Home For a Cowboy Christmas(82)

But he knew the odds, and right now, they were stacked heavily against him. No one in their right mind gambled against such odds. Not even a man like him.

The drive went by too quickly. When he pulled up to the curb at the airport, he put the truck in park and turned off the ignition as Cady got out of the vehicle. Zane got her luggage out of the back and set it before her.

“Thank you,” she said, her gaze meeting his. “For everything. I can’t tell you how much the time meant to me.”

He touched his knuckles against her cheek. “I’ll never forget you.”

“This ended much quicker than I was prepared for.”

“We could only hold off the world for so long.”

There was a ghost of a smile. “You never told me your story.”

“You never told me yours.”

“Zane, I—”

He grabbed her and kissed her, pouring all of his passion and yearning into it. When he finally ended it, they were both breathing heavily. “Goodbye, city girl. Take care of yourself, okay?”

Zane walked away, hoping she would call out to him, tell him to stop. But there was nothing. His heart had never ached so badly before. He started the truck and pulled away from the curb. When he could stand it no more, he glanced in the rearview mirror to see her standing there, watching him.

He pointed the truck toward Cheyenne and didn’t stop until he arrived at his destination. Zane walked up the path and knocked on the door. Charlie’s surprised smile dimmed.

“What happened?” his brother asked.

“I think I fell in love.”





Chapter 10


Her chance was gone. Cady hadn’t had the nerve to stop Zane. The first tear fell down her cheek before he got in the truck. They were falling freely as he drove away. She stood in the cold, crying long after his truck had disappeared.

A baggage porter came over to see if she was all right. Cady was anything but, yet she pulled herself together. Or she tried to.

“I saw it all,” he told her, his blue eyes filled with kindness.

That made her cry even harder.

“Do you have a ticket?”

She shook her head, wishing with all her might that she was back at the cabin with Zane.

“Where are you headed?” he asked.

“Au-Austin,” she answered with a sniff.

He took her luggage. “Come. We’ll find you a ticket.”

Cady wasn’t used to letting anyone do things for her, but at this moment, she was grateful that someone had stepped in since her mind was otherwise occupied. At the ticket counter, he and the airline employee found her a seat on a flight, leaving in thirty minutes. She gave them the information they wanted, then headed to security because that’s what she was supposed to do.

On the flight, she sat in a middle seat between two burly men with screaming kids around her and didn’t care about any of it. Her thoughts were back in the cabin. Yet, the longer she was away from Zane, the more she wondered if it had all been a dream. He had suddenly been there, and then he was gone in a blink.

When she landed in Austin, she turned her phone on and saw the dozens of texts and calls from her family. She should’ve sent them something before the flight, but her mind had been occupied with thoughts of Zane. She quickly sent a reply on their group text and gave them a brief explanation of what had happened and that she was home. They would want more, but she would give it when she was ready, and not before.

She drove to her house and found herself missing all the snow. Once inside, she dropped her purse and keys on the table near the door and left her luggage. She poured some wine, then got her phone from her bag and turned it off because her family wouldn’t stop texting. She curled up on the sofa and turned on the TV.

But she couldn’t concentrate on anything. She daydreamed about Zane, his kisses, and their conversations until around midnight when she finally went to bed. Sleep, however, was impossible.

The next morning, she showered and dressed and went into work, where she put the files from her trip on David’s desk, along with her resignation letter. Then she cleared her desk and carried everything to her car without speaking to anyone. She returned home, only to discover that she didn’t know what to do.

Cady found herself sitting in front of her laptop. Without knowing what she was doing, she typed Charlie Taylor Wyoming into the search bar. She found Zane’s adoptive brother easily enough since he was in politics, but it was the mention of the Z Bar Ranch that got her attention. When she read a short bio of Charlie stating that he had grown up on the ranch, she had to know more about it.

A search of the Z Bar Ranch made her mouth drop open. The more she read, the more shocked she was. The ranch itself was successful, but it was the family connected to it that stunned her. The article she read called the Taylor family Wyoming royalty because of the silver mine on the property that netted the family billions.

Cady had to know more. She searched anything and everything having to do with Zane and his family. That was how she discovered that his great-grandfather had first bought the land and found the silver mine. It was only after the silver that he acquired more land and got into the cattle business.

As she scrolled through pictures of the ranch and family, Cady paused when she found one with Zane and a tall brunette who could’ve passed for a model. They were holding hands and dressed in formal attire. The next picture was of that same woman, published in a Wyoming newspaper, as she attempted to cover her face. The caption read: Caught Cheating.