SECOND CHANCES AT MG RANCH (4 page)

Chapter 5

They both rode back to the barn in silence, lost in their own thoughts.  Loren was in awe of everything that had just happened and could not wait to call her parents.

Sam was just relieved that the outcome had turned out favorable, but at the same time he was confused by the feelings that had come over him when Loren was in the line of danger.
  He feared that he was starting to like her a little more than he should.  He preferred to think it was just attraction, plain and simple, and nothing more.

What else could it be?
Love at first sight? That was not very likely. As far as he was concerned, that was just a myth.  Not something that was actually possible.  Besides, he had sworn not to ever fall in love with anyone else after Stephanie and to this day, he had held true to that promise.  No, love was not on his agenda, and never would be. He was as sure of that as he was about the day he was born.  The best explanation was that it had just been too long since he had taken a woman to his bed.

Once they had reached the barn, Sam pulled his horse to a stop at the nearest hitching post and dismounted.
  He wrapped his reins around the post to secure his horse, with Loren following his lead.  She dismounted and stretched her legs, before securing her own horse.

“I’m going to grab a beer, want one?” Sam asked.

“No thanks, but I will take some water if you have that,” she answered.

Loren watched Sam walk away in pursuit of finding them something to drink.
  She watched him until he disappeared into the shadows of the barn.

She had a thing or two about
cowboys in wrangler jeans.  His white tee-shirt just accented the picture, along with his cowboy hat and boots.  He looked mighty fine, yes he did indeed.  Once he was out of sight she turned her attention back to her horse, which is exactly where it belonged.

“That sure was some good riding today, Dakota.
  I am so proud of you,” she told her horse.

She busied herself with getting him unsaddled, not noticing Sam watching her as he walked back to where she stood with the horses.

He had never met a girl that took pride in saddling and unsaddling her own horse like she did.  Most girls he knew were afraid that they would break a fingernail or worse, get horse sweat on their pretty little hands.  Yep, Loren Randolph was different than most girls, he had decided.

“Here you go,” he said handing her a cold bottle of water.

“Thank you.” Her fingers grazed his when she grasped the bottle from his hands.  The brief contact caused a tingling sensation to flow through her hand.

She had not realized how thirsty she was until the water hit her dry parched throat.
  Sam had already sucked one beer down and was opening another as he leaned up against the hitching post in a relaxed position.  He pulled the brim of his hat low enough to shade his eyes from the sun and continued to watch her.

Loren could feel his eyes boring into her back as she turned her attention back to her horse.  It was starting to make her feel
slightly uncomfortable.

When she could
no longer stand it, she turned to look at him. “Are you just going to stand there all day relaxing, or are you going to unsaddle your horse?” Her tone was very curt.

He just continued to stare at her, taking another long swig of beer and not saying a word.
  Her eyes locked with his and for a moment she felt like he was undressing her with those blue orbs and having his way with her all at the same time.  What was wrong with her?  Where were these thoughts coming from?   It had to be her imagination.

There was no reason that she could think of that Sam would even entertain thoughts about her in that way.
  She was probably too young for him for one, not to mention that he didn’t even know her.

She could feel her face begin to turn hot with embarrassment.
  So she quickly turned her gaze back to her horse, hoping that Sam did not notice her red, flushed cheeks.

Picking up her saddle and blanket, she carried them back into the barn and put everything back in its rightful place.
  She stopped short of coming back out of the barn, hoping to compose herself and her thoughts before facing Sam again.

With her head down and her eyes fixed on the ground, she walked out of the barn.
  Then without any warning, she collided with what felt like solid steel.  The impact of the hit had caused Loren to lose her balance and she fell backwards.  Her backside hit the dirt with a hard thud, causing dust to fill the air.

Before she could take in what had actually happened, Sam reached out a hand to help her up and asked, “Are you okay?”
He had that stupid, I won the “
Kentucky Derby
,” grin plastered on his face again.

Loren nodded and reached out like she meant to take his hand, but instead grabbed his ankle, pulling hard, causing him to lose his
own balance.  She had caught him off guard, which is exactly what she had intended to do.

He fell forward and landed on the ground, face first in the dirt beside her.
  The look on his face was priceless.  She began to laugh so hard that she felt tears spring to her eyes.

“So, you think that was funny?”
he said, pushing himself to a sitting position.

“You would too, if you saw the lo
ok on your face,” she answered. Loren wiped at the tears of laughter that had escaped her eye lids.  “Maybe next time you will think twice before you push someone down.”

“What?
  Push you down?  I did not push you down, little missy. You are the one who was not paying attention to where you were going,” he spat back at her.

She was beginning to get under his skin again.
  You would think that she would be thankful that he had just saved her from being eaten by a ferocious mountain lion, but instead she had him wondering why he had even cared in the first place.  Josh and Amy, that was why, he reminded himself.  There was no other reason.

“Well, you had to see me coming.
  Why didn’t you just move out of the way? You could have avoided me if you had wanted to.”  She hauled herself up and stood over him.

Sam
could still see the light of laughter dancing in her eyes when she looked down at him.  He pulled himself up off the ground and made an attempt to dust off his pants.

Then a thought occurred to him.
  If she wanted humor, he would give her humor.  Before she could protest, he picked her up, tossing her over his left shoulder and headed for the watering trough outside the barn.

It didn’t take long for Loren to realize what he had in mind.
  “Oh, no you don’t,” she said kicking and squirming as hard as she could, trying to break his hold on her.  It was not working; he was strong as an ox.

“It looks as if someone is a little dirty and in need of a bath,” he said dumping her into the cold
icy water.

Although the day had warmed considerably, the water chilled her to the bone.
  She came up sputtering, finding it hard to believe that she had just been dumped into a watering trough full of cold water.

“Now who’s laughing?” he asked
, flashing a pearly white smile at her.

The only response he got
from her was a cold stare.  Feeling satisfied with himself, he walked to the hitching post and retrieved his horse gear. Just before he reached the barn entrance he turned and said, “I have already put the horses out to pasture, so if you will meet me back here around one o’clock we will head into town.” It sounded more like an order than a request.

She watched him disappear into the barn before she climbed out of the watering trough
.  Her wet clothes were molded to her body, making her soft curves more visible.  Loren didn’t want to give him something more to stare at.  She pulled her wet jacket a little tighter around her to cover her almost exposed breast and headed for the main house.  It was a short walk, but seemed like a mile in her wet clothes.

Chapter 6

Once inside the privacy of
the cabin, Loren closed the door and leaned back against the solid wood structure. She was chilled to the bone and began to shiver from her wet clothing.

Sam had better hope that she didn’t catch cold from
this little joke of his.  If she did, the joke would be on him because she would make him wait on her hand and foot until she felt better. Maybe that would teach him a lesson or two.

Just the mere thought of him having to play nursemaid to her, was making her feel better already.
After all, she was the owner of this ranch and he was her employee. Well, sort of. He really worked for her father, but that was really just the same as working for her.

L
eaving her spiteful mind behind, Loren headed up the stairs.  She needed to get changed into some dry clothes before she really did catch a cold.

She began rummaging through her overnight bag looking for her light pink button down.
  It was her favorite shirt.  A little worn, but it was still her favorite.  She donned the shirt along with a faded pair of wranglers.  Then grabbed her old but comfortable boots and pulled them on.  They were just going into town for a few groceries so there was no need to look too spiffy. She blow dried her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail braid, letting it fall over her shoulder.

Loren had
about forty-five more minutes to kill before meeting Sam back at the barn.  She should probably finish unpacking, but that could wait until later.

Right now s
he was missing her mom so much it made her heart ache.  Loren was close to both her parents, but her mother was by far her best friend.  She understood the matters of the heart, where as her dad thought everything was like riding a horse, if it bucks you off, get back on and try again.

Picking up
the phone that sat on a nearby coffee table she dialed their home number.  After a few short rings, to her disappointment, the answering machine came on.  “This is Amy and Josh; we are unable to come to the phone at this time, so please leave a message at the beep.”

To her dismay, her mother had changed the message on the answering machine.
  Why should it bother her that her name was no longer a part of their message?  She had her own place now, but it still made her feel left out and all alone.

In a choked up voice, she left a message.
  “Mom it’s me, Loren.  I just wanted to hear your voice.  Give Dad a kiss for me.  I love and miss you both.”

Loren replaced the phone on the table and walked into the kitchen. She swung the refrigerator door open
just to be reminded that there were no sodas, just beer in the fridge.  At least that would change soon.

Feeling that now would be a good time to look around the rest of the cabin, she walked to the rear of the kitchen where there was a small mudroom.
  She would have to start making good use of that instead of always using the front door.

She wandered about the house taking in the detail of each room.
  The ground floor existed of the living room, a half bath, kitchen with the adjoining mudroom, and a study.

The study
ended up being her favorite room in the entire house.  One whole wall was lined with books.  Loren loved to read, so she mentally planned to spend a lot of time in this room.  It seemed so private.  It made her feel like she was shut out from the rest of the world, safe from harm and safe from the feelings that were starting to stir within her when she thought about Sam.

Loren’s heart warned her
that she shouldn’t allow herself to fall for Sam.  He would be gone in a few months and she would be left with a broken heart.  However, she feared that it might be too late for that.

She had never really had boyfriends in school or in college.
  Sure boys had liked her, but there had never really been time for it.  When she wasn’t in school, most of her spare time had been spent with her horse or with her mom and dad.

These strange feelings
that seemed to pop up whenever she saw Sam were all new to her.  She hoped that in time they would just go away.

There were two bedrooms and a guest bath up on the second floor. The master bedroom with a private bath
which she had already explored was down the hall to the left.  The guest bathroom was directly in front of the stair case landing, leaving the guest bedroom off to the right at the end of the hall.

She opened the door softly to peer inside, as if she was afraid of disturbing someone.
  She was not surprised to see a log bed almost identical to the one in her own room.

The quilt on the bed was a pink and white patchwork
pattern.  Wondering if Elizabeth had made this quilt as well, Loren walked over to the bed and turned up the corner to look for her initials.  Sure enough she had.  It was marked with the same initials as the other one.

It appeared that all of the furniture inside and outside of the cabin was made o
f cedar logs. She wondered where it had been purchased or if Martin had made it.  Each piece pretty much had the same style, indicating that it had probably came from the same crafter.

This room also had a small fireplace in the corner.
  On the mantle sat a small cream-colored teddy bear.  Loren supposed this had been meant to be her room.  She walked over and picked up the bear and held it close to her, fighting to hold back the tears.  She wondered if they would be proud of her.  She liked to think that they would be. Feeling the threat of tears stinging her eyes again and the hard lump in her throat, she reached up to put the teddy bear back in its place.

Changing her mind, she pulled it back to her chest and walked out of the room closing the door behind her in the hopes of shutting out a different kind of sadness that had suddenly flooded into her heart.

She carried the teddy bear to her room and laid it softly on the bed. “Don’t worry little teddy, I will be back later to keep you company,” she said.  Loren walked out of the room and softly pulled the door closed.

Back out in the hall she looked out over the railing and peered down into the living room.
  This was her home now, a small cabin with a wrap-around porch, sitting on one hundred acres. Why did it feel so lonely? Maybe she should sell out and move back to Atlanta with her parents.

Looking at her watch, she realized it was one fifteen.
  Sam was probably pacing by now wondering where she was. She flew down the stairs and through the kitchen, heading for the back door. Sam stood in the doorway about to knock when she swung the door open.

“Are you ready?” he asked, letting his arm fall back to his side and stepping back a little to avoid being trampled on.

“Sure.”  Loren stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door closed behind her.