A kind, loving woman who would be a best friend and partner and a house full of happiness and sweet—and a little wild—kids.
Nick turned to him. “Are you watching?”
“I am, buddy. Great job.”
Pride lit Nick’s eyes and he sat up straighter.
It felt damn good to give Nick that sense of accomplishment and be a part of his life if only in a small way. Luke hoped Nick remembered today and how brave and free he felt riding.
“Sit up in the saddle, Jack. You guys are doing great. Wait until your mom sees you.”
“Where is Mommy?” Nick asked.
Luke tried not to let his worry for Sarah overwhelm him. “She’ll be here soon.”
At that moment, Ace sprinted across the road and into the field with Sarah riding bareback low over his neck. Her hair flew out behind her like Ace’s tail. Woman and horse appeared to be in flight.
His heart raced. True fear clamped his lungs tight and stopped his heart. Sarah was a little bit of a thing, and Ace was a huge stallion. If she fell, she could be seriously injured or killed at the speed Ace galloped.
Just when he was about to go after her, Jack called out to him, “Look at Mommy go. I want to ride like that.”
Jack set his feet wide to kick his horse and make her take off, but Luke scolded, “Don’t!” Jack slowly lowered his feet. “It’s dangerous. You could get hurt. Remember the rules we talked about?”
“Yes. No going faster than a walk, or I could fall and hurt myself.”
“That’s right. We’ll have to tell your mommy that when she gets back.” Luke had a few other choice words for her about being reckless with his horse and her life.
His anger simmered, but he continued instructing the boys, watching their progress around the arena. Fifteen minutes later, Ace and Sarah returned from the field and headed for the arena entrance. She trotted in, and although Luke was steaming mad, he couldn’t help but notice Sarah looked magnificent. Flushed from the ride, a huge smile graced her beautiful face for the boys. She matched Ace’s pace to that of the boys and their horses.
“Hi, boys. Having fun? You look like real cowboys.”
“Like Luke?” Jack asked.
“You sure do. Keep practicing, I’m going to talk to him.”
He tried to keep his voice low, but he really wanted to yell. “Are you crazy? That horse could kill you, and you take off bareback on him with no regard for his safety, or yours.”
“You don’t have to snap at me. I’m an experienced rider, and Ace is a great horse.”
“He’s a very expensive horse, and I can’t take the chance that he’ll get hurt with you riding him like a maniac. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Listen, I took care of your horse and exercised out his frustration from the morning. I can see you’re upset, but the horse is fine.”
He kept his concern on the horse because thinking about her being hurt still made his anger and fear rise. “He’s got a bad hoof. Did the doc take care of it?”
“The hoof is fine. Nothing but a stone. You need to fire that terrible vet. Ace doesn’t trust him. I don’t either, for that matter.”
“Is that so?” He didn’t like her telling him what to do on his ranch. But maybe she had a point. He’d been having doubts about the vet’s skills and lack of enthusiasm for his job.
“He doesn’t keep his tools clean, he has no patience with temperamental horses, he’s arrogant, and he lacks common sense when it comes to dealing with irate horses. You should contact Dr. Fields. She works at a ranch I know about. She’s great with horses and is building a reputable list of clients.”
He usually didn’t mind someone making suggestions, but something about her showing up and taking authority of his prized horse and sending him off to babysit rubbed him the wrong way and his mouth ran away with him. “Taking care of Ace for me is one thing, telling me who I should hire and fire is something else. I run this ranch, and I make the decisions. You don’t get to take over just because you feel like it. Maybe that worked with Sean when you took over his life and business, but it won’t work with me.”
The stillness in her unsettled him.
He’d gone too far, and said things he didn’t really mean.
By the look in her eyes, he’d hurt her feelings, but she quickly hid that away and blanked out everything on her face.
She swung her leg over Ace’s back, slid down his side, and landed on the dirt. Her leg gave out, but she caught herself. He thought he saw a flash of pain, but she turned away before he could really tell.
He looked Ace over for any sign he’d been hurt or favored his back leg. The horse looked fine and stared adoringly at Sarah, irritating Luke even more.
She gave him that blank look again. “Thank you for teaching the boys to ride. I’m sorry I missed the lesson, but it appears they’ve learned a lot in a short time. I appreciate your taking the time with them. They’ll never forget it.” With that sincere gratitude, she turned and walked to where the two boys had halted their horses in order to watch their exchange, making him regret raising his voice and talking about Sean in front of them.
“Come down now, boys. It’s time for lunch.”
The boys dismounted just like he taught them, with an assist from Sarah.
Luke wanted to put a stop to this, but didn’t know what to say.
She tied the horses’ reins to the arena fence, grabbed both boys by the hands, and turned them to face him. “Thank Luke for the riding lesson.”
“Thank you, Luke.” Nick looked downright sad about cutting the day short.
“Thank you,” Jack said to the ground, then turned his disappointed gaze to Sarah. “Mom, I thought we were going to see the whole ranch and have lunch with Luke.”
“It’s time to go. No arguments.”
The disappointment on the boys’ faces cut Luke deep.
Before he could say anything else, Sarah turned her back on him, and took the boys with her. He should go after her and apologize for yelling and . . . and what? Being stupid. The truth was he had no idea why he was mad, except that ever since he’d seen her yesterday, he couldn’t stop analyzing his life. And he didn’t like what he was thinking.
Ace fussed again, so Luke turned his back on Sarah and the boys to calm the horse. He ignored the sound of their car driving away and the loneliness that settled over him.
“Where’d they all go?” Jerry asked, coming up behind him.
“They left.” Luke’s tone and stance should have warned Jerry he didn’t want to talk and was working on a good mad.
Jerry ignored the danger signs. “Well, I hope you thanked Sarah for what she did. She was amazing with Ace. She sings like an angel, too.”
“Yeah, she does.” He feared her voice would haunt him forever. “She told me I should fire the doc. Can you believe that? She’s not here more than an hour and she’s telling me what to do, like she runs the place.”
Jerry stuffed his hands in his front pockets. “I agree with her. I don’t know what the doc was thinking, but every time she told him to stay back he’d get closer to Ace, agitating him. She’d calm Ace all over again. When she gave Ace his shots, he didn’t even flinch. He just moved closer to her, so that he could touch her. Besides all that, she had to clean several pieces of Doc’s equipment before she used them on Ace.”
“I thought Ace just got nervous around the vet because he knew there’d be a poke or pain.” Luke rubbed his hand down Ace’s nose. “You really stood still for her?” He spoke to the horse, but Jerry answered for him.
“Yep. He didn’t even try to nip her all the while she checked every inch of him, nose to tail. Ask me, he’d have never cut himself if the doc showed any patience toward him. Doc hated that you asked Sarah to tend to Ace and did nothing but cause trouble the whole time she was working on him. Doc treated her downright rude.”
“What’d she do? Bitch and moan about it the whole time.”
“Nope, not a word. She kept s
inging to Ace, keeping him calm, and doing everything that needed to be done. She must have brushed him from head to tail four, maybe five times.”
He eyed Jerry, seeing the admiration in his eyes. “So you like her?”
“What’s not to like? She’s beautiful, sings better than any person I’ve ever heard on the radio, and treated your stubborn horse like a precious baby. Why are you being so hard on her?”
Luke wanted to kick his own ass. “I don’t know.” Because she might have screwed over Sean.
Because she got under his skin and he wasn’t sure he could trust her.
Jerry shook his head in dismay. “Ask me, you should’ve been a little more hospitable to your guest, especially after she worked her ass off for you.”
He raised a brow at Jerry’s tone. “Is that so?”
“God’s truth. I never seen Doc work that hard on Ace, on any animal, or for you.”
The rebuke properly cowed him. “Shit. How am I going to make it up to Sarah?”
“Seems to me a thank-you would do. I think she’d appreciate a simple kindness. She showed enough of it.”
“I don’t know any woman who only wants a simple thank-you.”
“She’s not like other women.” Jerry gave him a you’re-an-idiot look, hooked a lead rope on Ace, and walked him back toward the stables, calling over his shoulder, “It’s not like you to run off a good-looking women. Ask me, that one was a keeper.”
Was she? Margaret didn’t think so. In fact, she blamed Sarah for Sean’s untimely death. She painted a very disturbing picture of Sarah’s past.
But was it true?
He pulled his cell from his back pocket and hit the speed dial despite the fact he didn’t want to go down this road. “Dean, it’s Luke. I have a job for you.”
“You haven’t taken a new client in a while,” his top investigator said.
Yeah, he’d been focused on the ranch. He needed time away from helping people who broke the law circumvent the system, outright get away with their crimes, or serve far less time than they deserved. He had some innocent clients, but most had earned the charges against them and paid him a ton of money to get them out of trouble.
He not only wanted to know, but needed to know which side of the legal line Sarah stood on.
“I’m helping out a friend who is having difficulty getting regular visitations with her grandchildren.” True. But also not exactly a clear picture of the situation. Sarah had brought the children as requested. “Anyway, I need you to dig up everything you can on Sarah Spencer. She runs Spencer Software. I’m particularly interested in an arrest for arson when she was a teen.”
“Those records are probably sealed, boss.”
Luke sighed. “I know you can get them.” Whatever Luke asked for, Dean produced. Dean had contacts everywhere.
“It’ll cost you.”
He had no doubt. “Whatever it costs. I need those records and any others you find.”
“On it. Bad moms are the worst.”
He felt like shit for doing this. From what he’d seen, Sarah was a good mom. She’d done nothing to warrant this kind of intrusive probe into her past.
He just couldn’t live without knowing who she really was. He wasn’t even sure he’d share whatever he found with Margaret.
“Just get it done discreetly and quickly.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I know.” Dean hung up.
Luke wondered if he’d just made a huge mistake.
He glanced around the arena. All of a sudden, the ranch felt quiet and empty.
He wanted it to feel like home, not just a place to hang and sleep. But he feared it would never really feel that way because home included the people who loved you.
And he lived alone.
Maybe he deserved it for some of the shit he’d done in his career. Like picking apart a woman’s life for no good reason. He was proud of most of his cases. He’d helped a lot of people, but a few of his clients left a black mark on his heart.
He really hoped he didn’t make things worse with Sarah.
He took Stella’s and Mandy’s reins and led them out of the training ring toward the barn to put them back in their stalls so he could check on Ace and deal with the vet. But all he really thought about was how badly he’d handled things with Sarah.
Chapter Ten
Sarah heard the doorbell downstairs. Though she expected Sean’s sister, Bridget, and her daughter, Sophia, to arrive sometime in the next half hour, she still had to tamp down the anticipation that it might be Luke. She hated the way they’d left things yesterday, and especially didn’t like that he thought her reckless and anything like the woman Margaret made her out to be.
Since school had started a few weeks ago, the kids were working on the packets their teachers had given her before they left for the trip. She hated taking them out of school for this extended time but Margaret hadn’t left her a choice.
She handed Jack his math worksheet. “Do all the problems you can on your own. I need to go see who is at the door.” She checked on Nick, lying on the bed with his clipboard in front of him. “How are the b’s coming?”
Nick stopped tracing the next one on the sheet and looked up at her, smiling. “I did it.” He’d traced the dotted letters about twenty times now.
“Great job, buddy.” She handed him a blank sheet. “Now try to write them on your own.”
He took the paper and did the first one, then showed her the shaky but definitely proper lowercase b.
“Don’t forget to do a line of uppercase ones, too. I’ll be back soon.”
Sarah rushed down the stairs just as Margaret came out of the kitchen. “I’ll get the door.”
“About time,” Margaret snapped, like Sarah had somehow become the butler.
Sarah opened the door, disappointed to find Sean’s sister, Bridget, standing on the porch and not Luke.
“About time,” Bridget snapped in the same tone Margaret liked to use on her. “What took you so long?”
“I was helping the boys with their homework.”
Bridget walked in, making Sarah have to stand back and out of the way before she got run over.
Sarah was getting really tired of the cold shoulder and outright attacks from Margaret. She didn’t need more of them from Bridget, too.
Bridget went to Margaret and hugged her. “Hi, Mom. How are you?” She glanced back at Sarah, then focused on Margaret again. “Everything okay?”
Like Sarah would do something to harm Margaret. She rolled her eyes, not even trying to hide her irritation.
“Yes. I’m fine. Just waiting for the boys to come down so we can have some fun with Sophia.”
Sarah’s gaze fell on the pretty ten-year-old who walked in behind her mom. “Oh my God, Sophia, you’ve grown a foot since I last saw you.”
Bridget pinned her with an angry stare-down. “It happened when you refused to let Sean visit his family. You could care less if the kids really get to know each other.”
Bridget’s hostility made Sophia uncomfortable, and the little girl took a step away from all the adults.
“Sean did whatever he wanted.” A fact Margaret and Bridget never accepted. Since she couldn’t make any headway with them, she focused on her niece. “How have you been, sweetheart?”
“Good, Aunt Sarah.”
“How is your dad?” she asked, hoping to show Sophia that she still cared about her and her family.
“Hopefully crying over his new girlfriend dumping him if she’s smart.” The venom in Bridget’s voice made Sophia’s embarrassed and hurt gaze drop to the floor.
Sarah took a step closer to Sophia. “I was really sorry to hear about your parents’ divorce. That’s got to be really rough.”
Sophia’s head came up and she nodded.
“The boys are upstairs in their room. They can’t wait to see you. I might have also left a present upstairs with them for you.”
The sadness in Sophia’s eyes disappeared behind her excitem
ent.
“Go on up and get it.” Sarah waited for Sophia to leave before she turned to Bridget. “What is wrong with you?”
“Me? You’re the one who sent Sean over the edge and kept the boys from us all this time.”
“If you wanted to see them, all you had to do was ask.”
“Like you’d bring them.”
“They’re here,” she pointed out.
Bridget pressed her lips tight. “And you’re here.” The snide tone irritated Sarah. “But we both know it’s only because Mom threatened to take you to court.”
“All either of you had to do was ask. We don’t need a lawyer or judge. It’s unnecessary and a waste of money when a civilized conversation would do.”
Margaret joined in on the attack. “Sarah loves spending Sean’s money. She had her housekeeper drive in to clean my house and called a gardening service.”
“You’re welcome,” Sarah shot back, because Margaret should thank her for fixing up the house and yard. “The house and yard needed to be clean and safe for the boys.”
Margaret’s gaze dropped to the floor. Maybe she regretted jabbing at Sarah with the unwarranted accusation.
“We know you’re just showing off.” Bridget dared her with a look to contradict her.
Sarah really didn’t want to fight.
Bridget didn’t back off and spewed even more indictments. “Now you’re buying off my daughter with gifts so she’ll still like you.” Snotty. And untrue.
“The gift is because I feel bad for feeling like I couldn’t reach out to her the last two years to give her birthday and Christmas gifts because you and Margaret made it clear I wasn’t welcome. I wasn’t sure that if I sent her something, you’d actually give it to her.”
“Of course I would.” Bridget sounded sincere, but Sarah didn’t quite believe her. “I’m not a monster like you.”
“So talking about her dad like that is you being nice.”
“Enough.” Margaret turned to Bridget. “I understand you’re upset that the divorce was just finalized and he’s seeing someone new, but talking that way . . . It’s not good for Sophia to hear things like that or see you so angry at her father.”
Lost and Found Family Page 6