A Ranch Called Home

by Candy Halliday

  HAD ANYONE TOLD HIM he would go back to Colorado with his nephew and a wife, Gabe would have called that person a liar. But as Sara approached, Gabe knew uniting Ben’s family instead of selfishly tearing it apart was the only responsible thing to do in this situation.

  Responsibility, he could handle.

  He’d provide Ben and Sara with a good home and a good life for as long as they were willing to stay on the Crested-C. They’d never want for anything under his care. And he would go back to running the ranch and keeping things in order, the same way he’d always done.

  The difficult part would be not letting himself get too attached to Ben. He’d learned the unbearable heartbreak that came from losing people you cared about. He’d lost his parents, first. Then, Billy. And Gabe knew there was a good possibility he’d lose Ben at the end of six months.

  But at least he’d kept his promise.

  Ben was going home.

  Gabe opened the door for Sara when she walked up beside them. The faint scent of her perfume mocked him for a moment as she exited the sheriff’s office.

  Sara wouldn’t be an easy woman to ignore.

  Just watching her unsettled Gabe.

  She took Ben’s hand and started across the street to the diner, and Gabe couldn’t help but think that the pale blue dress she wore emphasized her tiny waist. His gaze drifted back to her dark hair—pulled up on top of her head again today, the only way he’d ever seen her wear it. It wasn’t the first time he’d wondered how far down her back those silky strands would fall.

  And thoughts like those were ones he couldn’t afford.

  That’s why he’d laid all his cards right out on the table when he’d taken Sara and Ben to dinner the previous evening. He’d made sure Sara knew a friendship was all he’d ever want between them.

  She’d agreed so fast, it actually bruised his ego.

  But Gabe knew being realistic about their new living arrangement was a key factor if the family they’d created was going to be a success. He’d wanted to make sure Sara had no unattainable expectations from him, just as he had no unattainable expectations from Sara.

  Their only focus would be Ben.

  Just as it should be.

  Sara had surprised him, however, by stating that she had no intention of being anyone’s charity case. Unless he needed her help on the ranch she planned to find employment in Redstone so she could pay for her own room and board.

  He’d nixed her idea of getting a job.

  And he’d assured Sara she’d have her work cut out for her on the ranch. Taking care of the house and cooking three meals a day for him and his six full-time ranch hands wasn’t going to be an easy task.

  She hadn’t even batted an eye. And that gave Gabe hope things might work out.

  He and Sara would both be too busy to worry about some silly piece of paper that legally pronounced them husband and wife. He’d tend to the ranch. She’d tend to the house and the cooking. And they’d both tend to Ben.

  No problem, Gabe thought with confidence.

  Sara picked that exact moment to glance over her shoulder at him. It was only one look. And an innocent one at that. But Gabe suddenly got the feeling he could be in trouble.

  “YOU TAKE good care of Ben and Sara,” Dessie told Gabe as she and Sheriff Dillard escorted the new family to the diner’s door after the reception. “In Texas we can still round up a posse in the blink of an eye.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Gabe said.

  Sara reached out and gave Dessie one last hug. “I can never thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

  “Oh, stop, before you make me cry,” Dessie fussed. “Just remember. If things don’t work out in Colorado, you always have a home waiting for you here in Conrad.”

  “I won’t forget that,” Sara promised.

  Ben ran ahead to the white extended-cab pickup parked directly out front. On his tiptoes, Ben reached up and touched the fancy gold shield stenciled on the door. The words Crested-C Ranch were written in bold black letters inside the gold emblem.

  “Can this C belong to me, Uncle Gabe?” Ben asked.

  Ben pointed to the first letter of the word Crested and Sara knew her son was referring to the conversation he’d had with his uncle at dinner the previous evening. It still amazed her at how well Gabe had been able to explain things in terms simple enough for a five-year-old to understand.

  “Your dad’s in heaven now,” he’d told Ben, “but he sent me to find you and your mom and bring you home.”

  Gabe had also told Ben his last name was going to be Coulter—a change Sara agreed to allow only after Gabe assured her he wasn’t talking adoption, just the legal formality of changing Ben’s last name. “The C will stand for you and me,” Gabe had explained to Ben. “Gabe Coulter and Ben Coulter. The two owners of the Crested-C Ranch.”

  That conversation was the reason behind her son’s question now. Ben obviously wanted to pick his own C.

  “You can have either C you want, Ben,” Gabe said, ruffling her son’s blond hair. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

  “I want the first C,” Ben said with a big grin.

  “Okay, Mr. First C—” Gabe tickled Ben “—up and into the truck now. We’re burning daylight, and we have a long way to go.”

  Ben was still giggling when Gabe opened the truck door and helped him climb into his booster seat in the backseat of the truck. Sara had headed for the passenger side when Ben asked his uncle another question.

  “Are we going home to Col-dorado now, Uncle Gabe?”

  “Yes,” Gabe said. “We’re going home to Colorado now.”

  Reality smacked Sara square in the face. She’d been lulled into a false security over the past few days with everyone assuring her she’d made the right decision. Even the ceremony and the reception had seemed surreal—as if she were only a bystander in someone else’s life.

  But this was her life.

  This was her future for the next six months.

  Oh. My. God! What have I done?

  Her answer came when her new husband suddenly appeared at her side, extending his hand to help her step onto the running board and into the truck. Then they were on their way to the Crested-C Ranch. A ranch where the C stood for Coulter. And where her son would be part owner of land that had been in the Coulter family for three generations.

  Sara bit down hard on her lower lip to stop the trembling as she swallowed past the lump in her throat. She averted her gaze to the scenery beyond the passenger window. But if Gabe noticed she was in the middle of a major panic attack, he didn’t let on. Instead, he fielded the questions Ben fired from the backseat.

  She soon learned that there were 15,000 acres to the Crested-C Ranch. And that part of the property ran along the Crystal River, named such because the melting snow from the high mountain ranges left the water so clear you could see all the way to the bottom.

  She learned that Redstone was nicknamed “The Ruby of the Rockies” and was founded in 1901 by a wealthy coal baron who built a forty-two-room castle for his wife, who was actually a real Swedish countess. When Gabe said touring Redstone Castle was the town’s main tourist attraction and that you could take sleigh rides around the property in the winter, the idea of a sleigh ride had Ben clapping with glee.

  But when Ben asked if he could ride a horse as soon as he got to the ranch, Gabe showed Ben the deep scar on his right hand that was the result of an argument he’d had with a strong-willed stallion when he wasn’t much older than Ben was now. “And that’s why you won’t be permitted to go near the horses unless an adult is with you,” Gabe had told Ben.

  Although Sara fully approved of that rule, she remained silent on the issue. Just as she remained silent when Gabe informed Ben a border collie named Bess had a new litter of puppies. A puppy was something Ben had always wanted, and something Sara had never been able to give him. She’d had enough trouble trying to feed the two of them, much less a pet. Gabe also warned Ben that the barn cats were wi
ld and would scratch you if you tried to pet them.

  “I’ve never liked cats much,” Ben said.

  In fact, Gabe had answered each of Ben’s questions without once giving the impression he was bothered by Ben’s persistence. Whether Sara wanted to admit it or not, the fact that Gabe had the ability to be so patient with her son won him big points in her favor.

  She chanced a glance in his direction.

  He looked over at her and said, “I think Ben finally wore himself out.”

  Sara glanced behind her. Ben was fast asleep, both arms clutched tightly around Thunder, a touch of icing she’d missed with her napkin still clinging to his left cheek.

  “Thanks for being so patient with him,” Sara said. “Ben’s nonstop questions can get rather annoying.”

  “Not to me,” he said. “I’m glad he’s interested in life on the ranch.”

  Sara didn’t answer.

  He glanced over at her again. “And what about you? How are you holding up?”

  His question caught her completely off guard.

  “I’m fine,” Sara lied.

  His expression said he didn’t believe her but he changed the subject.

  “It’s a twelve-hour trip to Redstone. I thought we’d drive to just north of Albuquerque then stop for the night. That will put us halfway and break up the trip for Ben.”

  Again, Sara was surprised by his insight. Keeping Ben strapped in his booster seat for twelve hours would have been a real challenge.

  “I called ahead and made reservations,” he said. “Separate rooms, of course,” he added for clarity.

  “Of course,” Sara was quick to answer.

  The silence hung between them for a second.

  Gabe turned his attention back to the highway.

  Sara pretended to look out the window again.

  But her thoughts kept going back to the conversation they’d had the previous evening. Gabe had assured her the only relationship he ever hoped to foster between them was a friendship. Knowing he had no personal interest in her should have been a huge relief.

  But it wasn’t.

  Not really.

  Gabe’s firm declaration that he wasn’t interested in her personally had dragged up old feelings. Feelings of the way she’d always felt with each new foster family. They’d taken her in, sure. And they’d provided for her adequately. But not one of her foster families had ever been truly interested in her personally.

  She’d often wondered if that’s why she’d been such an easy target for Billy. He had been the first person to ever seem genuinely interested in her. Of course, that, too, had been a lie. Just like the lie Billy had fed her about taking her with him when he left Houston.

  She’d felt like such a fool that morning when she arrived at the rodeo grounds, suitcase in hand, only to find Billy had left without her. But not because she loved him. She hadn’t known Billy long enough to fall in love.

  Billy had represented a chance to free herself from her past. A chance to finally be in the company of people who truly liked her. Not people who were being paid by the state of Texas to tolerate her because she had a lousy mother who couldn’t stay out of trouble.

  Sara had let her guard down.

  And she’d never seen Billy again.

  But at least Gabe had been honest with her. At least she knew where she stood with him. She glanced in his direction again, wishing her stomach didn’t do major flip-flops every time she looked at him. But his genuine kindness and his complete devotion to her son kept tugging on her heartstrings.

  Qualities like those would win any mother’s heart.

  Except her heart was the last thing Gabe wanted.

  He’d made it perfectly clear from the moment she met him that his only interest was in Ben. He’d offered to marry her because of Ben. He’d offered her a home because of Ben. He’d offered her a chance for new life because of Ben. Her son was the only common bond she and Gabe Coulter would ever have. She had to accept that. Officially they were a family now—but only on paper. “Blood kin is blood kin,” he’d told her once. And that left Sara where she’d always been. The outsider—yet again.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “THOSE MOUNTAINS straight ahead are the Ragged Mountains,” Gabe said the next day as they neared the end of their trip. “The Crested-C sits right in the middle of that big forest.”

  “Wow,” Ben said in awe.

  Sara agreed, but she didn’t say so. The snowcapped mountains in the distance were simply breathtaking.

  “The elevation reaches over ten thousand feet on some of the peaks, and the snow never melts there,” Gabe said. “But the elevation at the ranch is only around seven thousand feet. The summer days are nice and mild. And the summer nights are just chilly enough to be comfortable.”

  “Do any bears live in those mountains, Uncle Gabe?”

  “You bet they do, Ben. And there are cougars and elk, and lots of deer and beaver. We have our share of coyotes, too,” Gabe added, “and that’s why we keep dogs like Bess on the ranch. Old Bess can smell a coyote a mile away. The minute she starts barking, we know to keep our eye on the livestock.”

  “Did you hear that, Mom? We’ll have to watch out for those mean old coyotes.”

  Sara only nodded. But she kept thinking to herself that Ben having cougars, bears and coyotes for neighbors was far less threatening than the street gangs, drugs and violence she’d faced at his age living in the southwest slums of Houston.

  “There’s an eagle’s nest on the cliffs above the ranch,” Gabe said. “You can watch eagles fish for trout in the river right from the front porch.”

  “Did you hear, Mom? Real eagles,” Ben said in wonder.

  Sara turned her head and smiled at Ben, trying to remember when she’d seen her son so excited. She couldn’t.

  She’d had a long talk with herself as she lay awake the previous night, staring at the ceiling in the hotel room, her son asleep and snuggled close beside her. And she’d made a silent promise to Ben that she was going to stop feeling sorry for herself and embrace the chance to make things work.

  Ben needed a strong male influence in his life, and Gabe was willing to give him that. The least she could do was make the transition into their new life as easy as possible for all of them. And with that thought in mind, Sara decided it was time to stop looking out the window and join the conversation.

  She pointed to the side of the road when a head popped up out of a hole to look at them. “Look at that cute little animal, Ben.”

  “Ah, Mom,” Ben said with typical male disgust. “That’s just a silly prairie dog. You see them all the time.”

  When Sara glanced at Gabe, the amused look on his face told her he’d seen through her ploy. But he made no attempt to give her away.

  “Maybe your mom would like to ask a few questions,” Gabe said, seeming willing to include her in the conversation now that she’d shown a little interest.

  “Yeah, Mom. What do you want to know?” Ben mimicked.

  Sara wasn’t sure what to ask now that she had full male attention. “Oh, I don’t know,” she finally said. “Is the house at the ranch a large house?”

  “It’s a two-story log house that’s been added on to over the years,” Gabe said, glancing over at her. “The main part of the house is the cabin my grandfather built when he first came out west and bought the property.”

  He paused for a moment before he said, “Let’s see, there are fourteen rooms in all if you count the three bathrooms. There’s a formal living room and dining room. A big kitchen. And I have an office at the house.” He glanced behind him and smiled at Ben when he said, “And there’s a den with a television that you can use as your playroom, Ben.”

  He looked back at Sara and said, “There are five bedrooms in all. I wish I could offer you the privacy of the master bedroom and bath on the first floor, Sara, but they belong to my ranch foreman. Smitty walks with a cane now and the stairs are hard for him to manage.”

  Sara s
ent him a puzzled look. “But I thought you said your ranch hands lived in a bunkhouse on the property.”

  “Smitty’s more family than he is my ranch foreman,” Gabe said. “He moved into the house and took over the cooking after my mother died. He knows more about ranching than I’ll ever know. If it hadn’t been for Smitty, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on to the ranch.”

  “And this Smitty,” Sara asked, “have you told him you’re bringing a wife back to the ranch along with your nephew?”

  He hesitated for a second. “Yes. I talked to Smitty yesterday. Why?”

  “Well, you just said Smitty’s been taking care of your house since your mother died,” Sara said. “It only seems logical he might not be that receptive to handing the reins over to someone else.”

  “Don’t worry about Smitty,” he said. “It might take a few weeks, but he’ll get used to the idea of having you and Ben around.”

  Sara started to comment, but something held her back.

  For the first time, it registered that she and Ben weren’t the only ones whose lives were going to be changed drastically. Gabe was going to have to make more than a few adjustments in his life now that he had a wife and a child to consider. And thinking about Gabe made Sara wonder who else might have to get used to the idea that he’d decided to bring a new wife home to Redstone.

  You idiot, Sara thought, scolding herself for not thinking of it before. There was no way a man like Gabe would be lacking for female attention. Gabe Coulter was every woman’s fantasy, all wrapped up in a faded denim package and tied with one gigantic sex-appeal bow.

  “Is there anyone else you should tell me about?” Sara asked. “Someone who might be a little upset you’re bringing home a ready-made family?”

  His flinch was unmistakable.

  He glanced at Sara for a moment, then back at the road. “No one I’m concerned about,” was his only answer.

  Sara dropped the subject, but his ambiguous answer led her to believe there certainly was a disgruntled lady somewhere in Redstone. A lady who had to be stewing over the fact that Gabe had tossed aside his own plans in order to take responsibility for his dead brother’s son.