The Loner Read Free Page A

to wonder what he’d done wrong when all he’d ever wanted was to please his father.
    “I gotta go,” he said.
    But she held on. “Why did you come back?” she asked.
    Billy sighed. He might as well tell her the truth. It was going to come out eventually. “My mom’s sick. My sister says she’s been asking for me.”
    Billy knew what his mother wanted. Forgiveness for letting herself be bought off by Eve Blackthorne. And for letting his father beat the crap out of him till he was old enough to fight back. Billy wasn’t sure he could ever forgive her. But his sister had begged him to come home… before it was too late.
    “I didn’t realize your mother was ill,” Summer said, her hand brushing the wrinkles out of the front of his shirt in a gesture that felt like a caress. “What’s wrong with her?”
    “Cancer.”
    “Oh, no. Is it bad?” Summer asked.
    “She’s dying.”
    “Oh, Billy.”
    She hugged him again.
    It amazed him how much he wanted—needed—that hug. She felt so good in his arms. Like she belonged there.
    But she didn’t.
    “Summer, I gotta go.” He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. He chucked her softly under the chin in an effort to take the hurt look from her eyes and reminded her why he had to keep his distance by saying, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you didn’t wait for me to make my fortune and come back for you.”
    Her brow furrowed. “Was I supposed to?”
    His lips curved in a regretful smile as he brushed at a strand of hair that had blown across her cheek. “No, I suppose not.”
    “You took my father’s bribe, Billy. You left and never looked back. You never called me, never wrote me, never did a thing to let me know that you were even still alive.”
    He heard the anger and resentment he’d been expecting from the first. He was surprised to discover he shared her feelings. “Neither did you.”
    She huffed out a breath of air. “You were the one who ran away. How could I believe you really wanted me when I realized you knew the truth—and still let my father buy you off?”
    Billy resisted the urge to explain. She would never understand the despair he’d felt, the gold ring he’d grasped for—the chance to leave Bitter Creek and make something of himself for her, to be worthy of her.
    Well, he’d done it. He had a job he loved and for which it turned out he had a definite knack. Theintelligence he’d inherited from Blackjack—which his stepfather had always made him ashamed of showing—had helped him to trap more than one unwary rustler. Now that Summer was marrying some other man, his job was all he had.
    And Blackjack had threatened to take it away if he wasn’t gone in twenty-four hours.
    Billy couldn’t afford to lose the work that had given him back his self-respect and, more important, provided the income to support his son. Without that job, he might very well end up back here for good, in a town where he was—and always would be—”Bad” Billy Coburn.
    But how could he leave? His mother was dying. He’d come home to Bitter Creek to make arrangements for her care and to find out whether his sister Emma might be willing to sell the ranch where they’d grown up, since he had no intention of ever living on the C-Bar again.
    He’d considered explaining the situation to Blackjack and asking for more time to settle his affairs, but he didn’t want to end up beholden to a man he hated. Besides, he didn’t need help from anybody. He’d figure a way out of this mess on his own.
    This sure as hell wasn’t the time to stir up trouble by getting involved with Summer Blackthorne again. He had to get away from her before he did something stupid that would make his life harder than it already was.
    But he was finding it difficult to let her go, when she was holding him, touching him like she cared.
    “What’s wrong?” Summer murmured, brushing at the frown between his eyes. Her fingertips haltingly caressed his