He smiled with her. “It just takes a little guts. How brave are you?”
She looked at Sam, but wasn’t thinking about bravery, or even the idea of having her own riding school. “What about your ranch? Your life in Texas? If we did this, then….”
“
Then I’d have to move here,” he finished for her. He squeezed her hand. “I told you. As long as we’re together, I don’t care where we are. I’ll keep the ranch and we’ll take Ethan there to visit, like I did growing up.”
The thought of him giving up so much for her, for their son and a chance at a life together, made her a little sad. As if she were taking everything from him. Selfishly.
“
What about a riding school on the ranch?” she asked.
He cocked an eyebrow at her, as if surprised she’d even consider moving to Texas with him. Then he shook his head. “It’s too far from anywhere. You’d never get anyone to drive out that far. And Ethan needs to be here, with his family.” His eyes glazed as he laughed softly. “Watching him play with the kids, with his cousins, it’s like…. I can’t even describe it. You’ve gotta see it. This is where he belongs.”
She fell back on the bed and let her mind roam free, let herself imagine this fantasy life Sam described. It seemed too good to be true, and her father had always warned her about that. Opportunities are earned. But she knew Sam was right about one thing. Ethan needed his family. All of his family. He needed more in his life than a stressed mother and distracted aunt, a few toys on the floor.
“
You said it yourself,” Sam said, leaning over her. “It’s his life we have to consider. I’m doing that.”
He didn’t say it, but the question hung in the air. Was she considering what was best for her son? At some point, if she truly planned to marry Sam and build a life with him, she had to start thinking of the three of them as a family. Not just her watching over Ethan while Sam looked on at a distance. She had to let him, and his family, into Ethan’s life. And hers.
A bubble of joy began to grow somewhere deep inside her, and it scared her half to death. Her first instinct was to push the bubble back down, stop it before she lost control. Then Sam kissed her and the rightness of his lips on hers, his strong arms around her, overpowered her fears and the bubble of joy returned.
“
What do you say?” he asked, smiling down at her. “Wanna see what we can accomplish?”
She nodded before she could stop herself. Before the fear returned.
Sam gave her another warm, deep kiss. “Train’s rolling now,” he said. “Don’t even
try
to stop it.” He sat up and dug his phone out of his pocket. “What time is it?” He looked around then remembered he had a clock on his phone. “They’re still up. I’ll call Dad and make sure he was serious.” He stood and walked away.
“
Where are you going?”
“
I left something in the other bathroom. Something your sister doesn’t need to see. We’re celebrating tonight.”
A tingle ran through her and the bubble of joy returned. She couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, yeah we are.”
He stopped in the doorway. “I’m taking you riding tomorrow,” he said, pointing at her, grinning. “I need to see you on a horse.” He walked away, chuckling. “I can’t even imagine that.”
He was right. She needed to see herself on a horse again. Was that the kind of skill a person could forget? She’d loved riding horses, and had never forgotten the way it felt to fly through the air, but she’d put that part of her life behind her. She wasn’t sure she could get it back.
But she was finally willing to try.
***
Brandon Stewart sat parked off the road in the dark and watched the old farmhouse. He’d followed them from Jenna’s house, driving his sister’s Audi Roadster so he wouldn’t be recognized. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but they’d packed Strickland’s truck full of bags and boxes and then Jenna had followed him in her car. They’d arrived at this crappy little house and unpacked everything. As if they were moving here.
He wasn’t sure what Jenna was playing at, but she couldn’t get away that easily. She’d tried to go over his head, to his grandfather, as if she’d thought that would stop him. He’d endured a scolding, sitting in his grandfather’s office, a reminder that the family had a reputation to uphold, a code of conduct to follow. With great power comes great responsibility and all that crap.
Brandon had a saying of his own, one that hick Strickland could appreciate. If Jenna wanted to mess with the bull, she’d get the horns.
He was only getting started.
***
When Jenna woke to daylight, she found Sam gone and Ethan sleeping in bed with her. Sam had left a note on his pillow. He’d found Ethan wandering around lost and half-asleep. He’d be back soon. He didn’t say where he’d gone.
Rolling to her back, she listened to the house, blinking around the unfamiliar room. She glanced at the lighted numbers on the bedside clock. It was eight-thirty. Her stomach clenched and for a moment she thought she was late for work. But she didn’t have a job anymore.
And a part of her was glad. She wasn’t sure she could have gone back there, anyway. It was more than she could have stood to go in to the office and face her co-workers. People who thought she’d tried to earn her promotion through unethical means. Who probably thought she’d given Mr. O’Hara a stroke. Some would be snickering at her failed attempt. And she didn’t want to go back to the life she’d had before, the dull and tiring life she’d led before Sam had returned to her world. She was tired of living the life arranged for her by her father.
The new house, the unfamiliar room, gave her a slight thrill, as if she were on vacation, staying in a nice hotel. It was as if part of her brain had shut off, the part that took care of responsibilities. Sam had awakened a side of her that she’d kept dormant for the past three years. But now that she’d remembered, now that she’d had a taste of youth again, she wanted more. A lot more. She wanted to feel like she had at the waterfall. She wanted to keep running and jumping.
She closed her eyes, remembering the night she’d spent with Sam in this bed, his body around hers, his heat consuming her. She loved those moments when she knew his thoughts were only of her, as if they were the only two people in the world.
She got up and dressed then sat on the bed and stroked her son’s soft hair.
Ethan opened his eyes and stretched.
“
Are you awake yet, pumpkin?”
He nodded and rubbed his eye.
“
Wanna get up?”
He yawned and then turned over, pushed up to his knees and looked around. “Who’s this?”
She looked around the room. “
Where
is this? This is our new home, sweetie. What do you think?”
“’
kay,” he said inside another yawn. He held out his arms, so she took him across the hall to get him dressed.
The blue bear Ethan’s grandmother had given him was on the bed, and she was glad she’d tossed that in with his things. She handed it to him and he hugged it as she cleaned him up and got him dressed.
She was about to take him downstairs for breakfast when Brianna stumbled into the room and handed her the phone. “Call,” she said and turned and stumbled away again. “I want my own phone.”
Jenna checked the caller, surprised it was her realtor so early in the morning. Someone had just made an offer on the house, Karen told her. A full-price offer. She accepted the offer right then, certain she’d created some kind of magic when she’d decided to come to this house. To leave her old life, and her old problems, behind. Somehow, even losing her job seemed like a gift now.
She smiled at Ethan who was fully awake and smiled back.
A rumbling sound came from outside and she stepped up to the window to look out. Sam’s truck rolled to a stop out front.
“
Daddy’s home,” she told Ethan. “We like Daddy, don’t we?”
“
Yeah,” Ethan answered, nodding vigorously.
She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Do you know who Daddy is?”
He nodded, then shook his head and climbed off the bed.
She picked him up and carried him to the window to watch Sam walk up to the house. “Who’s that?” she asked, not sure how else to explain Sam’s role, and importance, in Ethan’s life.
When he didn’t answer, she prompted him. “Is that Daddy?”
“
Yeah,” he said uncertainly. He almost always answered ‘yeah’ to questions he didn’t understand. Unless he felt fussy, then ‘no’ was the usual response.
She realized then she needed a current picture of Sam to show Ethan, repeatedly, until it sank in. A picture she could frame and put in his room.
She set Ethan down and he set off running, turning the wrong way down the hallway. She waited until he reached the end of the hallway, looked around and then ran back.
She took his hand to lead him toward the stairs. “Wanna ride horses today?”
Ethan’s mouth flew open and he hopped a few steps. “Horsey!”
“
Your granddad said we could come out today.” He’d also said if Sam was willing to take on the responsibility of the farm, he was ready to step aside. They were creating a new world of their own, Sam had said.
Jenna smiled at Sam as he came in the door with two cups of coffee and a bag of some kind of breakfast. Ethan pulled away and went to explore the room, patting everything he came in contact with.
Sam handed her one of the coffees and gave her a kiss on the head. “Where’d you go so early?” she asked him.
“
Early? It was after seven. I dropped by the farm to chat with Dad, stopped to wash the truck, then I went to town and got breakfast.”
“
Is everything okay with the farm? Is your dad still okay with it?”
“
We’re good to go.”
She reached for his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. “I hope I’m doing the right thing.” Not that she had a lot of options right now. There weren’t any other offers on the table.
“
You’re only twenty-five,” he said, giving her an assuring shake. “If you flub up there’s plenty of time to do something else.”
She knew he was teasing and only gave him a light jab in the ribs with her elbow. “I’m trusting you,” she said.
“
Finally,” Sam said.
“
And do you trust you yet?”
“
Do
I
trust me?” He chuckled. “I got over that like, two whole days ago. Ancient history.”
Ethan ran into the kitchen and they followed him. Jenna pressed on her stomach, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. The part of her brain that had shut off earlier, the part that handled responsibilities, turned back on now. Painfully.
Her stomach tightened with fear. She’d lost her job. A steady income and benefits. Health care for Ethan.
Sam draped his arm around her neck bouncing the food bag off her chest. “We’ll be fine. Everything will be fine. You’ll see. Don’t worry.”
“
I’ll try.” She found Ethan’s booster seat among the things she’d brought and left on the floor by the wall. She set him in a chair and went to look through the bags of food she’d brought from the house. She found the oatmeal Ethan liked in one of the bags, and the milk in the fridge she’d unpacked from the cooler last night. Glad to see a microwave, she found a bowl and spoon and set that to work then went back to the table for her coffee.
Ethan was already munching on hash browns Sam had given him. Sam sat back with a smug look on his face and pushed a wrapped breakfast sandwich toward her. She remembered then that someone had made an offer on the house. A full-price offer. More than the house was worth and enough to pay off the mortgages.
She took Ethan’s oatmeal out of the microwave and stirred it as she carried the bowl to the table. She wanted to clear up the situation with her house. She was glad for the offer but didn’t like Sam going behind her back to do it.
“
I got an offer on the house today,” she said to check his reaction.
He was in the middle of a bite, but his eyebrows shot up. “That’s good,” he said as soon as he’d swallowed.
She held out the spoon to Ethan when she noticed he was ignoring the oatmeal in favor of the hash brown patty. He ignored the spoon, as well, so she gave up. “It’s great.” She shook her head, remembering she’d decided to trust Sam. But she wasn’t trusting him now, she was interrogating him. “Did you do it?”
“
Me? No.” When she raised an eyebrow at him, he held up his hands. “I swear. I would have. I thought about it, but figured that was the kind of thing we’d need to talk about.” He loosely pointed at her. “I know you better than you think I do.”
She opened her sandwich wrapper, a little confused, but happy the offer was an honest one. She sent him an apologetic smile. “Okay. Sorry. I’d given up hope of ever selling that place.”
He gave her wrist a squeeze. “So, what’s on the schedule for today?”