A Ranch Called Home Read online

  “I love you, Sara,” Gabe said, his gaze searching her face. “I wouldn’t blame you if you walked out and never looked back. But I’m asking you to stay and let me prove it to you.”

  He took her breath away. There was so much she wanted to say the words backed up against the lump in her throat. Finally she managed to say, “I love you, too, Gabe.”

  He looked surprised. “You do?”

  “Completely.”

  Now that she could speak it was time to put all her cards on the table. “My love comes with only one condition, Gabe. It has to be me. Only me. I won’t share you with anyone else.”

  The lines of his face softened as he met her gaze. “There isn’t anyone else, Sara. I’ve wanted to tell you that from the beginning. But I was afraid—”

  Sara touched his lips with her fingertips.

  “Don’t,” she said. “I can’t change my past with Billy. And you can’t change your past with Ronnie. All I care about is now. And the future I hope we have together.”

  “There’ll never be anyone but you,” Gabe promised.

  He took her hand, walking backward as he led her in the direction of the stairs. When Sara cast a worried glance at the door, Gabe sent her a guilty look. “There isn’t anyone to worry about,” he said. “I just sent Smitty into town. He took Ben with him.”

  “You were pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?” Sara accused, but she didn’t halt their progress.

  “I was sure I couldn’t stand another minute without showing you how much I love you.”

  “Good answer,” Sara said.

  He drew her into his arms again when they reached the top of the stairs. He kissed her. Longer this time. And with much more urgency. They more or less stumbled through the door and into Gabe’s bedroom.

  She could feel the extent of his need, the hardness pressing against her, and the pressure of his firm body close against hers left Sara’s mind spinning.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said as his fingers tackled the buttons of her loose cotton dress.

  Sara returned the favor and unbuttoned his shirt.

  Within seconds, they were both naked.

  She should have felt self-conscious standing stark naked in front of Gabe for the first time in broad daylight. But she didn’t. Not with Gabe looking at her the way he was now, his eyes filled with love, his face so full of emotion.

  He cupped her face in his hands and he kissed her again. Then he reached up and removed the clip from her hair.

  Her hair came loose and tumbled down her back.

  Gabe let the long strands slide through his fingers.

  “I’ve wanted to do that forever,” he said.

  “I’ll wear my hair down more often,” Sara promised.

  “No,” he said. “No one sees your hair down but me.”

  He swept her up then and carried her across the room. When he placed her on his bed, Gabe pulled her close and whispered against her ear, “I want to make love to you, Sara. As my wife. The only woman I want in my life.”

  Instinctively, he’d known she needed to hear that.

  And it only made Sara love Gabe more.

  He took his time. Never hurrying, his eyes never leaving her face as his hands roamed slowly over her body. Sara tingled each time he touched her bare skin. And she knew each caress was a pure act of love. He was savoring the moment and allowing her to do the same. Making their first time together special. Sacred. Something they would always remember.

  “I want to kiss you here,” he said.

  His mouth moved to the sensitive hollow of her neck.

  Sara closed her eyes and gave in to the sensation.

  “And here.” His lips moved down to her hardened nipples.

  Sara’s fingers tangled in his hair.

  His tongue moved lower, trailing down her stomach.

  “I want to kiss you all over,” he whispered.

  Slowly, he parted her legs.

  Sara’s nails dug into his hard bare shoulders.

  She whispered Gabe’s name when his mouth moved lower.

  ONLY AFTER GABE FELT Sara give in to pleasure, did he slide his body up the full length of hers. He paused for a moment, propped up on one elbow, looking down at the woman he loved with all his heart.

  He’d never seen anything more beautiful.

  Her long hair fanned out across his pillow, and the sight of her flushed cheeks and her swollen lips drove him crazy. Still, he was determined to pleasure her again before he took any pleasure himself. He wanted to take his time, show Sara exactly what it meant for a man to truly love a woman.

  She didn’t give him that chance.

  She pulled his head down for a long kiss.

  And then another.

  Her hand trailed down his stomach.

  Her fingers closed tightly around him.

  “Make love to me, Gabe. Now.”

  Gabe lost all reason.

  His hands slid beneath her hips, pulling Sara to him. There was no holding back now. Nothing to keep them from being swept up in a frenzy of pure driving need.

  They both cried out when he slid deep inside her.

  Her arms went around his neck. Her legs wrapped around his waist. And Sara became everything. Everything Gabe wanted. All he’d ever need.

  Gabe quickly reversed their positions.

  He wanted her on top. Wanted Sara to feel him deep inside her. Wanted to heighten her pleasure as they rode one glorious wave of ecstasy after another.

  She was getting close.

  He could feel it.

  He could feel her heat. Her wetness. Her muscles tightening around him as he held on to her hips. He thrust deeper. Moved faster. His own desire mounted as he pushed Sara closer and closer to the point of no return.

  Finally, she cried out and collapsed against him.

  Her long hair brushed across his face.

  And Gabe lost all control.

  Breathless, they clung to each other.

  Amazed over what they’d just shared.

  Aware this was only the beginning.

  “I HOPE YOU REALIZE I don’t intend to spend another night without you,” Gabe said, kissing the top of Sara’s head.

  Sara snuggled closer to him. “I could be persuaded to pay you a visit after Ben is asleep tonight.”

  He tilted her chin up to look at him. Sara worried he didn’t understand.

  “You’re right. Ben needs to get used to us as a couple before you move into my bedroom.”

  Sara kissed him.

  Gabe grinned. “What was that for?”

  “For always thinking about Ben.”

  “I’m not thinking about Ben right now,” he teased, and reached for her again.

  But the unmistakable sound of the flatbed truck pulling into the driveway forced them back to the real world.

  Gabe left the bed and began pulling on his jeans. “I’ll shower at the bunkhouse,” he said. “But I’ll buy you some time by stalling Ben and Smitty.”

  Once dressed, he started for the door.

  “Don’t say anything to Smitty, okay?”

  He paused and gave her a quizzical look.

  “I know Smitty isn’t stupid,” Sara said, “but he’ll need time to adjust to us being a couple, too.”

  Gabe walked back to the bed and kissed her.

  “And what was that for?”

  “Because I love you,” he said, and slipped out the door.

  Thirty minutes later, Sara had showered and was again busy tending her pot roast when Smitty limped into the kitchen whistling a happy tune. He placed the sack of groceries on the table. Sara thanked him as usual and began unloading the paper sack.

  “Why, if I didn’t know better,” Smitty said with an unmistakable gleam in his eye, “I’d say you look a little flushed this afternoon, missy. You ain’t running a fever, are you?”

  Sara purposely ignored the old rascal’s question.

  But Smitty wasn’t too far off his mark.

  She
was running a fever—a fever that raged through her body every time she thought about the nights she’d be spending in Gabe’s bed. For the first time in her life, Sara had everything she’d ever wanted.

  Only one pesky thought nagged at the back of Sara’s mind: How can a life so wonderful possibly last for someone like me?

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE next week is Thanksgiving,” Betsy commented as she and Sara stood in the back of the kindergarten classroom.

  They were watching while Junior and Ben led Joe and Gabe around the room, pointing out pictures of the Pilgrims and turkeys the boys had painted for the holiday open house. This was what the holiday was all about—family, friends, tradition—and for the first time in her life, Sara would celebrate in that fashion. These experiences were like her fantasies. She was overwhelmed. Gratitude laced with fear that none of it would last dogged her.

  “Hey? Are you okay?” Betsy grabbed Sara’s arm.

  She managed a nod.

  Betsy fumbled through her purse and quickly produced a rumpled tissue that Sara gladly accepted. She turned her back to compose herself in case Gabe should look up and notice her tears.

  “I know you’ll think I’m silly,” Sara told Betsy, “but it just crossed my mind that someday Ben will be doing the same thing Gabe is doing now. Walking around with his own son or daughter and telling them all of the things he remembered during his first year of school in this very same room.”

  Betsy reached out and touched Sara’s arm. “I don’t think that’s silly at all. It’s a typical mother’s response. Our babies are growing up, and that’s not always an easy thing to accept.”

  “It’s more than that for me,” Sara said. “By the time I was in second grade, I’d attended four different elementary schools. Thanks to Gabe, Ben will never know that kind of instability.”

  “Don’t you think you should give yourself some credit for Ben’s security, Sara? I mean, as grand as Gabe Coulter is, the final decision to bring Ben to Redstone was yours. If Ben has anyone to thank for growing up here, it’s you.”

  Sara smiled. “How do you always know exactly what to say to make me feel better?”

  “If I’ve made you feel better, I’m glad. But we’ve become close enough friends that I don’t intend to let you harbor some ridiculous idea that because you had a rotten childhood you don’t have anything to offer your son. Security comes from being loved. Not the ranch. Not the Coulter name. There isn’t any substitute for a mother’s love, Sara.”

  As if to confirm Betsy’s last statement, Ben called out from across the room, “Hurry, Mom, come look at my desk. I wrote B-E-N right here on top all by myself.”

  “I’m coming.” Sara gave Betsy a quick hug before she hurried across the room where Gabe and Ben were currently inspecting the small desk that did indeed have B-E-N written in squiggly letters on a piece of construction paper taped to the desktop.

  “See, Mom. I can write my own name.”

  Gabe slid his arm around her shoulder.

  “Great job, Ben,” Sara said. “Your letters are perfect.”

  Ben beamed with pride and hurried after Junior.

  Gabe pulled her closer. “Am I mistaken? Or were you getting misty-eyed back there?”

  “Just a little,” Sara admitted.

  It always amazed her at how attuned to her Gabe was, as she was to him.

  Over the past few months they’d opened up to each other, filled in the blanks of their lives, so different, yet surprisingly so similar. Both of them had been hurt—her never having any family support, Gabe losing the family support he’d always counted on.

  She’d told Gabe how being disappointed time after time by a mother who couldn’t stay out of trouble had made it difficult for her to trust anyone. And how being passed from one family to another had made her reluctant to get attached to any of the foster families, knowing her stay was only temporary.

  She’d also told Gabe she’d gone to a maternity group home after her last foster parents had thrown her out. That she’d been able to graduate high school through a program the home offered. And that although adoption was strongly encouraged, once she’d made it clear she had no intention of giving up her child, the counselors at the home had helped her receive the government assistance she needed until she could find a job and take care of herself and Ben.

  Gabe had made his confessions, too.

  He’d told her how devastated he’d been when his parents were killed. And he’d told her that losing Billy was the type of pain he wasn’t sure he could survive again. He also admitted he’d often blamed himself for Billy’s death—for not insisting that Billy stay on the ranch, even though he knew no one could have talked Billy out of following his rodeo-fame dreams.

  Sara knew how hard it had been for Gabe to share any of those feelings with her. He was kind and affectionate, but he wasn’t the type of man who easily confessed what was on his mind and in his heart.

  She’d mentioned that fact to Betsy once.

  “Cowboys are a different breed, Sara,” Betsy had said. “Their actions speak louder than their words. But you can always count on one thing. Gabe Coulter is cowboy true to the bone.”

  Cowboy true.

  The expression described Gabe to a T.

  Loyalty came first with Gabe.

  Ironically, although Sara admired that trait, it was Gabe’s loyalty that often fueled her own self-doubts. She didn’t want her relationship with Gabe based strictly on that level of obligation. She wanted their relationship based on love. And that’s why Sara found herself clinging to Betsy’s other statement that actions speak louder than words.

  Over the summer, Gabe had surprised her more than once by sneaking back to the house for a secret lovemaking session. And there had been those long, moonlit walks they’d taken after Ben and Smitty were sound asleep—more proof that what Gabe felt for her went beyond loyalty.

  The stolen moments they’d shared beneath the shadows of the big spruce pines surrounding the ranch were some of Sara’s fondest memories. And there were other precious memories she’d never forget. Sunday cookouts with the Grahams, Ben and Junior laughing and running across the pasture, Bess, Bandit and Charcoal yapping at their heels. And the horseback rides she’d taken with Ben and Gabe over the ranch, riding the gentle mare Gabe had bought for her.

  She’d even acquired a pair of jeans.

  And, of course, there were times like tonight.

  Having Gabe by her side at Ben’s kindergarten open house gave Sara a sense of completeness no words could fully describe. It also reaffirmed her growing belief that the three of them really could make it together as a family.

  “Can we stop by Junior’s house for dessert before we go home, Mom?” Ben pleaded as he ran up beside them.

  As usual, Junior was following close behind.

  “We’re having punkin pie and ice cream,” Junior announced proudly.

  When Sara looked to Gabe for an answer, Gabe whispered in her ear, “That’s not exactly the type of dessert I had in mind for tonight.”

  Sara smacked Gabe on the arm.

  “Well, can we, Mom?” Ben urged, tugging on the skirt of Sara’s dress to get her attention again.

  “Of course we can, sweetie,” Sara answered. “Go tell Betsy we’ll be happy to stop by.”

  “Traitor,” Gabe teased the minute the boys ran off to tell Betsy the good news.

  “You shouldn’t be naughty in front of the children, Gabe.”

  “Does that mean can I be naughty when the children aren’t around?”

  Sara elbowed him this time.

  They both sobered when Ben’s kindergarten teacher approached. Mrs. Grayson offered a wrinkled smile and said, “I guess you’ve seen how creative Ben can be with his Thanksgiving drawings.”

  Gabe and Sara both laughed.

  Gabe said, “If you mean the cowboy hats Ben put on his Pilgrims, then yes, we’ve seen how creative he is.”

  Sara smi
led and said, “And don’t forget the Crested-C logo Ben put on the Pilgrims’ white bibs.”

  Mrs. Grayson looked directly at Gabe. “I remember another little Coulter boy who had a fascination with the Crested-C logo when he was in my kindergarten class. And if I remember correctly, that same little boy received a good paddling from me for carving the logo on one of my desks with his pocketknife.”

  Sara glanced at Gabe in time to see him blush.

  “I’d really appreciate you not mentioning that story to Ben, Mrs. Grayson.”

  “Oh, I bet you would, Gabriel Coulter,” the old woman said with a mischievous smile.

  She nodded politely to Sara then strolled away.

  Sara looked at Gabe and said, “Don’t you find it funny that we were just talking about you being naughty before Mrs. Grayson walked up and confirmed how naughty you’ve always been?”

  Gabe said, “What I find funny is that my kindergarten teacher rescued you from trying to explain why you preferred punkin pie and ice cream to the type of dessert I had in mind.”

  Sara laughed and linked her arm through Gabe’s. “Don’t worry, you’ll get the kind of dessert you have in mind soon enough.”

  “Not soon enough for my liking,” Gabe complained.

  Sara giggled and pulled him toward Ben and the Grahams, who were now waiting for them by the classroom door.

  GABE GLANCED in his rearview mirror. The excitement of the open house and too much pie and ice cream had worn Ben out. He was fast asleep. When he glanced at Sara sitting on the seat beside him, Gabe smiled.

  Sara smiled back and reached for his hand.

  Gabe knew without a doubt that he loved this woman and his nephew more than he ever thought possible. Both Ben and Sara had brought new meaning into his life.

  In fact, he was finally beginning to realize that he hadn’t had much of a life before. What he’d had were l5,000 acres of land and a hundred different excuses to isolate himself from the very things every human craved most: love and being loved.

  Yes, love was a risky business.

  But Gabe was thankful he’d taken that risk. They’d bonded as a real family, cementing relationships Gabe hoped would last a lifetime. And a lifetime with Ben and Sara was all Gabe wanted. He’d never wanted anything more.