Wild Ride Rancher

In the supply room, Angela stopped and stared. There were towers of supplies, boxes stacked everywhere and tables and cabinets and who knew how many spots that a little girl might hide herself in.

“Look,” Ryder said as he strode to the back of the room to start searching, “there’s never going to be a good time to do this, so while we look, I’m going to talk.”

“Now?” Angela asked, opening a cupboard, looking in, then closing it and moving onto the next one.

“Yeah.” He moved methodically, she noticed, checking every square inch of the crowded, yet organized room. She looked through cabinets, behind stored boxes of blankets and towels and under tables. Ryder did the same, moving quickly, but thoroughly.

While they searched, Ryder started talking and Angela was more or less forced to listen.

“Like I said, I know what you heard.” He checked behind a wall of boxes, then straightened up and looked at her. “But it’s not true. None of it. I was your mother’s friend twenty-five years ago. That’s all.” He stared hard at her, willing her to believe him. She could see, even from across the room, that his eyes were hot and clear and determined.

“Tamara didn’t have anyone else to talk to back then. I was young and she seemed lonely and—” He paused, took a breath. “Anyway, we never slept together. Never so much as kissed. As for my land that your father thinks I blackmailed Tamara’s father for?”

She waited, not knowing what to think. What to feel. Angela was torn. She really wanted to believe him—not just because she was so attracted to him, but because she didn’t want to think her mother had cheated on her father.

Ryder checked the last cabinet, then straightened up and faced her again. “Tamara convinced her father to will me that land as a thank-you for listening to her when she had no one else.”

Her heart hurt for the woman her mother had once been, and if what he was saying was true, then Angela was glad to know Tamara had had Ryder to talk to. She was still turned around. Still confused—by this man and what she felt for him.

“I don’t know what to say,” Angela finally whispered.

“You don’t have to say anything, not now. I had to put all of that out there, to clear the air. I don’t need a response from you, Angela. I just needed you to know the truth.”

Ryder headed for the door, holding out one hand toward Angela. “Right now though, we’ve got bigger problems. We’ve got to find that little girl.”

She slipped her hand into his and felt a zip of heat. She knew he felt it too because she saw his eyes flare. Then he folded his fingers around hers and tugged her along behind him. Their own personal drama would have to wait.

They started in the back—they checked the service porch where the washing machine and dryer were roaring with the latest loads. They checked the back door leading to the small yard and saw it was locked with a dead bolt, so there was no way the child could have gotten out into the rain and rising waters.

They checked the walk-in pantry and a storage space. No sign of the child. Angela’s nerves started screaming. “Where could she have gone?”

* * *

“Kids can disappear on you in a heartbeat,” Ryder said, still searching while he talked. He felt that they were on a more even footing now that he’d told Angela the truth. Even if they hadn’t talked about it, at least he’d said his piece. “I remember when my Annabel was two, Elinah had sent us to the store for something or other. Turned my back for a second and she was gone. Don’t think my heart beat again until I found her, curled up and asleep under a rack of ladies dresses.”

God, it didn’t seem that long ago. That made him old as hell, didn’t it? A man with no business looking at Angela Perry the way he did. Feeling for her the way he did. Struggling to keep his own brain on track, Ryder gave Angela another memory.

“Then there was a time you and your mom had a fight. You were a teenager, home from boarding school and got yourself into such a temper, you took off into the night. Tamara asked me to find you. Do you remember that?”

She stopped, looked up into his eyes and said, “I remember. You found me out by the stock pond. I was so mad.”