for his wedding ring, ripped it off his finger, and held it aloft, as if to hurl it.

Bailey caught his fist and pulled it back down. “You’ll regret it.”

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