RESCUED BY THE RANCHER (8 page)

She took the hand he held out, linked her
fingers through his and clasped it like she needed every ounce of strength she
could muster or borrow. He needed to hear this as much as she probably needed
to get it off her chest.

“What happened to one night?” she asked with a
smile.

He shook his head.
“To hell
with one night.”

 
“When I
was sixteen, I was dating the sheriff’s son.”

“Phillip?”
She’d
dated Sheriff Brewster’s son, the asshole son of a bitch who’d not even
bothered to stop and help when he’d been desperately trying to flag down a car
the night of Rachel’s accident?

Faith was nodding so he clamped his jaw shut
and listened.

“We’d been going out for a bit, and to cut a
long story short, he talked me into having unprotected sex, made me feel like I
was stupid for not wanting to just rip his clothes off, and I ended up
pregnant.”

“Shit.” Jake didn’t really know what to say,
and he sure as hell didn’t think that adding the fact that he already hated the
guy to their conversation was going to help her.

“My mom died when I was in seventh grade, so I
had no one to talk to. I kept it a secret until people started guessing.” A
tear slid from her eye and Jake reached forward to wipe it away, brushing the
back of his fingers gently across her cheek. “When my dad found out, he kicked
me out of the house. Phillip’s dad, Sheriff Brewster, finished up the one-two
punch by making it pretty clear what they all thought of me, and in the end I
left.”

Jake froze.
“How long ago?”

She shrugged.
“Eight, nine
years now.”

He
remembered her.
He’d been
older, his first year out of school, but he’d seen her, had heard the talk
about her and never given it much thought, other than to think it was bullshit,
backwards kind of behavior from everyone involved. “They kicked you out of school,
too, didn’t they? Your dad kicked you out and the school didn’t even step up to
help you.”

“How do you know?” she asked, looking at him
like she all of a sudden didn’t trust him, like he shouldn’t know any of what
she was telling him.

Jake took her other hand now, holding both of
them, searching her face. He needed to tell her the truth, knew she’d want to
know.
“Because one day I saw a young, terrified girl with a
big belly struggling to get on a bus.”
His voice was low, knowing how
much it would hurt her going back into the past. He knew first hand that it was
easier to block the memories out. Keep the past in the past where it belonged.

“That was you?” she asked, wide-eyed. “You were
the one who helped me get on? Who carried my bags around and told the driver he
should know better than to let a young pregnant girl do her own lifting?”

“Yeah, that was me,” he admitted, giving her
what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I used to be pretty outspoken.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “You were one of
the only people who helped me then, and you’re one of the only ones who’ve
helped me this time around.” Faith leaned forward and placed a soft kiss
against his cheek, lips warm and soft to his skin. This time when she spoke,
her voice was husky and low. “I guess I owe you double thanks then, huh?”

“You must have been a few years behind me in
school, because I’d already graduated by then. But I’ve never forgotten how
terrified that girl looked when I helped her.
Like she’d lost
everything in her world.”

Faith took his hand, turned it over in both of
hers. “That girl ended up in a shelter,” she said, her chin held high as she
told him.

She was strong and proud, he’d give her that.
He doubted he’d ever met anyone so determined.

“I figured out how to look after my baby on my
own, and I made myself forget all about this place. The only way I looked was
forward, and I made it.” She laughed. “God only knows how, but I survived.”

“You only came back because your father died,
didn’t you,” he asked. Jake put his arms around her when she released his hand,
pulled her against him. She turned, so her back was against his chest, leaning
into him and looking out the window at the land.

“Yeah.
The miserable bastard kicked me to the curb,
but he must have felt guilty about it in the end, because he left me his
house.” She leaned her head back against his chest and looked up at him before
going back to staring straight ahead. “Honestly? I thought he’d rather leave
his money to a cat shelter or a stranger over me, but I guess he had a change
of heart.”

Jack let his chin rest on top of her head.
“Kind of ironic that it burned to the ground, then.”

“Yep, you got it.”

Faith had had a rough deal, no one could deny
it, but she was clearly made of tough stuff. “So what’s your plan?”

“You know what? I don’t care about the house,
but I do care about having enough money, being financially stable so that I can
give Tommy the life he deserves.”

Jake dropped a kiss into her hair before making
her turn around. “I think you’re doing a great job with Tom. He’s a good kid.”

She smiled, but he could see the sadness in her
gaze. “Yeah, but I’ve had to work like a crazy person for years to get to where
we are now. I want to spend time with him. Enjoy the amazing boy I’m so blessed
to have.”

“Then stay.”

She stepped back, still in his arms but putting
some distance between them. “Stay?”

Jake laughed, let go of her and ran a hand
through his hair. He looked at Faith, then past her,
then
made himself look into her eyes.
He was
never impulsive and he could tell she wasn’t either, but he was damned if he
was going to spend another five years feeling pissed off with the world when he
could be happy.

“You’re doing that hand through the hair thing.
You’re nervous.”

“What?”

Faith grinned. “You did it the very first night
I met you.
When you were asking me to stay.”

“And I’m asking you again.” He couldn’t believe
he was saying it, that the words were even coming out of his mouth.
But if he didn’t ask her now, when would he
get the chance?
If she left tomorrow, he might spend the rest of his life
wondering if he should have tried to make her stay.

 
“I like you, Faith.” Jake wished he knew how to ask her, how to tell her
how he felt, but it didn’t come easy to him.
All he knew was that he wanted her here.

“You like me?” she asked, tongue darting out to
moisten her lips as she stepped back into his space. Faith stood on tiptoe and
pressed a wet kiss to his
jawline
.
Then
another.

Jake groaned. “Yeah, I like you. Isn’t it
obvious?”

She kissed him again, before grabbing hold of
his collar and dragging him down, closer to her so she could press an equally
wet kiss to his lips this time.

“Tell me again,” she whispered.

“No.”

She nipped at his bottom lip. Jake was only a
man and he could only take so much. He grabbed her bottom, bent down slightly
so he could swing her up in the air, enough for her legs to lock around his
waist. Faith was pressed tight to him, and Jake had no intention of taking his
hands off her butt.

“I don’t like you, Faith,” he said, staring
into her eyes before he kissed her. Jake didn’t hold back this time, kissed her
like he’d
been wanting
to kiss her all day.
Lips crushing, tongues dancing, hands exploring.
This is what he wanted to come home to every
day.
This was what he wanted right
now.

He pulled back, lips hovering over hers but far
enough apart that he could still whisper. “I think I
really
like you.”

Her eyes were wide, disbelieving. “You
really
like me now?”

Jake chuckled. “Is it that hard to believe?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, stroking his face then,
letting her hand curl around the back of his neck.
“Considering
we hardly know each other?
Yeah, it is.”

He stared into her eyes, hating that she hadn’t
been loved in her life before, that she’d fought so hard and had no one by her
side to fight with her. “I like your eyes,” he said, smiling back at her as she
tilted her face up to his. “I like your mouth,” he murmured, placing a kiss to
her lips.
“And your shoulders.”
He dropped a kiss to
her warm skin, before chuckling to himself. “And if you want to know all the
other body parts I like, then maybe we need to head back upstairs.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, we’re not exactly
alone right now.”

Jake groaned. “We could be quiet.”

Faith just laughed and dragged him by the hand.
“Come on, lover boy, before things get too hot and heavy.”

“Lover boy?”
He held tight to her hand and forced her to
stop, swinging her out then in so she landed with a thump against his chest.

Faith held on to him, arms looping around his
waist.

“So what do you say?” he
asked,
voice low as he spoke into her ear. “Want to take a crazy chance and stay
here?”

She looked up, like she knew what he was
thinking, had read his mind. “It scares the hell out of me, Jake. The way I
feel about you.”

“Believe me, I know the feeling,” he admitted.
Telling Faith how he felt was hands down the hardest thing he’d done in a long
time. “Just promise me that you won’t up and leave. That’s all I need to know.
I don’t care that we technically haven’t even had a first date. I’ve wasted away
too long on my own, and whatever it is we have going on? It feels right and
that’s all I care about.”

She kept pressed to his chest as she spoke. “So
you want me to tell you that I really like you too?”

Jake’s body went stiff. He took a deep breath,
held her tighter.

“Do you?”

Faith sighed. “I didn’t want to admit it, Jake,
but yeah.” She laughed.
“So much for spending one night
together and one night only, huh?”

Jake laughed, and he didn’t force her to look
up or step away from her, just cradled her in his arms. There was nothing else
he needed to know. So long as she wanted to be here with him, it was all he
needed. Now he just had to work out a way to protect her and make sure she
never wanted to leave Fairview ever again.

To hell with being sensible
and trying to protect himself from being hurt.
He wanted her here and that was all he gave a
damn about. Which meant he had some business to tend to in the morning, whether
she wanted him to or not.

JAKE had a bad feeling about what he was doing.
A really bad feeling.
It had seemed like a great idea the night before, but now? Not so much. But the
only way he was ever going to convince Faith to stay permanently in Fairview
was to confront this dickhead of an ex of hers. And that meant getting him to
confess to starting the fire, which wasn’t exactly going to be easy.

He stepped out of his truck and onto the
pavement, eyes trained on the house ahead of him. There were toys scattered,
and the place need fixing up some, but he ignored everything and focused on the
door.

It was
obvious the guy had a family, children of his own, which gave him good enough
motive.
It was also clear that
he needed to tidy up his yard.

Jake stepped over a bike and knocked at the
front door. He heard movement inside, and then he was greeted by a pretty but
tired looking blonde.

“I was hoping to find Phillip at home,” Jake
said, smiling. He was feeling like shit just looking at the woman, given what
he was about to say to her husband. But it had to be done.

“You’re a friend of his?” she asked, still not
fully opening the door.

Jake grinned. “We haven’t seen each other in a
long time, but yeah, we go way back.”

She nodded and turned around, calling out.
“Phil!
Someone here to see you.”

Jake took a step back and leaned on the porch
railing, not wanting to invade her space. A thud of footfalls made him look up,
to see the man
himself
approach the door. Jake hadn’t
exactly thought through how he’d get him on his own, but his wife disappeared
without Jake needing to find an excuse.

“Do I know you?”

Jake gave him a slow smile, fighting his anger,
refusing to be anything other than calm.
“You and me?
We need to talk.” Jake knew him on sight, but Phil wouldn’t have a clue
who
he was – Phil had been younger than him back in school.

The other man looked hesitant, but he shut the
door behind him and slowly crossed the porch to stand opposite from Jake.
 

“You remember a girl called Faith?” Jake asked,
never breaking his gaze.