Free The Loner by Joan Johnston Page B

joy that ought to be there—but was not. He looked anxious and uncertain in a way he hadn’t since he’d first come to her thirty-seven years ago to propose … and she’d refused because she was already pregnant with Jesse Creed’s child.
    “What happened?” she asked. “Was Eve in an accident? Is she dead?”
    He shook his head. “Summer knows everything. There’s nothing left for Eve to use as blackmail.”
    “How did she find out?”
    Jackson blew a breath of air out of puffed cheeks. “I met up with Billy Coburn in the Armadillo Bar. He told me Summer’s known the truth for the past two years. She overheard her mother and me arguing.”
    Ren tried to see past the gray stone wall Blackjack had made of his eyes. Why did he still seem so worried? What was he thinking? Now that he was finally free, was he having second thoughts about a life with her? She was afraid to ask, so she said, “Is Summer all right?”
    “I should have trusted her more,” he admitted. “She said she didn’t want things to change between us. That’s why she didn’t say something to me sooner about her knowing the truth.”
    Ren pressed her forehead against his chest. “Oh, Jackson. Oh, my dear.”
    “I plan to start divorce proceedings as soon as theHouston office of DeWitt & Blackthorne is open for business. Knowing my cousin Harry, I won’t have to wait much past daybreak.”
    Ren lifted her face to his. “What about Bitter Creek?” She couldn’t imagine Jackson Blackthorne without the ranch that had been his lifeblood. “Will Eve be able to take it from you?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t much care. All I want is you.”
    Ren leaned her cheek against his shoulder. It was hard to believe that the fight between their two families that had begun over a piece of land so many years ago might finally come to an end.
    Three Oaks was a small island—a mere hundred square miles of land—in a sea of Blackthorne grass. And Blackthornes had been trying to buy it—or take it forcibly from Creeds—since the Civil War. It would be ironic if the two clans were finally united by marriage now the way they had been when the first Blackthorne married Creighton Creed—against her son’s wishes—and started the feud that had survived until the present day.
    The conflict had been very much a part of their lives during all the years of her marriage to Jesse. Two years ago, her eldest son had vowed he would murder Jackson Blackthorne—and make it look like an accident—if Ren pursued any relationship with his father’s nemesis. She’d believed Sam would do what he’d promised. It had almost been a relief when Jackson wasn’t able to divorce his wife.
    But her respite had come to an end.
    She felt her stomach churn. Sam’s feelings hadn’t changed. If anything, he hated the Blackthornes morethan ever, despite the fact—or maybe because of the fact—that both his sisters had ended up married to Blackthornes.
    Four years ago, Callie had married Blackjack’s eldest son Trace and taken their two children, Eli and Hannah, and moved with him to a cattle station in Australia, where they’d produced another daughter, Henrietta. Two years ago, Bay had married Owen Blackthorne, and they were now living happily in Fredericksburg with their twin sons, Jake and James. Sam had felt betrayed by his sisters’ embrace of the enemy.
    But perhaps Sam was entitled to hate Blackthornes. He’d certainly suffered more from the feud than any of his siblings. The Blackthornes had stolen something precious from him. Something he’d never get back.
    “You have to leave, Jackson,” Ren said. “Sam will be here for breakfast in a few minutes.”
    “I’m not leaving you, Ren. Not again. Never again.”
    “Be reasonable,” she said, backing away from his embrace. “Sam will need time to adjust—”
    “Are you telling me I need your son’s approval to marry you?”
    Ren heard both arrogance and irritation in his voice. Jackson Blackthorne wasn’t