Page 92 of A Cowboy's Trust

“Tansy—” he called, but the door slipped closed as he finished. “I love you.”

If he thought the crowd had offered a roar earlier, now they were a raging storm. Heads turned and there were smiles and shouting and waving hands as everyone told their neighbour what had just happened at high volume.

The entire floor of the hall turned into bedlam.

Malachi Fields stepped next to Jake. “You hanging out here for any particular reason, son?”

“That’s not?—”

“Explain later.” Malachi gestured for him to get a move on. “I know my daughter. When she’s hightailing it like that, you’d better catch her sooner than later.”

Thank God. Jake jumped off the stage and headed through the chairs for the exit door Tansy had escaped through.

Behind him, Malachi must have gotten to the microphone, because as Jake struggled forward, Malachi’s booming laugh rang out, comforting and contagious at the same time. “That’s a twist I never saw coming. Never thought your first day on the job would be this exciting, did you, Chance?”

Behind him, Chance responded. “No, sir. Seems as if we have one bachelor in a hurry to collect his date. Let’s get him out of here as quick as we can, shall we?”

Thank God Chance had said something, because it seemed the crowd had all leaned into Jake’s path instead of out of the way.

“Misunderstanding,” Jake shouted, not caring how foolish it made him seem. “I love her.”

“Then go get her.”

One of the men in the crowd leapt to his feet and threw a fist into the air. “Don’t mess this up, man.”

“Tansy deserves the best,” someone else called.

“I love her,” Jake repeated, still fighting his way toward the door.

“Tell her, not us,” some card in the far corner of the hall shouted.

“Tansy rocks,” another voice cried, and the sentiment was greeted with applause and cheering.

If he wasn’t trying to get away as fast as possible, Jake would have found it rather enchanting to know exactly how many people were Team Tansy.

He tried calling her phone the entire way to the ranch but kept being sent to her voice mail. “Dammit, Tans. Making it harder to find you than usual isn’t nice.”

Fine, he’d start with logic. Home first.

Dust flew as he braked in front of the main house. There was no sign of her SUV, but he still hurried out just in case.

A note fluttered on the front door of the High Water ranch house.

I don’t feel safe here anymore. That Tansy is nothing but trouble, so before she does something to hurt me, I need to get away. I don’t know where I’m headed yet, so I’ll leave Jeffrey with you for now. Take care of our baby for me, darling, until I find a way to come back to you both.

XOX Melissa

Shit. Melissa had been at the house? Was that why Tansy had left?

He tried the door, but it was locked. He raced over to the apartment Melissa had used, but it too was shut up tight.

He stood in the yard and tried to call Tansy again as Petra and Aiden pulled up to the porch, poured out of their truck, and raced toward him.

“We got here as fast as we could. Is Tansy here?”

“No sign yet, but Melissa was.” Jake handed his brother the note.

Aiden swore softly. “She’s clearly out of her mind.”