The Rancher's Wager by Maisey Yates

Author:Maisey Yates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-10-07T16:23:41+00:00

Seven

Jackson felt like an ass. He should have left last night when he’d said that he would, but Cricket had looked at him like she was a wounded puppy, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Still, there hadn’t been much of an excuse to stay. Except that he was weak. And human, and basically just a man. And she had presented a temptation he couldn’t turn away from.

Though it wasn’t just being a man, that was the thing, because if it was, then it would’ve been about her just being a woman, and fundamentally, he could have turned down any other woman. It was Cricket that was the problem. Cricket was a damn problem.

He was marinating on that as he drove into town for more lumber the next day. She had been up early, at the crack of dawn, without so much as a complaint, while he had been the one who’d had a hell of a time getting his ass out of bed. He was driving back out toward Cricket’s spread when he noticed his brother’s truck in the oncoming traffic lane. Creed waved his hand, and Jackson found the nearest turnaround and followed his brother, both of them parking by the side of the road. It wasn’t extraordinarily unusual to randomly run into his brother about town. Gold Valley was a small enough place. And they were off running similar errands, considering they were both ranchers. They had the same haunts, the same basic routines.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said.

“Likewise,” Creed said. “I was figuring on coming out to see you today anyway.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. My wife has been after me to check in on you.”

“Why?” Jackson asked.

“Just to make sure nothing untoward is happening between you and her little sister.”

Jackson kept his face flat and immovable as stone. “Is that so?”

“Yeah. She told me that Cricket called her the other night inquiring about how to make steak. Because she was cooking for you. And that got Wren stirred up.”

“I fail to see what your wife’s feelings have to do with me.”

“Well, the funny thing is, then I went by the winery this morning, and I talked to Dad, he said that you and Cricket stormed the place last night, and she demanded to know if he was her father.”

“Oh.”

“And that you said it was really important to know for sure.”

“Look, she had a valid suspicion.”

“Why? Dad was crazy about Mom. He would never have cheated on her.”

Jackson’s frustration finally boiled over. Maybe it was Cricket and all the nonsense with her, or just the vast unfairness of his brother’s complete and total obliviousness over something Jackson had borne the weight of for years. Whatever the reason, he was at the end of his patience.

“Are you blind, Creed? Dad was not crazy about Mom.”

“The hell you talking about? He’s been deep in the throes of grief for her for...five years. Completely messed up. Not right at all. You can’t tell me that’s a man who was not crazy about his wife.

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