My Ranch My Way

by Misty Malone

  She worked hard all day, hoping if she worked hard enough she could get him out of her mind, because although her head came up with that conclusion, her heart was having trouble accepting it. She checked the last shack, making notes on her list of what supplies needed to be restocked, and went back to Ginger.

  Pete was going to be gone all day, so Cecelia decided to go to her swimming hole to think. Once she got there and tethered Ginger she headed for her favorite place to relax. There was a big rock under some trees that was the perfect place to sit and watch the creek as it flowed peacefully by. Like normal, the creek soon had her relaxed and she was able to clear her mind and think back over the last week. She could see things a little clearer now, from both people's perspective. As usual, that pointed out things she hadn't thought of.

  One thing that jumped out at her was that she didn't actually listen to what he was suggesting. Chase had seemed uneasy, even nervous, and as soon as he mentioned the dam, she assumed he thought she'd built it. But now, thinking back over his actual words, he never actually accused her of building the dam. He asked if she knew anything about it, and she assumed he meant did she do it. But thinking back on it, he was actually suggesting the opposite; that he hadn't thought she'd done it, but that she might know or suspect who had. Perhaps his uncle had suggested she dam up a creek, and although she turned him down, she didn't want to rat him out? By asking her directly he was giving her a solution; she had to answer his questions.

  Then when she'd become angry about feeling accused, he very patiently tried to assure her that wasn't the case.

  Now she was confused again because she was back to thinking maybe Chase wasn't like Tom after all. Maybe Chase could be trusted. She decided he at least deserved a chance. She had to call him and see if he had time to talk tonight. She wanted to apologize.

  She reached into her pocket for her phone, and panicked when she found it missing. She had literally been all over their ranch today, and if she'd dropped it, it could be anywhere. Although their ranch wasn't as big as Chase's, it was still way too big to start looking for a phone. She forced herself to sit back and try to remember the last time she knew she had it. Maybe she could narrow it down to a certain shack, anyway.

  While she sat thinking, looking out onto the creek, she noticed something shiny in the water. She got up and went over closer, to the edge of the creek. It looked like a piece of jewelry, but she couldn't tell for sure. Curious now, she took her boots and socks off. She rolled her jeans up to her knees and waded out to investigate.

  She got almost to it and stepped on a flat rock that had moss on it. She slid on the moss and lost her balance. Down she went with a splash. She tried standing back up, but her foot stepped on the same slippery rock and down she went again, only this time she fell backwards, into the deeper water, and came up gasping and splashing.

  Cece in the water, gasping for air and flailing, is exactly what Chase saw when he rode up onto the site. He slid down from Thunder, and pulled his boots and socks off and threw them to the side, along with his phone, as he ran into the water.

  Once she got some air in her lungs she calmed down and got her feet underneath her. As she tried to stand up, though, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, and the next thing she knew she was looking up into Chase's petrified eyes.

  "You're okay, sugar. I've got you. You're safe. Just lay back.

  Cece was confused and had no idea what Chase was talking about. Of course she was okay. She'd just slipped in the water. But where had Chase come from, and why did he look so worried, scared even?

  She was considering these questions when Chase sat down on a rock and sat her on his lap. He quickly had her cocooned in his arms, still whispering quiet assurances in her ear. She still wasn't quite sure why he was doing this, but she knew one thing. She liked it!

  Glancing over to her right she saw their two horses watching them. The horses looked puzzled. Not far from the horses was an unorganized collection of four boots, four socks and a cell phone. She glanced at the two of them, nearly fully dressed and sopping wet, clinging to each other. In her state of confusion, it struck Cece as comical, and she began to laugh.

  When she started giggling, Chase looked down at her and had to smile. "What's so funny?" he asked.

  She didn't say a word, just kept giggling. He was a pretty patient man, but she'd just given him one heck of a scare, and he didn't see much humor in that. Add to the mix the fact she'd given him a scare doing something she'd not only been told not to do, but she'd been spanked previously for swimming alone, and he didn't see a bit of humor in it. "Do you think this is funny, young lady?"

  She tried to answer, but couldn't stop giggling. His serious tone and expression were making her nervous, and as a child, Cecelia had often giggled uncontrollably when she was scared or nervous. It was a habit she was yet to break as an adult.

  "I don't see the humor in this, Cecelia. I've told you I don't want you swimming on my land alone. You've even been spanked for it once already. Either I didn't make myself clear enough during that spanking, or you went swimming today to spite me because you were upset with me. Either way, I don't find it a bit amusing. Do you want to tell me which it is?"

  His stern voice succeeded in stopping her giggling, but now she was stunned into silence. He thought she was swimming just to upset him? That's not at all what she was doing, and the warm fuzzy feeling she'd had a few moments ago was quickly turning to hurt again.

  Before she could comprehend what he was accusing her of and say anything in her defense she found herself upended over his knee again. She was so stunned, not quite believing what was happening to her, that she missed the first part of what he was saying. What she did hear was, "— is not acceptable. If you're upset with me you come to me and tell me that. You don't do exactly what I told you not to do. Putting yourself in danger just to get back at me will never be tolerated."

  She opened her mouth to object, but just then his hand came crashing down on her bottom. Before she was able to catch her breath he'd given her six very sharp whacks. The strength behind each swat was startling. She lay there gasping for breath, still trying to deal with the whole situation, let alone the pain of the first six swats, as he quickly reached underneath her and undid her jeans.

  Very soon her jeans and panties were at her knees and he was using more force than he had in the past as he swatted her wet, bare bottom. Not only was she not able to object; she didn't have a coherent thought in her mind at all at that moment. She heard a shrill scream before she actually realized it was coming from her.

  Chase was still talking, but she didn't have any idea what he was saying. The pain was more than she'd experienced in the past, and her mind was still reeling from the whole episode. None of it was making sense to her. She was so confused, she felt totally lost. She didn't know why this was happening to her, why Chase was so upset with her, and she also had no idea how to make this awful pain stop. At that point she wasn't even sure she'd live through it.

  The whole situation overwhelmed her and she simply shut down. She stopped fighting him, stopped trying to escape, and lay draped over his knees. She didn't even realize the spanking stopped until Chase gently nudged her and she heard him say, "Cecelia, you're in enough trouble already. Not answering me is not helping you at all. Now, I'll ask you one more time, and if you know what's good for you you'll answer me. Why did you go in swimming alone again?"

  Struggling to catch her breath enough to talk, she managed to get out, "I didn't mean to. I fell trying to get the jewelry."

  Chase's hand came down gently to rest on her bare bottom, and he was silent for several long moments. Finally, he asked, in a quiet, humbled voice, "Did you say jewelry?" She nodded. "What jewelry?" She was struggling to answer, but she'd started crying now, and no words were coming out.

  He gently picked her up and settled her on his lap, making sure her bottom was straddling his thighs. She quickly tried to jump up, but he held her down firmly with h
is arms around her. He rubbed her back and said, "Cece, talk to me. What jewelry are you talking about?"

  She struggled for a bit before saying, "I saw something in the water."

  Looking back over at the water, he asked, "Did you get it?"

  She shook her head. "I reached down to pick it up and fell."

  Chase closed his eyes and sighed. "And that's when I came along, right after you'd fallen into the water," he said. "I'm sorry, Cece. I thought you'd been swimming and were struggling."

  Cece, who had now calmed somewhat and had gotten her breath back, was angry. She tried again to get up, but he again held her down. She glared at him and said, "I fell in the water, which would explain why I'm wearing clothes, unlike the other time I was actually swimming and was wearing a bathing suit."

  "I'm sorry, Cece. I didn't even notice that."

  "I believe that. You saw me in the water and automatically assumed I had done something unforgivable. So of course the thing to do when you find me after a fall, while I'm still confused and disoriented, is to drag me out and whale on my bare ass, harder than you ever have before. And in case you didn't know, it hurts even more on wet skin!" She looked away as she started crying again.

  Chase pulled her into a hug. "Honey, I'm really sorry. I admit I overreacted. I saw you floundering in the water and thought you were in trouble. I didn't think. I just reacted. It scared me seeing you struggling in the water. Then once I saw you were okay, I was upset that you would do something so dangerous, and I assumed it was because you were upset with me about yesterday. I was wrong, Cece, and I can't apologize enough."

  "You're right," she said, pulling hard and breaking free. "You can't apologize enough." She ran to Ginger and untied her quickly and rode off. Sitting in her saddle hurt terribly, but she refused to let him see that. Once she was over the knoll she stopped and quickly dismounted. It just plain hurt too bad to ride any further. She was glad he hadn't followed her. Still crying, she started the long walk back to the barn.

  Chase wanted to go after her with every fiber in his body, but he didn't. He had a feeling he was the last person she wanted to see right now, and he couldn't blame her one bit. She had every right to be upset with him. He'd apologized, meaning every word of it, but there wasn't much else he could do right now. She needed some time to get over the initial hurt she was feeling, both physical and emotional, and then he would beg for her forgiveness again.

  He would also come up with something special he could do for her. He felt confident if he gave it some serious thought he'd come up with an idea eventually. For now he sat on the stone, going back over in his mind everything that had happened.

  He remembered her mention of some jewelry in the water and gazed over to the general area where he'd found her flailing. He didn't see anything, but as he stood up to walk closer to the water something shiny caught his eye. Since he was still barefoot and wet, he went in after the shiny object, and sure enough, when he picked it up it was a bracelet. But not just any bracelet; it was a Medic Alert bracelet, warning of an allergy to bee stings, but also to Benadryl, which Chase was pretty sure was an antihistamine used for bee stings. That was an unusual combination of allergies, he was sure and he wondered how the bracelet had found its way into his creek.

  He thought about the bracelet as he and Thunder headed back to the barn. He wondered if it had recently been lost. Perhaps someone lost it on Pete's or Stan's land. The creek flowed through both their properties, and he supposed it could have been lost in the creek on one of their properties and found its way down to the swimming hole. He then became concerned that if that were the case, there was someone out there with some serious allergies.

  Taking the bracelet back out of his pocket, he examined it more carefully. It didn't look like it was too old and must have been recently lost. He decided to check with Ty and his hands to make sure none of them knew anything about it, and assuming they didn't, he'd check with Pete, and Stan or Ben.

  The next morning Chase headed to the Anderson ranch, bracelet in hand. He could have called and talked to Pete, but he wanted to talk to Cece. He wanted to show her the bracelet, and apologize again. He also wanted to make sure she was okay. He had spanked her harder than he should have, and he had been wrong. He hoped she would forgive him. He hoped he could eventually forgive himself.

  He was glad to see Cece's car where she usually parked it, but when she didn't come to the door he figured she was either ignoring him or in the barn. But Ginger was in her stall, and he didn't see Pete. He yelled Pete's name one more time before turning to leave. One of Pete's hands, Sean, came around the corner.

  "Pete's out checking one of the horses," he said, "but he just called. He's on his way back in if you want to wait a few minutes. Or can I help you with something?"

  "Thanks, Sean. If he's on his way back, I'll wait. I do want to talk to him a few minutes. I went up to the house to talk to Cece, but she didn't answer. I thought maybe I'd find her out here."

  "No, I haven't seen her today," Sean said. Looking out at her car, he said, "And her car's here, so I don't know why she didn't answer."

  "Maybe she's in the shower or something," Chase said, hoping to sound nonchalant about it.

  "Yeah, that could be," Sean agreed. They talked a couple minutes until Pete came riding in. Sean went back to work in the tack room while Chase and Pete talked.

  Pete didn't have any clues about the bracelet, either, but agreed it looked pretty new and that whoever lost it shouldn't be without it for long. He suggested if Stan didn't know anything about it, maybe he should check with the pharmacist in town, see if he knew anyone who may be looking for it. Chase thanked him and was heading for the door when Pete said, "It's probably none of my business, but did you and Cece have a disagreement yesterday?"

  Chase sighed. "You could say that. It wasn't so much a disagreement, though. I can be a jackass at times, yesterday being one of them. I jumped to a wrong conclusion and it really hurt her. I apologized, but she didn't want to hear it. Why? Was she pretty upset last night?"

  "I didn't see her last night. She went straight to her room. But she was sure upset about something this morning. She wouldn't say what, but I figured it might have been a problem with you two."

  "I'm sorry, Pete. It really was my fault. I tried to apologize to her again just now, but she didn't come to the door."

  Pete nodded. "You want me to get her to come out and talk to you?"

  Chase chuckled but said, "Thanks, Pete, but no, don't do that. I've done enough to upset her. If she doesn't want to see me yet I understand. I'll give her a couple days, and if she's still not answering her phone I'll come back and try again."

  Pete nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. Good luck, Chase."

  "Thanks, Pete."

  Chase went to talk to Stan next, but he couldn't help him with the bracelet, either. He called the local pharmacist, who said he wasn't aware of anyone with those allergies, and that even if he knew who had allergies he couldn't tell him because of confidentiality laws.

  Chase was frustrated by the dead end, and even more frustrated that Cece refused to take his calls. He continued to call several times daily, but by the fourth day, he'd decided to try and see her in person again. He knocked and knocked, but she still wouldn't come to the door.

  Pete felt bad for Chase, and worried that his daughter might be missing an opportunity to have a good man in her life. He was worried when Chase stopped calling or coming around, and was plotting ways to get the pair back together when Chase showed up again with a large package.

  Pete watched from the barn as Chase carried the package to the house and rang the doorbell.

  When Cece didn't answer, Pete went to the house to talk to Chase. "I'll go get her," he told the younger man. "This has gone on long enough."

  "No, don't upset her, Pete. If you would, though, please see that she gets this? Ask her to read the note in the envelope. Then she can decide if she wants to open the gift or not. She has a good
heart, so I hope she'll at least respect me enough to read the note. Especially if I'm not here."

  "I'll see that she gets it, Chase."

  "Thanks. It's up to her now," Chase said rather quietly as he turned to leave.

  Chapter 8

  Pete picked up the large box, which was heavy, and carried it in the kitchen. He then went to the stairs and yelled, "Okay, Cece, he's gone. Get down here, I want to talk to you."

  Cece knew he was gone. She'd watched him leave. She'd been so hurt that afternoon at the swimming hole that she hadn't been able to talk to him yet. She knew she owed it to him to at least talk to him, and she planned to. But she had to work through her feelings first.

  When Tom had left, he had taken a part of her soul with him. She'd felt like a part of her was missing. But this was different. She knew this wasn't the same; Chase hadn't actually left her. Because of his actions, though, he was no longer in her life, and that part was the same. But this time instead of taking part of her soul, Chase had taken part of her heart.

  Her mother had once told Cecelia the only thing you really need is your heart. As long as your heart's beating there'll always be tomorrow, she'd said. When she was young that used to bring a smile, and after they talked she realized it wasn't as bad as she thought. She wished her mother were here now to talk to her and tell her it isn't all that bad, because right now she felt like she no longer had her heart. Chase McDermott had it, and he'd just driven off, out of her life.

  She was still thinking, tears streaming down her cheeks, when she heard her dad yell up the stairs.