by Sara Orwig
Memories of being in his arms, of making love to him, tormented her. Memories she had tried to forget through the years. But now that she’d seen him, they came tumbling back as fresh as if they had happened yesterday.
“I won’t get involved with you again.” She whispered the promise to herself, knowing that in some ways she would always be involved with him. There was Rebecca. And it had taken only one look into his blue eyes for the years to fall away. Could she still love him?
When she neared her family home, she looked at the tall wooden house that had belonged to her family for generations. She didn’t mind selling it. While she had been happy here, she didn’t want to move back. In Miami, she had a great place, with a big patio and a great bay-front view in a thriving metropolis she loved.
Stepping out of the car, she heard someone call her name.
She waited, watching a lanky, brown-haired man jog across the driveway toward her. Smiling, she waved.
“Maddie, welcome home.”
“Thanks, Sol. You look the same as ever,” she said, stepping forward to give the foreman a hug.
“Older now. It’s good to have you here.” He smiled at her and pushed his broad-brimmed Western hat back on his head. “How’s your mom?”
“She’s fine, so are my grandparents.”
“You should have brought your mom with you. Tell her hello from all of us.”
“I will. This is a fast business trip and then I need to get back to my work in Florida. It was easier to come by myself.”
“Let me get your things. You leave all this to me.” He moved past her to take her bags from the car after she opened the trunk. She shouldered a bag and picked up a suitcase.
“Leave those, Maddie. I’ll get everything.”
“Thanks, Sol. I’ll bring this much. You can get the rest. I’m going in anyway so there’s no need to go empty-handed.”
“Things are in pretty good shape here. When will you have somebody out to look at the place?” he asked as they walked to the house.
“I have an appointment this afternoon in Lubbock with an agency. Tomorrow I’m meeting a broker who is driving here from Fort Worth. I have a third appointment with a representative from another agency in Dallas. I’ll choose one to handle the sale and then I’ll better know the schedule for placing the ranch on the market. I’m glad you’ve found a job you want.” She entered a side door, smelling a vacant, stuffy odor as she turned off the alarm.
“Hard to leave this place, but life changes,” he said, glancing around. “It’s not the same with your granddad gone.”
“I know it’s not. It was good of you to stay for as long as I need you. It’ll be a lot easier if we can sell the place as is, with cattle included and some of the furniture still in the house. If we can’t sell it that way, then we’ll do what we have to do. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I hope we sell quickly.”
“I’ll pass the word along. We’re down to a skeleton crew now. Most hands have taken jobs elsewhere. Some have been hired on places with the stipulation that they can’t start until you’ve sold the ranch.”
“I appreciate that,” she said. “Leave the bags here at the foot of the stairs. I can get them.”
“I’ll take them to your room,” he said, moving past her to carry the bags upstairs.
“Would you like a cup of coffee? I can have a pot brewed in no time,” she called after him.
“Thanks. I’ll come have coffee later if that’s all right. I have to get back to work now.”
She returned to the kitchen to get a glass of water and followed him to the back door. “Thanks so much for unloading my car. I’m not certain how long the arrangements will take, but I hope to get everything done this week and head back to Florida.”
“The men want to say hello to you, but most of them are out in the field right now. It’s good to have you home. Sorry it isn’t the happiest occasion.”
“Thanks again, Sol,” she said to the man who had been their ranch foreman since she was two years old.
He left, striding across the porch, jamming his hat farther down on his head.
She hurried up to the room that was still hers—white furniture, frilly white curtains, a view of the front and the big oaks that had been planted years ago by her grandfather.
She paused to stare at her canopied bed. Swamped with memories, she could envision making love in that bed with Gabe the summer she had been twenty-one. They’d had the house to themselves and she had wanted to show Gabe her home. In her bedroom, he had prowled around the room looking at everything until he drew her into his embrace for a kiss. They had made love right here, in her bedroom.
She thought now about the result of that afternoon, Rebecca. At this point in time, she couldn’t guess how Gabe would feel if he discovered the truth. She suspected he’d feel the same as he would have six years ago.
Except for himself, Gabe had never really had any responsibilities. He was immensely wealthy, a millionaire; his older brother had grown up running interference between Gabe and their strong-willed father. She’d worried over her decision countless times, but she always came to the same conclusion—for her sake and for Gabe’s, to save them both and to save their child from upheaval and unhappiness, Rebecca would remain a secret.
An ache deep inside started and she gave herself a small shake, closing her eyes as if that would shut out all memories of him. She busied herself unpacking and getting ready for her appointment with the agency in Lubbock.
Picking up her phone, she called home. First, she talked to her mother and then she listened to her daughter’s high-pitched voice as she came on the phone.
“I miss you, Mommy,” Rebecca said.
“I miss you, too,” Maddie replied, feeling her insides clutch. She always hated to be away from Rebecca, especially overnight, and she missed her daughter intensely. It had been a couple of hours since the call she made after landing at DFW. She could imagine Rebecca’s big blue eyes, her brown hair falling almost to her shoulders. It was Rebecca’s blue eyes that would give away the truth if Gabe ever saw her. “I miss you terribly,” she said.
“Come home.”
“I will as soon as I can. Grandma is with you and she said you are baking cookies. You will get a cookie soon.”
Maddie sat in a rocker and talked to her five-year-old for the next twenty minutes. Finally, Rebecca said goodbye and Maddie’s mother, Tracie, came back on the phone. They talked another fifteen minutes before Maddie ended the call.
Touching her phone, Maddie looked at Rebecca’s picture, clutching it to her heart for a moment and then staring intently at it. Long ago she had locked away wishful thinking. She had stopped imagining what might be between her and Rebecca’s father, always reminding herself that Gabe was not ready for fatherhood or marriage. He probably never would be. And she had her own dreams, for a career and a life in the city. She didn’t want to spend her adult life on a ranch.
These painful thoughts and memories were what she had dreaded about this trip. She’d hoped she wouldn’t encounter Gabe, and now that she had, she was still certain it was best he didn’t learn about his daughter. If she could get through this week, she would leave Texas for good and her heartache over Gabe would fade, as it had before.
Maddie reassured herself that she could spend this evening surrounded by old friends, cut the time short and tell Gabe goodbye early. If so, their time together would be over and she wouldn’t see him again.
Two
Gabe walked across the familiar porch, remembering all the times before when he’d taken the same walk to pick up Maddie. Now, when she swung open the door, his heart pounded just as it had six years ago. She wore a dark blue, knee-length, sleeveless dress with a scoop neckline that revealed gorgeous curves. Her blond hair was caught up high on her head and fell freely in back.
His mouth went dry and he thought again that she was far more beautiful now than she had been at twenty-one. “You look fantastic,” he said in a h
usky tone.
“Thank you. You look rather nice yourself,” she added, sounding polite. “I have my purse and I’m ready to go.”
Why hadn’t he visited her after she moved away? He had always remembered her bitterness when they had parted and he had worked at trying to forget her. Now memories of the good times bombarded him. He’d always liked being with her. She had been gorgeous since she turned eighteen. Now she was devastating.
He inhaled an exotic scent he could not identify.
“I want to hear about the years since I last saw you,” he said as he climbed into the car.
He listened while she talked about her job, her graduation from the university in Gainesville and settling in Miami where her grandparents lived. She barely mentioned her family, but he knew from past conversations that they were important to her.
“I’m still surprised to find you here. We should have kept in touch, Maddie.”
“We’re far apart, in years, in geographical areas, in lifestyles, in goals.”
“We have a friendship that can bridge all that, and we have this attraction between us. Now that you’re grown up, the years no longer matter.”
“Gabe, where are we going?” she asked, looking out the side window as he turned through the front gate. “This is your ranch.”
“Yep, it is. I thought I’d cook tonight. If I take you out anywhere in this county, or any of the surrounding ones, you’ll have other people welcoming you back all night and guys wanting to dance and talk. I don’t care to sit and watch.”
She laughed. “You can’t be jealous. And I know you’re never bored.”
“Maybe I can be.”
“Which? Bored or jealous?” she asked, drawing out the word jealous. When he glanced at her, she smiled.
“I would be green with jealousy,” he replied, flirting with her. “You’re here and I want you with me exclusively. Those other guys can wait for their chances to find you with a flat tire. I’m not sharing.”
She laughed, a merry sound he hadn’t heard in too long. “Don’t be ridiculous. You haven’t seen me at all for the past six years. You have no idea who I see or if half a dozen guys are in my life.”
“They aren’t. You told me so earlier today,” he said, grinning at her. “And for now, I know that I’m in your life and that’s that.”
“Still arrogant, Gabe.”
“You’re a gorgeous brown-eyed blonde who makes me weak in the knees. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I know better than to believe that ‘weak in the knees’ stuff.”
“All right. Maybe not weak in the knees. But my heart pounds and I can’t get my breath and my palms are sweaty—”
“Stop!” she exclaimed. “That’s laying it on too thick.”
“Or maybe I remember what great times we had together.”
“We did have those,” she replied with a wistful note in her voice.
“Yet I don’t hear one word about you wanting to be with me, or being glad I want you all to myself, or finding this evening exciting, or anything else I would like to hear.”
“I said all that when I was eighteen, nineteen and twenty,” she remarked drily.
“Not enough, you didn’t,” he said. His insides roiled. He had been kidding and flirting, but her reaction was having a surprisingly deep impact on him.
“It’s been too long, Maddie. Why didn’t you come see your grandfather?”
“There was no need. He came to Florida several times a year. He’d stay a month at a time, sometimes. The older he got the more often he came and the longer he stayed. Mom tried to get him to move there to be with all of us, but he wouldn’t leave Texas. Probably felt the same way about it that you do.”
“I should have called you.”
“I really figured you had moved on with your life. I moved on with mine.”
“You’re finally a grown woman and I don’t have to worry about going out with someone too young.”
“As if you ever worried about that,” she remarked. “It didn’t keep you from asking me out.”
“You were irresistible and you still are. I’m glad you’re here. You’re absolutely certain you don’t want to keep the ranch so you can come back sometimes?”
“Positive. You know my dream has always been to get away from it.”
“When you leave this time, you won’t be coming back, will you?”
“No. There’s no reason to return, and I wouldn’t have any place to stay.”
“I intend to give you a reason to want to return,” he stated. “Besides, darlin’, you can always bunk with me,” he drawled in a husky voice, holding her hand in his. Her skin was smooth, her hand warm and soft.
“Sure, I can.” She laughed, and he gave her a glance before quickly returning his attention to the ranch road. “Someday, Gabe, you might actually marry. I don’t believe a wife would welcome me with open arms.”
“I would,” he said.
“You’re still not ready to settle. Some things never change,” she said. “I’m sure you’re the fun loving, carefree guy you’ve always been.”
“You say that like you’re declaring I have measles. You might be surprised. Time changes people.” He looked down at her bare hand. “You haven’t settled either, Maddie.”
“More than you have,” she said, staring out the car window.
“It will surprise you to know that I’ve built my own home out here.”
“Now that I’ll be happy to see. So you don’t live with the family in the main house?”
“No. Jake and I bought Dad’s shares of the ranch. I’m building because I want my own place,” he said as they passed within sight of Jake’s house.
“I understand that. And with your money, you don’t have to worry about maintaining it or even doing your own cooking. Your dad lost interest in the ranch?”
“Dad bought a place on a lake in the Hill Country. The original house is now Jake’s.”
“Oh, my gosh! Is that your house?”
“Yes, it is,” Gabe said.
“It’s the size of a hotel,” she said as he wound up the front driveway. “And they’re still building,” she added, staring at his home. “This is never what I would have imagined for you.”
“That’s interesting. What did you expect to see?”
“Something much smaller, very rustic, very masculine. You have a beautiful, old-fashioned, warm looking mansion. An enormous mansion. You can’t possibly need all that space. You must be planning on marriage.”
“I’m older, Maddie. Maybe it’s time to settle down,” he said. She turned to him. He looked at her and then back at the road. “You’re shocked by my answer. A lot of space suits me and I’ll have what I want in the future. It gives me room. That’s one reason I love the ranch—open space. Cities feel crowded, closed in. Out here, there’s peace and quiet.”
“There’s that, all right. You can sit and watch the grass grow. Your mansion amazes me.”
“I’ll have what I want in it, a theater room, a gym, an office. I’ll show it to you.”
“I would never have guessed you wanted something as lavish as this. Especially out here on the ranch. Landscaping, fountains. I’m sure you have a swimming pool.”
“You’re right. See, you don’t totally have me figured out.”
“I can say the same,” she replied, turning to give him a direct look. As his attention swung back to the road, he wondered how much she had changed while she had been away.
He parked in front of his house, cut the engine and turned to her. “So we still have a lot to discover about each other,” he said quietly.
“Don’t get ideas, Gabe. It isn’t going to happen. I plan to take care of business and then I’m gone forever.”
“Maybe. Sometimes life can surprise you.”
“May I quote you on that one?”
Her answer startled him and his eyes narrowed. “You’ve changed, Maddie.”
“How so?”
He
continued to study her, looking into her dark eyes. “You’re more sophisticated, less open.”
“Time and experience, I guess,” she replied. While he gazed at her, silence stretched between them. For the first time since he’d known her, Maddie had an air of mystery about her. She had always been totally open with him, pouring out all her feelings. That was over. She was poised, self-contained and self-assured, and he was more intrigued than ever.
“Come have a look at my home,” he said, and climbed out of the car, hurrying to open her door. As they walked up the front steps, she looked around.
“This is a beautiful porch. A bit old-fashioned, which surprises me again,” she said.
“See. There are still facets of my personality for you to discover.”
“Only if I want to learn more. Because of our past, you’re assuming that I do. I’m not twenty-one anymore. I grew up.”
“Did you ever, Maddie,” he said, his husky tone returning. “You’re a gorgeous woman. My pulse doesn’t stop racing when I’m around you.”
“We’re old friends, Gabe. That’s it,” she stated in such a no-nonsense tone that he felt an invisible wall between them.
“We’re a hell of a lot more than that,” he said, unlocking his door and turning off the alarm. He stepped back out and picked her up.
With a yelp, she wrapped an arm around his neck. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m carrying you across the threshold of my house as a way to welcome you. I know you’re not my bride,” he said, relishing holding her and breaking through the barrier she wanted to erect between them. Big brown eyes only inches from his face gazed back at him. He could detect the exotic scent she wore. Warm and soft, she was light in his arms and he didn’t want to set her down. The air between them crackled with awareness and desire. The temperature in the entrance hall climbed.
Her eyes held fire in their dark depths and her lips parted slightly. With their gazes locked, he stood her on her feet. They faced each other with only inches separating them. For him, time didn’t exist. It was as if the past six years had vanished. He wanted to kiss her and she looked as if she wanted him to.