Read Online In a Cowboy's Arms (Hitting Rocks Cowboys) by Rebecca Winters - Free Book Online
Authors: Rebecca Winters
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ready to live with you no matter what because I loved you. I was the one who begged you to take me away before I turned eighteen. Remember? I didn’t care. I would have hidden out on the reservation with you. That’s how deeply in love I was with you. So don’t you dare credit feelings and motives to me that were never mine.”
Gutted after what he’d heard, Jarod needed to get out of the truck. He started to open the door, but she grabbed his arm. “Oh, no, you don’t! We’re not through yet. I want to know why you never, ever told me the truth about your parents.”
Jarod realized he couldn’t avoid this conversation any longer. While he tried to find the words, she launched her own.
“It seems to me your cousin did a lot of damage I didn’t know about, otherwise you wouldn’t have held anything back from me. What did he tell you? That a white girl would never want you once she knew the truth? He got under your skin, didn’t he? Well, we’re alone now, so I want to hear the whole truth. You owe me that much before you walk away again.”
He deserved that much and closed his eyes tightly before sitting back.
“Dad was twenty when he drove to the reservation to look at the horses. The Crow loved their animals and knew good horse flesh. My uncle Charlo showed him around. While they were talking, his younger sister Raven came riding up on a palomino. Dad told me she looked like a princess. He was so taken by her, he forgot about the horses. From then on he kept driving over there and finally told Charlo he wanted to marry her.
“My uncle told him she was destined to marry another man in the clan, but by that time Raven was in love with my father. At that point Charlo took him to meet their mother. Her word was law. She said her daughter was old enough to make up her own mind. They spent that night together on the reservation. It meant they were married. There was no ceremony. I was conceived that night.”
“Oh, Jarod.” She sniffled. “What a beautiful story. Did they live on the reservation?”
“On and off. Dad took her home to meet my grandparents. They loved my father and welcomed Raven. When she discovered she was pregnant, she spent more time with her family. I was born on the reservation. But Addie had prepared a nursery, so I lived in both places.
“That winter my mother caught pneumonia, and though my grandfather paid for the best health care, she died within six weeks of my birth and was buried on the reservation. My father was grief-stricken. It was hard to take me out to the reservation as often after that because of all the reminders.
“My Bannock grandparents helped raise me. Eventually Dad met Hannah at church and they married, then Connor and Avery were born. That’s the whole story. Though secretly I knew Great Uncle Tyson’s family didn’t approve of what my father had done, they were never unkind to him or to me.”
“Except for Ned,” Sadie muttered. “He’s as intolerant as my father. The fact that you’re an exceptional man only makes your cousin angrier.”
“There’s more to it than that, Sadie. After my parents were killed in a freak lightning storm, Ned became more vocal about his hate for me and my background. He constantly tried to show me up. It grew uglier with time. But you were the crux of the problem. He wanted to go out with you himself, and I knew it.
“When I used to watch you compete at the rodeo, I knew Ned was in the crowd, wishing you’d go home with him after it was over. I loved knowing you and I had secret plans to meet later. I had too much pride knowing it was I you wanted.”
She shifted in the seat. “I lived to be with you. That’s why it kills me to think that Ned was able to undermine your faith in me once I left Montana. I had to write what I did in that note to sound believable to my father, but I can’t believe you didn’t read between the lines. I waited for weeks, months, years, hoping and praying I’d hear from you so I
Gutted after what he’d heard, Jarod needed to get out of the truck. He started to open the door, but she grabbed his arm. “Oh, no, you don’t! We’re not through yet. I want to know why you never, ever told me the truth about your parents.”
Jarod realized he couldn’t avoid this conversation any longer. While he tried to find the words, she launched her own.
“It seems to me your cousin did a lot of damage I didn’t know about, otherwise you wouldn’t have held anything back from me. What did he tell you? That a white girl would never want you once she knew the truth? He got under your skin, didn’t he? Well, we’re alone now, so I want to hear the whole truth. You owe me that much before you walk away again.”
He deserved that much and closed his eyes tightly before sitting back.
“Dad was twenty when he drove to the reservation to look at the horses. The Crow loved their animals and knew good horse flesh. My uncle Charlo showed him around. While they were talking, his younger sister Raven came riding up on a palomino. Dad told me she looked like a princess. He was so taken by her, he forgot about the horses. From then on he kept driving over there and finally told Charlo he wanted to marry her.
“My uncle told him she was destined to marry another man in the clan, but by that time Raven was in love with my father. At that point Charlo took him to meet their mother. Her word was law. She said her daughter was old enough to make up her own mind. They spent that night together on the reservation. It meant they were married. There was no ceremony. I was conceived that night.”
“Oh, Jarod.” She sniffled. “What a beautiful story. Did they live on the reservation?”
“On and off. Dad took her home to meet my grandparents. They loved my father and welcomed Raven. When she discovered she was pregnant, she spent more time with her family. I was born on the reservation. But Addie had prepared a nursery, so I lived in both places.
“That winter my mother caught pneumonia, and though my grandfather paid for the best health care, she died within six weeks of my birth and was buried on the reservation. My father was grief-stricken. It was hard to take me out to the reservation as often after that because of all the reminders.
“My Bannock grandparents helped raise me. Eventually Dad met Hannah at church and they married, then Connor and Avery were born. That’s the whole story. Though secretly I knew Great Uncle Tyson’s family didn’t approve of what my father had done, they were never unkind to him or to me.”
“Except for Ned,” Sadie muttered. “He’s as intolerant as my father. The fact that you’re an exceptional man only makes your cousin angrier.”
“There’s more to it than that, Sadie. After my parents were killed in a freak lightning storm, Ned became more vocal about his hate for me and my background. He constantly tried to show me up. It grew uglier with time. But you were the crux of the problem. He wanted to go out with you himself, and I knew it.
“When I used to watch you compete at the rodeo, I knew Ned was in the crowd, wishing you’d go home with him after it was over. I loved knowing you and I had secret plans to meet later. I had too much pride knowing it was I you wanted.”
She shifted in the seat. “I lived to be with you. That’s why it kills me to think that Ned was able to undermine your faith in me once I left Montana. I had to write what I did in that note to sound believable to my father, but I can’t believe you didn’t read between the lines. I waited for weeks, months, years, hoping and praying I’d hear from you so I
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