Patricia Thayer - Second Chance Rancher

Laurel had known their neighbor Trent Landry all her life. He’d been like a brother to her, since their parents, Wade Landry and Rory Quinn, had traveled the rodeo circuit in their younger days. After Wade’s death, Trent came home and took over the Lucky Bar L Ranch. Laurel couldn’t have been any happier when Trent and Brooke fell in love last fall. At least sometimes love worked out.

Suddenly Laurel heard her name, and she turned and searched the crowded room. Then she spotted the familiar little girl running toward her. “Laurel! Laurel!”

“Addy?” Laurel opened her arms just as the tiny child landed there. “What a surprise.” A shock was more like it. “What are you doing here?”

Addy stood back. “I did a good job picking up my toys, so Daddy said we could go out to eat, too. He said he needed a break from cooking. Papa Gus, too.” She glanced around the table and saw Brooke, then turned back to Laurel. “She looks just like you.”

The group laughed. “That’s because she’s my twin sister,” Laurel said. “We look alike, just like your dollies.”

The child looked around the table. “Hi, I’m Addy and I’m four years old.” She looked at Rory. “Are you Laurel’s prince?”

Her father seemed to be flustered by the question. “I think I’m too old to be a prince, but she’s my princess. So is my other daughter, Brooke.”

Brooke waved. “Hi, Addy.”

Those big blue eyes rounded as she cupped her tiny hands around her mouth and whispered loudly to Laurel. “She has a baby in her tummy.”

Laurel bit back a smile. “Yes, she does.”

The little girl walked around to the other side of the table, totally entranced with Brooke’s expanded belly.

“I’m having a little boy,” Brooke said. “We’re going to name him Christopher.”

“Oh, I like that name. I have a baby doll named Bobby, and I let Laurel hold him when she came in my room.”

Brooke’s gaze landed on Laurel’s. “Really? I didn’t know that.”

Suddenly Laurel began to search the area for Kase. She finally saw him, helping a slower-moving Gus across the restaurant. He didn’t look happy to see where his daughter had gone.

When they arrived at the table, Laurel couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the man. He had on a pair of dark jeans and a blue oxford dress shirt. His sandy-blond hair was neatly combed, only making her want to mess it up. Whoa. Where did that come from?

“We seem to keep running into each other.” Kase stated the obvious.

“This time it isn’t my fault,” she told him, knowing everyone’s eyes were on them. Darn, did the man have to look so good? “My horse is home in the barn.”

Kase raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

Rory was on his feet shaking Gus’s hand. Then he turned to Kase. “Good to see you again, Kase.” He reached out a hand.

Kase shook his hand. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Rory glared at his daughter. “I also heard about what happened today.”

Kase nodded. “Dad assures me that it’ll be fine, no matter what the outcome.” His attention went across the table to Brooke. “Well, so the rumors are true, there is another one. You must be Brooke.”

Brooke smiled. “Yes, I am. Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Rawlins.”

“Call me Kase, please. This is my father, Gus.”

Kase’s father smiled. “You’re a lucky man, Quinn, to have two beautiful daughters.”

Rory beamed. “That I am. And you have a budding beauty in your granddaughter.”

Brooke spoke up. “She is precious.”

Kase’s attention went to the child. “She may be, but I need to work on her running off.”

“Good luck with that,” Rory said. “Would you like to join us?”

“Oh, we couldn’t intrude,” Kase said. “We’ve already interrupted your supper.”

“But, Daddy, I want to stay with Laurel. She’s my friend.”

Laurel felt tension coming from Kase. This was awkward for all of them. “Addy, I’m having a date with my prince. So why don’t you have a date with your prince, your daddy?”

The little girl’s eyes twinkled with excitement. “Oh, can we, Daddy?”

Kase’s gaze went to Laurel. Immediately she felt heat flood through her body. Then too quickly he turned back to his daughter and said, “I would love to be with my princess.” He did a slight bow and held out his hand. “Please allow me to escort you to our table, Princess Addison?”

Addy giggled, then took her father’s hand and strolled off. That picture of the two caused an ache that circled her heart.

Laurel turned back to her family. Both her father and her sister were watching her. “What?”

“Seems you left out a few details about today,” her father said.

“What, my stallion impregnating a neighbor’s mare wasn’t enough?” Laurel pretended to be interested in her food. Too bad her taste buds weren’t cooperating.

“You didn’t say anything about that adorable little girl being with him,” Brooke said.

Laurel was confused. “Where else would she be?”

“According to Gus, she’d been living with her grandparents, the Chappells, in Denver since her mother’s death. There’s a big custody fight for the child.”

Laurel didn’t know that. Okay, she needed to get out more and talk to people instead of horses. “What? How can that be? Kase is the father and he has the right to raise his daughter.”

Rory shrugged. “You would think so, but the grandparents are accusing Kase of causing his wife’s death.”

* * *

LATER THAT EVENING, Laurel walked around her apartment unable to sleep. The space wasn’t large, but she didn’t need much except a bed, a bath and a small kitchen. Not that she cooked much, but she could make sandwiches and fry eggs. That was all she had the energy for after working all day. She didn’t have anyone to come home to, to hold her and love her.

She thought about Jack, and her anger began to stir. How could she have been such a fool? Maybe she hadn’t loved him as she should have, but her loneliness and wanting a family of her own drove her into their arrangement.

Okay, so that wasn’t the perfect scenario for marriage, but they both knew that going into it. And they did have chemistry. What she didn’t expect from her husband-to-be was for him to rob her parents and Trent of their money. And for that she could never forgive him.

Now she had a bigger problem. Kase Rawlins was back in her life. She would most likely see the man when she stopped by the ranch. She wasn’t going to break a promise to a little girl, especially when that child was still getting over her mother’s death.

What about Kase? Was he still having trouble with his wife’s passing? Of course he was. And after her father’s declaration about Kase causing his wife’s death, she was definitely curious to find out more.

Laurel went to the table and opened her laptop and quickly Googled Kase’s name. The first reference showed he was a junior partner with the prestigious Denver law firm of Chappell, Hannett and Caruthers. It showed Kase’s picture as a rising star of criminal defense. It named a famous case involving a son of an oil corporation’s CEO. She moved on to his bio and his five-year marriage to Johanna Chappell Rawlins. She paused to examine the picture of the handsome Kase and his young bride, a beautiful brunette with large brown eyes.

Laurel sighed. “And to think he left a girl who wore jeans and smelled of horses for that life.” Okay, she was more the Calamity Jane type than a runway model.

She quickly did a search for Johanna Chappell Rawlins. Several pictures of the Denver socialite came up on the screen. Seemed Mrs. Rawlins, Jonnie, as her friends called her, liked to be out on the town, whether it was at parties or at fund-raisers. She was also the granddaughter of oil tycoon Henry William Cash. So Johanna Rawlins was wealthy in her own right and her family had connections. Everything Kase had been searching for when he left here ten years ago.