Marriage at the Cowboy's Command by Ann Major Page B

woman available at the moment.
    She couldn’t let herself forget about Teresa. Not for a minute.
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    â€œSo when did they die?” Luke asked softly from behind her.
    A shiver of excitement coursed through her at the nearness of Luke’s soft voice. All morning she’d fought to remain emotionally aloof, but that was proving difficult. He was being so nice.
    She hadn’t wanted him to accompany her on this errand. Using a garden hose, Caitlyn splashed water on the green lawn and flowers surrounding her parents’ immaculately kept graves, which were located in the cowboy cemetery half a mile from the ranch house.
    â€œNearly a year ago. In a car wreck. There was a violent thunderstorm. Mother was driving. You know how she always had to be in charge.”
    When he nodded grimly, she remembered that her mother had never liked him. Her mother had evenseemed to relish firing him for stealing, because she’d been proven right.
    â€œNobody knows what happened. Maybe she was avoiding an animal. Their car skidded off that bridge just outside of town.”
    â€œInto the arroyo?” His low, sympathetic tone made her heart catch.
    She nodded. “The car rolled and caught fire. The sheriff said they died instantly.”
    â€œI liked your father. Before Hassan, he was the only man who saw the good in me.”
    Caitlyn appreciated the fact that he admired her father and didn’t run her mother down. He could have held a grudge, despite his own guilt. Her mother had never been one to keep her opinions to herself, and her opinion of Luke, from the first, had been that her husband never should have hired Bubba Kilgore’s trashy son. She’d never let her father forget how Luke had betrayed him by taking the much-needed cash from the truck.
    â€œDad liked you a lot, too,” Caitlyn said, suddenly recalling that her father had been an excellent judge of character while her mother had always been more impressed by wealth and show. As Bubba’s boy, Luke had had nothing to recommend him to her mother back then. After she’d fired him, her mother had been quick to point out it was a blessing in disguise in that it freed Caitlyn to marry Robert.
    â€œMaybe your mother would have liked me better if you hadn’t chased me so boldly.”
    It probably wouldn’t have mattered. Her mother had wanted Caitlyn to end up with Robert Wakefield because his daddy owned Wild Horse Ranch at the time. But there were hard truths about Robert that might havemade her mother think differently. She’d definitely have a change of opinion about Luke, if she could see him now. What was a little missing cash compared to an income in the billions?
    â€œI enjoyed defying my mother by flirting with you. I couldn’t stand the way she always tried to run my life, even after I was an adult, but I miss her. I miss both of them. I felt so alone after their accident, which happened a few weeks before Robert died. Now that they are all gone, I have no one I can talk to.”
    Was that why she was talking to Luke as if they were friends? Was that why her resistance to him was dissolving so quickly?
    â€œI felt all alone after my mother died, too,” he said. “Dad was so far gone. It was because of your father that I began to see a way out.”
    She wanted to ask why he’d taken the money when he could have asked for a loan, but she didn’t.
    â€œIn a way, I owe your dad as much as I owe Hassan. Which means I owe his daughter, as well.”
    â€œYou owe me nothing! Daddy always said you were an incredible worker.”
    â€œIt’s the trait that made Hassan take a chance on me. Money can be very destructive in the wrong hands. For a man with no self-discipline, no goals, there are many temptations. Hassan wouldn’t have backed me had I lacked the determination to withstand corruption.”
    Those weren’t the words of a thief. Was he speaking the truth? She