A Rancher's Pride(64)
When he had climbed out, he released Becky from her booster seat and Pirate from the back of the truck. The two of them ran across the yard.
Sam rounded the back of the truck and headed toward the house.
“Sam.”
He stopped and turned back to her.
“What did the judge tell Porter?” Suddenly, she had to know.
Sam looked off into the distance. “Seems like Porter’s been running his mouth for years about everything under the sun. Including what happened in the barn that night.”
“You mean…?”
“He suckered me in, and then he went off and bragged about what he’d done and how he’d gotten me to cover for him.” He shook his head. “I’ve spent more than a decade keeping his secret. Keeping up that lie. But one night he got drunk in town—not long after it happened, either—and he spilled everything to one of his so-called buddies.” He laughed bitterly. “And you know how talk spreads around here.”
She did.
“All those years,” he said softly, “I lived with that lie. And all the while, everyone in town knew the truth.”
Her chest tightened and she inhaled a long, shaky breath.
She’d tried so hard in these weeks with Sam to keep thinking of him as the man who wanted to steal her beloved niece away. As the enemy. But, little by little, his actions had chipped away at that image. His concern for Becky. His willingness, finally, to learn to sign. The agreement he had just made about the puppy.
And now, his reaction over learning he’d been betrayed.
She wanted to throw herself into his arms and make him forget about the past. Help him erase that decade’s worth of deceit he’d been forced to bear.
Not good, when she’d just cautioned herself about keeping her distance from him.
But she had to do something.
“Let it go, Sam,” she murmured. “Porter’s not worth it. You are. And isn’t it better that everyone knows you’re a man to be trusted?”
“Everyone?”
Both his tone and his unyielding expression froze her in place. Could he mean her? But she did trust him. She knew he didn’t lie. She knew he wasn’t violent. She knew she could trust him with anything…
Except the one thing she valued most.
Nothing in the world could make her tell him that.
As if he already knew, he nodded and walked away.
“Sam.” She still couldn’t share what she’d been thinking, but she couldn’t let him leave with those unspoken words between them.
He turned back, his eyes dark, his face drawn, closed in.
She took a deep breath. “I wanted to thank you,” she said softly. “For taking Pirate in. Becky just loves that dog.”
“Yeah?” He looked over toward the barn. “Not as much as I love Becky.”
Chapter Nineteen
Later that night, with Sam in his office and Becky safely tucked into bed, Kayla stole away to her borrowed room and curled up on the bed.
She’d tried her best to focus on Sharleen during dinner. To keep up a conversation with the other woman and avoid watching Becky and Sam. It hurt to see them together. It hurt to come to this room alone and know she would never share a bed with Sam. Everything hurt.
Except knowing Sam’s true feelings for his daughter.
She shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that he loved his child. He had always wanted to do what was best for Becky.
He was a good man.
Even knowing where Pirate had come from, Sam had accepted the dog. Had negotiated for the puppy, giving up something of himself in the process. Just as, for all those years, he had kept the promise he’d made to a friend, despite the sacrifices he’d had to live with.
Life was full of sacrifices.
Full of compromises, too, as she had heard from Lianne the day the judge had ordered them into this arrangement. She had been right about that.
Now Kayla was going to offer Sam a compromise she hoped he could live with.
Just before she made the ultimate sacrifice herself.
Only one thing in all this mess had brought her even a glimmer of happiness. With shaking fingers, she tapped out a message to Lianne on the keypad of her phone.
I’ve done some research at this end. There’s a charter school in the area, not an hour away from here.
Sounds good.