Free Hard Lovin' by Desiree Holt Page B

said you would, and I can see it in your eyes all the time.”
    His body tensed again and he cradled her head against him so she couldn’t see his face. “I killed my parents.”
    Erin stiffened, shock stunning her life a zap of electricity, and pushed back enough to look at his face. “What? I don’t believe that. You’re no killer. I’d have known that for sure. What are you talking about?”
    “I don’t mean I shot them or anything.” Tension rippled through him. “We were all on our way to a cattlemen’s convention, my mother and dad and my brother. And me. I was piloting the plane.”
    “And?” she prompted when he paused.
    “And we hit some bad weather, the plane crashed and they were killed.”
    Erin wanted to crawl inside his body and take his agony away. “Grady, it was an accident. Pure and simple. Did your brother blame you?”
    “No. He said the same thing you did. But I kept thinking I should have found a way to save them.”
    “In a plane crash? You were lucky any of you survived.” A thought smacked her in the brain. “So you left home. Right? You’ve been running away from it for five years.”
    “You got it.”
    “What about your brother? Don’t you miss him at all? Don’t you think he misses you?”
    “I call him once a year.”
    “On the anniversary,” she guessed.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Did it ever occur to you he must have survivor’s guilt, too? That he could have used you being around to help him work through it? That you might have done it together?”
    He shook his head. “I guess not.” He put two fingers beneath her chin and tilted up her face. “I guess we both made some pretty stupid choices.”
    “All except being together,” she said. “That’s no mistake.” She pushed her hair away from her face. “I guess I’d better call the ranch. And you should call your brother.”
    “You’re right, but first there’s something else I need to tell you. Then we’ll put a plan together.”
    “Oh, god, what else?” She didn’t know how many more true confessions they could handle.
    “I’m sure Rance Braddock will think I’m after your money, but Erin? I’m rich.”
    She stared at him. “What? Rich? I don’t understand.”
    He shifted her so he could cradle her face in his palms. “We have a family ranch in Wyoming that’s close to the size of Braddock Ranch. And a few other enterprises, too.”
    “What?” she repeated.
    “Don’t be mad, okay?” He chuckled. “But I don’t have to take any of the family money. If you’re running away from the lifestyle as much as anything else. And here’s another thing. I don’t use money as clout.”
    “W-Will you want to go home and run things with your brother?”
    He shrugged. “Maybe. Would you be okay with that?”
    “Will he be okay with me?”
    “Are you kidding? He’ll probably throw a party to celebrate that I’ve decided to rejoin the living.”
    “Then it’s all good. I don’t care where I am as long as I’m with you. I just hope whatever plan you have works.”
    * * * * *
    The homecoming had been much easier than Grady had any right to expect. Aaron had nearly broken down in tears during the phone call, and Grady himself was overcome with emotion as he explained the last three years of his life.
    “But why didn’t you just come home?” Aaron kept asking. “I still don’t understand.”
    “You know why.” Grady’s fingers tightened on his cell phone.
    “Grady, it wasn’t your fault. If you’d given me a chance I could have told you.”
    Grady frowned. “What do you mean? Of course it was my fault. I was the pilot.”
    “It was a problem with the plane,” Aaron told him, so much pain in his voice.
    “Something routine maintenance wouldn’t have found.”
    “I was the pilot,” Grady insisted.
    “Maybe, but you’re not the controller of the universe. Do you think Mom and Dad would have wanted this for you?”
    Silence hummed across the connection for a long moment.
    “So are you