by Claire Adams
“Blankets? Really? Why were you up in the loft? Hmmm …” I laughed.
The loft was old and rickety; I wouldn’t have considered going up there on any normal day. And I couldn’t imagine why Garrett would have gone up there. Perhaps he had been trying to find a spot to hide all his secrets.
“Yeah, why? Is it weird that there are blankets up there?”
“Sort of. I wonder who would have put them up there. I’ll go get them,” I said as I prepared myself to climb the old ladder.
I climbed up the rickety old ladder and found what looked like a makeshift bed. There were four, square bales of hay up there and a thick blanket over them. There was some hay filled in a sack as a pillow and a couple other blankets over the top. It was actually a pretty ingenious bed and for a moment I thought Garrett had been the one behind it. I had to laugh, but then I couldn’t help but wonder how the hell all the hay got up there. That ladder certainly wasn’t sturdy enough to hold a man carrying hay up it.
“How is it? Should I just come up there?” Garrett yelled as he stood at the bottom of the ladder.
“Did you do this?” I asked but then realized it had to be much older than when Garrett arrived. “We haven’t had square bales around here for at least ten years. I bet one of the old ranch hands made this place up and hid out here all day to avoid working,” I said almost under my breath.
“Sounds like a smart man,” Garrett said as he climbed up the ladder and joined me in admiring the makeshift bed. “Maybe I’ll use it as my secret napping area from now on.”
I knew Garrett was joking because he worked harder than I did. Garrett took pride in the work he did on the farm, as if he was part owner in the property or something. Neither my father or I ever had to tell Garrett to get things done, he naturally just worked. He always worked until late into the evening and seemed to be willing to work even longer than that if we needed him.
“Or maybe we can use it as our secret love nest,” I teased.
When I turned around Garrett was already taking off his shirt and looking at me with that familiar look that told me he was ready to take me. I loved that look in his eyes and I wasn’t opposed to having some fun in the hidden love nest we had found.
“Come here,” he beckoned me.
“Oh yes, sir,” I laughed as he pulled me close to him.
It was exciting to be in the barn during a thunderstorm. Garrett worked slowly and pulled off each piece of my clothing. He lingered on my raincoat buttons and licked his lips as he dropped the coat to the ground. Then he did the same thing as he worked to unbutton each of the buttons on my shirt. Before I knew it, we were both standing there naked with our skin pressed against each other and the cool breeze of the storm exciting us both.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me up and gently set me back onto the makeshift bed. His eyes were locked with mine and I felt the love he had for me. Of course, I wouldn’t say the word love in front of Garrett, but I felt it and that was good enough for me. Nothing about our future together mattered to me in that moment, I was happy to have him there and delighted to be the woman who he was about to make love to.
Slowly he kissed down my body and my nipples hardened with the anticipation. There was a light breeze seeping through the rafters and it sent goose bumps throughout my body as well. The lights were still on down in the main barn, but it was just a glow of light up where we were. There was just enough light that I could see his face and watched him enjoying the taste of my body.
My heart was so full with Garrett there. He was a kind, hardworking man who treated me the way I had always wanted a man to treat me. It was like a fairytale, yet I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Never in all of my adult life had I thought I would be all right making love to a man that I knew I wouldn’t have a long-term relationship with. It just hadn’t been my thing, but there I was; enjoying every moment of my time with Garrett.
The thing that really surprised me was just how much I liked myself when I was with Garrett. I was nicer, happier, and enjoyed life so much more since I had met him. I could only hope I would be able to maintain this new view on life after Garrett decided it was time to move on. And secretly, I did have a tiny bit of hope that he would decide he liked it at the ranch and wanted to stick around. I knew it was wishful thinking and I didn’t care if it seemed illogical, I still held out hope.
If he did have to leave I hoped we would keep in touch. I hoped we would go on a real date to a movie someday. Perhaps even continue our romance long after he decided to leave the ranch, but I honestly was all right if we never got to move our relationship forward in that way. I was learning more about myself and my heart while I was with Garrett than I had learned in all my years as an adult. I knew that I deserved a man like him in my life, which was a huge lesson that had taken me many years to understand.
As Garrett’s lips moved up and down my body, I felt so relaxed. I felt his warmth as his lips touched my warmth and then quickly continued up my body. He thrust into me and I moaned out louder than I had expected. I surprised myself and instantly bit my bottom lip in an effort to prevent myself from making too much noise.
“Louder,” he beckoned me with a mischievous grin.
“I don’t want anyone to hear us,” I said.
“There’s a storm outside. If there was ever a time for some hot and noisy sex, it’s tonight.”
He was right, it was pouring down rain outside and we were in the loft of the barn. There was no way anyone would hear us up there. I got excited at the notion that I could scream out if I wanted to. There was something so naughty about the idea of being really noisy and not caring at all about it.
“Oh, you like it when I’m noisy?” I asked him.
“I fucking love it.”
“Game on,” I joked.
Garrett thrust hard into me and I delivered a loud scream that would have rivaled any porn star. It was a fake scream, just to tease him though. But instead of teasing him, my scream drew a powerful thrust from him. He really did like hearing my moans and thrust after thrust he delivered to me in an effort to make me scream louder and louder.
I liked pleasing him. In all of our time together, I liked that we could tell each other what we wanted to try and there was no judgment. We were having fun with each other and on that night it was no different. Soon my moans weren’t fake at all. I was enjoying our rough sex and getting more turned on by the moment.
“Harder,” I moaned out as my fingers dug deep into his back.
His thrusts were pleasuring my body in a new way and it had me shaking with desire even before I had released in orgasm. I loved it. I held onto him as our thrusts shook the barn. It was a good thing there was a storm outside, or everyone on the ranch would have known just how much pleasure Garrett was giving to me.
“Yes,” he groaned deeply.
His eyes were closed and there were beads of sweat forming on his brow. He was enjoying himself just as much as I was. So I closed my eyes and continued our little game of thrusting and screaming. It felt primal to thrust my hips against him and feel him deep inside of me.
I had had some rough sex with a boyfriend in my past, but it had just been an act. I wasn’t into it and he wasn’t good at it. But with Garrett, I felt a desire to have more and more from him. I loved watching his body as he put every effort into his thrusts. I wanted to see how much more he could give. How much harder he could thrust. I loved that we were experimenting and having fun with our night. It was certainly an evening I wouldn’t soon forget.
Over and over again he pressed into me and I moaned out. The storm outside was still causing plenty of noise so I stopped worrying about anyone hearing us. We were going to screw ourselves right into passing out from exhaustion and I treasured it.
“More,” I breathed as our bodies started to sweat and stick together. “I want more.”
Garrett opened his eyes for a moment to look into mine and then he leaned down to kiss me. His lips stayed on mine ju
st for a moment and then he took a deep breath before delivering his final symphony of thrusts that finished both me and him off for the night. I felt the sweat dripping from his chest as my hands ran up and down him and encouraged his movements. I wanted him to know I was enjoying every last moment of our night together.
As Garrett collapsed next to me, my legs shook from the exertion. It was a good thing we had already decided to sleep in the barn, because there was no way I was going to make it down the ladder, my whole body was exhausted. I really didn’t know if I’d be able to make it down the ladder by morning, I hadn’t had that good of a workout in months.
“Now that was fun,” Garrett said as his sweat soaked body heaved up and down.
He took in some deep breaths as he tried to calm himself and I couldn’t help but lean my sweaty body up next to his. It was at that moment that I felt totally at peace. I didn’t feel judged by Garrett. I didn’t feel like he wanted anything more from me than I wanted to give him. There was no agenda between us, no worrying about who wanted something from the other person. We didn’t have friends or social circles that we had to worry about. There was nothing else to our relationship than just the two of us and it was a wonderful partnership so far.
“What time is it?” I asked as I looked at his watch.
“Two o’clock.”
I laughed at his watch and examined it a little bit. That watch was such a running joke between all the ranch hands that I couldn’t help but think about the new guy my father had finally hired.
“Didn’t my father finally hire a new guy this week?”
“Yes, some young kid who had been hitchhiking I think. It’s good to have some fresh blood. I think the guys were getting tired of shoveling horse crap.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe he went so long without hiring someone. We were getting pretty damn shorthanded. Have you all told him how to wake up in the mornings yet?”
“Oh, no way. They tortured me for weeks with that. I’m not going to give in that easily. He’s got at least another week of missing breakfast before we get him a watch.”
Because all of the ranch hands had the same joke pulled on them, it seemed like new hires had to spend longer and longer periods of time not knowing how to wake up. If it had been up to me, I’d have just put an alarm clock in the bunkhouse and been done with it, but my father said it was a bonding thing with the men and to stay out of it.
“You guys are so mean to each other. It’s a wonder you can keep any new hires at all.”
We both laughed as we cuddled up together and listened to the rain. I was joking with Garrett about the new hires. I knew that since Garrett had become the lead ranch hand we had actually kept almost all of the old workers. Our rate of men leaving had declined rapidly and I blamed it all on Garrett. He got along well with the men and they respected him. Garrett worked just as hard, or harder, than the other ranch hands and that gave them the perfect example of what to work towards.
When Garrett decided he wanted to leave, it would be a sad day for all of us. My father loved him, my mother adored him, and I was falling in love with him. He was a great leader to the other men and he did a really damn good job at running the ranch. If he did stay around I bet my father would eventually even give him a piece of land from the ranch so he could start his own family and ranch. Although, that didn’t seem like something that was in the future for Garrett.
“We aren’t mean to each other. It’s just how men are.”
“So men just like to keep other men from eating breakfast?” I laughed.
“No, we just like to make sure the men we are around understand who the boss is. That new kid will certainly understand his place in the pecking order by the time we get him his watch. I know I did.”
“Yeah, I remember when you first started. Wow, that seems so long ago.”
“I know,” Garrett said as he yawned. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.”
“Me too. I’m so glad I got fired and forced to move back home with my family. I mean, the sweat, hard work, no pay; it’s so much fun,” I joked.
“You love it and you know it. Don’t even pretend like you’re not happy here.”
“You’re right. I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” I said as I closed my eyes and cuddled close to Garrett.
As we fell asleep, I could tell the storm was calming down and I couldn’t wait until morning. We were likely going to have quiet the mess on our hands from broken tree limbs and other debris from the storm.
Chapter 13
Garrett
The sound was foreign to me at first as I woke up out of a deep sleep. But then I realized what I was hearing: it was gunshots. I wasn’t all that familiar with the sound of a gun going off, but I had heard them enough in Los Angeles to know what they were.
In Los Angeles, the gunshots had always sounded like they were miles away from where I was at. But the ones I heard that morning were clearly very close to us. They sounded like they were right outside the barn and I was scared to death. Even through my fear, I knew that I wanted to keep Sarah safe. No matter what was going on outside of that barn, I wasn’t going to let her be harmed. If it meant that I was killed instead of her, I was willing to end my life that way.
“Get up,” I said as I jumped up and started to get my clothes on. “Stay up here and hide in the corner.”
I was firm with Sarah and I hoped she would listen to me. The sun wasn’t out yet and my alarm on my watch hadn’t gone off yet, so there was no reason at all that gunshots should be going off at the ranch.
The only time we heard gunshots on the ranch was when Sid was chasing away coyotes, and even then he used his shotgun and not a pistol. But the two shots I heard sounded much more like a pistol and that scared me. I didn’t even think Sid owned a pistol; he had no use for such a small gun on his ranch. It wouldn’t help him with the animals that he had to put down and a pistol wasn’t really Sid’s style either.
As I started to descend the old ladder, I couldn’t fathom why gunshots would be going off outside the barn. At least for a moment, I couldn’t fathom why; but then a fearful thought started to fill my head. What if Frank Gordano’s men had finally found the ranch? It was a chilling thought and the only thing I could think off for why there would be such horror going on at that hour. I hoped I was wrong. I willed myself to be wrong as I climbed down.
“What is it?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know. But you’ll be safe up here. Don’t come out until I tell you to. I’m serious, Sarah; do not leave this area until I or one of your parents come for you. Not under any circumstances.”
I could tell she wanted to protest my directions, but then something stopped her. She just shook her head in agreement and slipped her clothes back on as she moved into the corner of the loft area. She grabbed one of the blankets off the makeshift bed and covered herself with it. I hadn’t explained anything, yet she trusted me enough to listen to me in that moment.
As I climbed down the ladder, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a man’s voice begging for his life. The terror in his voice made the moment real, although it still felt like I was in the middle of some sort of crime show. I desperately hoped that I would wake up and realize it had all been a nightmare. If only what I heard outside the barn wasn’t really happening at all.
“Please don’t shoot me. Please; he’s in the cabin. Please don’t kill me; he’s in the small cabin over there.”
The man’s voice was followed by two quick shots and then silence. I would have been more scared had I had the time to think about what was going on. But all I could think about was keeping Sarah safe and getting to Sid and Meredith to keep them safe as well. They were my family now and I couldn’t imagine anything happening to them. But it was happening. There was someone just outside the barn door shooting people, and from what I heard, it sounded like they were really looking for me.
If I was what they wanted, then I was what they were going to get. I couldn’t let anoth
er person get shot because of me. It was my responsibility and my burden to carry. I looked out the barn and saw two men making their way toward my small cabin. There was no doubt about it: Frank Gordano had found me.
For some reason, I had thought that he wouldn’t actually come after me. At first, when I had arrived at the ranch, I stayed up late worrying about Frank; but as time went on, I relaxed. The Miller ranch began to feel like my home and I felt safe there. I slept well at night and didn’t worry about my safety. The only thing I worried about was if I was doing a good job leading the other ranch hands.
The terror of the moment had my body frozen as I stood in the doorway to the barn and watched the two men. The bright lights from the barn illuminated me and I certainly wasn’t hidden at all if the two men had bothered to turn around and look behind them. I decided it would be best to try and put up a fight. At least I could try and do some harm to them before they killed me.
I grabbed a pitchfork that we used to feed the horses their hay and I was just about to leave the barn when I noticed Sid. No, no, no, I thought to myself as he came out of his house in his pajamas. I wouldn’t let Sid risk his life for me. There was no possible way I would let that man be the person they killed. It was me they wanted and I would be the one who they had, I wasn’t going to let Sid get involved if I could help it.
I saw Sid as he stumbled onto the front porch with a shotgun in his hands. The light on the barn was shining brightly and Sid looked over toward me. I motioned to my small cabin and nodded my head to confirm what he must have been thinking, then I held up the large pitchfork and started toward the cabin. Those were indeed shots that had been fired and all of our lives were in danger. I had never been so glad to see a man with a shotgun in all of my life.
Sid glanced from me to two ranch hands that lay dead on the ground. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the lights from the barn were enough for both Sid and I to see that Ralph and Devin had been murdered. That was all Sid needed to see. He pulled his shotgun up to his face and walked straight toward the cabin without stopping to look at me again.
