Broken(55)

Cade stroked the back of her head and dropped kisses on her forehead. His understanding only made her cry harder. Dealing with his animosity had been one thing, but his kindness was quite another because now she didn’t have the strength to turn him away. She wondered if it was selfish of her to allow him to sacrifice his hope for a family to be with her.

Several minutes later, when she had no more tears to cry, her body exhausted from the outpour of emotion, Jocelyn sagged against Cade’s lean frame.

With a dexterous movement, he scooped her into his arms and carried Jocelyn to her bedroom, and gently laid her on the center of the bed. Too weak to protest or even ask Cade what he thought he was doing, she lay there as he eased off her shoes and socks. Then he somehow managed to pull her comforter from beneath her and cover her with it, before easing his body next to her.

“Cade,” she croaked.

“Shh. Go to sleep, honey. You need your rest. I’ll be right here if you need anything. But know this, Jocelyn, I’m in this for the long haul and if you get some foolish notion in your head to leave me again, I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.”

As she waged a losing battle against sleep, Jocelyn huddled deeper into the cover and against Cade’s warmth, a sense of peace washing over her.





Chapter Ten

Cade knew Jocelyn was avoiding him, but he wasn’t going to allow this madness to continue, not when he knew she still loved him. For some misguided reason, she believed he would blame her for what happened and that her not being able to conceive would affect how he felt. Not only was she wrong, he was silently offended she believed his love to be so shallow.

When she’d confessed her fears to him, he wanted to strangle her for thinking his love so fickle he’d care about something so shallow. Yes, it would be nice to have a few kids to call him dad, but the only mother he wanted for his children was Jocelyn and if that wasn’t possible, he didn’t want kids. As long as he had her nothing else mattered, and he would do everything in his power to prove it to her.

Since he’d confronted her at her father’s house, Cade had only seen her a few times and each of those instances, he was called away to see to one of the animals, or help with branding the cattle or to fix something. This morning, however, he got up earlier than he usually did to complete his regular chores, allowing him to set aside time to see Jocelyn.

Glancing at his watch, he figured this would be about the time she’d be having tea with Aunt Earlene. Anticipation beat a tattoo against his chest as he thought of seeing her again.

When he entered his aunt’s parlor, Jocelyn nearly jumped out of her chair.

Earlene beamed. “Cade, fancy seeing you here at this time of day. I thought I heard Stone mention something about branding some cattle today. You’re so good with the animals I thought you’d be out there with him.”

“I told him I’d join him later. There’s something a little more important I need to take care of at the moment. I hope you don’t think I’m rude, but would you mind so much if I stole your lovely guest for a minute or two? There’s something we need to discuss.”

Aunt Earlene looked from him to Jocelyn, and then back to him again as if she were trying to discern what was going on. “Sure, I don’t mind. You two go ahead.”

Cade held his hand out to Jocelyn. “Let’s take a walk.”

She hesitated for a moment, looking at him as if he was insane. Standing with obvious reluctance, Jocelyn ignored his hand and walked out of the living room leaving him no choice but to follow her. Once they were a few feet away from the house, she rounded on him. “Cade, why can’t you leave well enough alone?”