Heartbreak Ranch Read Online Free PDF

temples thud in painful anticipation.
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    â€œGreat meal, as usual, Annie.” Julianne placed the last dish in the dishwasher, filled the receptacle with soap andturned it on. The other woman finished wiping off the table, and Julianne sat down again, a sense of comfortable familiarity flowing through her.
    After Harley’s failed marriage, his gambling excursions had grown more frequent and longer in duration. He’d failed to return at all from one trip he took when Julianne had been sixteen. With single-minded focus, he’d chased one streak after another: cards, horses, casinos. There had really been no one moment when the realization had hit her that her father, such as he was, wasn’t coming back to live at the ranch. Certainly, he’d never come right out and said so. But there had always been another game, another race, another high stakes purse to go after. Life on the ranch had moved seamlessly on.
    One night, instead of eating in the dining room with its mile-long walnut table and formal wallpaper, Annie had set their places in the kitchen with her. Jed and Julianne had eaten there ever since. She remembered many dark winter nights when she and Annie had sat here after dinner playing rummy or just talking, while the savage Montana wind had blown snowdrifts up to the eaves of the house. There was still a cozy feel to the kitchen; still a sense of coming home.
    â€œSit down, Annie. Everything’s done. Just relax.”
    The woman closed the cupboard she’d been wiping out.
    â€œEasy for you to say,” she replied, with no sting in her voice. “This blasted house doesn’t clean itself, you know, and it’s not getting any smaller.” She started to scrub at the counter with brisk movements. When Julianne rose to help, she was waved away, so she sank back into her chair.
    Once dinner was over, Jed had retired to the study, a habit Julianne remembered from her teen years. After putting in a twelve-hour day on the ranch, there were always markets to be checked, a mound of paperwork to be done.With a start, she realized that he had taken over the role of running the ranch long before Harley had left. Certainly he’d played a part in its daily operations since he’d first come here. Harley had always been content to leave the major decisions to Gabe, who acted as the ranch foreman. When Jed had shown the interest and the knowledge, he’d gradually been given more authority. She supposed she would have been jealous if she didn’t recognize exactly where the ranch would be today without Jed’s management.
    When she thought of how much he had invested in the place, financially, physically and emotionally, she felt the initial tuggings of guilt. She’d never thought about how her plans for coming back here might affect Jed. Even as a young child she’d been aware of Harley’s pendulum of luck. He’d made and lost more fortunes than even he could keep track of. But after years of pestering, she’d gotten his promise that he’d hang on to the ranch for her, and she’d made certain he’d kept his vow.
    This place was a part of her, as it was a part of Jed. He’d been the one to keep it running in her absence; he’d been the one to expand its operations. She stroked the wood grain on the table absently. She should have known better than to assume that Harley was responsible for the latest improvements at the ranch. He’d always been more anxious to siphon money away than to sink any into it. Jed must have had to work some magic on the man over the years to keep him from bankrupting the place. And now it was his own money he was sinking into it to keep it running.
    She pushed aside the sense of unease. Nothing had to change; surely they could co-exist here peacefully enough. Today had proved that they could get along remarkablywell, when they were talking about the ranch. And that was all she was willing to talk to