There was no more life at the ranch.
His world had become the stark black and white he’d once known and cherished. Only now … he hated it. He hated the sameness. The quiet. The everlasting ordinariness of his existence. It was like the breakfasts Esperanza had been serving him. Tasteless.
But he couldn’t change it. Gina had gone. She’d moved on to build a life without him and that was for the best. For her. For their baby. For him. He was almost sure of it.
“She has been gone three weeks already,” Esperanza reminded him.
Three weeks, five days and eleven hours. But who was counting?
“You must go to her. Bring her back where she belongs.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Only to a man,” she pointed out, grabbing up his untouched breakfast and heading for the kitchen.
He half turned in his chair to shout after her, “I am a man!”
“A foolish one!” she shouted right back.
“You’re fired!”
“Hah!”
Adam slumped in his chair and shook his head. Firing her would do no good. Esperanza would never leave. She’d be right here for the next twenty years, probably making him miserable at every opportunity.
But then, he wondered as he shoved himself up from the table, did he really deserve any better? He’d let Gina go without a word because he hadn’t been able to risk caring for her. For their child.
Which made him, he knew, a coward.
And everybody knew that cowards died a thousand deaths.
By afternoon, Adam had irritated, angered and annoyed all of his employees and was even starting to get on his own nerves. So he closed himself up in his study, made some phone calls and started looking for new projects. After all, he had the precious land he’d wanted so badly. Now he needed something new to concentrate on.
The knock on the study door aggravated him. “What is it?”
Sal Torino opened the door and gave him such a long, level stare that everything in Adam went cold and hard as ice. He jumped up from his chair. There was only one reason for Sal to be there. “Is it Gina? Is she all right?”
Gina’s father stepped into the room, closed the door behind him and studied Adam for a moment or two before speaking. “I’ve come because it’s only right you know.”
The ice moved through his veins, sluggishly headed for his heart. Adam clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and fought for control. “Just tell me. Gina. Is she all right?”
“Gina is fine,” Sal said, walking slowly around the big room, as if seeing it for the first time.
Relief swept through Adam so fast, it left his knees shaking. He felt as though he’d been running in place for an hour. His heart was pounding, his breath was laboring in his lungs and his legs were rubbery. What the hell kind of stunt was Sal up to?
“Damn it, Sal. What was the point of that?” He shouted the question, as adrenaline drained slowly away. “Want to see if you could get a rise out of me? Is that it?”
“It was a test of sorts,” Sal admitted, stopping on the opposite side of the wide desk. “I wanted to know,” the older man said, his dark eyes narrowed, his mouth grim, “if you loved my Gina. Now I know.”
Adam shoved one hand through his hair, then wiped his face. Love. There was a word he’d avoided thinking about over the last few weeks. Even when he lay awake at night, alternately planning on either flying to Colorado to kidnap Gina or burying himself in work, he’d trained himself to never think that word.
It wasn’t part of his plan.
He’d tried love before and he was no good at it. Love messed people up. Ruined lives. Ended some. He wasn’t going there again. Even if the heart he’d thought long dead was now very alive and aching.
Not something he was going to admit to anyone else.
“Sorry to disappoint. Naturally I was concerned for her. But if she’s fine, then I don’t see a reason for this visit.” Sitting down in his desk chair again, he picked up a pen, lowered his gaze to the papers in front of him and said, “Thanks for stopping by.”
Sal didn’t leave, though. He leaned forward, bracing his work-worn hands on the edge of the desk and waited until Adam lifted his gaze before saying, “I have something to tell you, Adam. Something I think you have the right to know.”
“Say it then and get it done,” Adam muttered, bracing himself for whatever news the older man had come to deliver. How bad could it be? Was Gina already in love with someone else? That thought sliced through him, even as he discounted it. It might feel like years since she’d been gone, but it had only been a few weeks. So what could possibly have happened?