Faron

by Joan Johnston

  Faron marveled at how differently his two older brothers had viewed their mother’s infidelity. Garth remembered only the hurt. Jesse had remembered the healing. Surprisingly, Faron felt better knowing that his illegitimate birth hadn’t split his parents apart, but might even have helped draw them closer together.

  Faron had hung up the phone feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, one he hadn’t even been aware he was carrying around.

  Remembering the two phone calls reminded Faron that he had already set in motion plans to get Belinda to visit Hawk’s Way. Now all he had to do was convince her she should go.

  “I think you’d like my brothers and sister if you ever met them,” Faron said, breaking the peaceful silence between them.

  Belinda was still half dreaming and murmured, “Maybe I will someday.”

  “How about Labor Day?”

  Belinda put out a foot to stop her rocker. “What?”

  “I got a call while you were gone to the airport. The family is getting together for the christening of my sister Tate’s son. I’ve agreed to be his godfather. I thought you might like to come with me.”

  Belinda wasn’t sure what to think, what to do. “That’s two months from now. Maybe the ranch will sell, and you’ll be long gone by then.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “I couldn’t leave Madelyn alone,” Belinda said.

  “I’ve already invited Maddy to come, and she’s agreed.”

  “Maddy’s your grandmother. She has a reason to come.”

  “I want you to come, Belinda.”

  Belinda searched Faron’s face. “Why?”

  “Because this will be an important moment in my life, Princess. And I want to share it with you.”

  “I…”

  “You don’t have to answer me now. Just think about it.”

  A moment later Belinda was alone. Faron had disappeared in the direction of the barn.

  * * *

  OVER THE NEXT MONTH FARON KEPT his distance from her. At first Belinda was grateful. She figured he stayed away so she wouldn’t feel pressured to accept his invitation. It also allowed her to avoid having to examine her feelings for the Cowboy. However, Belinda soon realized that unless she spent time with Faron, she wouldn’t have a chance to find out whether she wanted their relationship to develop further.

  So when she got a call from a corporate buyer who wanted to take a look at King’s Castle, she saddled her horse and went in search of Faron. She found him working on another windmill on the northern border of the ranch.

  “I thought you had hired men to do the manual labor,” she said as she stepped down from the saddle.

  “This just needed a little fine-tuning. Thought I’d take care of it myself.”

  Belinda took a moment to admire the man. He had removed his shirt, and his bronzed upper torso glistened with sweat. The muscles in his back bunched as he manhandled the wrench he was holding. He twisted it once more, then stood and threw the wrench into the tool box in the back of his pickup. He pulled a bandanna out of his back jeans pocket and used it to wipe the sweat from his brow.

  He seemed to realize suddenly that she was staring at him. Only this time when he met her gaze, she didn’t look away. She did nothing to hide her desire. Nothing could have been a more powerful aphrodisiac.

  “Why did you come out here?” he asked.

  “There was a phone call…” Belinda lost her train of thought as Faron reached out and cupped her cheek with the palm of his hand. He tilted her face up and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to lift her lips to meet his.

  Warm. Welcome. Like coming home. She hadn’t known she needed his kiss so much.

  Soft. Receptive. She belonged to him. He must have been insane to have stayed away so long.

  Faron pulled her into his arms, nearly crushing her with the strength of his embrace. He spread his legs and settled her in the cradle of his thighs.

  Belinda wondered if this was what it felt like to be in love. She couldn’t deny the passion that flared between the two of them whenever they were together. Touching Faron gave her as much pleasure as having him touch her.

  It had been too long for both of them. He was impatient, but so was she. Once Faron had her breasts bare under the sunlight, he took his time. He bent his head to kiss her soft curves and then suckled her. Belinda arched into his caresses, and her traitorous knees once more gave way.

  Faron picked her up in his arms, but the only shady spot available was already occupied by cattle.

  “How about going for a ride?”

  He set her back in the saddle, then mounted behind her. When Belinda started to rebutton her blouse, Faron stopped her.

  “Don’t. I want to hold you while we’re riding.” Belinda leaned back into his embrace, and Faron’s hands crossed around her, cupping her breasts. Faron kicked the palomino into a lope, heading toward the river and the cottonwoods he knew they would find there.

  It was the most decadent ride Belinda had ever taken. By the time they got to the river, each of them had aroused the other beyond bearing. Faron slid off the palomino’s back and pulled Belinda down onto the ground. He had them both stripped in record time.

  The day was hot, but the grass was cool on Belinda’s naked backside. Their coupling was urgent, so quick that each offered a quite unnecessary apology to the other.

  “I should have waited—”

  “I couldn’t wait—”

  They both laughed, and then hugged each other and rolled to their sides, their bodies still joined. They lay like that a long time, until at last they separated to lie on their backs and stare at the sky through the rustling leaves of the cottonwood.

  “So why did you come out to see me?” Faron asked as he nibbled on the lobe of her ear.

  “We got a call from a corporate buyer. He wants to take a look at King’s Castle.” Belinda was close enough to be aware of the way Faron stiffened. It was still a month until Labor Day.

  “When does he want to come?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  So soon. Faron wasn’t ready to leave King’s Castle yet. Over the past month he had begun to see the potential of the place. With a little better management it could become a successful enterprise again. Of course, a woman alone would have a tough time managing, but a couple—a couple could do just fine.

  He didn’t dare mention to Belinda what he was thinking. She couldn’t even make up her mind to take a trip to Texas with him. How could he expect her to consider marriage and a life spent together at King’s Castle?

  Faron surprised himself with how easily that thought had formed in his mind. Was he really ready to get married? What would his family say when they heard he wanted to marry his stepmother? He could hear Garth now. His eldest brother would think Faron had lost his mind.

  But Faron knew if his family met Belinda, they would understand how he had fallen in love with her. Which was why he had to convince her to come to the christening at Hawk’s Way on Labor Day.

  Now that they knew he had a different father, he wanted them to see that he wasn’t going to allow his bastardy to separate him from his family. In fact, he wanted them to see that he had merely extended his family to include his grandmother. He hadn’t figured out yet what he would say about Belinda.

  “Did you tell the buyer we’d be glad to show him around?” he asked her.

  “I told him we’d call him back.”

  Faron arched a brow. “Was there some reason you wanted to wait?”

  “I just thought…what if he makes us an offer?”

  “If it’s a reasonable offer, we’ll accept.”

  “Do you really want to sell the ranch?”

  “Don’t you?” Faron asked.

  “I guess I do,” Belinda said. “But it’s been home for a long time. It’ll seem strange to live in town.”

  “Is that what you’d do? Move to town?”

  “Where else would I go?”

  Home
with me to Hawk’s Way. But Faron didn’t say what he was thinking. It was too soon to tell Belinda the plans he had for the two of them. He didn’t want to scare her away.

  It wasn’t until she had told the story about spending the night with a brown-eyed, redheaded steer that he had realized just how limited her experience with men was. He knew she’d had a bad time with Wayne Prescott. He could understand her reluctance to trust another man.

  But if he’d thought his time was short before, it was down to nothing now. Tomorrow. It might all end tomorrow if the buyer made an offer they couldn’t refuse. So maybe he should say something to her now, let her know that he didn’t intend ever to let her go.

  Faron opened his mouth to declare his love and shut it again.

  Belinda was asleep.

  He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. Tomorrow would be soon enough to speak his mind. Maybe the buyer wouldn’t want the property. Maybe there would be no decisions to be made right away. He would just wait and see.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  "HOW DARE YOU REFUSE AN OFFER for this ranch without consulting me!” Belinda raged.

  “He offered a quarter of what the place was worth!” Faron retorted.

  “I don’t care how much he offered. What I care about is the fact that you made the decision without saying anything to me. I should have been consulted.”

  “Both of us have to agree for this place to get sold. Since I would have refused the offer anyway, it didn’t make sense to get you involved.”

  “Didn’t make sense? I can’t believe what I’m hearing! That’s just the sort of thing Wayne would have said. ‘No sense troubling your pretty little head with business.’ I own half of King’s Castle, and by God, I’ll be a part of any decisions that are made regarding this ranch.”

  Faron realized he had made a big mistake, and he quickly sought to make amends. “I’m sorry. Next time—”

  “If there is a next time!” Belinda put her fisted hands on her hips. “There aren’t so many corporate buyers out there that we can afford to refuse an honest offer.”

  “So maybe we just won’t sell!”

  “Right! And when the bank comes to collect the mortgage payment what do you suggest we use for money?”

  “I’ve got—”

  “I don’t want to rely on you to keep this place afloat.”

  “Why not?” Faron asked.

  “I learned how much that sort of debt can cost when I was married to your father!”

  There it was again. The comparison of Faron with his father, and it hadn’t been a compliment. “I am not my father,” he said quietly.

  “Could have fooled me,” Belinda muttered. “Tyrannical, autocratic—”

  “That’s enough,” Faron said. “I get your point.”

  Belinda was still quivering with rage. And fighting tears. She had talked herself into believing that Faron was different from his father. His actions today, discounting her opinion and involvement in a way similar to what Wayne might have done, was a deep disappointment. Her romantic bubble had burst, and she was sharply, brutally disillusioned.

  “I hope you’re not going to use this incident as an excuse not to come to Texas,” Faron said.

  “I’ve learned never to make decisions when I’m angry,” Belinda admitted. “Maybe when I’ve calmed down we can talk about where we go from here.”

  She turned on her heel and left Faron standing alone in Wayne’s study. He leaned back in the swivel chair and put his boot heels up on the rolltop desk.

  Was what he had done so wrong? Faron was used to making decisions on his own. Except on major issues that concerned Hawk’s Way. Then he and Garth would discuss the matter…As he should have discussed the matter with Belinda, Faron realized.

  If the situation had been reversed, he would have been furious if Belinda had made a major decision regarding King’s Castle without him. She deserved no less consideration than he would have demanded for himself. Unconsciously he had put himself in the role of caretaker, but it was clear now, if it hadn’t been before, that Belinda intended to be nothing less than an equal partner.

  Which he was willing to be. Only what he wanted from her was not just a business partnership, but a deeply committed personal relationship.

  Faron cursed the father who had so wounded the woman he loved. His recent error hadn’t helped matters. Belinda was sure to be less trusting of him in the future. It was going to be a challenge convincing her that she didn’t have to worry about repeating the mistakes with him that she had made with his father.

  Meanwhile Belinda had retreated to the vegetable garden behind the house where she was on her hands and knees pulling up weeds between a row of snap beans and a row of tomatoes. She wasn’t precisely aware when Madelyn joined her. The older woman wore a floppy hat to keep the sun off and gloves to protect her hands. The two women worked in silence for a while, as they had on many another day. It was Madelyn who finally spoke.

  “You’re going to get sunstroke working without a hat.”

  “Don’t you start treating me like a child. I get enough of that from Faron.”

  “Oh?”

  “He turned down an offer for the ranch without even consulting me. Just like Wayne, he—”

  Madelyn’s interruption cut off Belinda’s tirade before it even got started. “Oh, no, my dear. He’s not like Wayne at all.”

  “It didn’t even cross his mind to speak to me before—”

  “But he apologized when you pointed out his mistake, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Wayne would never have apologized. I think you should give Faron the benefit of the doubt.”

  Belinda dusted the dirt off her hands. “Does that mean you also think I should go to Texas with him?”

  “Tell me one good reason why you shouldn’t go.”

  “I’ve never been beyond the borders of Wyoming in my entire life.”

  “Land sakes, girl. All the more reason to go.”

  “I’ve never been on an airplane.”

  “Flying is a piece of cake.”

  Belinda resorted to the real reasons she had reservations about going to Texas. “I’m the widow of the man with whom Faron’s mother had an affair. I’m Faron’s stepmother.”

  “When the Whitelaws meet you they’ll be just as fond of you as Faron is.”

  “Faron isn’t—”

  Madelyn pursed her lips and looked at Belinda across the row of snap beans. “Don’t try to deny it. I’ve got eyes, Belinda, and I’m not too old to see what’s right in front of my nose.”

  Belinda pulled a snap bean and broke it into pieces looking for the tiny beans inside.

  Madelyn reached out and put a hand on Belinda’s knee. “You’re like my very own daughter, Belinda. I only want you to be happy. I think Faron could make you happy.”

  “If I go to the christening with Faron, it doesn’t mean I’m committing myself to anything where he’s concerned. I want to be sure you understand that and don’t get your hopes up.”

  “Of course not, dear. I understand perfectly. It would just be a much-needed break from all the work here. A chance for you to get away and see another part of the country.”

  “That’s all I’d be doing,” Belinda affirmed.

  * * *

  A FEW WEEKS LATER, WHEN SHE found herself facing the Whitelaws’ antebellum mansion at Hawk’s Way, Belinda was having second thoughts. The ranch house was an imposing two-story white frame structure with four twenty-foot-high fluted columns and railed first-and second-story porches. The road leading to the house was lined with majestic magnolias. The branches of a moss-laden live oak draped the roof of the house. It had a majesty every bit as profound as The Castle.

  Faron had one arm around her shoulder and the other arm around Madelyn as he escorted them up the front steps and inside the foyer. “This is my home,” he told Belinda.

  She could hear the pride in his voice. The reason for it was evident in the we
ll-kept, homey furnishings she found inside. There was tradition in this house, oak and pine furniture that had survived the rough and tumble of generations of Whitelaw sons and daughters. An ancient map framed over the mantel delineated what had once been the vast reaches of Hawk’s Way in the Texas panhandle.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “You must have missed being here these past few months.”

  Faron was surprised to realize that he hadn’t missed Hawk’s Way as much as he might have expected to when he left. The reason was obvious. In Wyoming he had found something to fill the hole inside him. He no longer felt the same sense of belonging here since he had staked his claim on his father’s land—and his father’s wife.

  Faron’s brothers and sister were arrayed in the parlor with their families. The two babies, Jesse and Honey’s daughter and Adam and Tate’s son, were sleeping in small antique cribs. From descriptions Faron had given her, Belinda easily recognized the two couples. Honey was sitting in Jesse’s lap on a chair in front of the fireplace. Adam and Tate were sitting close beside each other on the couch.

  Garth was standing with an arm resting on the thick pine mantel above the stone fireplace. There was another young woman in the room, but Belinda couldn’t imagine who she could be.

  Faron proudly introduced Belinda and Madelyn to the assembled group. “This is my grandmother, Madelyn Prescott,” he said. “I call her Maddy.”

  There was an awkward moment when Belinda wondered whether Faron’s family would accept the old woman. Tate made the first move. She jumped up from the couch and crossed with her hands extended to the older woman. “It’s so nice to meet you, Maddy.” She gave Maddy a quick, hard hug. Then she stood back and looked to see whether her brother resembled his grandmother. “Oh, my goodness. Faron has your eyes! Come see, Jesse, Garth.”

  The two large men came forward to greet the old woman and to agree with Tate that yes, Faron and Maddy had eyes the same unique gray-green color. Honey and Adam soon joined them and everyone began talking a mile a minute.

  In the confusion Belinda was tempted to sneak back out the way she had come. Just when she thought Faron had forgotten all about her, he raised his hand for quiet. It took a few moments for the commotion to die down.