Expecting the Rancher's Heir

After Erica left, Melissa sat at the table contemplating their conversation. In this day and age, many women chose to be single mothers and no one thought anything about it. So why was she afraid of what two busybodies had to say about her? And why was she willing to lose her inheritance because of it?

She wasn’t. The only opinions that really mattered were those of her family. They loved each other and since their father’s death the bonds between them were strengthening. Maybe her brothers would stand behind her and her decisions if she stayed in Aspen.

Sitting up straight, she came to a decision. She didn’t care anymore what people like Elmer Madison and Clara Buchanan had to say about her becoming a single mother. They weren’t living her life. She was.

If they pulled out of the investment group because of her pregnancy, it would be their loss. There were probably several other townspeople who would readily take their place and reap the rewards of investing in Jarrod Ridge. And if not, the family could pick up the slack themselves.

Feeling slightly better, she sighed. If only she could resolve her feelings for Shane that easily. But making a rational choice to change your attitude about something was far easier than trying to change how you felt about a person.

There was no way around it and no way to stop it. She loved Shane with every fiber of her being and always would.

“Cactus, this is the worst meat loaf I’ve ever tasted,” Shane complained, pushing his plate away.

The truth was, the meal could have been prepared by a gourmet chef and the results would have been the same. Everything he’d tried to eat for the past few days had tasted like an old piece of harness.

“It’s been three days since you and that little gal parted ways and I swear you’re in a worse mood now than you was when you first told me she wouldn’t be around no more,” Cactus grumbled as he cleared the dinner table.

Shane sighed and tuned Cactus out as the old man continued his rant. He knew he was being un reasonable about everything with everybody. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and nothing he did seemed to relieve the hollow ache that had settled in his chest when he walked away from Willow Lodge the other night.

“I’m sorry if I’ve been a little irritable,” he said, knowing there was no excuse for taking out his bad mood on Cactus.

“A little irritable?” The old man looked disgusted. “Boy, I’ve seen pissed-off grizzly bears with better attitudes than yours.”

Rubbing the tension at the base of his neck, Shane nodded. “I know. And I’m really sorry about that.”

“Well, knowin’ and doin’ somethin’ about it are two different things.” Dishes clattered as Cactus dumped them into the sink. When he turned to face Shane, he pointed a wooden spoon at him. “Seems to me that if you’re that miserable, you’d get your sorry hide back to town and see what you could do to patch things up with that gal.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why ain’t it?”

Shane wasn’t surprised that Cactus thought it could be that easy. The old man saw things as black and white, right and wrong. If something went wrong, a person fixed it and moved forward. But some things just weren’t that easy to repair.

“For one thing, I doubt that Lissa would open the door if I did go by her place.”

“Then you catch her out somewhere and talk to her,” Cactus shot back. “And if you have to get down on your hands and knees to tell her how sorry you are, then do it.”

“How do you know I’m in the wrong?” Shane asked, feeling a bit affronted. He hadn’t told the old man anything more than the wedding was off and Lissa wouldn’t be visiting Rainbow Bend anymore.

“Far as women are concerned, it don’t make no never mind who started it or what it’s about,” Cactus said sagely. “To their way of thinkin’ it’s always a man’s fault.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Shane said, starting down the hall. He didn’t need to hear more of Cactus’s advice on relationships. He already knew who was to blame for his and Lissa’s breakup.

Once inside his study, Shane closed the door and walked over to his drafting table to sit down. He’d tried for the past couple of days to work on the plans for the sheik’s stable, but hadn’t accomplished a damned thing. For a man accused of being ambitious and driven, he certainly wasn’t living up to expectations.

Staring off into space, he couldn’t stop thinking about Lissa and the shattered look on her pretty face when he hadn’t been able to answer her questions. He had a good idea he knew exactly why he had agreed to the senator’s request to help with the investigation and it wasn’t something he was proud of. Accepting the job had been his way of running, of trying to escape what he knew now to be inevitable.