Free Charlene Sands by Winning Jennas Heart

wanting, yearning, waiting. She cried for the loneliness that would surely be her life now. She cried and cried and finally, once her tears were shed, reason took over.
    Jenna wiped her tears on her sleeve, too distraught to worry about the stricken look on the man’s face beside her. She had so many questions running through her mind now. She shoved her heartache aside for a moment, to get the answers she needed. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t I find him when I found you?”
    “He died there, by the stagecoach, as did the driver, but I didn’t have strength to bury them. I left the area, fearing the attackers might come back and see that I was barely alive. I crawled on my hands and knees, bleeding and not knowing if the breath I was taking would be my last. I don’t recall how long or how far I was able to go, but I searched for help. I think I would have died that day by Turner’s Pond if you hadn’t found me right then.”
    “Oh,” she said, realizing that this man was not at fault. He’d been through a horrible ordeal and nearly died. She had been the one insisting he washer Blue. Yet who was Cash Callahan and what business did he have with Twin Oaks?
    “I did the Christian thing. I would have taken you in, no matter who you were.”
    “I know that, Jenna. You’re a special woman—”
    “Don’t,” she said, halting his kind words. She couldn’t bear to hear them right now. Unfair resentment settled in her belly that this man had survived when Blue hadn’t. She wasn’t proud of this feeling, yet she hadn’t the strength to fight it, either. She couldn’t forget that they’d spent the night together, that she’d given her body to a stranger. She didn’t want to hear any more of his soothing words. Words wouldn’t change a thing.
    “You saved my life, Jenna. I will be grateful for that until the day I die.”
    Blue was dead, but she’d managed to save this man’s life. Whoever he was. It was time she found out. “You said you had business here, at Twin Oaks.”
    “Yes,” he said, glancing at her warily, before lifting up from the sofa. “Wait here a minute.”
    Puzzled, Jenna stayed seated, wondering what this man, this Cash Callahan was up to. A minute later, he came back into the room with his long wool coat. With a small knife he produced from his pocket, he began ripping away the back inner seam of the garment. Stunned, Jenna could only watch.
    Once the seam was opened considerably, he reached inside and pulled out a piece of paper. “This was my business, Jenna,” he said with such regret that Jenna’s heart lurched.
    “W-What? What is that?”
    He unfolded the small paper and placed it on the sofa between them. Jenna looked down and gasped. “It’s a deed to Twin Oaks!”
    He nodded. “It’s a fake deed, Jenna. I know that now.”
    Yes, it surely was a fake deed. Just like the one she’d seen once before when a stranger came onto her property, angrily threatening her. If this man carried a deed to Twin Oaks, then how did he get it? Jenna’s mind considered the possibilities, yet she refused to acknowledge the one truth that would destroy her completely.
    Cash Callahan folded the paper back up and shoved it into his shirt pocket. He ran his hands through his hair then, on a hesitant pause, softened his eyes to her. Jenna sat ramrod straight waiting for his explanation, praying this was all a big mistake.
    “I met your brother, Bobby Joe, at a gambling hall in north Texas. Can’t even remember the town now. There have been so many. He wagered Twin Oaks for a large sum of money. Of course, he’d duped me into thinking it was a cattle ranch. I was coming here to check over my newest acquisition when the Wendell cousins caught up with me. Yousee, Jenna, I’m a gambler. It’s the only life I’ve ever known.”
    “No!” Jenna’s mind muddied up. This couldn’t be true. Bobby Joe wouldn’t have done this again. Her brother wouldn’t have sent this man, this Cash