She closed the distance between them, looping her arms around his neck.
“You’ll be sorry,” he warned.
“I happen to like my cowboys hot and sweaty,” she whispered before she kissed him. His big hands cupped her waist and pulled her to him as the kiss deepened.
She thought about what Charlotte had asked her. Maybe she’d started out hoping Brand would help her, but along the way, she’d fallen for him. Whether or not she stayed around Powder Crossing, though, well, that was still to be seen.
NO ONE TOOK the news of Charlotte’s confession and subsequent arrest harder than Holden. “It isn’t that I didn’t know she had violence in her. I just never expected this,” he said when he heard the news.
The doctor said he could be a little more active, but suggested he put off horseback riding for a while yet.
He debated going into town and seeing Charlotte. He felt responsible for her marrying Dixon Malone, afraid she’d only done it because of him. They’d both made so many mistakes, but he hated to think what would happen to her now.
Cooper had taken over the reins here on the ranch, proving what Holden had already suspected. He was the one to take over when his father was gone. Duffy was leaving. Holden knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. Duffy showed up when Holly Jo had been found, the ranch house was gone, and the doctors said Holden should have a full recovery.
“I’m taking a job on an oil rig in Wyoming,” Duffy had told him one day in the hospital before he’d been released. “I just need to get away for a while,” his youngest son had said. “Cooper left for a couple of years, and you were okay with that,” he’d added, as if expecting an argument.
Holden hadn’t bothered to tell him that he hadn’t been okay with Cooper leaving. He’d worried that his son wouldn’t come back. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Duffy had looked both surprised and disappointed. “Is that what you told Cooper?”
“A man has to roam sometimes to find out where he really belongs. Cooper came back. Whether or not you do, I wish you the best. You’ll always have a home here.”
His son had scoffed at that. “The home’s gone. Everything feels like it’s changing.” He had seen how unsettled Duffy was. He’d suspected part of it had to do with his best friend, Pickett Hanson, marrying Oakley Stafford. Holden thought Duffy might have cared a lot more for Oakley than he’d let on.
“If and when you come back, your home will be here,” he’d assured his son, and then he’d shaken Duffy’s hand and thanked him for letting him know. He hadn’t seen him since, but he knew in his heart it wouldn’t be the last time.
Holden pulled himself from his thoughts, anxious for Elaine to return. She had taken Holly Jo to Billings to buy some things for the house that was quickly rising from the ashes.
Holden couldn’t wait to get his strength back. He doubted he would ever be the man he was before. But damned if he wasn’t going to try. He found himself dwelling on the past all the time when he should have been counting his blessings and thinking about the future.
Cooper and Tilly had almost completed their new house. Holly Jo was safe and seeming more like her old self every day. Pickett was teaching her some new horseback-riding tricks. Oakley was helping. Newlyweds Pickett and Oakley were about to start construction on their house on the ranch.
Like the rest of them, Holden figured everyone worried about the girl. What Holly Jo had been through had to have left its mark. It certainly had on him. But then again, he was to blame for all of it.
There was no reason that they couldn’t all start over. The worst, he wanted to believe, was behind them. He’d heard from Elaine that Tilly might be pregnant and just waiting to make sure before she told anyone. He loved the idea of being a grandfather.
He thought of Charlotte. Would she feel excited about being a grandmother? But now she might not get a chance to even see her grandchild. He couldn’t bear the thought of her going to prison.
At the sound of a vehicle pulling up, he got to his feet. The doctor had given him a cane to use, but he hated it. Elaine would yell at him if she caught him without it, though. He picked it up and moved to the door as Elaine and Holly Jo came in. He loved seeing the excitement on both of their faces.
“Wait and see what we bought!” Holly Jo cried as she rushed past, her arms full of packages. “My room is going to be perfect!” With that, she was gone upstairs in a flurry of movement.
He turned to look at Elaine, who stood in the doorway, smiling. “Let me take those,” he said, reaching for the packages in her arms.
“I have it,” she said, stepping past him to set them down on the sofa before turning to look at him. “What’s happened?”
For a moment, he was too surprised to speak. Was he that transparent? “I thought you might have heard. Charlotte turned herself in for Dixon Malone’s murder. She’s been arrested.”
All the color drained from Elaine’s face. “No.” She slowly lowered herself into a nearby chair, and Holden did the same. Her shock surprised him. Practically everyone in the county had suspected Charlotte killed him.
“No,” Elaine repeated, shaking her head. “Why would she do that?”
“I wondered the same thing,” he said. “She’d gotten away with it. Why confess now?”
Elaine raised her head to look at him. Her gaze locked with his. “She didn’t do it.”
“You are probably the only person around who believes that,” he said, wondering again about their relationship.
“No, she didn’t do it,” she said more forcefully. Tears filled her eyes. “Holden...” Her voice broke, and he felt a jolt an instant before she spoke again. The floor under him seemed to give way.
“I’m the one who killed Dixon.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE SHERIFF HAD been floored when Charlotte Stafford had walked into his office and confessed to murdering Dixon Malone. Not that he hadn’t suspected she’d done it. But why confess now?
It definitely seemed out of character. But then again, she’d been doing things lately that had everyone raising their eyebrows. No one had ever expected she would turn her house over to Holden and family after he got out of the hospital.
Stuart had had her sign a confession, questioning why she didn’t want her lawyer present. He still couldn’t believe she was sitting down in one of his cells right now after she waived her rights. Her attorney, Ian Drake, had shown up, but she’d refused to see him. At her bail hearing, she’d been given a young defender out of Billings, but refused bail.
Stuart couldn’t help questioning all of it. He’d known Charlotte Stafford for years. She hadn’t been the kind of woman anyone seemed to get close to—except for Holden McKenna, if the rumors were true. Which they seemed to be, given Brand’s DNA results, he reminded himself.
Arrangements were being made to send Charlotte to Billings to await trial because Powder Crossing wasn’t set up to house a long-term prisoner, and that was where the trial would be held. The judge had moved the venue, afraid that Charlotte couldn’t get a fair trial in her hometown.
He’d accepted that she was guilty—until Elaine walked into his office.
“Charlotte didn’t kill Dixon,” she said. “I did.”
