SECOND CHANCES AT MG RANCH (7 page)

Chapter 11

Both Loren and Sam had been awake for most of the night, thinking about each other and the events of their dinner date with Hal and Missy. Him remembering the sweet, soft, sound of her laughter and her remembering that he wanted her ranch, but he didn’t want her.

The morning chores went quickly, since they had both agreed to skip their usual morning ride.
Loren’s parents were due anytime now and she needed to get the house ready for their arrival. Loren wanted them to be proud of her new home; the home that she intended to keep, with or without Sam.

In the meantime, Sam had busied himself in the workshop, hoping that by trying to stay busy, he could get Loren off his mind.
Through all the grinding, sawing and hammering it wasn’t working. He couldn’t stop thinking about her or how natural it had felt to have her by his side while entertaining with friends.  It had felt like she belonged there.  Last night had given him a glimpse of what Hal and Missy must have in their relationship.  He then found himself daydreaming of a relationship like that with Loren.

By noon Loren’s parents had arrived and she had lunch prepared and ready for them.
Amy and Josh suggested that she go ask Sam to come have lunch with them, but Loren insisted that he was probably too busy. At their persistence she finally gave in and marched herself to the barn to invite him to have lunch with them back at the house.

He was creating so much noise that he didn’t hear her enter the workshop.
Loren was amazed at what she saw; the same style of log furniture that the house was furnished with.

So now she knew that Sam had made all the furniture.
All though it didn’t really matter, she was impressed and it made her home feel even more special just knowing that Sam had added so many special touches.

She spoke his name a couple of times, but when she realized that he couldn’t hear her
over the noise, she reached out and softly tapped his shoulder. Her touch startled him causing him to jump like he had been caught red handed at doing something illegal. Giggles of laughter escaped her mouth before she could stop them.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.
My mom and dad were wondering if you would like to come up to the house and have lunch with us.” She chose her wording carefully; she didn’t want him to think that it was her idea to invite him.

After what she had learned last night, she had decided to try to keep as much distance as possible between them.
Loren also needed to make for certain that she kept her feelings to herself.

Hopefully by keeping her distance from him, she would begin to think about him less, and she was hopeful that thinking about him less would make this love sick feeling in her stomach go away much faster.

He smiled at her, loving the soft expression that laughter brought to her beautiful face, and the way it may her eyes light up.

He appeared to be in a cheery mood, she observed.
“But what do you want?” he asked, catching her off guard.

“What?” she stammered.

“I asked…

“I know what you said,” she blurted out, interrupting him.
“Lunch will be served in fifteen minutes if you wish to join us.” She spun on her heels to leave without another word or glance in his direction.  Her words had come out rather sharp but she didn’t have a mind to care at this particular moment.

“See you in fifteen minutes.
It is always a pleasure to see your parents,” he called after her sarcastically.  It irritated her that his mood was still so cheery.

Sam sensed that something was wrong with her.
He had been hoping that she had enjoyed last night as much as he had, but apparently she had not. Come to think of it, she had been more than a little quiet and tense on the drive home.

It had him wondering what might have upset her.
She seemed to get along well with Missy. He would make a point to ask her later and if she wouldn’t give him any answers, he would just have to put a little pressure on Missy. He would find out what he wanted to know one way or the other. That was just his nature.

As promised, Sam arrived at the house for lunch in exactly fifteen minutes.
Josh met him half way across the back porch with his hand extended. They shook hands.

The weather was a little unusually warm for this time of year, making it a nice day for lunch outside.
Some old folks around town were saying that the unusual weather pattern indicated a big snow was headed their way. Loren loved snow, and was hoping that their assumptions were correct.

“Nice to see you could join us, Sam.
I hope Loren hasn’t been too much trouble for you.”

“No, she hasn’t been much trouble at all.”
Sam replied to Josh, but he was looking directly at Loren when he spoke. Of course Josh didn’t seem to notice, but Amy did.

If her instincts were correct
, Sam was a bit taken with Loren and vice versa. Since their arrival, she had noticed that Loren tensed up every time that Sam’s name was mentioned and now that he was present, the tension was much more obvious.

Sam pulled out a chair to sit down between mother and daughter. His eyes met with Loren’s and held them for a few minutes as he planted his backside firmly on the seat.

Loren had a feeling that he was thinking about the dinner that they had shared just a few days ago at this same table. She wondered if he was thinking about the kiss they had shared as well? She mentally scolded herself for letting the memory slip back into her thoughts, and pulled her eyes away from his in an effort to clear her mind.

Loren
subconsciously floated in and out of conversation during the entire lunch. Her mind kept slipping away to the memory of Sam kissing her in the rain. Why did she keep doing this to herself? It was pure torture!

It would probably help if Sam would stop brushing his knuckles up against hers every chance he got.
She even tried scooting her chair a little further over to the right to put a little more distance between them. He was doing his best to agitate her and she knew it. Too bad for her, he was succeeding.

At last a feeling of relief washed over her as Josh and Sam stood to announce that they were going to the barn.
Sam wanted to show Josh his latest project in the wood shop.

Amy and Loren cleared the table and busied themselves in the kitchen cleaning up after lunch.
Loren seemed to be lost in another time warp while wiping the plates dry and putting them away.

“Uh-Hum
,” Amy cleared her throat to get Loren’s attention.

Loren peered at her
mom with raised eyebrows. What?” She tried to sound as innocent as a child.

“Oh, I just thought you might want to tell your Mother what is bothering you.”

“Nothing is bothering me.” She paused, knowing that her mother could read her like a book. But even that didn’t stop her from asking the next question in an effort to hide her true feelings.

“Why would you think something is bothering me?”

“Loren, I have been your Mother for over twenty years and I know when something is bothering you.” Amy knew her daughter well and could plainly see that she was wearing her heart on her sleeve.

“Really Mom, I’m
fine. There is nothing to talk about,” she said, keeping her tone as even as possible.  Even so, her words still came out a little too harsh.

Seeing that Loren wasn’t ready to open up about her feelings for Sam, Amy decided to just drop it. 
“Fine, you can have it your way, but I am here for you if you decide that you do want to talk about it.”  Her mother’s voice was very soft.

Amy rinsed the last plate and handed it to Loren, then wiped her hands dry and quietly left the kitchen, leaving Loren standing alone. There was no need to press the issue; she would talk when she was ready.

All this business with Sam was causing her to act strange. It had never been like her to use a sharp tone with her mother and after seeing the look of hurt on Amy’s face, she felt so ashamed. She wanted to call out after her, but she didn’t. She would make it a point to apologize later.

She finished tidying up in the kitchen and then made her way back out to the barn to catch up with everyone.
She could hear nothing but the sound of hay crunching under her feet as she entered the shadows of the barn.

There was not even a slight sound of nickering from the horses. That was strange.
Dakota always welcomed her with a soft neigh. She walked up to his stall and found that he was gone.

She looked around for other signs of her parents or Sam and saw her
mother’s handwriting on the message board that hung to the right of the tack room door.

“Gone riding, be back in a few.

Love Mom, Dad, & Sam.”

At first Loren was furious that they would all take off riding without her.
It was bad enough that they had ridden out without her, but taking her horse without asking? It left her feeling betrayed.

The reality of it all began to sink in as she read the scribbled note again.
The hurt of being left out slowly washed over her.

Loren walked the short distance back to the house and upon reaching her destination, went straight to her room.
She lay on the bed and hugged little teddy close.

Her heart was heavy as the tears began to spill onto her cheeks.
This was not like her, but she couldn’t stop the sobs once they had started. She cried softly into her pillow until she finally fell asleep.

Chapter 12

Loren awoke sometime later in the evening. “What time is it?” she mumbled to herself, glancing at the bedside clock. The clock display showed 6:10 P.M. in big bold numbers. That meant she had slept for almost five hours.

Hearing laughter drift up from the living room below, Loren pushed her weight up off the bed and walked out into the hall to peer over the railing.

Sam, along with her mom and dad were sitting in the living room, munching on some pizza and watching some old movies. Oh Lord, was that an old movie of her as a little girl? She was sure that her parents must be crazy!

Sam heard her footsteps on the hardwood stairs and looked up at h
er as she descended down to the living room.  Her eyes quickly met his. He knew in an instant that she was mad because her eyes looked as if she were about to shoot sapphire flames from them.

H
e cleared his throat and smiled, “Look who finally woke up? Would you like some pizza?” he offered, trying to lighten her mood.

It didn’t work.
She walked right past him as if he hadn’t said one word, grabbed a light jacket and stalked out the door. He was guessing that she was headed for the barn.

Josh got up to go after her, but Sam stood up and gestured for him to sit back down.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to go talk to her. I think I might know what is bothering her,” Sam said, causing Josh to look questionably at Amy, just to have her nod in agreement that Sam should be the one to go after their daughter.

Donning his jacket, Sam quietly let himself out the front door. Then he headed straight for the barn, feeling certain that is where he would find her since she always seemed to turn to her horse for comfort when she was upset.

Once Sam was out the door and out of hearing distance, Josh turned back to Amy. “What the heck is going on?”

Amy was pretty sure that Loren was in love with Sam, and considering that she had never lied to her husband in all their years of marriage, she decided to just lay it out on the table as she saw it. Hopefully her husband would at least try to understand.

“Josh, I believe that Loren is in love with Sam.” She waited for a response, but he just sat there with a blank expression on his face.

“Josh, did you hear me?” Amy asked
again when he didn’t answer.

“Yes I heard you, but I think you are
dead wrong this time. They have only known each other for a very short time, seven days to be exact. That is hardly long enough to fall in love. Besides, I have known Sam for a very long time and I think he would tell me if he were in love with my daughter.”

Amy looked at him with a worried frown on her face before speaking.
“That is all probably true, but I said that I thought that Loren was in love with Sam, not that they were in love with each other. And I would also like to remind you that we fell in love within one week of meeting and was married within two. So, yes she has had time to fall in love.”

With that new realization sinking into his mind, Josh grabbed his hat and jacket and headed for the door.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“I swear if he has touched my daughter, I will kill him.”

Amy quickly jumped up off the couch and met him at the door with the intention of stopping him.

“I think you should wait until we find out for sure if anything has happened between them,” she said, trying to buy some time.

He knew that she was right, but it was hard to force his body back down onto the couch to wait and find out if Sam had broken his little girl’s heart.

Amy also knew that it was very unlikely that Josh would kill Sam if he had broken Loren’s heart, because he didn’t have a violent bone in his body.

She could also tell that Josh was feeling torn between the daughter that he loved more than his own life and his long-time friend that he had come to love like his own son. She hadn’t spent all these years loving him so strongly without learning how to tell what he was feeling.

Sitting back down on the couch beside him, she took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, causing him to look at her.
He tried to look away quickly, hoping she wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes, but it was too late. She had already seen them and it made her heart ache.

“Josh, please don’t fret so much.
Loren and Sam are both going to be fine. I feel it in my heart.”

She lied for his benefit, hoping to make him feel better and hoping that she was right all at the same time.
Loren was growing up and they had to give her room to spread her wings. Isn’t that what they had done by giving her the ranch?

It had never crossed their minds that she might take a liking to the ranch and Sam.
They both shared the same feeling that this was their own fault for asking Sam to stay.  They continued to sit in silence, waiting for Loren to return.

Meanwhile, Sam entered the dark shadows of the barn.
He had been sure that she would have come to the barn to seek solace with her horse, but the barn was dark and quite. There was no sign of her. But if she didn’t come to the barn, then where did she go?

He walked into the darkness and softly called
out her name, “Loren?  Are you in here?” There was no sound except for the echo of Sam’s own voice.

He waited. 
Still only silence surrounded him. He continued to move about in the darkness, listening for any sounds of disturbance. He approached the light switch to flip on the lights for better observance when he noticed that Dakota was not standing in his stall.

He quickly jumped to his own conclusions and guessed that she had ridden out in the darkness by herself.
He couldn’t believe that she would be so stupid again, knowing the dangers that might be out there.  Well, yes he could, he admitted to himself. Sam had quickly learned that Loren could be bold and stubborn when it suited her mood.

His first thought was to let things be.
Let her learn a lesson in stupidity. That thought didn’t last long before he decided that he must go after her. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take him long to find her. He knew her parents would be crazy with worry. And if he admitted it, he was worried about her too. His heart was beating a mile a minute by now.

He proceeded to flip on the lights and that is when he saw her sitting in Dakota’s stall.
Her horse was lying down with his head cradled in her lap and she was rubbing his neck ever so gently. She looked as if she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and red, maybe even a little blood shot.

At first he felt relief wash over him, that she hadn’t ridden out by herself into the dark night.
Then it occurred to him that something might be wrong with her horse.  Acting upon that thought, he took some rather large steps to reach the stall door.

“Is something wrong with him?
Is he hurt?” Sam asked, not sure what to think. The horse had seemed fine when Amy had ridden him earlier.

All kinds of things were running through his head.
Did he have colic, had he been snake bitten, perhaps a twisted gut?

His voice startled the horse and it raised its head slightly.
Loren patted him, giving him some reassurance that all was well.

When she looked up at Sam, she sensed that he was truly concerned.
She felt her anger start to subside as she stared into the depths of his eyes. His eyes locked with hers, causing her issues with finding her voice. Finally, she tore her gaze from his and focused her eyes back on her horse before she tried to speak.

“No, he is fine.
I have a very trusting relationship with him,” she explained.

Feeling relief once again, Sam just stood and watched her with him for a moment.

“Well now that I know you are okay, I will just go back and tell your parents you are fine and that you will be in shortly,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Do you wa
nt to come in and sit with us?”  Her question surprised him.

What he didn’t know was that the question surprised her as much as it did him.
She wasn’t sure where it had come from. She supposed that it must have floated up from her subconscious mind. But it was too late to retract on it now.  Maybe he would just say no, and leave her alone.

Her mind seemed to become so unfocused when he was around. Who was she kidding; she could barely breathe when in his presence, let alone think.

She felt like she had been let off the hook when he turned to leave without saying another word. He flipped the lights back off. Good she thought. She liked it in the better in the dark anyway.

She listened for his retreating footsteps, but never heard them.
She was sure she should be able to hear them because she had heard him when he had come in, but after a few moments of silence, she figured that he must have walked softer on his way out.

Then, just when she thought he was gone, she heard the latch to Dakota’s stall being lifted up causing her heartbeat to pick up a faster pace.
All she could see in the darkness was his shadowed frame as he entered the stall, moving slowly trying not to startle the horse again.

He sat down so close to her that his hard muscled thigh touched hers.
Loren could feel the scorching heat of his skin through her jeans.  Her heart felt like it was about to pop out of her chest, it was beating so fast.

Deciding that this was her moment to enjoy, Loren reached over and took Sam’s hand in her own and placed it on Dakota’s face.
She let her own hand linger a moment over his before removing it. The contact caused that tingling sensation to start up again in the pit of her stomach.

Dakota lay still, loving all of the attention he was getting with Sam scratching his ears and Loren rubbing his neck.
The horse seemed to be in pure heaven.

Sam knew that he should not have taken her up on the invitation, but he couldn’t make himself refuse.
Just being this close to her could only be described as torture.

Smelling the faint hint of her perfume along with the way she had let her hand linger over his was absolutely driving him mad.
All he could think about was taking her in his arms right here and right now and making love to her like he had never loved a woman before. Sitting this close to her was making it hard to keep his body in control.

His self-control only lasted a moment longer when he turned to look at her and found himself staring into eyes that had turned a smoky blue.

Without further thought, he positioned his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. He waited a few seconds to give her the opportunity to pull away, but when she didn’t, he lowered his mouth softly to hers.

Sam kissed her very slowly until he felt her lips part, then he pressed his lips firmer to hers and plunged his tongue into her mouth for a deeper more intimate kiss.

They were both so caught up in the kiss that they had not even noticed when Dakota had moved to a standing position and was now munching on some hay.

Loren knew she should not be responding
to his kiss the way that she was.  The problem was that she was beyond controlling how she felt about this man. She wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck as he moved her so that she was sitting in his lap, her legs wrapped around his waist, facing him.

Feeling as if his veins were on fire, he ran his hands up and down her back, his lips never leaving hers.
He was slowly stoking the fires raging within.

Loren was so caught up in the passion
ate kiss that she didn’t even realize that she had begun a rhythmic grinding against him. When she felt the pressure of Sam’s manhood pressing against her bottom, it should have scared her, but instead it intensified the passion that had begun to build inside her body.

Lost in his need for her, Sam moved one hand around to cup her left breast, feeling the nipple respond to his touch as it tightened against the fabric of her shirt.
He heard the catch in her breath as if his touch shocked her, but she still showed no sign of stopping him as he slowly caressed her breast through the thin fabric, making it tauter with each stroke of his thumb and forefinger.

He was not really sure how far she was going to let him go but he knew that he could not let this get too far out of control or there would be no turning back.
Not that he wanted to turn back, but what if her parents came looking for them?

With that thought lingering in the back of his mind, he slipped his hand inside her shirt and felt the warmth of her skin against his palm. Her breast was small, but firm.
She arched her back, and a soft moan escaped her mouth between kisses.  She thought she heard Sam telling her that they should stop, but she refused to listen. She didn’t want this moment to end.

“Loren, we have to stop,” he pleaded against the warmth of her lips.

She heard his voice again, and this time he was pushing her back away from him enough so that he could see her face. She opened her eyes and slowly began to bring his face back into focus.