Cowgirls Don't Cry(27)

“How early are you heading to the ranch tomorrow?”


“I figured I’d leave around six.”


“I get up at five thirty to feed the animals, so that oughta work out. Since it only takes fifteen minutes to get to Sky Blue, I don’t leave until six forty-five.”


“If it’d be easier, havin’ me stay until then—”


Jessie got a strange look on her face. “Don’t trust me alone with him?”


“For Christsake, Jess, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I trust you with him or I wouldn’t’ve asked for your help.”


“That’s good to know.”


Say something.

“Goodnight, Brandt.”


“Night, Jessie.”


He stretched out on the couch and flipped through channels. Fighting a wave of sleepiness, he pulled his ball cap down over his forehead. He’d just rest his eyes for a minute.

Soft cries roused him. Groggy, he pushed up from the couch and fiddled with the volume on the baby monitor and heard the noise again.

Not Landon. Jessie.

Brandt tiptoed down the hallway to Jessie’s bedroom. Her door was open and he listened just outside the jamb. Sure enough, another soft sob echoed. Without thinking, Brandt entered her room.

She’d curled into a ball in the middle of her bed, resting her forehead to her knees. Her shoulders shook with each sob.

His heart fell straight to his toes. “Jessie.”


“Go away.”


“No. Let me help you.”


“Help me do what? Fall apart even more?”


He stared at the snarled hair shadowing her face.

Jessie slowly raised her head, burning him with a look of pure venom. “I hate you for doing this to me.”


His breath stalled.

“And when Landon is back with his mother? I never want to see your face again. Now get the hell out of my room.”


Suffocation and dizziness set in. Jessie’s image wavered and everything went black.

Brandt sat straight up, gasping for air. It took him a second to get his bearings. He was at Jessie’s house. Not slumped in her doorway but sprawled on the couch, TV droning in the background. Squinting at the clock, he realized only a half hour had passed since he’d closed his eyes.

Except it hadn’t felt like a bad dream; it felt more like a premonition.

Chapter Five


Jessie wished she’d taken Brandt up on his offer to come to Sky Blue and help with Landon on his first day because the kid was a holy terror.

The other kids scared him, so he cried and screamed, “No!”


The other adults scared him, so he cried and screamed, “No!”


At first Landon didn’t want anything to do with Jessie. Then he refused to let go of her leg. He clung to her, crying like his heart was breaking.

I know how you feel, kid.

Lunchtime was a disaster. She’d buckled Landon in the high chair while she readied the other kids’


lunches. He beat his hands on the tray, arched his back, and tried to throw himself out of the chair, all while screaming.

Spitting mad, his face was bright red and covered in a mix of tears, drool and snot. She wiped him up and let him out of the chair. The poor little boy didn’t know whether to run off or stick by her. When she walked to the refrigerator, he followed. She took a bottle from the top shelf and held it out to him. Landon snatched it out of her hands, like a wild animal afraid his meal would be stolen, and scampered off.