Read Online Marrying Cade by Sally Clements - Free Book Online Page B

against his broad shoulder.
    “After my father’s death we had to sell the ranch. We’d lived on the land for three generations. It was our land, and the ghosts of my ancestors were always there. I felt them. Imagined them looking out for me.” The hand around her waist tightened. “I thought I was the only person in the world who felt like that. Hearing you say it was amazing.”
    “What happened to the ranch?” When he’d been a boy, she’d never dared ask. The bleak look that flooded his eyes each time he mentioned his past had warned her away.
    “It was demolished. To make way for progress.”
    She glanced up. His mouth was set in a tight line.
    “They put a highway through it and built over the land. Thousands of houses.”
    Melo’s heart clenched. Even when he’d made his fortune he wouldn’t have been able to turn the clock back and save his home; there was no home to save. All trace of his family had been obliterated. Her fingers feathered over his jaw.
    He glanced down, a wicked light gleaming in his eyes.
    “How about we get some air?”
    ****
    It was cooler in the garden, and more private. A few couples had ventured out into the moonlit darkness, but away from the crowd they could finally be alone.
    In silent accord they walked toward a solitary bench overlooking the darkened garden. It was a relief to sit quietly for a few moments to get his head together. Somehow, they’d started talking about the ranch. He hadn’t even thought about the ranch in years. There was no use in hankering after something long lost. He’d learnt that the hard way.
    “How did you lose the ranch?” Melo asked quietly.
    Cade turned the question around in his mind. It wasn’t something he normally talked about, but somehow, here in the perfumed darkness it seemed right to tell her.
    “My father wasn’t a bad man, but he had a gambling problem.” It was something he’d managed to hide from Cade’s mother, for a while anyway. Until it was too late.
    Melo just sat silently and waited for him to continue.
    Cade pulled in a deep breath, and pushed the hair back from his face. “He won a few times on a poker game, and that fed his addiction.” His mouth twisted at the memory of his father’s good mood the day he’d come home with tickets for a holiday for them all. His father’s pride. Misplaced, as it turned out. “Then he gambled heavier, and before he knew it, he was in debt.” A bitter taste filled Cade’s mouth, tainting the words that followed. “He could have sold off some of the land, paid his debts. But he was in too deep. And in addiction’s grip. He bet the ranch, and lost.”
    Melo gasped, and her soft hand gripped his.
    “And then?”
    “He shot himself in the barn.” The memory of the last conversation he’d had with his father rose to the surface of Cade’s mind, and he allowed himself to remember for a moment.
    The look of utter desperation on his father’s face had been terrible to behold. Cade had tried to offer solace, asking what he could do, what his father needed. He heard his father’s long ago answer echo in his mind.
    “Money.”
    The one thing Cade didn’t have. It wasn’t his fault; a boy couldn’t solve the financial worries of a man living on the edge. But when his father died Cade had known the only way to help those he loved was to provide for them financially, so they would never suffer the agonies his father had.
    The year that followed had been the worst year of his family’s life. Dealing with his father’s death was one thing, but dealing with the loss of their home—their eviction, was a nightmare it had taken long years to fade.
    Cade made it through school, and had won a scholarship to college, funding it by working two jobs, weekends and evenings. His determination paid off, and through hard work he made enough to secure his family’s future.
    The moonlight glinted off Melo’s hair, adding silvery lights to its rich darkness, and when she turned to him her