by Joanna Sims
“It’s not like this is a done deal,” she told her friend. “We haven’t even had one date.”
“I’ve got a feeling about this.” Lorrie told her. The woman was always having “feelings” about things—truth was, she was more often right than wrong.
Kate tightened the horse’s girth before she patted the Appaloosa on the haunch. “Okay. Let’s focus on training for now. We can start planning my wedding later.”
* * *
It was an afternoon date, and Liam insisted that he pick her up at the ranch like a real date. They had talked on the phone every day since she had agreed to go out with him; they both agreed that going into town, the hotbed of gossip, wasn’t the way they wanted to do it for their first date. Instead, Liam took her to his family’s ranch, Sugar Creek, where there was enough room for them to ride up to the mountains on the property and have a private picnic.
It had always been difficult for Kate to be separated from Callie, but Fred, who had been the barn manager at Triple K for nearly twenty years, was the one person Kate trusted to watch Callie whenever she was away from the ranch. This was, however, the first time she had ever left Callie in Fred’s care so she could steal away for an afternoon date with a hot veterinarian.
“I could have driven myself.” Kate was still objecting to the fact that Liam had come to pick her up. It wasn’t logical. “This is going to add hours of travel to your day.”
Liam pulled onto Sugar Creek land: the Brands were a large family, wealthy, powerful and well-known. Liam had seven siblings total, and many of them had their own homesteads within the larger Sugar Creek holdings.
“This is my little corner of the world.” Liam pulled up to a small log cabin.
“It’s a really nice corner.”
Once they were out of the truck, Liam gave her a quick tour of his small homestead. There was a workshop with a shed, a four-stall barn and a chicken coop.
“I thought we’d ride up to the peak over there. I know a spot that’s got great views.”
Her hands tucked in to the back pocket of her jeans, Kate nodded with a smile. “Sounds perfect.”
“I hope so,” Liam told her. “I’m gonna grab our food if you want to start tacking up. You’ll be riding Doc Holliday. You can’t miss him. He’s the big buckskin.”
Kate found her ride and began to groom the beefy golden quarter horse with hooves that looked like soup plates and a beautiful black mane and tail.
“You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”
“He’s one of the best horses I’ve ever had.” Liam walked into the barn with a soft-sided cooler.
“I appreciate you letting me ride him.” Kate picked up Doc’s front leg to pick out his hoof before she made the rounds to all of his hooves.
They finished tacking the horses, mounted and started out on a trail that would lead them up to the peak of the mountain off in the distance. It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny, blue skies, perfect for a horseback ride and a mountain picnic.
“Thank you!” Kate called to Liam, who had taken the lead up as they entered the woods at the base of the mountain.
Liam spun around in his saddle so he could smile at her. “Having a good time?”
“Yes!”
Why had she fought this idea for so long? Why had she deprived herself of the simple pleasure of spending a day with a man? It seemed reasonable at the time, focusing all of her energy on the ranch and on raising Callie. But, now, it was beginning to be her time too.
They both loved to ride in quiet when they were in the woods; they had spoken about it more than once, and now that this was their first ride together, they honored that desire. It wasn’t until Liam halted his horse at the end of the trail that they begin to talk to each other again.
“Sugar Creek is incredible, Liam.” Kate dismounted and took the reins over Doc’s head. “Your family is so blessed.”
“God’s country, for sure,” he agreed. “But then again, so is the Triple K.”
Yes, the Triple K was a beautiful swath of land—and she loved it and intended to live out her life there—but there was something magical about Sugar Creek. It was Montana beauty on steroids.
“We can leave the horses here. That way we can keep an eye on them while still taking in the view.”
They tied off the horses, giving them their heads so they could nibble on some of the nearby foliage. Together, they climbed up the side of the expansive, gray, smooth granite that covered the top of the mountain.
“Oh, Liam!” Kate exclaimed as she got the full view the mountain provided. “I love it here!”
“I’m glad.” Liam set the cooler down. “It’s one of my favorite spots.”
They sat down together on the sheer face of the mountain, side by side on a padded blanket Liam had packed for them. Her date had already interviewed her about her favorite foods, what she liked to drink and her favorite desserts. Yes, it was a private, quiet first date, but it was perfect for her. The effort he had taken to make sure he packed all of her favorites made her feel cared-for special.
“For you.” Liam handed her a single, pink tea rose, her favorite flower.
Kate favored him with a small, pleased smile, as she took the rose, brought it to her nose and took in the sweet scent of the little flower.
He then handed her a wineglass.
“I can only have one of these.” Kate watched her date pour her favorite white wine into the glass. “Drunk riding.”
Liam laughed. “We’ll be fine. I want you to stop worrying so much and start enjoying the day.”
She raised her eyebrows at him in surprise. “Do I not seem like I’m enjoying myself?”
Liam rested one arm on a bent knee while he held out his glass to her so they could touch rims. “There’s part of you that’s not here with me. I’d like to have all of you here. Just for an hour or two.”
After a sip of the wine, Kate tilted her head to the side and looked directly at Liam. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was so obvious.” She gestured to the side of her head. “My brain is always splitting duty.”
“Hey...” Liam leaned on his side next to her. “I get it. It’s hard to take a break. But just look at this, Kate. We’re in paradise. Not everyone gets this gift. Wouldn’t it be a crime not to give this 100 percent of our attention?”
“Actually. Yes. It would.”
That was the turning point for Kate and her first date with Liam. She forced herself to put her stresses with the Triple K out of her mind, as well as putting aside her worries with Callie’s future dreams and goals; instead, Kate focused her attention on the mind-blowing views that stretched for miles in the distance, and the handsome man who was bent on making her laugh and making her feel like a desirable woman again. The years had etched lines on her forehead, around her mouth and around her eyes. Those pesky nasolabial folds had deepened, and there was an annoying pad of fat gathering beneath her chin. It wasn’t often that she dwelled over her aging appearance—she had a business to run and a daughter to support. But every once in a while, she would stare at her reflection and wonder where Kate King had gone. Liam wasn’t the cure for all of that, yet his interest in her—the way he admired her face with his eyes—made her believe that she could still be a desirable woman. It wasn’t too late for her.
* * *
Liam couldn’t believe that he finally had Kate King on a date, on his mountain, after years of wanting to get to know her better. All of the pieces had just fallen into place for them, and at least physically, the horse trainer was sending off signals that she was enjoying his company as much as he was enjoying hers. They laughed together, they savored the silences together, and yes, they had a lot in common, starting with their passion for horses.
“Did you get enough?” Liam had already begun to pack up their trash and any food that hadn’t been eaten.
�
�I did. Thank you.”
He set the cooler aside, glad now to just look out over the land of Sugar Creek Ranch and beyond. Liam hooked his arms over his bent knees, turned his attention to Kate who was sitting cross-legged beside him on the blanket.
“I’m having a really good time with you,” he told her.
“Me too.” She tucked a few loose hairs behind her ear.
“You want to do it again?”
Kate turned her face toward him then; there was a softer look in her eyes now when she looked at him. Wordlessly, with the smallest of sweet smiles, she nodded.
“Good.” He was satisfied. Getting Kate lined up for a second date before they had finished their first had been a part of his plan.
Liam lay flat on his back, sighed happily while he tried to figure out what shape the only cloud in the sky was forming.
“A sheep.”
“What?”
“The cloud.”
Kate tilted her head back, examined the cloud thoughtfully for a moment, then shook her head. “No. That’s an alpaca.”
“You’re crazy.”
She laughed and joined him. Kate leaned back, lay flat on her back beside him, her hands on her stomach.
“This is the most relaxed I have been in years, I think.”
Liam admired her profile—he found that there were so many things for him to like about her. From her pixie ears to her strong chin and nose with the smallest of humps in the center. She was tanned from years of training horses outside, and there were sunspots on her shoulders and her chest. Kate was a salt-of-the-earth kind of woman—pretty in an unembellished outdoorsy kind of way.
“I’m glad.” He decided to take a risk and reach for her hand. “You deserve to take some time for yourself, Kate.”
When Kate King let him hold her hand, up there on top of his favorite mountain peak, Liam felt as if he had conquered the world. He didn’t want to make too much of the date, but for him at least, this felt like the beginning of something rare, something unusual—something that had the potential to last for the rest of their lives.
* * *
They spent another hour up on that mountain, eyes closed, letting the cool air brush over their bodies, holding hands the entire time. The sun was slipping in the sky, and the temperature on the mountain had begun to drop. Kate hated to leave, she genuinely did, but it was time. As they reached Liam’s small homestead, the sun was a bright orange ball disappearing behind the horizon.
“Thank you for the ride, Doc.” Kate gave the large buckskin one last pat on the neck before she put him back in his stall with several pats of hay.
Liam gave her a quick tour of his modest bachelor cabin before she loaded into his truck. After she clicked her seat belt, Kate breathed in deeply and let out a long, slow, sigh.
“You okay?” Liam cranked the engine.
She nodded. “I feel happy.”
After Liam pulled out onto the highway, he took her hand once again in his. When had she last held someone’s hand like this? Holding hands had never really been her thing, but with Liam, it felt natural. It felt right.
“Callie was so excited that I was finally going out on a date.”
“Is that right?” Liam smiled.
“Yes,” Kate replied. “She thinks if I’m busy, she’ll be able to do whatever she wants. Little does she know I can multitask.”
She continued. “I never really hear you talk about your kids. How are they?”
Kate didn’t have to be a psychologist to read the tension in the veterinarian’s jaw and mouth—his children seemed to be a sore spot.
“They’re great, as far as I can tell. We spend a lot of time video-chatting, but I sure as heck haven’t felt like a parent for years.”
She nodded, wanting to give him a chance to vent if he needed to.
“I don’t feel like their dad, and that’s the bottom line. Once my ex moved them out of the state, and remarried, I feel more like an afterthought than their father. This isn’t how I imagined things.”
“I’m sorry.”
Liam’s jaw jumped when he clenched his teeth. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t need to end our first date by griping about my ex. My kids are great—I just miss them. And...it hurts to think about how much of their lives I’m missing.”
Kate let the conversation about his children fade into talking about the new horse on his property. It was a nice neutral subject that they both could get excited about, and it immediately changed the mood in the truck from somber and tense to free-flowing with ideas.
“I’d actually love to bring Chief out here and have you work with us,” Liam said, excited by the prospect.
“I’d love to work with you.” Kate nodded. “I think he’d be a great prospect for a bitless bridle.”
Liam pulled into her driveway, and Kate immediately began to think of all the things she had not gotten done by wiling the afternoon away with the handsome veterinarian. This was why she had such a hard time giving herself permission to have some downtime—all of her work backed up.
Liam hopped out of the truck and jogged around to her side so he could open the door for her.
“Thank you. Again,” she said to him. “I had such a great time.”
Liam was leaning back against the truck; he reached out, gently pulled her into his arms and kissed her. It was a sweet kiss, not too demanding.
“I have to go now.” Kate took a small step back to break the contact. “There’s always so much to do around here.”
Liam walked with her up to her doorstep; he stayed at the bottom of the steps while she opened her front door.
“I’ll be callin’ you,” he said with a tip of his cowboy hat.
Kate could hear that Callie was video-chatting in her room, which was the reason why she hadn’t barreled outside the moment they pulled in.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Chapter Five
As good as his word, Liam called every day. Sometimes she was too busy to talk; sometimes he was too busy to say more than “Hi, how ya doin’.” But it was the fact that she had begun to count on that call that was the biggest surprise to her. She had to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, so it was really hard for her to relinquish any of the independence. Letting someone into her life felt as if she were giving up some of her independence, allowing herself to rely on another person, and that scared her.
“I-is Dr. B-Brand coming for dinner tonight?” Callie asked her as they, along with the other stable hands, finished dispensing the morning hay for the horses.
“As far as I know.” Kate brushed loose pieces of hay off of her arms and shirt. “I asked and he said yes.”
Callie had hay all over the front of her T-shirt; she always hugged the hay to her body, no matter how many times Kate had showed her how to carry the hay in a manner that wouldn’t result in covering her in loose hay.
“I-is he your b-boyfriend?”
Kate had been avoiding this daily posed question—Callie loved love, and wanted her mother to be in a relationship. Yet she still hesitated to label Liam.
The horse trainer handed her daughter a pitchfork. “I suppose so.”
Callie took the pitchfork in one hand, but ducked her head and giggled behind her other. “Are you going to get married?”
Kate laughed at the thought. “No! We just started dating, Callie. That’s too fast.”
“Are you going to have a b-baby?”
Another laugh. “No, honey. I’m not going to have a baby. You’re my baby.”
“I—I’m not a b-baby.” Callie shook her head, her face serious. “I-It’s time for me to have my own b-baby.”
Her daughter had been fixated on being a mother for years. Now that she had a boyfriend, that topic seemed to move to front and center all the time now. In addition to the obvious reasons why
Callie shouldn’t have children, there was the practical matter of basic knowledge about sex. Even after several sex education classes designed for individuals with intellectual disabilities, Callie still had a very naïve understanding about sex. For Callie, kissing was having sex.
Kate put her hand around her daughter’s shoulders. It always hurt her to feel like she needed to regulate Callie’s expectations for her future.
“We’ll talk it about later, Callie. We’ve got a lot of work to get done today.”
“There’s always a lot of work to get done.”
Callie was right about that. There was always something that needed to be fixed around the ranch. There was always someone getting sick or quitting or moving on—horses came and went, clients came and went—but she was always here at the Triple K.
“That’s true.” Kate nodded. “So, let’s get to it.”
Dissatisfied, Callie’s smile dissolved into a frown. “When I—I marry Tony, I—I won’t have to muck any more stalls.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there, Callie.”
The problem was, what was waiting for them on the other side of that bridge? It was easier for Kate to bury herself in the work, to focus on the business, in order to avoid this looming confrontation with her daughter. Callie wasn’t letting go of the idea of moving to New York City and she certainly wasn’t letting go of the idea of marrying Tony—this was a problem that needed to be addressed. Question was, what could she do to temper Callie’s dreams with a shot of reality without crushing her spirit?
* * *
Liam headed to the Triple K after his last appointment. He’d been looking forward to spending the evening with Kate and Callie all day; the plan was to watch movies, pop popcorn and just hang out together. Having Kate in his life—a companion—was reviving all kinds of things in his life that were missing. Some he had known were missing, but other things, subtle things, were a surprise. It had been years since he’d made a night of popping popcorn and watching movies on TV, and it made him really feel like he had a family again. That was the type of thing a person did with a family.