Bring On The Night

She gasped, pain shooting through her because his words terrified her. At the same time, guilt swamped her, because to a degree, she knew he was right.

“And you think, under the circumstances, that we can stay under the same roof? I don’t think so, Jonah.”

“We won’t see much of each other at all. It’s a big house, as I said, and we can arrange it so we aren’t together.” He looked at Henry again. “And to answer your question, I won’t let him do anything beyond the ordinary kid stuff. He can climb a tree, dabble in the creek, learn to ride.”

“Horses?”

“Right, Kate. I’ll find a gentle one for him. I don’t want him hurt, either. Let’s go look at the place.”

Standing on the sidewalk, she stared into his brown eyes and debated with herself. Her life had just changed, but how big would the changes be? She wanted to tell Jonah no and walk away, as she had five years before, but this time she couldn’t. Because of Henry, her life was tied to Jonah’s now.

She sighed and nodded. “It would help a lot if I didn’t have to pay rent for a while.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Let me cancel my appointment,” she said, doing so quickly. As soon as she returned his phone, she said, “I can follow you in my car.”

Jonah shook his head. “Come with me, and we’ll stay there tonight,” he said, and in spite of the circumstances, his words made her tingle. “I’ll send someone into town to get your car.”

“Fine,” she said reluctantly, yet seeing little choice. Free rent would give her and Henry a wonderful financial boost.

“Henry,” Jonah said, raising his voice to normal level, “let’s go look at where you might live for a time. You and your mom might move into my house. It’s out in the country.”

Henry brightened and walked beside Jonah, and Kate moved to Henry’s other side so he was between them.

Jonah held the car doors for both of them again, and then she watched him walk around to the driver’s side. She didn’t want to live under the same roof with him. When they’d divorced, it had taken her forever to stop crying over him, but this seemed the only solution right now.

Jonah slid behind the wheel and in minutes they were driving along a freeway in San Antonio, while Henry asked questions about the ranch and Jonah answered.

“How did you inherit a ranch in the Hill Country?” she asked. “I thought all your family was up in the Panhandle.”

“I didn’t inherit from a relative,” Jonah replied. “It was a man whose life I helped save when he was a hostage—remember? The one in Colombia?”

She took a deep breath, because that assignment had been the last straw. That particular mission had sounded suicidal. At the time, she’d known that Jonah told her very little about what he had to do. Just enough for her to never expect to see him alive again when she kissed him goodbye. And that was when she had given him an ultimatum to choose between her or Special Forces. He had said he couldn’t quit the military.

“Although I’m glad you got something rewarding out of that,” she said, remembering too clearly, “I’m surprised you’re moving here.”

“I’ll see how I like ranching. I always liked it when I was a kid.”

“That’s different, Jonah. You didn’t have full responsibility.”

“Nope, but this ranch looks like a promising place for me to be.”

As they sped out of the city, heading north to the ranch, they rode in silence. For the first half hour, all Kate could do was think about the gift of no rent for the coming months, and what a wonderful help that would be to her finances. Her spirits lifted, and she tried to avoid contemplating living under the same roof with Jonah, or his fury, or the future. She wanted to bask in relief over the problems his offer solved for her.

The land was green from spring rains, and wildflowers still dotted the hillsides. At one point they reached barbed wire fencing that stretched into the distance. “This is the south boundary of my ranch,” Jonah said.

As she continued looking out at endless pastureland, she realized they were passing a lot of acres.

At last Jonah turned the car off the state highway onto a hard-packed dirt road, between tall stone posts. On one of the posts a sign held the Long Bar brand. Kate glanced back to see Henry sitting up, straining against his seat belt to see out the window when they bounced across a cattle guard.

She looked at the rolling hills and saw cattle grazing in the distance. She had imagined something on a much smaller scale, and when they topped a rise and she saw a sprawling ranch house and other buildings, her surprise grew. “Jonah, this operation is enormous. You inherited all of it?”

“Yes. It’s mine now, lock, stock and barrel.”

“What about the other guys in on the rescue? You didn’t go get the hostage single-handedly.”

“Nope. There were four of us back then. We lost Colin Garrick in the line of duty. Boone Devlin inherited a quarter-horse ranch, and Mike Remington inherited the house in town and the man’s baby daughter.”

“A baby? There weren’t any relatives?”

“Only John Frates’s in-laws. They were unfit for parenthood and are in a rehabilitation center now. Dina Frates’s father had been in prison, and both are alcoholics. They couldn’t take the baby.”

“Who cares for them?” Kate asked.

“They have a lifetime trust established for them by John. Savannah Remington is the attorney for it.”

“How sad about the grandparents,” Kate remarked. She was curious about the man they had rescued. “No wonder someone held him hostage, if he had this kind of money. What happened to Colin?” she asked, remembering a handsome guy full of life.

“He was killed on a mission,” Jonah answered, bringing back to her the seriousness of what he’d been involved in and what he had chosen over their marriage.

“Wasn’t Colin married?” she asked, thinking back and remembering the same woman with him each time she had seen him.

“Nope, engaged. They were planning on marrying. I heard she’s married someone else now.”

“I’m sorry. That’s sad. I don’t know how you got used to so much needless death, Jonah.”

“I don’t know that anyone ever does get used to it.”

“Oh, yes. You did, or you would have been too horrified to go back into that life. And you have all this now,” she said, still amazed.

“That’s right. I can keep it or I can sell it. I’ve thought it over and decided to keep it for a time and see how I like it. It’s a successful cattle ranch.”

Her head whipped around. “You won’t stay here long, because this will be much too quiet for you, too placid. I can’t imagine you doing this for more than six months or so.”

“We’ll see,” he said tightly. “Kate, my job was to do some good in the world, not to live dangerously. But that’s old territory, and there’s no need to go there now.”

“No, there’s not. How long have you been out?”

“Almost a year.”

“So what have you been doing?”

“Working for an oil company,” he replied, a muscle working in his jaw.

“Doing what for an oil company?” she persisted, wondering how much he had changed over the years, if at all.

“Fighting well fires,” he replied, and she shook her head. He hadn’t changed in the least. He had merely gone from one high-risk job to another. She looked again at the lush land surrounding them and the fantastic ranch house looming closer. She couldn’t imagine him staying out here, herding cattle and mending fences and keeping books. In a few months, he would be gone.