The Rancher's Holiday Hope

by Brenda Minton

  Max moved on to the next room. They had men working on replacing lights and faucets. Someone else was painting kitchen cabinets. They didn’t all work at the same time but it was a well-orchestrated project. It had been keeping him busy and keeping his mind off the tangled-up situation with Sierra.

  Sierra walked in and glanced around the brightly lit room and nodded. Then her gaze collided with his. Her hazel eyes warmed and her mouth turned a bit in a smile that appeared to be just for him. His mouth went a little dry.

  “You guys are amazing,” Melody said in her most enthusiastic tone. She smiled at Isaac and Joe. The two were putting Sheetrock on the wall between the living room and the dining room.

  “We’re here to help,” Sierra told him. “We can paint, clean...whatever you need us to do.”

  Isaac stepped forward, obviously glad for extra hands. “If you’d like to put liners in the drawers and bottom of the cabinets, you can.”

  “Girl stuff,” Melody said in a false whisper to Sierra.

  “Do you know how to do drywall, sis?” Max asked.

  “Well, no, but I can learn anything I set my mind to.”

  He shook his head. “Not this time. I’d hate for you to get hurt when your wedding is just two months away. Speaking of, when is Andrew coming up to see you again?”

  Her face crumpled just a bit and he had to wonder what he’d said wrong.

  “It might be after Christmas,” she finally answered. “He’s taking his parents on a cruise for Christmas.”

  “Oh.” He tried his best to come up with an answer that didn’t make it sound like he wanted to hunt the guy down. “I suppose that makes sense because next year he’ll be a married man at Christmas.”

  “Right,” Melody said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  His gaze shot past her to Sierra and he saw that her expression showed the same disbelief he felt. And that didn’t bode well for the Valentine’s wedding.

  “How’s Bub doing?” he asked Sierra as the men started moving their tools to the next room.

  “He’s better. Hobbling around, but not quite ready to keep up with me. He’s with Patsy and her children.”

  Melody made a big show of pulling her phone from her purse. Max watched, wondering what she might be up to. She’d never been good at subterfuge. She’d been the kid who would be holding cookies in her hand while denying that she stole cookies from the kitchen.

  “Oh, wow, I completely forgot,” she said with a dramatic flourish.

  “What’s that?” Max asked, as if he really thought she had something she’d forgotten.

  “I have a thing, an appointment. Not really an appointment. Mom wants me to do something for her. Christmas stuff. Sierra and I rode together.”

  “Oh, I can leave anytime,” Sierra offered.

  “I know you want to stay and help. I’d hate for you to have to leave because of my forgetfulness.” Melody’s gaze connected with his.

  Max nearly shook his head at his sister but decided to play along. “I don’t mind giving you a ride home, Sierra.”

  “Are you sure?” Melody asked. “I know you’re busy here.”

  “I was going to head out in an hour or so,” Max assured her.

  “Sierra, do you mind?”

  “No, of course not. If Max doesn’t mind, that is.”

  Melody gave Max a quick hug then Sierra. “Wonderful. Thank you for being so understanding. And I’ll see you at church tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” Sierra hesitated. “Yes, of course.”

  And out the door she went.

  “You realize she set you up?” Max asked.

  Sierra smiled, her eyes brightening. “I kind of got that vibe. But I’ve been wanting to help out, so here I am. Put me to work.”

  “We’ve got a room or two that we really can start painting.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  He gave her a quick once-over. “You’re going to want something else to wear. I think I have a work shirt in my truck. I’ll be right back.”

  She followed him to the front porch and he returned with the shirt. He held it out and she put it on. She buttoned it up the front. Standing close, he caught a whiff of her wildflower-and-sunshine perfume and thought about that scent lingering on his shirt.

  Fifteen minutes later, they were in what would probably be a child’s bedroom. Maybe it would be Linnie’s. For that reason, he’d grabbed a can of paint that was labeled “Pink Shell.”

  “What do you think?” he asked Sierra. “Will this make a good color for a little girl’s room?”

  “It’s the perfect color.”

  He handed her a roller and opened the paint can, stirring it with the stick he’d found in the box of supplies.

  Plastic sheets had been laid down on the floor. The window trim had been removed, so they didn’t have to worry about taping it off. They poured paint into two trays and went to work. She started on one wall, he on the other.

  “Nice color.” Isaac stepped into the room and made an approving face as he nodded. “I’m guessing this will be the little girl’s room? Rebecca ordered bedding and someone donated a pretty twin bed and dresser for her.”

  “Do we know which room the boys will share?” Sierra asked.

  “The room next to the bathroom is a little bigger than this one and has two closets. The largest bedroom will be Patsy’s.” Isaac gave them the rundown. “It’s going to make a good little house for raising her kids.”

  “It’s an amazing thing for your dad to do,” Sierra added.

  Isaac shrugged. “Other people are pitching in. It’s a community effort, just like Christmas at the Ranch. You know my dad, he doesn’t want the credit. He said he was just fortunate to get this place cheap. I’m going to skate out of here now. You two lock up when you’re finished painting.”

  “Will do,” Max assured him. He liked Isaac, on most days. But he noticed too much. His shrewd gaze locked with Max’s as he headed for the door.

  If Sierra noticed, she didn’t make mention of it. She quietly went back to work on the last wall. He joined her and they finished it quickly. They could now paint the area they’d avoided, the top of the wall to the ceiling. Max pulled out the special brush for the edging.

  Sierra put the roller down on the pan he’d brought in and stretched. He tried to pretend he wasn’t at all moved by this moment. He kept picturing the two of them in a home, painting a room pale pink for a...

  He blinked at the thought. Nope. He was not going there.

  She stepped next to him, watching as he did the trim work. He kept painting, trying hard to tamp down all thoughts of domesticity. Did she even want children?

  As he finished, she took a step back, positioning herself so that she could look out the window that had a view of farmland. He finally put his brush down and stretched to relieve the knots in his shoulders. He moved to her side, wondering at her stillness.

  “Hi,” she said in a soft voice, as if her thoughts were somewhere other than this room with him.

  He caught a wispy strand of her hair and let it slide between his fingers. “I don’t want to scare you.”

  “Sometimes you do.” She leaned her cheek against his shoulder. “Not for the reasons you think, though.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “You frighten me because I don’t want to be hurt. I don’t want to miss you when you leave. And I will. That scares me. That makes me want to walk away and hopefully you’ll walk in the other direction and we’ll just go on with our lives and it won’t hurt.”

  Why had he avoided relationships? He briefly remembered that he wasn’t someone who could be counted on. At least not the way she needed.

  But he wanted to be that person. For her.

  “I want to kiss you.” He pushed the strand of hair behind her ear. “I want to kn
ow that it’s what you want, too.”

  “It’s what I want.” She touched his cheek with her fingertips and her hazel eyes softened. “I want you to kiss me more than I want you to walk away.”

  He touched his lips to hers, wondering how he’d gone from a guy who couldn’t remember a date to a man who wouldn’t ever forget this woman.

  Chapter Fifteen

  He drove Sierra home, neither one of them in the mood for chatter. When they got back to the ranch, she jumped out of his truck and hurried up the sidewalk, not waiting for Max to follow. But he did. She glanced back, smiling at him as he took quick steps to catch up. He had a feeling he might follow her anywhere.

  Once, when he was about seventeen, his dad had told him it would happen like this. “Son,” Aldridge had said, “you don’t have to chase after love. One of these days it will happen and it will be unexpected, sneaking up on you when you aren’t looking for it.” He’d asked his dad how he would know it was love. His father had told him, “You’ll know it’s love because you will follow that girl anywhere.”

  “You could at least wait for a guy to stop the truck,” he called out after her.

  “It was stopped.” She laughed breathlessly.

  “Barely,” he said as he caught up with her. “And you’re beautiful when you laugh.”

  She stopped laughing and turned to stare up at him, as if she hadn’t felt what he’d been feeling all this time. But she had. He could see it in her expression, in the soft look in her eyes.

  “I suddenly can’t breathe,” she said.

  “Don’t stop breathing. That would be awkward.”

  “I don’t know what to say right now.”

  “Say you think I’m beautiful, too?” he teased.

  Her laughter returned. “No one needs to tell you that. I think your mom and Nonni probably told you that too much when you were a little boy and look how you turned out.”

  “Sierra...” he began.

  She shook her head. “No, don’t say anything.”

  “There’s a spider crawling up your arm.”

  “Stop.”

  “No, for real.” He swiped it off and she shuddered and brushed at her arms.

  “I hate spiders.” She shuddered again. “Really, really hate them.”

  “I’m sorry, I should have just brushed it off.”

  “Yes, next time do that. Don’t say anything at all, just get rid of it. Because eww, spiders.”

  She shuddered again and wiped her hands down her arms. He smiled a little, but not enough for her to see. He reached for her hand to stop her from walking away. He didn’t know what he planned to say to her but the expression on her face warned him to tread carefully.

  They were in unknown territory, he realized that. They were both feeling their way through the dark, unsure of what they were experiencing. He wanted to tell her it was the most real thing he’d ever felt. More than owning his first company, more than buying back the ranch for his parents.

  This mattered in a way nothing ever had. He pulled her close and kissed her, because words would just ruin everything. What if he laid his heart out and she didn’t feel what he felt?

  She kissed him back, pulling away slowly to whisper his name, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I’m so confused by you.”

  “That isn’t what I want.” He opened the door for her.

  Bub must have known they were home. He was already at the door, waiting for her, casted leg and all.

  “I’m going to go now,” Max said.

  She nodded, her hand sliding down his arm. “Oh, your shirt.”

  Shrugging out of it, she handed it to him before he walked away.

  There were men down by the barn, so rather than head home, he walked that direction. Joe, a longtime resident of the ranch, waved. Joe was an amputee but with his one good arm he managed to keep things running at Mercy Ranch. He’d told Max that when he’d arrived at the ranch, he’d just about given up on his life. He’d been a medic in the army and had planned on going to medical school but an explosion had changed everything for him. Now he was a ranch foreman, and a good one. But he was also going to school to be a psychologist because he said he could still help people heal, just in a different way.

  “What brings you to Mercy Ranch on a sunny Saturday? Or is that a silly question?” Joe asked, walking to the fence to meet Max.

  “I have a question,” Max said.

  “Shoot,” Joe said. He leaned on the fence and, after a quick look back at the men who were working steers into a round pen, he gave Max his full attention.

  “Does Sierra ride or does she just pet that gray bucking horse you all use to trick people?”

  Joe laughed at that. “Buckshot?”

  “Is that his name?”

  “It is. And I guess she will ride from time to time but I didn’t know she had an affinity for that horse. They bought him at auction. He was a rodeo horse and had recently thrown two or three unsuspecting owners.”

  “So you keep him around for fun to prank people?”

  Joe grinned. “Yep. And we’re not too ashamed of that. We only put a good rider on him, someone we know can handle it. I think Carson rode the daylights out of him when we put him on Buckshot.”

  “Yeah, I would reckon Carson would. Too bad Colt hasn’t come back to Hope.” Max hadn’t thought of Colt West in years. Colt was the younger brother of Carson West. Jack’s children had been gone for years, left with his wife when she’d finally tired of living with a drunk.

  Jack had since gotten sober and turned his life around, but it looked as if Carson and Isaac might be the only ones in the forgiving mood. Colt and Daisy, their sister, were still living lives far from Hope.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know Colt other than what I’ve seen on TV. He’s a good bullfighter and used to ride some mean bulls, but I don’t know how he is with horses. Buckshot, though, he isn’t going to settle down anytime soon. We’re guessing he’s about ten, so he’s spent a big part of his life bucking for a living.”

  “Would Isaac really sell him?” Max asked.

  Joe shrugged and gave Max a shrewd, narrow-eyed look. “Why would you want that horse? I just told you, he isn’t much of a saddle animal.”

  “I don’t want him for myself.”

  Joe gave a slow nod and his eyes narrowed a bit more. “Who are you thinking might want that horse and what’s the difference in owning it and being able to pet it from time to time?”

  Because Sierra had lost too much in her life and she was afraid to get attached. Those words ran through his mind but they weren’t something he could say to this man, basically a stranger.

  “I want to give him to Sierra,” he finally admitted. “She’s attached to that horse and I don’t want him sold. I don’t want her to come out here one day and see the horse is gone. If I buy him, he’s hers for good or until she’s tired of him.”

  “She can’t ride him,” Joe emphasized, as if Max didn’t know.

  “I don’t think riding him is important to her. There’s probably two dozen horses on this ranch she can ride.”

  “I reckon that’s the truth, but I also reckon if you buy this horse for her, you’re making a statement.”

  “Regardless, I want this horse for Sierra.”

  “I’ll let Isaac know.”

  “Thanks, Joe.”

  He walked away half pleased with himself and half afraid of what Joe had said about the horse making a statement. Sierra needed to know that this horse she was attached to wasn’t going anywhere. Sometimes animals stayed, people stayed.

  He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind because he wasn’t sure how he could stay in Hope.

  But he also wasn’t sure how he could leave.

  * * *

  Sunday after church Sierra joined Kylie, Melody, Nonni and Doreena along wit
h several other women from the church. They had bags and boxes of items for the Christmas at the Ranch celebration.

  Sierra backed her SUV up to the porch of the Stable and got out. There were a half dozen other vehicles waiting to do the same. The community had outdone itself in supporting the event that would make Christmas a lot merrier for everyone in and around Hope.

  “Where are we going to put all of this?” Kylie asked as she came around the side of the car.

  “Good question!” Sierra looked in at the boxes loaded in the back of her SUV. “I already have one storage room almost full. I think this can go in my office. I’ve got tables set up in the reception arena. I have a clothing section, toys, household goods, parent gifts. We’ll need one to two people to oversee each section when the event happens next Saturday. We will also have the kitchen staff and food. So we’ll need tables for the meal.”

  “Wow.” Kylie blinked a few times. “Where have you been hiding this person?”

  Sierra teasingly punched her friend’s arm. “I haven’t hidden her.”

  “No, seriously, something has changed,” Kylie said.

  “Nothing has changed. God and I have had a long talk. Lately, He’s helped me find peace. It’s the chapel.”

  “The wedding chapel?”

  Sierra motioned for Kylie to follow her. “It’s best in the morning but afternoon is also spectacular. It’s the windows.”

  Kylie looked extremely puzzled. “Okay, show me because I’m obviously not getting it.”

  Sierra led Kylie through the front lobby of the Stable to the chapel. Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, bathing the large chapel with its pine walls and vaulted ceilings in golden sunlight. The room smelled of pine, flowers, evergreen and sunshine.

  “This room. I spend so much time in here. Everyone believes I’m always down here planning the next wedding, but sometimes I’m here because in this room I feel His presence here.” Sierra sighed. “This room is where I’ve found more emotional healing and peace than anywhere else. Ever.”

  Kylie’s eyes turned liquid and she hugged Sierra.