True Heart by Peggy Nicholson

Author:Peggy Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2001-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE NEXT MORNING the cutting continued. The Kristopherson hellions were split out of the main herd—and what a job that was!—then they went their surly, ill-mannered way, driven off to their home range in the foothills southeast of Trueheart. Next it was time to separate Tripp’s and Kaley’s cattle from the Suntop stock and say goodbye. Tripp had suggested this morning, curtly—he seemed still in a black, wordless mood—that Kaley agree to the method he and her brother had followed these past few years: they’d drive their combined stock together as far as the M Bar G, at which point Kaley’s modest herd could be winnowed out and sent on to the Circle C.

With no better plan to suggest, she’d readily agreed. And at the moment, she had more pressing concerns. She’d been trying to corner Rafe Montana—alone—since the night before. Because if there was one man on roundup whom Tripp seemed to count as friend, it was the trail boss and manager of Suntop.

Most of the morning Rafe was beyond her reach, up to his knees in cows, out in midherd cutting along with Tripp, Anse Kirby and three other Suntop hands. But she found her chance at noon when he rode off for a remount. Consigned to the sidelines as an unskilled cow catcher, she abandoned her post and spurred after him.

“Hey!” she called, riding up beside him.

“Hey, yourself.” Rafe’s excellent teeth gleamed white in a dusty smile. His dark blue, miss-nothing eyes flicked over her face, a black eyebrow twitched, then he gazed ahead, riding easily toward the box canyon, waiting for her to speak her piece.

“Sean was telling me about Tripp’s stallion Loner,” she said, gathering her courage. “About how wonderful he was. How he nearly won the National Cutting Horse Championship.”

“He did,” Rafe agreed, not making this any easier.

“And I’ve learned that Tripp sold Loner.” She’d known he’d sold a stallion before this—he’d told her so himself—but like an idiot, she hadn’t delved into the implications of that bare fact. Tripp should never be taken at face value; whatever he was feeling, he would always downplay it or even conceal it if he could. She didn’t remember him being quite such a closed box that first summer. But she’d known so little of men back then. And she’d been so dazzled by his surface; maybe she just hadn’t realized his depths.

The brim of Rafe’s Stetson tipped an inch and rose again in agreement.

No need to explain that Tripp had sold Loner in the hope of buying her ranch. She wasn’t sure anyone knew that—or even knew that Jim and Tripp had made such a deal. “What I was wondering was, could you tell me Loner’s breeding?”

The corner of Rafe’s mouth that she could see kicked upward. “Easy enough. Loner was by Suntop Salud, our top stud, out of Dancer, that buckskin mare he rides.”

“Ah.” That made things easier—and harder. Suntop was top drawer all the way to the bank. A Suntop stud would cost the sky.

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