Change of Heart Read Free Page B

grand by the time we add in parts and labor.”
    Leah tried to contain her despair. That was almost half of her first paycheck from the ranch. She glanced at Gage, who didn’t even flinch, and then watched as Dave jumped back into his truck, driving away with the baby she’d practically lived in at one time.
    What sort of man had that kind of money to toss around willy-nilly?
    She felt the old Leah, the con artist who’d survived years in a nightmare childhood, press her face against the cage the new Leah had confined her to and whisper, “Men like him don’t even notice when money goes missing. There’s plenty more where that came from, and you know exactly how to get it.”
    G AGE WASN ’ T SURE what he’d expected from the short ride back to the ranch, but her complete silence surprised him. He ran a hand over the back of his head and down to his neck, massaging the muscles he could feel tensing up already. When his phone rang, the woman in the car glanced at him but turned back to the window almost immediately. He looked at the caller ID and saw George’s name. Sliding a finger over the screen, he sent the call to voice mail.
    It wasn’t usually his style to hide, or run away, but it also wasn’t usually his style to screw up so royally.
    Gage gripped the steering wheel, twisting his hands against the leather, his knuckles turning white as he tried to control the frustrated rage beginning to build in his gut. It simmered and rolled, like a slow boil, threatening to spill over. He knew he needed to tell someone about it, to release this pent-up frustration, and while his brother was the logical choice, he couldn’t bring himself to confess his failure to the one person who believed in him. Dylan had practically raised him after their father took off during a drunken binge. He’d sacrificed his own happiness and dreams to make sure Gage had his, even to the point of almost losing his life. Gage wasn’t about to repay him by telling him that it had all been for nothing.
    He could almost hear his mother’s voice, reassuring him the way she always used to. It was a mistake. Everyone makes them.
    Gage knew it was true, but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t make them. Not to this degree. It was something he prided himself on—his talent, his work ethic, and his near flawless performance. To have that all come crashing down around him destroyed every bit of his self-confidence, rocking the foundation of belief in every area.
    If he could destroy something he was good at so easily, what hope was there for the other aspects of his life, the ones where he didn’t excel?
    Turning off the main highway and onto the dirt road that lead to Heart Fire Ranch, he heard a sharp intake of breath from the seat beside him and glanced her way. She chewed at the corner of her lip nervously before jamming her thumbnail between her teeth. It struck an empathetic chord somewhere deep within him and he slowed the car.
    “You okay?”
    Like closing shutters over a window, the nervousness disappeared, replaced by the fierce self-assurance she’d displayed even while stranded on the side of the highway.
    “I’m fine.”
    Gage didn’t buy it for a second. He knew the ploy because he used it himself on many occasions.
    Fake it ’til you make it.
    “Because you look a little . . . uptight.”
    She glared in his general direction but wouldn’t meet his eye. “You’ve known me all of an hour.”
    Gage rolled his eyes back toward the road and clenched his jaw. He’d been nothing but nice to this woman. Hell, he’d just dropped who knew how much to fix her car. The least she could have done was offer a simple “thank you.”
    “It’s enough to tell when you’re being bitchy,” he muttered.
    “Excuse me?” Her voice rose at least two octaves. “Did you just call me a bitch?”
    Gage tried to hold back the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “No, I said you were being bitchy , there’s a difference.” He