Heartbreak Ranch Read Online Free PDF Page A

good.”
    He chose his words with care. “I don’t really know what Harley’s immediate plans are. I know he wants to see you, though. I was surprised when you said he didn’t show up in Florida.”
    She tilted her head back to examine the high ceiling. “I’d much rather see him here. I’m glad he didn’t choose to put up another metal building. We have enough of those, and I think a wooden structure adds character, don’t you?”
    â€œJules…”
    â€œI wonder why Harley didn’t mention his plans for theranch when I talked to him.” Then, just as quickly, she shook her head, laughed a little. “What am I saying? I couldn’t keep him on the phone long enough to say much more than hello.” She looked at Jed. “Did he give you any indication of when he’d be moving back?”
    Jed stared hard at those wide brown eyes, that expressive face, and silently cursed. Not for the first time, he damned Harley Buchanan to hell. “Jules, listen to me. Your father isn’t coming home. At least, not to stay.”
    She blinked slowly, and a feeling of guilt pooled in Jed’s chest, sprouting fangs as the hope faded from her eyes.
    â€œBut…why would he do all this, then? Why would he care about expanding the herd and improving the conditions here, if…”
    â€œHarley isn’t making all these improvements. I am.” He looked away, wished for a cigarette. He didn’t reach for one though. They were too close to the new structure, and caution on a ranch was ingrained in him. “My adoptive father, Luther Templeton, died last year.”
    She nodded slowly. “You mentioned that on one of your visits to Florida.”
    â€œHe left me everything.” Even now, the knowledge gave him no pleasure. The man had never been Jed’s father in any real sense of the word. Being named his heir had seemed the height of irony. “I guess he didn’t want his estate to go to one of his ex-wives.” He gave a shrug, as if it didn’t matter. And it didn’t. Not anymore.
    He consciously gentled his voice when he looked back at Julianne. “But that’s the money being poured into the ranch, Jules. Not Harley’s.”
    Her face went smooth and blank. “Well, that makes sense, I guess. It was foolish to think he was going to change his priorities at this point in his life, wasn’t it?”She turned and walked back toward the entrance, and Jed followed reluctantly. Although he knew it was illogical, he couldn’t help feeling responsible for this latest disappointment of hers.
    Harley, he thought grimly, you’re lucky you’re not close enough for me to get my hands around your throat. The first thing he was going to do after supper, he vowed, was to call the man again and demand that he hop the next plane out here. There was a great deal he owed his daughter. It was time someone forced him to live up to his obligations.
    Julianne didn’t mention her father for the rest of the day. She rode with Jed, inspecting the various outbuildings, listening and asking questions when he filled her in on the changes that had been made, and the reasons for them. As he pulled up in the ranch yard, he reflected that he’d talked more that afternoon than he had in a week. The ranch was one subject that he and Julianne had never had problems communicating about.
    He stopped in the mudroom off the kitchen to get rid of his dusty boots, and Julianne went to her room to change for dinner. It was just too damn bad, he thought grimly, as he grasped the heel of a boot and tugged, that the two of them couldn’t seem to talk about any other subject as calmly.
    The second boot joined the first, then he headed upstairs for a shower and change. Like it or not, the time was rapidly approaching when they were going to have to broach some ticklish subjects.
    The certainty of the fireworks to follow made his