Free Rebel Heart by Barbara McMahon Page B

important. Even the months Bobby worked on the ranch, and went into town on Saturday nights, she’d been too tired, too concerned about what needed doing the next day to bother to go into town with him. She hadn’t wanted to be considered as frivolous as she considered her husband.
    And she had done them both a disservice. Bobby couldn’t help what he was any more than she could help being who she was. He'd bought the ranch at her request and had truly tried to satisfy her. But he had had his own agenda for life and it probably had not included a wife and ranch to tie him down.
    Was she only realizing it now?
    She knew they should not have married. The love they shared had burned hot and bright and quickly faded. The last year they had tried to make things work, but only as strangers, not as lovers.
    Maybe she wasn’t cut out for marriage. Maybe she was destined to be a single woman rancher. Would this place become her whole life? Was she not destined to have children, to share the good times and bad with someone special?
    Slowly she walked to the house. Jase’s words had hurt, but they had also purged. It was time for her to start building her life anew, and do it right, this time.
     
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    Jase stared at himself in the mirror, swiped clear from the steam. Open mouth, insert both feet, he thought. He'd been hard on Shannon and she hadn't deserved it. He didn't know anything about her life with Bobby Blackstone. And it was none of his business anyway. She was trying hard to make a go of things. He should cut her some slack.
    Lathering his cheeks, he frowned.
    He could remember the days—and nights—when he worried endlessly about taking care of his siblings, of keeping the ranch from falling apart and about losing the only home he'd ever known.
    Did Shannon have the same fears? He knew she did.
    But he also knew, from his own experience, that she needed to round out her life. To his knowledge, no friends had called her. She didn't have a computer so wasn't hanging out with friends on Facebook, or exchanging emails.
    And they had not left the ranch once in the week he'd been here until his trip to town.
    Trying to justify his words wasn't working. He'd seen the hurt he'd inflicted and it made him sick. She was trying so hard. He felt as if he'd kicked her when she was down.
    Bobby was a wild cowboy. A no-holds-barred kind of reckless rider that attracted buckle bunnies like no one else. And Jase had never seen him turn one away.
    Like anything, if there were faults, it was probably on both sides.
    He swiped the razor against his cheeks. He'd wanted her to go to town. He was doing better and a night out with others sounded like fun. He didn't know how much he could dance, but one or two slow songs with her in his arms couldn't hurt.
    He rinsed the razor. Who was he kidding, it would be like torture, holding her, smelling that sweet scent she wore, touching that sexy body would drive him bonkers.
    He grinned at his reflection. But what a way to go.
    Only, his grin faded, she'd said no. If there was any dancing tonight it would be with strangers. And that held no appeal at all.
     
     
    He was all dressed up, was her first thought when Jase joined her at the table for dinner. He’d even shaved again. Surreptitiously she took in the fresh shirt, clean jeans and the scent of his after-shave lotion. His hair was still damp, neatly combed. She longed to run her fingers through it and mess it up. She liked it when his hair fell any which way because of wearing his hat or from the way his fingers dragged through it.
    Ignoring the awkwardness she felt, she gathered her courage.
    “Jase,” she said.
    If he made a snide comment at her change of mind, she didn't know what she'd do.
    “Yeah?” He looked up from the stew, his eyes silvery in the light, catching hers as he waited to hear what she was going to say.
    “If it’s all right, I’d like to go in to town with you tonight. I’ll change as soon as