“Yeah, boss.” They trotted away.
“I’m not the boss,” Jace muttered under his breath.
“You have to be.” The words burst from Dianne’s lips, driven by swelling panic. “I don’t know anything about ranching. The cows—” She waved toward the young cowboys who were riding from the yard. “And—” A tip of her head toward the building before them indicated far more than the cowboys, although that was enough to require his presence.
A rumpled man carrying a bottle in one hand and a stuffed gunnysack in the other staggered from the bunkhouse.Seeing Dianne, he stilled. His frown turned into a leer, and she backed up, making sure she stood between him and Eddie.
At the same time, Jace shifted to take a place in front of her. He crossed his arms and widened his stance.
Correctly reading Jace’s silent warning, the unsightly man turned his steps toward his horse and managed to balance in the saddle and ride away.
A shudder started in the pit of Dianne’s stomach and spread to her limbs and rattled her teeth.
Jace watched until the man was out of sight. “He’s gone.” Turning, he studied her face twisted with worry. “Dianne, he won’t be back.”
“If you hadn’t been here—” Her mouth dried so she couldn’t form a word.
“You’ve seen the last of him.”
Anger flared, burning away every other thought. “I can’t run this place. You know that. Stop being so pigheaded stubborn, and take the gift Chet has given you.”
“I can’t.” He strode away.
Calling Eddie to follow, she went after him. “Am I going to have to chase you down every time we need to talk?”
If he heard, he didn’t give any indication. Then he ground to a halt so fast she easily caught up. But before she could shepherd her words into a persuasive argument, he muttered something under his breath.
His expression as harsh as it was when he spoke to the drunken cowboy; he stared at the pile of rubble.
“What happened?” Why did he say it was his fault? Was this the reason he wouldn’t stay on the ranch? But fires happened all too frequently. A person had to move on and not be defeated.
Jace stomped a scarred bit of wood, lifting the acrid smell. “I argued with Chet. It led to the lantern falling in the straw.” His lips clamped together. His eyes drained of every hint of feelings. “Chet died in the fire. Itwas my fault.”
Expecting him to stride away as he’d done before, she stood helpless and filled with sympathy as he kicked burned bits of wood. Over and over. On and on. Until he created a bare path twenty feet long where he stopped, his arms crossed, his head down, looking so sorrowful, she couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
Skip had persuaded Eddie to throw twigs for him so he was safely occupied.
She hurried to Jace’s side and pressed her hand to his forearm. His muscles twitched, but he didn’t shake her off. “Tell me what happened.” Perhaps she could detect the flaw in his declaration and help him to understand he was mistaken.
For several long seconds, he studied her, his eyes hard with resistance. Then his breath whistled in and out.
She gripped his arm as he began.
“We fought because I wanted to join the hunt for a rogue grizzly bear. Chet forbade it. Said it was too dangerous. And he didn’t mean the bear. He meant a bunch of hotheads roaming the forest, shooting at anything that moved. I told him I was going. Didn’t need his approval.” He snorted. “I can be stubborn, as you might have noticed.”
“I might have.” Though why that should give Jace reason to blame himself for the fire and Chet’s death didn’t make sense.
Jace rocked back and forth. “I strode from the barn. I’d been tossing out hay and threw the fork at the wall. It clattered on the boards and rattled the lantern.”
Stepping away from her touch and her comfort, he faced the ashes. “When they came to tell me Chet was dead and had died when the barn burned down, I knew I was responsible. I’d knocked the lantern down.” The words barely creaked from his throat.
“Oh, Jace.” What a burden to carry day in and day out. Accidents happened. But to believe he was responsible…. She had to comfort him in someway, so she did the only thing she could think of. She rested her hand on his shoulder, not quite hugging him as that would be inappropriate but letting him know she was alongside him to help in any way she could.
To her surprise, he didn’t shy away or stride off like he wanted to escape his thoughts.
“I never meant to hurt Chet.”
“Of course you didn’t.” The fabric of his shirt whispered as she rubbed her hand along his back.
