gritted his back teeth, feeling a knot in his stomach. The failure of his marriage was the last thing he wanted to rehash today...or ever. Seth was the only good thing that came out of his years with Laura. He took a slow breath and swallowed the bitter taste at the back of his throat. “Water under the bridge,” he said in a low, even tone.
He raised the currycomb to continue his work, but Tracy strode over and caught his wrist. “Would you stop that long enough to hear me out? My cousin was not the monster you’re making her out to be!”
He heaved a put-upon sigh and tossed the currycomb aside. “No one said she was a monster,” he said under his breath. Then, only a little louder, he added, “I wouldn’t have married her if she were a monster. She had her good points, and at one time, I thought I loved her.”
He angled a look over his shoulder at Tracy. She was swiping at the sweat on her face with her wrist, her pale skin flushed from the heat. He stepped over to the shelf where he kept his personal tack equipment and fished a bandanna out of his saddlebag. He held it out to her, and she eyed it suspiciously. “It’s clean. I promise.”
With a murmured thank-you, she dried her face and neck, and ambled closer to a fan so the current of air blew in her face. “As I was saying...I want the chance to spend time with Seth, to get to know him. After Laura died, I promised her...” Tracy paused and swallowed hard. To his dismay, Jack thought he saw tears fill her eyes. God, no tears! Please! He hated seeing a woman cry. Tears were worse than splinters under his fingernails, and he’d do anything to avoid them.
After a slow breath, Tracy seemed more composed—thank the Lord—and continued. “I promised Laura that I would make sure her son knew how much she loved him, the kind of woman she was and everything she did for me. She deserves that.”
Jack folded his arms over his chest and leaned against a wall. “What she did for you?”
Tracy nodded. “The day of the car accident that killed her...”
“Yeah?”
“...she was helping me. I was in the car with her when she died. She’d saved me from a really bad situation, helped me escape...” Tracy wet her lips and glanced away for a moment before continuing. “The man who ran us off the road was my husband.”
Clenching his jaw, Jack recalled what he’d been told about the accident. “He was arrested for vehicular manslaughter. Right?”
She nodded.
“So he’s in jail now?”
“He was. But...he was shanked the second night he was in jail and died on the way to the hospital.”
Jack arched one eyebrow. He hadn’t known that tidbit. “I’m sorry.”
A sad smile tugged the corner of her mouth. “I’m not.”
Jack stared at her. Read between the lines. “He abused you.” It was a statement, not a question. Abuse would explain a lot of the vulnerability he sensed with her.
She said nothing for a minute. Finally, her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. “Verbally. Mentally. He was spiteful and mean. Loved making me cry for sport.”
Jack felt a hot ball of rage well in his gut toward the man.
“He only hit me once, though.”
Jack barked a laugh of disbelief. “Just once?”
Her eyes rounded, and she took a step back. “Y-yeah.”
“As if that makes it all right or wins him points?” He drilled a finger at her. “Once is one time too many.”
Her hand fluttered to her throat, where she dabbed again at the sweat collecting there. “I agree. But my point is...I owe Laura. I know how much Seth meant to her and how much it would mean to her—how much it would mean to me—if I could spend some time with her son.”
Jack rubbed the bridge of his nose. “For what purpose? So he can have another woman walk out of his life in a few days?”
“Who said I wanted to walk out? I don’t have a child of my own. Maybe I’m looking for something long-term, something permanent.”
Ice slid through Jack’s blood, and he lurched away from the wall. “Excuse me?”
Tracy blinked, confused. “I said I wouldn’t walk out on him. I want—”
“If you’re looking to sue for custody or visitation rights, you should know that the divorce agreement Laura signed denies her or her family the right to come back here and try to take Seth from me.”
Jack stalked toward Tracy until she’d backed against the far alley wall, and he loomed over her. “Seth is mine. All mine. I have sole custody, and that’s how it’s gonna stay.”
She hunched her shoulders, trying to make herself smaller, and he realized how his power play must have appeared to her. Intimidating, threatening, hostile... Okay, he had meant to intimidate her and drive home his point. But he’d forgotten for a moment how that tactic would play with an abused woman. Damn it!
He eased back a step, giving her breathing room, while still making his point that he was unyielding on the question of custody. He would fight her to his last dollar to keep his son. When he drew a calming lungful of air, he inhaled the sweet scent of her. Heat unrelated to the summer temperatures skittered through him. His pulse kicked harder as he imagined what it might be like to pin her against the wall and kiss her full, frowning lips. Standing this close to her, he could see her chin quiver and hear the agitated rasp of her breathing. Damn the man who’d scarred her psyche this way! And damn himself for finding Tracy so alluring, so sweetly sexy and begging for protection.
He was far more likely to need protection from her and her plans for Seth than she needed protecting.
“I don’t want to take him from you.” Her voice trembled, and when she raised her gaze, he saw moisture in her eyes. But also defiance. “I don’t want to be at odds with you on this matter but...if I have to go to court to win the right to see Seth—” her throat convulsed as she swallowed “—I will.”
After Tracy threw down the gauntlet regarding visitation with Seth, Jack hustled her back to the party, driving one of the MULE side x sides this time, and ordered her off the ranch. He’d not have any relative of his ex-wife blackmailing him into visitations with Seth. Especially not if those visits included the possibility of Seth hearing upsetting truths about his mother. Or if said visits could lead to an attempt for shared custody. Or...cripes, the possibilities chilled Jack.
He let Tracy out at the pool area and directed her to leave immediately, before he moved the MULE to the edge of the lawn. When he returned to the party to look for Seth, he spotted Brett near the buffet line, yukking it up with some slick-looking customers in Stetsons too clean and crease-free to be real cowboys. Brett caught his eye and waved him over.
Seeing no graceful way out, Jack crossed the lawn and gave the men with his brother a half smile as he approached. He could smell big-city investors and rancher wannabes from a mile away. These guys reeked of money and little practical ranching knowledge.
“Jack, I’d like you to meet some gentlemen. Bill and George here are from Dallas and are interested in helping us get started in horse breeding.”
Nailed it. Jack gloated silently as he shook the men’s hands.
“I’ve been telling them how I found that stud in OKC with papers and a great bloodline.”
Jack lifted one eyebrow. “What stud?”
“I told you about him when I talked to you last week about my idea for breeding cutting horses.”
Drawing a slow breath, Jack pinned his brother with a level stare. “As I recall, I told you we weren’t making any changes to the business