The Rancher's Surrender Read online

  She smiled sadly. "That's why you want Constance's land. Because yours isn't big enough. Oh, Ty, I wish I'd known. I thought … I thought…"

  "I know." She'd thought the worst, believing it had been nothing more than selfish greed motivating him.

  But what did this change?

  He touched her face softly, and for the first time in a long while he felt a surge of hope. "I don't think a guest ranch occurred to Ben, but somehow I believe he'd approve. Zoe…" He didn't know how to finish the sentence, didn't know what he wanted to say, only knew the moment was special, that they were jumping yet another hurdle … directly into the unknown. "I would love to be a partner in Triple M."

  She stepped back with a little, touchingly nervous smile. "I'm glad." She bit her lip. "There's so much to do. We have to get advertising together, permits, and there's still so much to fix up in the cottages and the other barn…" She laughed and he smiled at her, loving the sound of her joy.

  "You ought to do that more," he said, touching her lower lip with his thumb. "Laugh."

  She reached up and held his hand to her face, lowering her eyes.

  "I don't imagine there's been much to laugh about in your life, has there?" he asked quietly.

  "No more than yours. But life is good right now."

  "Yes," he agreed. "It is."

  A small, satisfied smile came back to her lips. "There's a long way to go, but at least we're on the road now."

  "I like the we part."

  She studied him carefully. "I don't do the 'we' thing very well. I'm basically a loner."

  "I don't believe that."

  "It's true, I don't let people in very well."

  "You let your sisters in."

  "Yes, but even with them I hold back," she admitted, cringing a little at the thought. "You have this way of pushing my safety barriers and I like to be alone. I have been ever since…"

  "Ever since what, Zoe?"

  "My mother left me." She closed her eyes, her skin pale in the glow of the night. And he'd never seen her look more vulnerable or beautiful. "I was three and she promised to come back for me, only she never did. I didn't understand then, but I do now."

  "What do you understand?"

  "That it's better to be alone than get hurt."

  "I don't believe that."

  Her eyes heated. "Well, I do. Look, by the time I was five, I was making up excuses for my mother. She'd found her prince, she was living in a castle far away, stuff like that." She sighed. "And when I was ten and everyone in my class was writing about their past and their families, I made mine up because I didn't know anything about myself or where I'd come from. I knew her last name, that's it. Not my father's, though." She shook her head. "By the time I was eighteen and on my own I knew the truth. I'd been deserted, and no amount of wishing and dreaming and hoping was going to change that. I'm an orphan because no one wanted me, and I have to live with that every day of my life." She let out a short, harsh laugh and turned away. "That was probably far more than you wanted to know."

  Turning her around, he slid his bands over her stiff, proud shoulders, down her arms until he could grasp her hands and link their fingers. "It was exactly what I wanted to know," he assured her. He wanted to ease her pain as she'd eased his, he wanted to let her know he was there for her, but Zoe was a woman for which words didn't mean much. It had to be action.

  Action was fine with him.

  He bent and kissed her softly, lightly. Then again, and when he pulled away, she made a soft sound of protest. "I hope we'll share more of ourselves," he said. "Like we did tonight."

  "Ty—"

  "Shh." He kissed her again. Then lifted his lips and smiled when she moaned at the break of contact. "I just realized you need 'slow.' I'm not a patient man, but I think this just might be worth giving it a shot." He squeezed her hands and let go. "Now. About hiring a staff."

  Her delicious lips parted in surprise at the quick change of subject. Relief filled her gaze, and he knew he'd done the right thing by backing off in a moment when she burned for more.

  Maybe with a little more of that patience he wasn't so good at, she'd continue to open up and let him in.

  All the way in.

  * * *

  Chapter 14

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  For one solid week, everyone worked like crazy. The inside of the ranch house got its second coat of paint. The cottages were cleaned out and also painted, the arena and corral fences repaired, the barn finished, and they had daily meetings on all that their guest ranch would entail.

  Advertising went out for their first season, which normally wouldn't start until next spring, but they couldn't survive without income through the winter. So they would open in the fall, have one very short season, then start again in the spring. For now, they would probably take winters off, until they were more comfortable with all that an incredibly heavy snow load would bring. They needed to hire a handful of experienced staff since it had become clear they would need help immediately.

  Maddie wanted to create a first-class kitchen that would rival any five-star restaurant. Delia, always the social one, wanted to handle the decorating of the cottages and main lodge, then also the housekeeping, reservations and front-desk activities. Zoe would handle the financial aspect, manage the staff and also learn the outside duties. Ranch hands would take on the animals and the daily guided rides, overseen by Ty. They hoped to also provide hiking, rafting and big-game hunting.

  At the end of an exhausting week, the weather turned unusually chilly. At dark one night everyone gathered around a hot, crackling bonfire. Cade was in town, and the five of them sat on fallen logs, relaxing for the first time in weeks.

  Maddie provided hot chocolate, which Cade had liberally doctored with brandy, insisting it was necessary for warmth.

  Unused to the alcohol, Zoe watched with fuzzy eyes as everyone's tongue loosened. She struggled with a dark mood, brought on by Cade's unhappy news.

  No news on her mother. The need to know continued to gnaw at her, eating at her insides.

  Cade helpfully refilled her drink often as she sat there and listened to the wood crackle pleasantly, the occasional cry of a coyote, a hoot of an owl. The scent of the outdoors was strong, too, of pine and fire and water. Easy to lose herself in her own world while the others talked and laughed around her.

  "Truth or dare," Cade said suddenly, grinning broadly in the dark. "Let's play."

  "That game is for the very young or the very drunk," Delia said haughtily, and Zoe smiled at the tone. Cade could have suggested a full shopping spree on him at Saks Fifth Avenue and still Delia would have scoffed.

  "You first, Delia," Cade decided. "Seeing as you fit both the criteria. Truth … or dare?"

  Delia lifted her nose and ignored him. To everyone's surprise, Maddie laughed. "Chicken," she chided, and Delia gaped at her.

  "I'm no such thing!" She whirled on Cade. "I'm not chicken."

  "Then play." He raised his eyebrows comically, daring her.

  "Fine. Dare then, you idiot."

  "Okay." Even in the dark he looked mischievous. "I dare you to kiss me."

  Delia's jaw dropped. "What?"

  Maybe it was the brandy, but Zoe burst out laughing at Delia's expression as all composure escaped her usually so-composed sister. It was just absolutely priceless.

  As she laughed, she caught Ty's eye. He smiled slowly at her, an approving, warm smile that made her feel all the more fuzzy and dizzy, all the way to her toes, and her laughter faded.

  Her warm, fuzzy feeling did not. She almost fell off her log staring at him as her bones melted away, and in return his smile turned hot and knowing.

  Delia folded her arms over her chest, looking prim and proper in spite of how she weaved back and forth from too much spiked hot chocolate. "Truth," she said, lifting her chin. "Because all the brandy in the world couldn't make me desperate enough to kiss you."

  Cade grinned, uninsulted. "Okay. Your most memorable sexual experie