San Antonio Rose Read Online Free Page B

about him?”
    His lips quirked into a cynical smile. “I wanted to know what kind of man could make you forget me so easily.”
    “Oh …” She swallowed, trying to relieve the sudden dryness in her throat.
    “When I first found out you’d eloped—”
    “Who told you I eloped?” She reiterated the demand she’d made of him earlier.
    “What difference does it make now?”
    “None, I guess.” Except she would have liked to know who’d spread that lie.
    “Just believe me when I say I almost went out of my mind.” His mouth remained in its crooked line, bitter and mocking. “Half the time I was calling myself every name in the book for not telling Big Tom to go to hell, and the other half I was congratulating myself on getting rid of the original material girl. But mostly …” His gaze ran over her, as if thememory were almost to painful to voice. “Mostly I was insanely jealous of the man who had you for himself.”
    Caught in the emotion of both the moment and his moving admission, Jeannie almost blurted out the truth. But if his expression was anything to go by, Rafe wasn’t finished. And she wanted—no, she
needed
—to hear the rest of his explanation.
    “I finally calmed down and decided that it was for the best.” He shrugged pragmatically. “Let’s face it, I wasn’t exactly a hot prospect at the time—a college graduate, yes, but with no hope of ever earning enough money for law school by doing ranch work. And I realized that your new husband could probably give you more than I ever could.”
    Above, mare’s-tail clouds pranced across a sky as bright and blue as the eyes that met and held hers. “Still, I’ve always wondered if he treated you as well as you deserved … as well as I would have.”
    Jeannie turned away, her silky hair swirling about her shoulders and her hands all but mangling her hat brim. She didn’t want him to know how deeply affected she was by all this, didn’t want him to see her face when she posed her next question. Her voice was scarcely more than a whisper as she asked, “Why did you leave me?”
    Rafe didn’t answer her right away—not because he didn’t want to but because he didn’tknow where to begin. He’d come here this morning to lay the past to rest, only to find that he’d come full circle. For years he’d rued the day he’d set his sights on the girl she’d been; now he realized he wanted the woman she’d become.
    But in order to have her …
    “That’s a long story,” he said at last. “And this is neither the time nor the place to tell it.”
    Her pulse fluttered when she felt his fingers close in on her elbow and assert a guiding pressure toward the wrought-iron gate. “What are you doing?”
    “I’m walking you back to the house.”
    “But …” Stunned by his declaration, Jeannie faltered slightly, breaking the purposeful rhythm of their steps and throwing Rafe offstride as well.
    His grip tightened in support. “We need to talk.”
    “I really don’t have time today.” She shook her head, partly in feeble protest to his suggestion and partly in sheer amazement at the speed with which things were moving.
    “Give me ten minutes,” Rafe bargained, in the firm baritone that had swayed its fair share of juries.
    Ten minutes? Jeannie’s heart threatened to beat its way out of her chest as their steps crunched along the gravel drive that led to the house. Ten minutes could destroy her!

Three
    “Where’s Tony?” Jeannie demanded of Webb the instant they entered the house.
    Rafe heard the anxious note in her voice and chalked it up to maternal concern. Personally he’d always been of the opinion that Big Tom would have to hire someone to cry at his funeral. But the tears that had streamed down the boy’s cheeks had been the product of genuine grief. And though he couldn’t imagine it, he had to wonder if the Archie Bunker of Bolero had actually mellowed in his old age.
    “Tony’s in the kitchen.” Webb had