The Kissing Stars by Geralyn Dawson Page A

laboring mother out of the Florida swamp.”
    Her eyes snapped with temper and she shoved to her feet. “Gabe, you’re not being fair!”
    “Fair?” He burst out with a laugh. “Darlin’, fair is where you run your pig. It has nothing to do with real life. Why are you defending him anyway?”
    Tess braced her hands on her hips and shot him a glare. “Your mother wasn’t due to deliver for two months. There should have been plenty of time to get back to a town. And your father’s searches weren’t stupid. You can’t blame him for seeking the truth. That’s what scientists do.”
    “He wasn’t a scientist, he was a reckless adventurer who used science as an excuse.”
    Her jaw worked as if she were swallowing her words. Then she drew a deep breath and exhaled it loudly. “I swear, Gabe Cameron, your head is so hard it could etch glass. Maybe it’s best we don’t talk about your father right now.”
    “Try ‘ever’ and I’ll agree with you.”
    Kneeling, she reached into her basket and pulled out a cardamon roll. She chucked it at him saying, “Stuff this in your mouth. I don’t want to listen to your yammering.”
    He caught the roll and held it. Slowly, the anger drained out of him. The girl had always had a backbone, and she hadn’t left it behind when becoming a woman. He took a bite of his roll and flavor exploded in his mouth, washing away the lingering bitterness of his anger.
    Damn, but he’d missed this taste. Among others.
    Gabe cleared his throat. “So, since we’re not gonna talk about my pa anymore, let’s get on to what brought me here, shall we? I want to understand this divorce-that-wasn’t, Tess. Tell me why you left the Rolling R.”
    “Oh, damn.” She sank down onto her seat, folding like a bad poker hand.
    Damn? Out of Tess’s mouth? This explanation must be worse than he’d figured.
    He watched silently as she took a moment, obviously gathering her thoughts. It required such an effort that Gabe decided to sit down, too. The seconds ticked slowly by, and he began to wonder why he’d ever asked his cursed question. And he’d bet money on the fact he wouldn’t like the story she had to tell one little bit.
    Tess poured herself a cup of milk, took a sip, then said, “As you know, after the funeral I went back to live at the ranch with my father. You also know how he felt about Billy. My father wouldn’t speak to anyone but the ranch foreman, so deeply did he grieve. I think he went a little crazy holed up in that room. When he finally called me to the library to talk with him two weeks after the funeral, he demanded I leave.”
    “Why?”
    She hesitated, obviously searching for words. Finally, she said, “My last name was Cameron. He demanded I change it, to divorce you. I refused.”
    “So he decided to take care of ending the marriage himself,” Gabe replied, drawing the obvious conclusion.
    “Maybe he intended to at first, but he never followed through.”
    Gabe nodded. “We didn’t sign divorce papers.”
    “Oh, I wouldn’t have put it past him to sign our names for us.” She gave a small, unamused laugh. “In fact, that’s what I would have expected him to do. But because of a copy of the will I received upon his death, I know that didn’t happen.”
    Gabe fastened his gaze on the feather of white smoke rising from the chimney of Aurora Springs’ communal kitchen. He damned sure wouldn’t partake of anything they were cooking up there this morning, and not because Tess had thought to feed him from a picnic basket, either. This story she was telling had curdled his stomach. “So you inherited the Rolling R. Is that how you financed your studies?”
    She took a long time to answer. “No, Father left the ranch to his foreman.”
    “He what?” Gabe jerked his head around, pinning her with his stare. “He disinherited you?” When she nodded, he clenched his fists. “Damn that man! What happened, Tess? How did you live? How did you support