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Maria’s makeup when the old foreman had walked in and had seen him. Daddy hadn’t lived his Cover Girl look down for years.
    But not once had he ever been angry with her.
    “Oh, Daddy. What am I going to do without you?”
    The soft click of the door opening had her turn ing her head to Tate’s silhouette in the doorway. He didn’t need an invitation, but she reached out to him, and he climbed into bed beside her. He was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, but she didn’t pay much attention as he tucked her into the crook of his arm and held her to his body.
    “Shhh... Go to sleep, princess.”
    “Tate?”
    He soothingly stroked her hair. “Yeah?”
    “ Just hold me. Don’t leave me tonight.”
    He met her gaze and swallowed. “I won’t.”
    ****
    Sleep was impossible as Tate held Jamie. She’d fallen asleep not long after he’d c ome to her bed. Her soft breathing was the only sound in the room. She warmed him where she lay against his side and on his chest. The scent of sunshine and honey filled his senses, but he didn’t feel the overwhelming desire he usually felt with her. Instead, he only felt pain for her. His heart broke for her.
    “Tate?”
    He looked down to meet her watery eyes. “I thought you were asleep.”
    She shook her head against his should er. “Tell me about your father. He raised you, too, right?
    He never talked about the man he’d tried for most of his childhood and teenage years to emulate. “Nothing much to tell. My sister and I were stuck with him after my mother left him when I was twelve and Linda was ten.”
    “He was a rodeo cowboy?”
    “Yeah. A bronc rider.”
    “That’s what you were.” She shifted to sit up. The short nightgown pulled up her long slender legs , and she pulled it around her knees, making her look so young, all Tate wanted to do was protect her from all the bad crap of the world.
    “ I wanted to be just like him for years, and just about succeeded,” he scoffed as he pulled himself up to sit against the padded headboard. He’d followed his old man to the rodeo, looking up to him and believing he’d been a hero, but in the end, he’d learned his father had been a drunk and a troublemaker. By the time Tate was twenty, he’d too been well on his way to becoming just like him. When his mother died and Tate and his father showed up at the funeral drunk, he realized he had to get away from the toxicity of Lester Dawson. He’d left the rodeo and eventually wandered onto the Raines Land Ranch. “The best thing that ever happened to me was getting away from him. Hank was more of a father to me than Lester Dawson ever was. I owe him my life.”
    She played with the edge of her nightgown. “ Is that why you stay on the ranch?”
    He laughed, but it sounded hollow even to his own ears. “No. I stay because I love that place.”
    “Robbie thinks Daddy should sell it.”
    “I’m sure he does. He’s a developer and all he sees is the profit that could come from building all over it.”
    She nodded and turned to lean against the headboard beside him. She stretched her legs out next to his. He followed the toned length of them to her slender feet. Despite the fire building in his groin, he refused to give into the need. Now wasn’t the time.
    “I could never get rid of Raines Land. You know that, right?” She looked across her shoulder at him.
    “I know.”
    They were quiet for a long time, and Tate thought about going back to his own bed.
    “Tate, can I ask you something?”
    “Shoot.”
    “Why haven’t you ever settled down?”
    He floated in those deep blue eyes and knew he couldn’t lie to her. But he wasn’t ready to admit the truth either. “I lost my chance.”
    “Ever wish you could get it back?”
    No way was he going to answer her question. “I’d better get to bed.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. Her breath caught as she stared into his gaze. “Try to get some sleep, princess.”
    He left her bed and headed