by MJ Fredrick
"No, I don't want to leave the Coyote because my friends are there. But I want to make cookies."
"Maybe you could work both jobs," Miranda said. "Some days at the Coyote and some days at the bakery."
Selena's face glowed. "Do you think I could?"
"I think it wouldn't hurt to ask," Miranda's mother said. "We should all do what it is we want to do, shouldn't we?"
She directed that last question to Noah, but he didn't know why. "Yes, ma'am."
"How do you like the house?" Allison asked, leaning forward to spoon some more ranch dressing on her plate to accompany her carrots.
"The first twenty-four hours have gone without a hitch," he replied with a smile.
"I was surprised when Allison said you were looking for a place in town," Cindy said. "I thought the ranch would be a perfect place for a vet."
"It was. Too many things changed the past couple of months, though." He really didn't want to discuss his father tonight, though he was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to avoid it.
"I suppose it was hard to live with your father after all of those years," Mrs. Bonner said.
Noah tensed. Here came the ambush.
"How is the vet business?” And there it went.
"Busy. We could use another one, especially this time of year. Thinking about getting a vet student from A&M to come help out, get some hands-on training."
Miranda smiled. "I didn't know you were thinking about that. I think you'd be a great teacher, a great example for a student."
Wow, they'd talked a lot about the future in just a few minutes. He wished he was better at conversation so he could steer it, but all the subjects he could think of had potential pitfalls.
"I imagine you're gearing up for the Bluebonnet Festival,” he said at last. That should be safe, right?
Mrs. Bonner beamed. "We are. You know, we should have a bumper crop this year after all the rain we've been having. But yes, there's lots to do."
"Seems to me the bulk of the work always falls on you and Allison."
Miranda stuck her tongue at him, but turned her head so her mother wouldn't see.
"Yes, well, it keeps us busy, and we enjoy it. We have the contacts to make it run smoothly."
"And they're not great at delegating," Miranda added.
"I am," Allison said. "But every time I try, you say no."
"Because I don't have time right now as I try to build my business."
"You have a lot of clients keeping you busy?" Allison asked, her tone snide.
"Not yet. But I want to be available if I'm needed."
"Speaking of clients, have you heard anything from the sheriff about the fire? I mean, of course we heard about Rey, but Miranda assures us they had the wrong man, that they have other suspects. Have you heard anything about them?"
"They can't find Pat Sheridan," Miranda said. "And Devin Connelly's only alibi is his wife, and she's sticking by him."
Mrs. Bonner shook her head. "It must be terrible knowing that someone was so mad at you they wanted you dead."
"It isn’t pleasant," Noah said.
"And if Noah hadn't been there, maybe this wouldn't have happened," Mrs. Bonner went on.
Ah. There it was.
"If Noah hadn't been there, we'd all be dead," Miranda reminded her. "He was the one who smelled the smoke and got us all out of the house, even Skipper."
"You got Skipper," he said. "I forgot about her." He really didn’t like talking about spending the night with Miranda with her mother and in front of his sister. They were adults, sure, but their lovemaking was something personal, between the two of them.
"So if they haven’t found Sheridan, are they looking for him?" Allison asked.
"Yes, but they don't have a lot to go on. From what I heard, he did have a junker car, like the neighbors saw. It's frustrating, but the sheriff's department is working on it.” Noah turned to Miranda, trying to steer the conversation again. ”Have you gotten any other clients?" Noah asked, trying to steer the conversation again.
She leaned forward and snatched up a celery stick. “I have a couple of people who have made appointments to make their wills." She suppressed a sigh.
"A long way from corporate law in New York," Mrs. Bonner said.
"You sound like you want me to go back."
"I want you to be here for the right reasons," her mother replied. "And you were living your dream."
"I was working seventy-hour weeks, exhausted, living with–and having sex with, by the way, since you seem to be concerned with that–a man who tried to mold me into someone I was not. Someone maybe I thought I wanted to be, but when I became her, I didn't like her. It's hard not to like yourself," she said, turning to Noah and waving the half-bitten stick at him. "You have trouble getting up in the morning and sometimes you hear the words coming out of your mouth and wonder, 'When did I become such a bitch?' And you try not to do too much introspection when you're working for people who you don't like, who are just out to make money, screw humanity." She cast a look at Selena. "I'm sorry, honey."
Selena looked up from petting Skipper and smiled.
"And then I came home and I saw Noah, and I remembered that hell, I was selfish then, too, walking away to save myself and I knew I needed a change. I thought about going someplace else, not home. Seattle, maybe, or San Francisco or someplace where the pace could be slower and the opportunities to be a better human were available. And I thought about you." She put her hand on his on his thigh. "I thought about what might have been between us if I hadn’t bolted, what kind of life we might have had, and that took a hold of me, and so I came home." She looked at her mother. "So maybe Noah is a lot of the reason I came home. But he is the right reason.”
He covered her hand with his, his heart at once broken and elated by her revelation.
"I had no idea you were so unhappy," her mother said, her expression crestfallen. "You always seemed so happy, your life seemed so perfect. I was so proud of you for living your dream. I just thought, as happy as I was to have you home, that you'd chosen the wrong path, and that you might need help getting back on it."
Beside him, Miranda stiffened. "Mother. What did you do?"
As if on cue, the doorbell rang.
Chapter Twenty One
Miranda exchanged glances with Allison, who looked as miserable as their mother did, and immediately, she knew who was on the other side of the door.
"So why would you invite Noah and Selena here if you were going to do this tonight?"
"It isn’t what you think. I invited Noah and Selena, and then he decided this was the weekend he could come. I thought about canceling, then thought maybe it would be best for Noah to see what you had, for Noah to see where you really belong."
Miranda moved closer to Noah, trying to gain strength, or at least the warmth that had leeched from her body. And the doorbell rang again. She could feel his impatience on the other side of the door. Part of her wanted to run to soothe him, as she had so many times. Another part of her wanted to leave him on the porch, let him stew.
Allison took the choice away from her and rose to answer the door.
"I'm so sorry," Miranda said to Noah, and released his hand.
Damian walked into her mother's living room, into a wall of tension, and the fake smile he'd had pasted on faded. He looked so out of place with his three hundred dollar haircut and his suit that wasn't even wrinkled from travel.
"Ladies. It's good to see you all." He walked right past Noah as if he wasn't there and kissed Miranda's cheek.
Miranda heard the warning rumble in Noah's chest, but Damian didn't even glance in his direction, turning instead to greet her mother, capturing both hands in hers and leaning in to kiss both cheeks. He turned toward Selena and balked, and this time Miranda wanted to jump on his back and claw his face for judging Noah's sister.
He swung back toward Miranda with the fake smile in place again. "Miranda. New York misses you, and you miss New York. What are you wear
ing?"
Noah slipped his hand around her waist and drew her against his side, and even then, Damian didn't acknowledge him. "She looks beautiful," Noah said in his cave-man voice.
"It's a dress that brings back a lot of good memories," she said. "And I did lose everything in the fire."
"The fire." Damian's eyes softened dramatically and he held out his hands toward her. "I haven’t even talked to you since then. How are you doing? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. My roommates are fine. My cat's fine."
"Your cat?" He glanced toward the animal purring in Selena's lap.
"Perhaps we should have a seat for dinner," her mother said, her tone conveying how much she regretted bringing this to their home. “I’ll start bringing it in.”
Miranda turned to Noah as Damian followed her mother gleefully into the kitchen. "You two can go. You don't need to subject yourself to this. I'm so sorry. I never thought she'd do something so cruel. I really thought she wanted to get to know you.”
Noah looked past her to his sister. "No, we'll be okay. We'll stay." He rubbed his hand down her arm. "Are you okay?"
Because he had to feel her shaking. She couldn't say whether she was shaking with fury or with shock that her mother would make such a decision for her.
"I will be fine," she said through her teeth.
He wound his fingers through hers and squeezed lightly. "Come on, Selena, it's time to eat."
"We'll eat in the dining room," Mrs. Bonner said, lifting a casserole from the stove. "If everyone will just grab something and carry it, the table is set."
"Here, let me get that," Damian said, taking the casserole from her mother, something Miranda had never seen him do.
"Wait, but it's–" her mother protested.
Damian snatched a hand away from the hot plate, and it tilted precariously before Noah swept in and rescued it, then took the hot pad her mother was holding and carried the pan into the next room.
"Is your hand all right?" Mrs. Bonner fussed, taking Damian's hand.
He pulled it away. "I'll be fine," he said tightly.
"You might want to run it under cold water," Miranda said, and grabbed the basket of bread. She motioned for Selena to get the pitcher of iced tea and they followed Noah into the dining room.
She didn't wait for her mother to tell everyone where to sit. She sat in the spot she'd had since she was a little girl, and indicated that Noah was to sit beside her, in the spot Damian had taken on his visits. Selena sat on Noah's other side and Allison, in a surprising show of support, sat beside Miranda. Her sister smiled tightly at her before Miranda turned to see Damian in the kitchen doorway, looking at the seating situation and frowning.
Her mother, flustered, gave him the head of the table, as if trying to make up for the mess she'd created. Miranda wasn't particularly happy with him sitting beside Selena, but if anyone could handle it, Selena could. Sometimes she thought Noah didn't give his sister much credit.
Damian took it with pride , so Miranda started deliberately passing the food in the other direction.
"So what is it you do?" Damian asked Noah, addressing him for the first time.
Miranda wished, oh, how she wished, Noah would reply, "I do Miranda. Every night." But of course he wouldn't, and that would make everything worse anyway, but just the thought of it made her smile, and she ducked her head to look at her plate.
"I'm the town vet."
"I would guess that's like the town doctor in a town this size.”
She relaxed a little at that amiable response.
"There are more animals than people," Noah said in an similar tone. "So yeah, I have a pretty steady stream of patients."
"Does that make you good money?"
"Just bought a house on three acres, thanks to Allison finding it for me," Noah replied.
Damn, he was being so nice, and she knew Damian was digging for more information so he could zing Noah with it down the road.
"Three acres. I guess that's not really a lot around here."
"No, the McKenna place is a few thousand acres, most places at few hundred. But I'll take my three and be happy."
"And you, Miranda? You would be happy with three acres?"
Miranda looked at Noah and smiled. "What would I do with a thousand acres?"
Noah lifted her hand to his lips.
"I guess it's just hard for me to imagine her coming back here after having so much in New York, coming back to so little."
She opened her mouth to respond, but Noah slid in. "I think maybe it took having so much to make her understand what it was she really wanted."
Damian bristled. "You mean you?"
"I mean, I imagine when you have so much, it kind of floods you, you know? So that there's so much to look through, you forget what it actually is that makes you happy. You forget what it is that makes you who you are."
Wow. He got it. He absolutely nailed it. She was so excited about that, she didn't even get mad about Damian's next words.
"Because you've had so much, you understand what she's experienced?"
"I've had so much, yes, but not material things. I've had a lot of anger, a lot of hate." He wasn't talking to Damian anymore, but to her. "I have been looking past that the past few weeks, to what I really want. It's hard to let it go, to say goodbye to it, but what's on the other side is completely worth it."
"Noah," she said softly.
"I love you, Miranda. Thank you for being on the other side of that for me."
She couldn't believe he just told her he loved her for the first time in front of her ex, in front of her family, but his words penetrated her distress with Damian's appearance, her anger at her mother. She looked into Noah's dark eyes, touched his face, and knew how hard this was for him.
"I love you, too."
Damian made a sound, but she didn't let him destroy the moment. She touched her forehead to Noah's and hoped the look she gave him promised what her heart promised.
She'd never walk away again.
She heard Allison give a little sniff beside her, and for some reason, that broke the mood. She gave Noah a smile, laughed a little with the joy bubbling through her, and turned back to the dinner table.
She didn't know how they managed to get through the rest of the meal without Damian choking, but they did, even managed dessert and coffee with civility before Miranda walked Damian to the door.
"I'm sorry my mother pulled you into this," she said as they stood facing each other, out of sight of everyone else. "I'm sorry you came all this way, and that tonight made you unhappy. It wasn't the best way to get closure, and I apologize."
He blew out a breath and looked around. "I still don't understand it, Miranda. You had everything you ever wanted with me. What pulls you to this place? That man?"
"It's home," she said simply.
*****
She didn't care what her mother thought. She went home with Noah and Selena after dinner. She foresaw a lot of nights spent here and not at her mother's house. And tonight was to be celebrated. They said good night to Selena, who went into her own room before she let Noah lead her into his.
Their lovemaking was slow and languorous as they explored every inch of each other's bodies, found erogenous zones they didn't know existed before he came into her and they rode the slow waves of pleasure together.
And for the first night since the fire, she fell asleep in his arms.
An alarm went off on Noah's phone before she was ready and she slapped at it, rolling over to go back to sleep, but Noah took the phone from her and answered a gruff, "Hello?"
"The alarm's going off at the clinic," Miranda heard a voice on the other end say. "I don't know what's happening, but I thought you should know."
Noah grumbled and disconnected. "Stay here with Selena," he told Miranda. "I'll be right back. I need to go check the clinic."
She sat up sleepily, holding the sheet to her breasts, since she didn't bring any pajamas. "I can go with you."
<
br /> "I want you here, with Selena. Please. I'll call you and let you know what's going on."
She nodded, her head foggy. "Maybe I should stop sleeping with you. We always seem to have some kind of emergency happening when I do."
He bent and kissed her. "I plan to have many more nights like this, so I don't care if I get woken up every one of them, as long as you're there with me. I'll be back."
After she heard him drive off, she sought out her panties and pulled a neatly folded t-shirt from one of his drawers. She had folded them and put them there herself. The homey act made her happy.
Since she was awake anyway, she took her phone into the kitchen. It wasn't as early as she thought, about five o'clock. She wondered what time the sun would rise. She was never up this early. She turned on the light and started the coffee pot, then looked in the refrigerator to see if he had anything she could eat. She hadn't been able to swallow much dinner last night, with Damian there. Nothing in the fridge, but she found some cereal in the pantry, probably Selena's. She poured a bowl and ate it dry, since the only milk in the house was whole milk from the local dairy, and she hadn't had whole milk since she was a kid. She poured a cup of coffee and turned on her phone. Noah didn't have WiFi, but she had good data coverage, so she checked email and social media while she picked at her food and sipped her coffee.
The noise near the back door startled her and she switched her phone from social media to phone as she rose to investigate. She knew Noah wanted to get a couple of dogs now that he had a yard, but as far as she knew, he didn't have any yet. The noise came again, accompanied by a rattle of the doorknob.
Without looking, she tapped Noah’s number and lifted the phone to her ear, her gaze darting around the kitchen for a weapon, something to use.
Selena. She had to protect his sister. She turned off the kitchen light and moved to the hallway, where she’d be between the intruder and Selena.
The door swung inward and she screamed, the phone falling from suddenly limp fingers just as she heard Noah’s voice say, “Miranda?”
