“Yeah. It took me a few years, but we’re profitable.”

“And this is why you’re so hard on Chase. You don’t want him to go through what you went through.”

“Right. I tried talking to my dad before he died, but he wouldn’t listen. He said it didn’t matter, but I knew it did.”

She felt his pain and wanted to make it better. She wanted to go back in time and hold the young man he’d been, telling him that he’d made a mistake—nothing more. The punishment he’d endured didn’t fit the crime.

“Your father was wrong,” she told him. “You’re worth more than any horse or any piece of land.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I don’t know if it’s true. Maybe if I’d been able to get the land back.”

“Why can’t you?”

“The man who bought it—Reilly Konopka—won’t sell it to me.” He sounded grim. “I saved until I had enough, but when I approached him, he wouldn’t sell. He wanted to give it to me.”

Phoebe blinked. “As a gift?”

“I couldn’t take it that way. But he wouldn’t let me, the old bastard. So he still owns the land, and I still fight the ghosts.”

She didn’t know what to say. Knowing Zane as she did, she understood the problem—Zane couldn’t accept the land without earning it. In his mind, he had to make peace with the past, and that was his only way.

She ached for him. Why couldn’t he see that he would never be able to make things right with his father—he could only make them right with himself? That this wasn’t about land, but about forgiveness and love.

“I go see Reilly every couple of years, and he pisses me off by refusing my money.”

Phoebe wondered how much of the problem was Zane’s neighbor acting more like a father than Zane’s own flesh and blood.

“Eventually I’ll wear him down,” he said. “I’ll beat this.”

Phoebe wasn’t so sure. Winning a battle was more difficult when the opponent refused to participate in the fight.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE FIRE SNAPPED and danced, creating shadows on the ground. Zane leaned back against a log and sipped his coffee. The night was still and cool, with no hint of stars above the cloud cover. The forecasted rain had yet to fall, and he was beginning to believe that they were going to get through the cattle drive without some kind of disaster.

Even as the thought formed, he made a fist and knocked on the log. No point in tempting fate. Not when there were still two days and plenty of miles between his greenhorns and the safety of the house.

He glanced around at the people sitting by the fire. They were all there. Even Cookie had pulled up an old stump and taken a seat.

Maya sat with Phoebe and Chase. He didn’t linger on that group, because he knew what would happen. His gaze would settle on Phoebe, and he wouldn’t want to look away. Not with the firelight making her eyes shine and her skin glow. Not with the sound of her voice easing inside of him and tying him up in knots. She was five kinds of temptation with just enough hell thrown in to make things interesting.

Funny—he would have thought telling her the truth about his past would have changed things. That he would feel distant or angry. Instead he found he didn’t mind her knowing. Phoebe had reacted true to form—with acceptance and a full heart.

Where did she get the courage to be so open?

Maya glanced up and saw him watching. She nudged Phoebe. “Zane has all the cattle bloodlines on the computer.”

“Isn’t that complicated? How would the program work?”

“I have no idea,” he told her, trying not to get lost in her pretty eyes. “Chase designed it.”

She turned to his brother. “Is that true? You designed the program?”

“Sure. It was no big deal.”

“I think it’s amazing.”

Chase lifted a shoulder, as if it didn’t matter, but Zane saw the pleasure he took in the compliment.

“Zane’s not much into computers, so I made it extra user-friendly,” Chase continued. “He just inputs the number of the animal in question, and the program leads him through a series of prompts.”

“Sounds great,” Phoebe said. “Can I see it in action when we get back to the house?”

Chase looked at Zane, who nodded. “Sure.”

“In some ways technology is making life easier,” Maya said, stretching her long legs out in front of her. “But it can also create trouble. This guy I work with accidentally left his phone at his girlfriend’s house. She went through the calendar and found out about all the other women he was dating.”

Phoebe winced. “I’m not sure that can be blamed on the phone. Maybe he should have been more honest.” She hesitated. “Of course his girlfriend shouldn’t have gone through his things.”

“If he hadn’t forgotten it in the first place,” Maya pointed out. “Nothing would have happened.”

Phoebe looked shocked. “You think it’s all right for a man to date more than one woman at a time?”

“If they’re not exclusive, what does it matter? She can do the same thing.”

Phoebe swallowed. “That’s just so...”

“Sophisticated?” Maya asked with a grin.

“Icky,” Phoebe told her.

Zane smiled. For all her years in the city, Phoebe was a simple girl at heart. She believed in honesty, one man and one woman and talking to anything that moved. Her heart was so big, it was no wonder she was always finding it bruised. Life didn’t offer many rewards for those who led with their emotions.