Wild Ride Rancher

by Maureen Child

  “Fine.” He stood like a statue, unmoving. Unyielding. Morning sunlight drifted through the kitchen window and threw his features into a blend of light and shadow.

  She’d always remember him like this, Chloe thought, as if he was caught between the past and the future. Darkness and light.

  “You know, I hope you really loved her,” Chloe said, watching him. “The woman who taught you to never trust a living soul again. I hope you loved her and that losing her crushed you.”

  He nodded. “It did, thanks.”

  “Good, because now you’re doing the same thing to me, and I want to make sure you know how I feel.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Exactly what you don’t want to hear,” Chloe said, lifting her chin. “I love you, Liam.”

  “Damn it—”

  She choked out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a cry. “Nice response. I’ll treasure it always.”

  He took a step forward, so she backed up. If he touched her now, she just might shatter.

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  God, he was so stupid. Were all men this ridiculous, or had she just been lucky enough to fall for someone “special”?

  “Well,” she said tightly, “don’t worry. I’m just a rich girl. I’ll probably change my mind soon and won’t think about you at all.”

  Then she left. While she still could.

  Ten

  A couple days later, Liam told himself this was better. With Chloe gone, there were no distractions. He could finish off his time at the Perry Ranch in some semblance of peace. Sort of. But even he didn’t believe his lies.

  She wasn’t there physically, but she was still everywhere he looked. Their conversation in the kitchen kept repeating over and over in his mind as if it were on a loop. He could see her eyes, hear her voice, and he remembered how hard it had been to just stand there and not touch her. If he had though, it wouldn’t have helped. He’d have only prolonged the inevitable.

  She was different from any other woman he’d ever known, and still Liam couldn’t bring himself to trust it. Trust her. He had chased what he wanted once before, and it had all gone to hell. How could he believe?

  She loved him.

  “Well, hell,” he muttered, “I didn’t ask for that. Neither of us did.”

  What was he supposed to do with that? Her feelings. The feelings he had and was busy denying. Liam didn’t know. Didn’t have any answers at all. And that bothered him because he always knew what he was doing and where he was going. Until now.

  Liam stretched the string of barbed wire to the fence post and hammered it into place. He kept trying to concentrate on his work. It was his last day at the Perry Ranch after all. But his mind kept drifting and his heart ached. And that was a distraction.

  But tomorrow, he’d be on his own spread. What he’d worked for. What he had the damn right to enjoy. For years he’d given his life to others. He’d protected the Perry Ranch and had helped it grow. Now it was his turn to focus on what mattered to him. And he couldn’t let Chloe matter. Couldn’t admit it even to himself. She couldn’t be a part of what came next despite how good it felt to have her with him. Beside him.

  His hammer hit his thumb, and that pain was enough to take his mind off the ache in his heart. He shook his hand, hard. “Damn it!”

  “Problem, boss?”

  Scowling, he looked at Tim. “No. No problem.” Nothing he could do anything about, anyway. “And as of tomorrow, I’m not the boss. Mike is. Remember?”

  Tim grinned and went back to repairing the fence line. “That’s tomorrow, boss.”

  Right. Typical cowhand, Liam thought. No plans beyond the day they were living. Just do the job and let the future take care of itself. Well, Liam wasn’t like that. Never had been.

  Now, his future was within reach. Everything he’d ever worked for was laid out in front of him—and the shining potential of it all didn’t look as perfect as it once had.

  * * *

  Chloe’s business was up and running again, but so many others weren’t. For two days, she volunteered with her neighbors, sweeping out mud, carting away trash and, in general, helping out with everyone.

  “Still, could’ve been worse,” Hank Cable said. “I was living in Galveston back in ’69, and what that hurricane left behind makes all of this mess look like a day in Disneyland.”

  Hank’s hair salon was right down the street from Chloe’s office, and she was not only a friend, but a customer of Hank’s daughter, Cheryl. The beauticians had all turned out to help with the cleanup, but it was the camaraderie of being together that was really helping.

  “Oh, Pop, you’re always talking about living through Camille,” Cheryl teased.

  “Was a hell of a storm,” he insisted. “Worth talking about. And we didn’t even get the full force of the damn thing.”

  Chloe gathered up another trash bag and tied it closed. Everyone on the street was stacking their garbage on the curb to be ready when the city trucks were out again.

  “Has the water completely receded now?” Chloe asked.

  “From what I heard,” a woman across the room answered, “most of the city’s good now, but the low-lying areas are still pumping out floodwaters.”

  “Not just there,” Cheryl said, “a lot of these older buildings have basements, and they were really flooded. People are scrambling to find sump pumps to clear the water out.”

  Taking out the trash, Chloe paused on the curb to look up and down the familiar street. Most of the damage was cleared away, though several offices still had plywood tacked up where windows used to be. A few of the trees were in desperate need of trimming because of broken branches, but that apparently was low on the priority list.

  Naturally though, her gaze swung to the Texas Cattleman’s Club building across from her own business. Was it really only about three weeks ago that she and Liam were forced to take refuge there? It felt like a blink of time and also as if she’d known him forever.

  A work crew was setting up ladders outside the building, and she knew there were others working on the inside. She knew exactly how flooded that first floor had been and now, thanks to Cheryl, she was wondering about the old building’s basement. It had to be completely underwater.

  Her gaze lifted to the third floor and the bedroom where she and Liam had started the craziness. God. She missed him. She always would. But, since meeting him, she’d also learned a lot about herself. She’d worked a ranch. She’d done the job. She’d earned the respect of the other ranch hands, and more, the dreams she’d had as a child were now her reality.

  She was going to concentrate on the camp. On showing the girls what it felt like to prove yourself to yourself. She’d build a little bunkhouse, complete with bathrooms and showers, on the land Liam had promised her. She’d be there full-time, and if that meant she had to see Liam and not have him, well, she’d have to find a way to deal with that.

  Loving Liam had given her back her dreams. She didn’t regret a moment of it.

  The following morning, Liam’s truck was packed with the last remaining things he hadn’t already taken to his own place. He was ready to leave and yet, looking around the Perry Ranch, he had to take a minute. He’d lived most of his life on this spread. He’d grown up here, learned here and, thanks to Chloe, he’d loved here.

  Yes. Sometime during the night, Liam had had to admit the stone-cold truth. He loved Chloe. But did that change anything? Did it mean that he could suddenly trust in something that had burned him badly the first time?

  But could he even compare the two situations? What he felt for Chloe was so much more than he’d had with Tessa. He hadn’t been able to acknowledge it, even to himself, but what he had with Chloe was—

  “Ready to leave, are you?”

  Sterling Perry’s voice shattered his train
of thought, and Liam watched the older man stride across the ranch yard and then step up onto the porch alongside him.

  “About time, don’t you think?” Liam asked. “I was just standing here thinking how I’ve been on this ranch since I was seven years old.”

  Sterling laughed and nodded. “A skinnier kid I’ve never seen. But you had a way with horses. Even then.”

  Liam glanced at the older man. Sterling wore one of his suits, with a black Stetson and shining black boots. He looked like the Hollywood ideal of a Texas patriarch. And Liam was pretty sure Sterling knew it and played the part.

  “You getting sentimental on me, Sterling?”

  “That would be something, wouldn’t it?” He leaned one shoulder against a porch post and shook his head. “No, I’m not. But as you get older, you do a lot more looking back than forward, Liam. And standing here today, I see you as a boy, a teenager, a young man with a head full of ideas for change.”

  “Yeah.” Sheepishly, Liam took his own hat off and pushed one hand through his hair. “I did give you a hard time now and then, didn’t I?”

  “More your daddy than me,” Sterling mused, staring off across the yard as if looking into a past only he could see.

  “Your daddy was a good man,” he said softly. “But when he lost your mother, he lost a part of himself. That softer part where love lives in a man.”

  Liam frowned, remembering. His mother had died not long after his father had taken the job as foreman here. A car accident on the way into Houston for some Saturday shopping. A disaster that had changed everything for Liam and his father.

  Sterling turned his head to look at Liam. “It was a hard time. For both of you.”

  “Yeah, it was.” Some men, Liam knew, would have lost themselves in their own pain, ignoring their children, or worse yet, even running from the hard injustice of loss. Liam’s father hadn’t. He’d just gone on. A little harder, a little colder, but he’d been there, day in and day out.

  “Losing your mother about ripped your daddy’s heart out, Liam, but he didn’t quit. Not once.”

  “No, sir.” Liam took a deep breath to withstand the rising tide of old memories, and wondered where the hell Sterling was going with this.

  Musing almost to himself, Sterling went on. “Takes a strong man to risk pain and keep going.”

  Suspicious now about the track this little conversation was taking, Liam looked at him.

  Sterling met his gaze. “You’ve always had your plans and dreams, Liam. Being your own man, calling your own shots.” He nodded sagely. “I can understand that. Respect it. But does that really mean you have to be alone?”

  Liam started to answer, but the older man cut him off. “I had my Tamara, you know. We had ups and downs like anybody else. But it was a good marriage. People used to say I married her for this ranch, but the truth is, I loved that woman until the day she died—no matter what gossips have to say about things.”

  He hadn’t paid any attention to gossip until the night Chloe’d told him the story. Now he said what he’d told her then. “I don’t listen to gossip.”

  “Then you’re a better man than most around here.” Sterling gave him a sad smile. “My point is, while you’re out there building your life, and starting in on all those grand plans, you might want to pause and think about something.”

  Liam leaned against another porch post and listened. Sterling had been good to him his whole life. Even when he was furious with him, Liam never forgot how much he owed the man. The least he could do on his last day here was let him say his piece. “I’m listening.”

  Sterling grinned. “You don’t want to, but you will,” he said. “That hard head of yours. Blessing and a curse. You’re a lot like your father, you know. He learned early this lesson I’m about to share with you.

  “Plans and schemes and money and success don’t mean dick, son, if you’re alone.” Sterling stared into the distance again and kept talking. “You find a woman who fills all the holes in your soul, then you be smart enough to grab hold of her and never let go.” He paused to turn his head and stare into Liam’s eyes. “Because once you’ve lost her, a part of yourself is gone and it won’t ever come back.”

  A long moment of silence ticked past. Liam didn’t know what the hell to say to that because every word had rung true for him. He had been walking around with a soul like a sieve, and he hadn’t even noticed until Chloe started filling in those gaps.

  And now that she was gone, it was as if he’d sprung a damn leak and the goodness and light inside him was draining out.

  “Just something for you to think about,” Sterling said, then stepped closer and clapped one hand onto Liam’s shoulder. “I know you’ll make that ranch of yours a big success, boy. You come around and see me sometimes, though. All right?”

  He started down the steps and only stopped when Liam called his name. “What is it?”

  Liam’s brain was racing. He scrubbed one hand across his jaw, looked out at the stables, then back to Sterling. “The new foal. Will you sell him to me?”

  Sterling looked at him for a long second or two, then a smile curved his mouth. “You take him with you. Call him a ranch-warming present.” He started walking, then stopped again and looked back over his shoulder. “You can pay me for his mother though, because you’ll need her, too. At least until he’s weaned.”

  Liam grinned, then asked with affection, “You’re still a cagey old bastard, aren’t you?”

  Sterling winked at him. “And don’t you forget it.”

  * * *

  The street outside Chloe’s office was busy. Regular traffic was closed off since the recovery and cleanup efforts were still in effect. Chloe sat at her new desk, on her new computer, and went over the final details for the Farrels’ anniversary party she had scheduled for the following week. Everything was in place, so there was really nothing for her to check, but she kept at it, because this was going to be not only her next job, but her last one.

  She’d already arranged for another event planner to take over for her with the two other small parties she’d agreed to do. As soon as she’d given the Farrels the best anniversary party ever, she was going to devote herself to her cowgirl camp.

  Whether Liam liked it or not, she was going to be at his ranch every damn day until she got the camp up and running. And then she’d be there every day running it.

  “So he’s just going to have to get used to ignoring me.” She laughed to herself, as she opened her email. “He’ll be great at it, probably. I’m the one who’s going to have trouble with this.”

  She answered an email from the band she’d booked for the party, assuring them of the time and place. Then she tucked it into a Save folder and moved onto the next one.

  “You could have the camp at Sterling’s,” she told herself. “That’s still an option.” But it really wasn’t. “No, the spot at Liam’s is perfect. The oaks, the stables. I’ll just have to deal. After a while, it won’t be hard to see him. Just...sad.”

  “What’s sad?”

  She jolted, and looked up to see Liam standing in her doorway. Nope. She’d never get used to seeing him. Never get over the instant flash of heat and love that filled her with one glance. And that was way beyond sad.

  “You really enjoy sneaking up on me, don’t you?”

  He gave her a half smile and everything in her melted. Honestly, this was not fair, to have her body react to him like this even when her mind was screaming at her that there was no point.

  “I guess I do.”

  “Wow. Honesty.” Chloe closed her laptop and stood up, deliberately keeping her desk between them. “Why are you here, Liam?”

  “Your place looks nice,” he said, clearly stalling as he looked around the redone office.

  “You didn’t come here to talk about the building,” she said flatly. “So why did you come?”
/>
  “You want honesty there, too?”

  “That’d be nice, yes.” God, why didn’t her black slacks come with pockets? What was she supposed to do with her hands? She crossed her arms over her chest and realized she probably looked defensive. Well, good. She was feeling defensive.

  “Okay.” He walked farther into the room, letting the door close behind him.

  He looked good. No surprise there. Black jeans, white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled back to the elbows. He pulled his Stetson off and held it in one hand while he looked at her.

  “Here’s honesty for you.” He took a breath, held her gaze and said, “I love you, Chloe.”

  “What?” She shook her head to clear it, because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That, she hadn’t been expecting. Dreaming about, hoping for, sure. But she’d thought what they had was over, so this complete 180 had her spinning in place. Still she couldn’t really accept this so she said, “Say it again.”

  “I love you, Chloe.”

  Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. This moment was too important for blurred vision. Her heartbeat raced, pounding so hard in her chest it was a wonder he couldn’t hear it.

  “I’m not done.” He took a step closer, tossed his hat onto her desk and said, “I do love you. But I want you to know that I also trust you, Chloe. I respect you. I know who you are and I believe it. I believe in you.”

  She pulled in a deep breath, hoping to steady herself, but it wasn’t working. Nothing could have. He was giving her everything. She almost pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “What happened, Liam? What made you...”

  “You left,” he said. “Simple as that. I thought I could handle it, that it would be better for both of us. But then, I realized that when you left you took so many pieces of me with you, I couldn’t breathe.”

  Her heart was galloping and her blood was rushing through her veins. She fought for breath and watched his lake-blue eyes, and she saw the truth of what he was saying written there. He meant every word, and that was better than any dream she’d been chasing her whole life.