Gambling On a Heart. Sara Walter Ellwood
but didn’t feel any mirth. “You don’t know the half of it. Things have really gotten worse the past couple of months.”
“Want to talk about it?” He sat in the overstuffed chair by the windows. She imagined him doing the same thing in a small room at the sheriff’s office with a victim of some crime.
Oh, great. Was he wondering how soon her son would end up with a rap sheet? She rubbed her suddenly damp palms together in her lap. “Let’s just say his major problem is Jake and I have very different ideas about parenting.”
Zack squared his shoulders and was all perfect posture–just as one would expect the ex-Marine sheriff to do. Where did Zack Cartwright, cowboy, go?
“So, Jake still lives by the motto rules are bad, while you try to lay down the law and set a good example?”
She forced a smile and met his gaze. “You got it. Neither Dylan nor I would have ever thought of trying to get away with half the stuff Bobby tries to. Sometimes I’m at my wit’s end. Dad has given him a talking to, but it only worked for a few days.”
He laughed and the deep rumble tickled along her senses. “The general losing his touch?”
She matched his smile. He’d had a few run-ins with General Robert Quinn back when she and Zack had dated. Her father had taken an almost instant dislike to Zack, a rodeo champion, especially after he’d kept her out all night Christmas Eve their senior year of high school. Of course, he absolutely hated her next boyfriend, Jake Parker.
“Maybe.” She tugged on her short skirt. “I’d better make sure Charli doesn’t need me. She chased Mom and me away, but Mom’s back in there fussing.”
“I think your mother should have been a bullfighter instead of a chef.”
“A head chef is more tenacious than a bullfighter. But she could be the bull.”
He chuckled again, and her heart pinched painfully. God, how she missed his easy laugh.
She had to escape him. Being expected to spend the rest of the afternoon with him at her side was hard enough. She stood, pulling on the short skirt of her dress again. Why had she let Charli talk her into wearing this scrap of silk? When she spared a glance at Zack, he was staring at her.
“I like the dress.” He stood in a fluid motion that defied his six foot, three inch frame.
Subtle heat prickled her cheeks. “Thanks. Charli picked it out.” The slip dress was nothing she’d ever choose to wear on her six-foot, stick-figure skinny body.
“Well...” He cleared his throat and looked down at his hat. “You look good. See you later.”
As he put the hat on his head, he turned toward the doorway. Her heart galloped away. Had he just given her a compliment? “Yeah, see you soon.”
What had just gone down between them? She shook her head and walked to the master bedroom.
She knocked at Charli’s door and couldn’t keep from smiling when the bride opened it, spearing Tracy with an impatient look. Someday she hoped Bobby understood when marriage happened between two people who truly loved each other, it would last a lifetime.
Charli tapped the toe of her strappy, ski-high sandal. “I want to be married already.”
* * * *
A massive rental tent set up in the backyard protected the reception from the hot afternoon sun. Fans at either end helped circulate air to further keep the guests cool. Zack performed his duty of toasting the bride and groom with a bit of humor and serious admiration. Caterers served a delicious meal of spit-cooked barbeque, potato salad, baked beans and a dozen other outdoor foods. The atmosphere was a mix of old-fashioned cattle roundup and church picnic.
His six-year-old daughter sat beside him at the head table. He helped Amanda cut the tender beef and buttered her roll. She ate with such grown up tenacity, carefully making sure she didn’t make a mess on her flower girl dress, his heart ached with pride. She was such a little lady.
He glanced over at the other end of the table. Tracy leaned over and whispered into her son’s ear. Bobby sat at the end of the long table with his arms crossed over his white shirt. The kid was missing his vest and bolo tie again, and he’d undone his top pearl snap.
He was definitely Jake Parker’s boy. Zack clenched his hand around his fork at the shot of pain in his heart. He wasn’t ready for the memories.
The August after high school graduation, he’d driven over to her grandfather’s ranch hoping to drive Tracy to their favorite spot at the secluded lake on the CW Ranch. He’d planned everything perfectly, down to the picnic supper, including a bottle of his granddad’s best homemade wine.
The prior weekend in Houston, he’d won the saddle bronco event and had decided to go pro for a while. He and Tracy had already talked about his dream, and she’d seemed so supportive, while he’d encouraged her plan to become a doctor.
At the time, he’d never considered them too young for marriage. The prize money he’d won in the last two rodeos plus a good chunk of his trust fund had bought a three-carat diamond ring he’d planned to give her that evening. Then he’d make love to her half the night under the stars.
Although they hadn’t ever told each other how they felt, he’d thought he’d known her well enough to know she loved him.
He’d never been so wrong. When he’d found her in the barn on Oak Springs Ranch, he’d watched all his dreams die in the arms of his best friend since kindergarten. Jake had Tracy against the back wall of a stall with her arms and legs wrapped around him. There was no mistaking what they were doing.
Zack tried to shake off the rest of the past, but he couldn’t. Staring down at the plate of half-eaten food, the painful memory crashed over him, threatening to drown him.
He punched Jake Parker hard enough to lay him out. Jake played football, and as a result, was muscle-bound, but Zack had the element of surprise and raw rage on his side.
Tracy screamed and fell to Jake’s side as she groped for her clothes, attempting to cover her breasts with the tank top she’d picked up from the straw-covered floor. The fly of her denim shorts lay open to reveal hot pink bikini panties. He looked at Jake, and acid rolled in his stomach when he saw his nakedness where his jeans hung open.
Afraid he’d throw up, he turned around and staggered toward the door.
Tracy ran after him, pulling on her top as she followed, and grabbed his arm. “Zack, please, I’m sorry...I thought you and...”
“Save it,” Zack hissed through clenched teeth.
Sharp pain tightened his chest. Not only had Tracy betrayed him, but Jake had been his best friend. He’d known Zack intended to ask Tracy to marry him.
“I never thought you’d turn out no better than a whore, Tracy.” With his chest constricted, he fought to breathe. “I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Now I don’t ever want see you again.”
He pushed past her and left the barn.
“Zack! Please, I love you.”
He couldn’t look at her. If he did, the tears burning his eyes would fall. “You have a peculiar way of showing it.”
The next day, he’d left town and joined the rodeo circuit, never looking back.
“Daddy?” Amanda tugged on his sleeve. “Daddy?”
He squeezed his eyes closed and sucked in a breath through burning sinuses. He shoved the memory of the woman he’d once loved into the cobwebs of his brain where it belonged.
When he looked at his daughter, he realized despite the pain Tracy had caused him, he hadn’t been ready for marriage then.