SECOND CHANCES AT MG RANCH (6 page)

Chapter 9

After the first few days on the ranch, Loren was pretty much beginning to like her new home, except for the hard work that Sam made her do every day. The work seemed endless and he pushed her hard.

She was so tired every night when she went to bed, that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She had to take a soaking bath each night to wash away the dirt and grime of the day.  Her mornings were started with a quick shower to help her wake up and face the day ahead.

One day she had complained t
hat he was pushing her too hard.  His only response was to tell her to go back home to Mommy and Daddy if she couldn’t handle it. Running a ranch was hard work and if she couldn’t do it then she didn’t need to be there.

She guessed that is what he wanted her to do.
If she went home, he would have the ranch all to himself again. Out of pure stubbornness, she had decided that she could take whatever he dished out. This was her ranch, and with God as her witness, she was not leaving.

By the time Friday rolled around, she was bone tired.
The weather was starting to turn cooler with November approaching and she wanted nothing more than to stay huddled beneath the warm covers.

She forced herself to sit up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Every muscle in her body ached. Loren pushed herself to a standing position, and slowly walked to the shower in the hopes that the hot water waiting for her, would soothe away some of the soreness.

Once inside the shower, she just stood there letting the water run over her naked body for the longest time.  She knew she was wasting time, but it felt too good to move.

Loren finally stepped out of the shower and glanced at the clock that sat on the night stand beside the bed. She had definitely wasted too much time and if she didn’t hurry, she would be late getting to the barn to meet Sam for their morning ride. If she was more than ten minutes late, he would leave without her.

On more than one occasion, Sam had already made it clear that he did not tolerate tardiness.
If she wanted to learn to take care of this ranch, she had to do it on his schedule and by his rules, no exceptions!

She quickly pulled on her under things along wi
th a pair of jeans and a long sleeved cotton shirt. Taking the steps two at a time, which was her habit, she raced down the stairs. In the mudroom, she pulled on her muck boots and a rough looking blue jean jacket before running out the back door. It was a short walk to the barn.

Today had been reserved for mucking out the horse stalls.
She dreaded it with a vengeance, but it was the only thing on her to do list today other than feed the horses before their morning ride.

Even though she hoped it wouldn’t take long, she knew it was pretty much an all-day job.
From the looks of them, Sam hadn’t mucked them in quite a while.  He had probably been saving it to torture her with.

Their morning ride was pretty much quite as usual.
Upon their return to the ranch he had left her to mucking out the stalls on her own. Surely she wouldn’t mess that up. A smile crossed her face when she remembered the look on his face when she had gotten the hayfork hung up in the hay ring the day before.

By her sixth day on the ranch, Sam had showed her every acre of the ranch and pointed out any details that he had discovered over the years.
He had showed her a spot along the creek that was deep enough for a small swimming hole, which would be nice for the summer months. A couple of huge cottonwood’s lined the bank on one side of the creek providing some very nice shade.

Loren had a vision of sitting beneath one of the cottonwood’s reading a romantic love story while her horse grazed on the soft green grass; or better yet, making her own love story with Sam.

Although they had not spoken of the kiss they had shared, Loren could still remember the feelings that had consumed her body when his lips had touched hers and she could still feel the warmth of his skin when he had held her close.

At first it had confused her when he had ended the kiss and pushed her away from him.
Then the confusion had quickly turned to embarrassment when she realized that he must have pushed her away because he could tell that she was inexperienced in the art of kissing a man.

After seeing that he meant to keep his distance from her, Loren soon decided that he would probably never kiss her again, but at least she had her memories of the most perfect kiss ever.
It had been a wonderful experience. One that she was sure she would never forget.

Loren decided to take a quick break.  Not only was she tired, her throat was parched.  She was anxious to get the mucking over with, but there was no need to kill
one’s self in the process.

The phone was ringing when she pushed the back door open.  Loren ran to answer it.

“Hello,” she answered, almost out of breath.

“Hey sweetie,” came Amy’s soft voice over the phone.

“Mom is it really you?” Loren asked, feeling her heart skip a beat at the sound of her mothers’ voice.

“Yes, of course it is dear.
Are you okay? You sound like you are having some trouble breathing.”

“Yes, I’m okay.
I ran to catch the phone before you hung up.  I have been out at the barn mucking stalls and had just come up to the house for a quick break. Oh Mom, it is so good to hear your voice. I have missed you and Dad so much.”

“Oh, honey we have missed you too.
Sam’s not working you too hard is he?”

“No, not really,” she lied.
Loren was afraid that if she told her Mom the truth, that she would insist that she come home or worse fire Sam for working her too hard. It was true that he could rile her and make her frustrated, but it was also true that she liked him and wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet.

“He has been teaching me all the things that I need to know about taking care of the ranch.
Some of it is hard work, but he helps me with the really hard stuff,” Loren assured her mother.
Big fat liar
was running through her brain cavities as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

“So, you and Sam are getting along pretty good then?” her
mother asked.

“We are.
I am so glad that you and Dad asked him to stay on for a while. He is great!” She said it with a little enthusiasm to convince her mother that all was well.

What was that she heard in Loren’s voice?
Was it admiration or was it infatuation? Amy hoped that Josh wasn’t going to be sorry that he stuck these two together. She liked Sam, but she didn’t want to see Loren get her heart broken. She was so young and inexperienced about love or the desires of the flesh shared between a man and woman.

“Loren is it okay if Dad and I come for a visit on Saturday?”

“Of course you can.  Surely, you know that you don’t have to ask my permission to come visit.”

“Well, I thought it would be nice to ask instead of just showing up unannounced,” her mother explained.

“Okay, I guess we will see you on Saturday then.”  She waited for Amy to hang up the phone, but she didn’t. “Well, I need to get back to my mucking since Sam and I have plans to have dinner with his friends tonight.”

“And who might his friends be?”

That last sentence had been meant to end their conversation, not open up another can of words.  “His name is Hal and he owns a feed and seed store in town.  His wife’s name is Missy. That is pretty much all I know right now, but I will be sure to give you an update tomorrow when you arrive.”

“Okay dear.
I will see you tomorrow then.”

Loren hung up the phone, feeling a boost of energy at the thought of seeing her
mom and dad.

Remembering their dinner plans with Hal and his wife, she silently reminded herself that she had better hurry up if she didn’t want to show up on their door step smelling like horse manure and sweat.

After about another gruesome hour of mucking, Loren dumped the last load of horse manure out back behind the barn where Sam had instructed her to put it. He kept it in a small lean to and used it for fertilizing the pasture and flowerbeds around the house.  Not letting good horse poop go to waste was just another one of his silly rules.

She looked around to make sure she had put everything back in its rightful place because that was another one of Sam’s rules.
Always put it back where you got it and the way you found it. He was so organized about everything that it almost disgusted her.

C
hapter 10

Sam came to retrieve her promptly at six o’clock.
He was standing on the front porch, leaning up against the rail while waiting for her. What was taking her so long?

He wasn’t overly excited about their dinner date, but the sooner he got this over with the better.
Hal and Missy would not leave him alone until he did.

Loren walked out onto the front porch.
Sam’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. He had never seen her in anything except faded jeans, and her almost worn out cowboy boots.

She had chosen to dress in a brown calf-length, western style skirt along with a cream-colored sweater and stylish two-tone brown boots to match.
Her hair was let down and flowing around her face. She wore a light shade of makeup, just enough to accent her natural beauty.

“
Are you ready to go?” he asked trying to calm his nerves.  Why did he feel so nervous? This wasn’t a real date, he reminded himself.

“Yes.”
She gave a hand gesture that indicated that he should go first.

“Ladies first,” he insisted, while waiting for her to pass in front of him.
He enjoyed watching her skirt swish with the sway of her hips as she walked on ahead of him.

As usual they rode in silence.
The Brown’s farm was at the south end of the county, which was about a twenty-five minute drive from the ranch.

A wooden sign hung above the entrance with the word
Welcome
carved into it. The long drive was lined with huge live oak trees and a wooden rail fence. The place was very impressive, Loren thought.

Beyond the fence on both sides, you could see
several horses turned out to pasture. Loren counted about fifteen horses on one side and three mares with their foals on the other side in front of the house.

A charcoal gray foal was suckling on his mother as they passed by. He was beautiful in color and very well proportioned in build.
He would grow into a fine horse one day.

“I would name him Clouds of Smoke,” Loren said out loud.

“What did you say?” Sam asked, turning to look at her.

She turned in the direction of Sam’s voice.
“I said that I would name him Clouds of Smoke if he were mine. He is so beautiful.”

“He is a fine horse and he comes from a good bloodline that goes way back
,” Sam replied.   “Besides owning the feed and seed, Hal is well known for his breeding stock.”

“So tell me about Missy?
What is she like?” She was curious about Missy’s personality.

“She is a little sassy sometimes, but nice all at the same time.
It is hard not to like her. But I will warn you, she does like to talk, and I do mean a lot.”

“I think I can relate to that,” she answered, remembering again what her friends used to say about her talking to a brick wall.
It looked as if she already had something in common with Missy.

It appeared that they
were both talkers. This gave her confidence that they would get along just fine.  Excitement rushed through her veins at the thought of making new friends.

They came to a complete stop, directly in front of the three-car garage.
It was evident that Missy and Hal were well established when it came to money. The ranch style house was large in size and from the looks of the place they owned a lot of acreage too. The surrounding fields stretched farther than the eye could see.

Hal came out to greet them.
“Come on in, dinner is almost ready.”

They walked up on the big porch that spanned all the way across the front of the house and entered
through the front door behind Hal. Their home was decorated with antique furniture and a few western paintings hung on the walls.

Missy came out of the kitchen at the sound of their footsteps on the hardwood floor.
She was average in height and very pretty, with sleek dark hair that flowed down her back like a black river of night.

She greeted Sam with a big hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Well look what the cat dragged in,” she exclaimed with a beaming smile.
“I was beginning to wonder if you were even still alive.”

“Still alive and kicking, I
’m afraid,” Sam replied, smiling back at her, still holding her in the circle of his arms.

Loren stood back and waited for Sam to make the introductions.
She could tell that Missy thought a lot of him by the warm smile she gave him. If she remembered correctly, Sam had said they had all been friends since high school.

I
t could tell that Sam had a strong connection to Missy, which seemed a little odd to her. It was almost like the two of them shared a secret of some kind.

Shaking away the feeling, Loren extended her hand to Missy.
“Hi, I’m Loren,” she said, making her own introduction. She hoped that Missy would not view her as being rude, but it didn’t look like Sam was going to do it. With all the excitement of seeing his friends, he must have forgotten that she was standing behind him.

“Oh,” she gasped.
“I am so sorry! I guess I was so excited to see that Sam was still among the living that I have forgotten my manners. Please forgive me,” she said, taking Loren’s hand in a friendly manner. “I’m Missy, and it is a pleasure to have you in my home.”

Now that Loren had turned everyone’s attention towards her, she wasn’t sure what to say.
“Thank you. You have a lovely home,” she finally managed.

Missy took Loren by the arm pulling her in the direction of the kitchen.
“You can help me set the table while we get acquainted.” Missy looked back at Sam and gave him a wink as they entered the kitchen.

The kitchen was spacious like the rest of the house.
Rustic wood cabinets lined the walls. Missy began pulling the dinnerware from the cabinets and stacking it on the counter top.

“You set the plates and silverware.
I’ll get the glasses,” Missy said.

Loren picked up the plates and silverware and carried them into the adjoining dining room and began setting out the places on the large round oak finished table.

Missy followed with the glasses and a huge pitcher of iced sweet tea. She had prepared a country dinner of cubed steak, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green beans, slaw, and rolls.

“It smells wonderful, Missy.
You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.” Loren said, setting the last place.

“It was no trouble at all.
Didn’t Sam tell you that I love to cook?”

“No, but he did tell me that you love to talk.”
They both burst out laughing right as Hal and Sam entered the dining room.

“What’s so funny?” Hal asked.

“Nothing really, we were just having some girl talk,” Missy said. Both girls looked at each other and burst out laughing again. Loren knew that in spite of whatever secrets Missy might hold with Sam, they were going to be good friends.

Sam and Hal both just looked at each other with raised eyebrows and a shrug of their shoulders.
They both knew better than to try to figure these two out and they were more interested in eating anyway.

The food was good and offered proof that Missy knew her way around the kitchen.
The meal was followed with an apple pie made from scratch and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

While Missy and Loren cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen, the men
walked out to the barn. A new foal had been born the night before and Hal wanted to show it off.

Hal sold most of his foals, but according to Missy he planned to keep this one.
It had been born the same day that Missy had found out that she was pregnant with their first child. Hal had declared that he would raise this foal, and train it for his first-born.

Missy had confided in Loren that they had tried for years to become pregnant without much luck.
It had finally happened when they had almost given up hope of having a child of their own and were considering adoption. This was a very special time for them.

Seeing how happy Missy and Hal were, Loren realized that they had that special kind of love that most people only dreamed about.
If the truth were to be told, it was the same kind of love that she dreamed about sharing with Sam.

Knowing that he would never love her like that, she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind with a heavy heart.
It was only a dream and would never be anything more because he was still in love with his high school sweetheart, Stephanie. She doubted that she would ever be able to change his feelings.

After the kitchen chores were done, Missy led Loren out to the stables to see the new foal.
The night air had gotten cooler and the stars were shining bright. She leaned over the railing to get a better look at the newest addition to their family. He was a golden colored palomino male, with two white socks on his back feet and a white star on his face.

“We have already named him Shining Star with Two Socks, but we will call him Two Socks,” Missy told her.

“That name suites him,” Loren replied.

Two Socks got up from his sleeping position, still a little wobbly on his new legs and began to drink milk from his mother.

“Hal tells me that Sam is staying at the ranch with you for a while.” Missy said. “How is that working out?”

“He is a little stubborn and bossy sometimes, but I like having him around.
He has taught me so much about taking care of the ranch.”

Loren felt comfortable talking to Missy and told her about being adopted.
They talked about her biological parents and learning about the ranch on her twenty-first birthday.

She explained that it was her father’s idea to have Sam stay on at the ranch for a while and how it had not set well with her at first, but now she was glad that he had agreed to stay.
He was good company and she felt safer with him there.

“Sam always thought that your father would sell the ranch to him someday.
It never crossed his mind that you might actually want to keep it.  You should know that if you ever decide to sell and move back to Atlanta, he would make you a good offer.”

Loren wondered if Sam had put Missy up to
feeling her out to see if she would be interested in selling the ranch. She was guessing that he probably did. To sum it all up, he wanted her ranch, but he wasn’t interested in her. She reminded herself that he was still in love with Stephanie. Why did she keep forgetting that? Maybe it was because her heart wanted her to.

She chose to ignore Missy’s comment.
“It is getting late. I should probably find Sam. I’m sure you are probably getting tired too and you need your rest.”

Missy was quick to realize that Loren was changing the subject and in an effort to not upset her further she said, “You are right, I am a little tired.
Let’s go find those men.”

Heading off in the direction of the house they both fell silent.
The men were found lounging in rocking chairs on the front porch. Sam and Loren bid them both good night and thanked them for a wonderful dinner and all agreed that they should do it again soon.