Free In a Cowboy's Arms (Hitting Rocks Cowboys) by Rebecca Winters

wife and children. Honey? Since you’re not going back to California, perhaps you could tell him there is no other man in your life the next time you see him. If either one of you had done that eight years ago with a phone call or a letter, you might be the mother of one or two little Bannocks by now.”
    Except at that point in time, Millie hadn’t known that Daniel was the person behind Jarod’s accident, and still didn’t. Sadie’s father had talked to her outside where no one else could hear them. The horror of knowing her father would kill Jarod with little provocation was another secret she’d wanted to keep from the Hensons.
    But the mention of one or two little Bannocks had Sadie swallowing hard. She’d entertained that vision too many times and suffered the heartache over and over again.
    Sadie thanked Millie and said good-night. She tiptoed into the bedroom. Ryan was sound asleep, snuggled beside his blanket.
    Good old Millie. Her sage advice nagged at Sadie as she got ready for bed. To mend that fence by telling Jarod there was no man in her life meant turning over the next stone. If she did tell him, she didn’t know if she had enough courage to deal with the rejection of the grown man he’d become.
    “Honey?” Millie peeked in her room. “I need to give you something. Now that you know the truth about that night, you should have this back.” She handed Sadie the beaded bracelet Jarod had given her the night they’d made love and planned their future.
    Sadie stared at the bracelet in disbelief. “I thought I’d lost it. You kept it?”
    “Of course. I knew there had to be an explanation why he didn’t meet you, but you were too wild with pain to hear me. When you took that bracelet off your wrist and tossed it across the room, I picked it up and put it away for safekeeping.
    “Don’t you know he would never have given you a gift like that if he hadn’t loved you with all his soul? Jarod’s a great man, Sadie. After you left, I cried bitter tears for both of you for years.”
    Sadie stared at the woman who’d been her mother through those difficult years. “What did I ever do to deserve you? I’ll love you and Mac forever.”
    “Ditto. We couldn’t have more children. You were a blessing in our lives, a sister for our Liz. We all needed each other.”
    Yes. Sadie wouldn’t have made it without the Hensons.
    She pressed the bracelet against her heart and fell asleep reliving that night in the mountains. Jarod...
    * * *
    S O SHE WAS leaving the ranch. The Sadie he’d once known had gone for good.
    Jarod stood outside the ranch house for a long time. The sound of Sadie’s truck engine echoed in the empty cavern of his heart, the one she’d likened to flint.
    When he’d checked on his grandfather and found him asleep, he’d told Jenny he was going to drive out to the reservation to see Uncle Charlo and would be back by tomorrow afternoon. Again it meant putting Leslie off, but it couldn’t be helped.
    He’d met the good-looking, redheaded archaeologist from Colorado through Avery. The two women worked at the dig site near Absarokee, Montana, run through the University in Billings. They were unearthing evidence of Crow history. Leslie’s looks and mind had attracted him enough to start dating her, but seeing Sadie again made it impossible for him to sort out his feelings.
    The reservation crossed several county lines with ninety percent of the population being farthest away in Big Horn County at the Crow Agency. However his uncle resided in the small settlement on the Pryor area of the reservation in Carbon County, only an hour’s drive from the ranch.
    If Martha needed anything, she could call his uncle Grant. But if there was a real emergency, he could come right back.
    * * *
    A FTER SPENDING THE night on the reservation, Jarod drove straight to the ranch on Wednesday to look in on his grandfather. Since his hospital stay the month before, Ralph’s condition could change on a dime