“Yes. Because it’s for Andy’s Antics. My new computer game is coming out this Christmas and the company I hired to test and debug it notified me that some nerd hoping to impress me and build his reputation broke the contract and changed my game. With the debut so close, and my reputation on the line, I had to take care of this in person.”
Luke raked his fingers through his hair. “That sucks. I’m sure it pissed you off to find out someone hijacked your game.”
“Yes, it did, because I had to leave you and the boys to take care of it.”
“I wish you were here.”
“Me, too, but since I had to leave for this and I’ll fly back in to San Jose, I thought I’d stop by my office and put out a few other fires there. I went over a few résumés on the plane ride here and I asked Abby to set up some interviews while I’m in the office, so I can hire some help, and actually sleep six or eight hours a night. With you. At home. In your bed.”
“Our bed. And I’m sorry. I woke up with plans for us and you weren’t here. And I wanted you to be.”
“That’s very sweet. It means so much to me. I hope you know I’m trying to figure out our life.”
“I know you are. You asked for time, and I’ll give it to you. But I won’t stop missing you when you’re gone.”
“I’ll be back before you know it. The boys are with Margaret, but maybe if you have time, you can give her a break and take them riding. I left her a note telling her what was going on. She has my car in case she wants to take the boys somewhere, or if you want to bring them to the ranch. Their car seats are inside.”
“How’d you get to the airport?”
“Car service. I took a private plane to Chicago, and I’ll use the same one to get back to San Jose in, oh, about two hours. I really have to go. I’m just about to walk into my meeting.”
“Okay. When will you be back here?”
“Sometime in the afternoon tomorrow. I don’t have an exact time.”
“A private jet, huh?”
“You want me home tomorrow, or in a couple of days when I can get a flight?”
Totally worth the money. “Tomorrow.”
“I have to go. I have a lot of customers who’ve preordered the next installment for Knight’s Revenge and I don’t want to have to move the release date.”
“You made Knight’s Revenge III? That’s my favorite game.”
“Well, lucky you, I have a couple advanced copies. I’ll give you one when I get home.”
“You know, I could have come with you and acted as your lawyer to make them stick to the contract.”
“That’s sweet, but you aren’t my lawyer.”
“What am I, then?”
“The love of my life.”
He couldn’t remember ever smiling that big, but Sarah’s words made him so damn happy. “That’s my new favorite job. I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” It seemed like forever.
“I love you, too. Bye.”
He hung up and stared at the wrecked bed and couldn’t help the immediate smile that spread across his lips. He remembered their night in the tub under the stars. One of those things she’d never done. Immediately he thought of something else he could do to make her smile and let her know how much he missed her.
He rolled out of bed, pulled on a pair of faded jeans, and headed down to his office. He opened his laptop, wished he’d stopped in the kitchen for a cup of coffee first, but pulled up the website he needed, found the phone number, and dialed.
“Hi. This is Luke Thompson. I’d like to place an order for my girlfriend.” It felt good to do this for her. Something nice. Something unexpected. Something that she’d love and would make her smile.
Something he hoped would make her come home sooner.
* * *
Sarah landed in San Jose, ordered an Uber, and headed straight for her office. She’d set everything right in Chicago. The nerd, whose creativity got the better of his judgment, was taken off her project, the added scenes were deleted, and the company assured her the work would still be completed on time. She’d left feeling like she’d accomplished one item on her never-ending to-do list, but added hiring her own team to debug the games to the list.
She arrived at her office to a crowd of cheering, smiling faces, all happy to see her and take a moment to celebrate the completion of the Knox Project.
Abby bumped shoulders with her. “You did it. You finished it. And you landed one of the most eligible bachelors in the state.” Abby’s smile went megawatt.
“It just happened.” It seemed unbelievable, yet so meant to be.
“After Sean, you were destined to find a really great guy.”
“How do you know he’s so great?” Sarah was only teasing, but Abby held her hand out toward her office door. “Go see.”
Sarah opened the door to her office, stopped short of entering, and took it all in.
Flowers. Everywhere she looked. He’d filled her entire office. And every one of the bouquets had a note that said, I miss you.
She clasped her hands at her chest, rested her chin on them, and just stared, tears glistening in her eyes.
Abby bumped shoulders with her again. “I think he loves you.”
“I know he does.” This is how it felt to have the right man send her flowers.
She finally walked into the room and buried her face in one bouquet and then another, taking in the heady scent and relishing the beauty of them and this moment.
She pulled out her cell and called him.
“I miss you, too,” she said the second he picked up.
“You said you liked flowers but not which ones. I thought you might like a little of everything.”
“I think you sent me the whole shop.”
“Worth it to hear the joy in your voice.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Come home.”
“I’m working on that.”
“Then get to it. Your family is waiting on you.” In Luke’s voice she heard love and anticipation, and yes, the patience he mustered to let her do her thing and return to him when she was finished.
And her heart grew too large for her chest with all the love she had for him.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The time away from the ranch had been productive but lonely. Sarah tackled an enormous amount of work, but an empty feeling came over her when she walked into her house in Silicon Valley late the night before and realized the boys weren’t in their beds, and Luke wasn’t in hers. She missed them so much. And somehow, in such a short time, Luke had become an important part of her life. So much so that even a day and a half away from him felt like an eternity.
Her spirit soared as soon as the driver taking her home entered the long driveway to Luke’s ranch. And as she saw the land, the stables, the house, she realized it really did feel like home.
The driver stopped in front of the house. Before she got out of the car her cell phone rang. “Hi Abby, how’s the hotel?”
Abby had gone ahead to the hotel where the benefit would be held the next evening, to make sure everything was ready. “Gorgeous. And thanks for the goody basket you had delivered to my room, but it’ll be gone by tomorrow. You know how much I love chocolate.”
“Thanks for all your hard work over the last two days. I appreciate it and I know you’ll be working your tail off tomorrow as well, what with all the meetings and press you’ve set up for me.”
“That’s why I called. I wanted you to know the organizers have combined your table with Luke’s family’s. I can’t wait to meet him.”
The driver held her door open and Sarah stepped out. “Hold on, Abby.” She smiled at the driver. “Charlie, could you take the box of flowers and my bag up to the house and leave them on the porch?” He nodded and accepted the tip she held out to him. “Thank you for the ride.”
“You’re welcome, Miss Sarah. I’ll be back for you tomorrow morning.”
“Wonderful. I’ll text you to let you know if I
’m here or at the house we passed down the road where my kids are staying.”
“No problem. Have a nice evening.”
“Thank you. I plan to.”
Sarah left the chauffeur to take her things up to the house and turned and walked toward the stables and continued her phone conversation. “Thanks for waiting, Abby. I can’t believe my visit with Margaret is just about over and I’ll be coming home.”
“You sure about that?”
“Luke and I still need to come up with a plan for our future, including our living arrangements. No matter what, we’ll be together.”
“How are you handling the Trish thing? It’s got to be hard to actually welcome her into your life, not to mention telling the boys about their sister. I seriously can’t believe she had that child and never said a word to anyone.”
“Luke and I plan to talk to the boys today about Trish and Jamie. As for the rest, her reasons don’t really matter anymore. I don’t want to keep dredging up the past and piling on the hurt and anger. I’m over it.” As she said the words she knew they weren’t entirely true, but it was getting better.
She entered the stables and smiled as several horses nickered a hello. She patted those with their heads over their stall doors and made her way to the man standing at the end of the aisle with his back to her.
“I just want to be happy.” And the man in front of her made her infinitely so.
“You deserve it. Don’t worry about the benefit. I’ve taken care of everything,” Abby assured her. “See you tomorrow. You’re going to knock Luke’s socks off when he sees you in that killer dress.” Abby had chosen something daring and different, but Sarah loved it.
She knew Luke would, too.
“Thanks, Abby. We’ll talk soon.” She ended the call and stuffed her phone in her purse.
Luke heard the click of her heels on the cement and turned to her, that sexy grin she loved spread across his handsome face. “You’re early.” Surprise and happiness filled his voice.
“Do you want me to come back later?” she teased.
“I wish you hadn’t left.” He hooked his arm around her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in a week.
She dove into the kiss, letting Luke know how much she’d missed him, too. He held her a little tighter and she felt his desperation to keep her close.
He broke the kiss, cupped her face, and stared into her eyes. “How are you?”
“A little dizzy after that kiss. And fantastic now that I’m home with you.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “This place isn’t the same without you.”
Her heart melted. “Thank you again for my flowers. They’re beautiful.”
“Sorry you only got to enjoy them for a day.” Luke dropped his hands and took hers in his.
“Well, I gave a lot of them away to the ladies in the office, but I brought several bouquets home with me. I had the driver put them up on the porch.”
“Really?”
“You gave them to me. I want to enjoy them as long as possible.”
He held her gaze, his direct and hopeful. “And did you get everything done you needed to at the office?”
“You’ll be happy to know that of the ten interviews I did, I made six offers to programmers.”
His eyes went wide. “Wow. That’s great.”
“I also completed three more projects, shrinking my workload some.”
“I love the sound of that.”
“Since the Knox Project is done, except for the implementation, I also reassigned two other projects to be completed by the programmers who’d been helping with that.”
“Look at you delegating instead of taking everything on yourself.” Luke squeezed her hands, letting her know he approved and appreciated her effort to lessen her load so she could have more time for him and herself. “Sounds like you got a lot done. Which means you probably didn’t sleep much.”
“Not really. Something seemed to be missing from my bed.”
“Someone, you mean.”
She kissed him. “You.”
“That’s because you were in the wrong bed. You belong here. With me.”
“I’m working on it,” she assured him.
Luke brushed his thumbs over the backs of her hands. “I see that. And I hope we can start making real plans to move you and the kids here.”
“I was just talking to Abby about that and how this trip is coming to an end.”
Luke’s brow went up. “Not an end. It’s a transition to our life together.”
She smiled. “That actually makes me feel a lot better.”
“How so?”
“I guess I feel like everything is supposed to happen at once, but if, like you said, this is a transition, that allows room for us to take the time we need to transform our lives and meld them into one life we live together.”
“We’ll start today with telling the boys about Jamie. Then we’ll start talking about what will work best for your work schedule, the boys going to school, and where we’ll live and how we’ll go back and forth between here and your place, if that’s what it takes.”
“I love that you’re open to all the possibilities of that.”
He squeezed her hands. “If I get to spend my life with you, that’s all that matters.”
“But living here, on the ranch, we’d have a pretty great life.” She knew this was where he really wanted to be. And this would be a great life for the boys. And she loved the land and the horses. They really could have it all.
All she wanted right now was him. Unfortunately . . . “Margaret should be here any minute with the boys. However, after our talk, she’s taking them for pizza and a movie over at Bridget’s place. She suggested I have dinner with my sexy rancher and spend the night with him.”
Luke grinned. “You should take that advice.”
“I was hoping to just take you to bed before they got here.”
“Now, that’s an idea I can get behind.” Luke spun her around, wrapped his arms around her, pressed his chest to her back, and kissed her neck.
“You know we don’t have time.”
“I know. But I can’t help myself. I’ve never seen you all dressed up and looking like a corporate mogul. Those heels and this suit are really sexy.”
“It’s a St. James. She sent me a bunch of stuff from her upcoming collection.”
One of Luke’s hands skimmed down her thigh and his fingers brushed back up, pulling the skirt up her leg and sending a wave of heat through her. “Let me guess, you did some work for her.”
“I programmed her client database and inventory systems.”
“Well, I like you in the suit, but I’ll love you even better out of it.” His tongue slid up her neck in a tantalizing lick.
“You’ll find a matching set from her intimates line.”
“Please tell me it’s satin and lace.”
“Would I disappoint you?” she teased.
Luke took her hand and headed for the house, pulling her along after him. When she couldn’t keep up, he stopped, swung her up into his arms, and carried her.
“If you like the suit this much, I wonder how you’ll react when you see my dress for the benefit.”
“Maybe I should get a room at the hotel for us so I can see you in the dress and out of it.”
She nuzzled her nose in his neck and softly kissed him right behind his ear. “Then I’d be wearing nothing but the jewels I borrowed for the event.”
“Borrowed? Why didn’t you just buy them?”
“Because, well, I don’t know. There was so much to choose from I had a hard time making up my mind. I don’t own any jewelry, except a few pairs of earrings. The pieces I got for tomorrow are specifically to go with the dress Abby picked out.”
“I’ll just have to add something sparkly to your meager collection that you can wear on your left hand and never take off.”
She hugged him close as he walked up the porch steps. “I like the sou
nd of that.”
They both turned to the driveway as Margaret and the boys arrived.
Luke set her on her feet. “Rain check, sweetheart.”
She pressed her hand to his chest. “We’ll have all night.”
Luke kissed her quick, then opened the front door, set her bag and the large box of flowers in the entryway, then turned to greet the boys.
Sarah held her arms out wide as the boys rushed up the steps and right into them. “I missed you guys.” She hugged them close.
They wriggled free and threw their hands around Luke’s legs.
“Can we go riding?” Jack asked.
“Not today, bud. Your mom wants to talk to you about something before you go to your aunt’s house.” Luke patted each of the boys on the back, then went to the steps and lent Margaret a hand coming up them.
“Thank you, Luke.” Margaret looked at Sarah. “Ready for this?”
“Yes. I think so.”
Margaret’s gaze swept over her. “Look at you. Beautiful and strong. A business phenom and leader. You can do this,” she encouraged.
Choked up by the praise and Margaret’s change of heart about her, Sarah found a smile for the boys and tapped their backs to get them to go inside.
“What’s this about?” Jack asked.
Nick practically attacked Luke when he sat on the sofa, rushing to climb into his lap.
Sarah sat next to Luke and patted the cushion between them for Jack to take the seat. “Well, I have some news I want to share with you.”
“Is this about Dad?” Nick asked, playing with Luke’s shirt.
“Yes, it is.”
“And the lady?” Jack asked.
“Yes. You remember Trish.”
“She made you cry.” Jack folded his arms over his middle and kicked his feet.
Margaret sat in the chair beside Luke and leaned forward. “I think you know that your dad shouldn’t have been seeing Trish when he and your mom were still married. That was wrong. And I’m sorry that because of what your dad did, it hurt your mom.”
“He wasn’t always nice,” Jack said to his lap, unable to look at them.
Sarah put her hand on his back. “No, sweetheart, he wasn’t. But we are all happy now. Right?”
Lost and Found Family Page 28
