Coming Home: (Contemporary Christian Romance Boxed Set): Three Stories of Love, Faith, Struggle & Hope

by Debra Ullrick

  Shifting in her chair, she pretended to be engrossed in the paper. However, to her surprise, he strode right up and stopped beside her table. He didn’t say a word; he just stood there as if he was waiting for her to acknowledge his presence or at least stop reading.

  But to Sami, just because she’d been caught staring at him, that didn’t give him any right to think she was interested. She wasn’t, was she? She was just curious about who he was, that’s all. And, she sure didn’t want to supply Ned with any more ammunition. What he had already done was enough to last her a lifetime.

  Thinking if she ignored this cowboy, he would go away, she angled the paper his direction, but that wasn’t working. So after a few seconds, when she realized he wasn’t leaving, she put the paper down and looked up. “Can I help you?”

  “I sure hope so.” He pulled out one of the chairs at her table and dropped onto it.

  “Excuse me.” Irritation and an unfamiliar feeling of excitement coursed through her body like a wild fire. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Well, Ma’am, I think there’s something we need to discuss.” He pulled off his hat, laid it on the chair next to him, and then propped his elbows up on the table. What had she thought about manners again? He clearly had none.

  Up close like this, his eyes were the color of dark chocolate, the creamy kind, and he had a small scar just beneath his left eye. She wondered how he’d gotten it and then told herself that kind of thinking would get her in a predicament she wanted no part of being in.

  What was she doing anyway? Just because she found him somewhat attractive, that didn’t change the fact he was a man, and she was certain he wouldn’t be any different from all the other men she’d met.

  She shook herself out of the irritating thoughts, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked him straight in the eyes. “Look, I’m not interested in anything you’re selling. Now if you’ll kindly leave, I’d like to eat my lunch in peace if you don’t mind.” Leaning in closer to him, she whispered to keep from drawing any more attention to them, “In other words, please leave, Sir.”

  One side of his mouth pulled up into a half smile that travelled all the way up into those melting chocolate eyes. “Well, Ma’am, I’d be happy to oblige, but first I need you to answer just one question for me.”

  Why did every man she showed the least bit of attention to always assume she was flirting? She knew what was coming next. It followed like a rainbow followed a thunderstorm. He was going to ask her out on a date. This had happened more times than she cared to count, and she was growing tired of it. “What are you going to ask me, if I’ll go out with you? Well, the answer to that is a no. So, I believe we’re through here. Anything else?” She leaned back into her chair with a thump, rolled her eyes, picked up a fry, and popped it into her mouth.

  “Well, yes, actually there is.” He cocked up one eyebrow, but the mischievous smile never left his eyes. “Why are you eating my lunch?”

  She sucked air into her lungs so sharply the fry got stuck, and she barked out a humiliated cough. “What are you talking about? I’ll have you know—” She stopped in mid-sentence when he shook his head and pointed in the direction behind her.

  “I think that may be your table.”

  She whirled around in her seat and was mortified when she saw her Stetson on the table behind her, next to her plate of fries and a burger.

  Sami had no idea that when she returned to the table after grabbing the newspaper from the counter she had sat down at the wrong table. His table. Mostly, even more distressing, because she’d been so engrossed in checking him out from across the restaurant.

  “Oh! I didn’t realize when I…” Heat flooded her cheeks as she stumbled over her words. Could this encounter with this handsome stranger get any worse? She glanced past him to see if Ned was watching. Thankfully, he was preoccupied with flirting with the waitress.

  There was a faint twinkle of humor in the stranger’s eyes as his mouth curled up into a grin. “It’s okay, but it’s not often I go to the restroom to wash up and when I return, I find a beautiful woman sitting at my table eating my fries.” He nodded toward her plate of food. “Would you like to join me for lunch?”

  Sami wanted to be anywhere but here. “No. No. I don’t think so. I think I’ve made a big enough idiot out of myself already.” She shoved her chair away from the table and rushed to get to her feet. However, as she did, her hip bumped the table, causing the glass of iced tea to wobble. She watched in horror as it rocked back and forth until it tipped, and fell right over, dumping its contents right into the cowboy’s lap.

  He jumped up, brushing tea and the ice pellets onto the floor. Then he started to laugh as everyone in the diner all turned their attention on them.

  “Well, that’s one way of cooling you off. Be thankful it wasn’t a shotgun.” Ned’s words sliced through her like a knife, cutting her to the core, and Sami froze.

  Still laughing, he looked up at her with half-teasing, half-seriousness. “You don’t carry a shotgun around with you, do you?”

  Sami knew he didn’t know what Ned’s hidden message was, but she knew, and so did everyone else in the diner. Hurt and humiliation bubbled inside of her. “I’m glad you find this so funny because I certainly don’t!”

  As she spun, he grabbed at her elbow. “Wait! Hold up there. I didn’t mean to—”

  However, the humiliation jerked her arm away from his reach. She snatched her hat off the table behind her and without another word, rushed out of the diner.

  Just as she reached the sidewalk, Sami realized in her hurry to get out of Maude’s Diner, she’d completely forgotten to pay her bill. But, she definitely wasn’t about to go back in there and face that cowboy or Ned again. She knew Maude wouldn’t mind if she paid for her lunch on her next trip into town. She’d done it before, and today was as good a day as any to do it again.

  With that thought, Sami reached in her pocket for her cell phone, and then she remembered she’d left it in the truck. Shrugging, though no one but herself heard it, she said, “I’ll just call her later.” All she wanted to do now was to finish her shopping and head back to the safety of the ranch.

  A half hour later, after she’d finished her shopping, Sami took her bag from the cashier and headed for the door. However, she froze in her footsteps when one of the greeting cards on the display rack caught her eye.

  She slowly pulled the card out of the rack and ran her fingers over the gold embossed HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER written on the front of the card.

  “Why can’t I forget you? Why are you always in my head?” She sighed and stared blankly at the card. Here she was again, feeling that old familiar pain in her heart from being abandoned by her mother fourteen years before. How long did a person have to go before they would forget? Every year she’d thought it would get better, and in ways, it had. But then, like today it reached up and grabbed her with a ferocity she neither could fight nor deny.

  Today was her mother’s fiftieth birthday. Standing there, looking at that card, Sami wondered if her mother ever thought of her on her birthday.

  I wonder if she ever even thinks of me at all. Tears burned the backs of her eyes, but she refused to let one single tear fall. She’d cried enough when she was ten years old to last her for the rest of her life.

  No matter how hard she tried to forget, the memories from her past still haunted her. The last time she’d seen her mother came flooding back into her mind, and she couldn’t get it to stop playing in her head like a horror movie you stupidly watched one time and could never forget.

  She still remembered that horrible night, vividly. She was lying in bed with her hands over her ears trying to shut out the sound of her parents arguing, once again. But something was different this time. All these years later, she couldn’t shake the feeling. Their voices sounded unusual, strange. And then all was silent. Too silent. Why?

  Quietly she had eased out of bed and slipped downstairs to investigate. When sh
e peeked around the corner, the first thing she saw was her father standing in front of the fireplace. His hands were propped on the mantle, his shoulders slumped, and his head lowered. When he turned around, Sami saw the agony twisting with the pain in his face. To her surprise, she realized he’d been crying. It was the first time in her life she’d ever seen her father cry. She shivered in the darkness, knowing something was terribly wrong.

  “Please, Maggie. Let’s just sit down and talk about this,” her father pleaded. He took a step toward Sami’s mother and gently took hold of her arms, but she jerked away.

  “It’s over, William. I can’t live like this anymore.” She turned and grabbed up a suitcase that was sitting on the floor next to the door.

  “Maggie, why are you doing this? What about the children? Please think of them even if you hate me.”

  As her mother whirled around, Sami was terrified by the look of pure loathing on her mother’s face. The last words she’d heard her mother say that night, still echoed like drums in Sami’s ears. “Because, I hate this ranch, I hate my life, and I hate you!” Then she was gone.

  For months afterward, Sami remembered sitting on the floor outside her father’s bedroom door night after night, listening to him cry, and praying for God to bring his wife back home. Where was God when her father needed him the most? Why didn’t He answer her father’s prayers? Over the years, after many unanswered prayers, her father had finally grown cold and indifferent. He stopped caring altogether.

  So, Sami did the only thing she knew to do to protect herself from ever being hurt again. She made a solemn vow at a very young age, she would never allow any man to break her heart and cause her the pain she’d watch her father suffer, just for being in love. She vowed she would never shed one single tear over any man. Ever. Love was just a cruel deception, and she would never allow herself to be deceived. Never!

  Emptiness enveloped her like a cold, dark cloud. She shuddered and let out an exhausted sigh. How could a mother of three young children just walk away like that and never look back? No letters. No birthday cards. No phone calls. Nothing.

  A loud boom of thunder brought her thoughts back to the present. To keep from ripping the card into shreds, she shoved it back into the rack. Glaring at the card, she spoke to it as if it were her mother, “No! I’m not going to waste one more minute of my time thinking about you. No more.”

  Angry with herself for letting her mind, once again, wander back to Maggie Lawson, she yanked up her shopping bag and bolted out of the store. However, when she shoved it, the door opened as if she’d just plowed into a solid brick wall. Because the sidewalks were slick from the rain, her feet became slippery underneath her. She reached out and grabbed hold of the nearest thing to her… someone’s shirt. However, the shirt was not enough to stabilize her, and she ended up on the sidewalk on her backside, pulling the brick wall down with her.

  Mortified, she looked up into those same chocolate colored eyes from the diner. “Oh no, not you again?”

  The corners of his mouth turned up into a handsome smile. “Well, it’s nice to see you again, too.”

  His smile surprised her, as did the fact that one of his arms was tightly wrapped around her waist from where he’d tried to soften her fall. With his face only inches from hers, for a brief moment neither one spoke a word.

  The closeness of him made her stomach tingle. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t speak.

  Carefully, he propped himself up on his elbow before beginning the disentangling process. “Are you okay?”

  She placed her hands on his chest and gave him a shove. “If you’d get off of me, I’d feel much better.”

  A laugh rumbled in his throat as he pushed himself up to his feet and righted his hat. Once he did, he held out his hand toward her. “Here, let me give you a hand up.”

  Sami ignored his offer, grabbed her bag, and looped it on her arm. “I don’t need your help. I can get up on my own. Thank you.”

  However, because of the position she was sitting, when she tried to get up, her boot slipped on the sidewalk, and she landed right back where she was. “Ugh!”

  “Here. Let me help you.”

  When he reached for her again, she pushed his hand away. “I don’t need your help.”

  “Girl, stop being so stubborn, it’s raining a flood out here.” Brooking no protest, he reached down, took hold of both of her arms, and began to pull her to her feet.

  “Who do you think you are?” She jerked one of her arms free, but she wasn’t as steady on her feet as she thought she would be. She slipped and down she went again.

  His booming laugh was the only sound Sami heard as she sat on the sidewalk in a puddle of murky water. “I’m glad you find this so amusing. Do you enjoy laughing at me?”

  “I’m sorry.” He crouched down in front of her and slid his hat back. “You know, I can’t just walk away and leave you sitting here on the sidewalk in the rain. What kind of man would I be if I did that? Now, would you please allow me to be a gentleman and help you up?” He extended his hand once again, along with a smile.

  In utter defeat and humiliation, Sami rolled her eyes with a groan and then placed her hand in his. “Fine.”

  Like she weighed nothing at all, he pulled her up. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  She wrinkled up her nose and huffed. “Fine. Great. Wonderful. Are you happy now?” Brushing herself off, she managed to keep her gaze away from the magnet of those eyes.

  “As a matter of fact I am,” he said as he stepped in closer to her.

  Thinking he was trying to kiss her, Sami did the only thing she could think of to get him away from her, and in one motion she placed both of her hands on his chest. “Hold on there, cowboy, what do you think you’re doing?”

  Holding her gaze, he leaned down past her and picked up her Stetson. Gently, he brushed off the water. “Well, I thought I was being a Good Samaritan by picking up your hat for you. Why? What did you think I was doing?” He lifted an eyebrow, tilted his strong chiseled chin upward, and flashed a grin even as he held the hat between them.

  “I thought…” Her eyes dropped to his lips, and she didn’t shake out of that fast enough not to give herself away.

  “Oh, I see.” He nodded knowingly. “Well, to ease your mind, Ma’am, I’d never try to steal a kiss from any woman without her consent. No matter how beautiful I think she is.” As he placed her hat on her head, he gave her one more breath-catching smile. “Now, you need to get out of the rain before you catch a cold. I can’t wait to see what our next meeting is going to be like.” He took a step back, tipped his hat to her, and walked away…whistling.

  Thoughts of him still plagued her mind as Sami climbed into the cab of her truck a few minutes later. She’d suffered in one day two of the most humiliating incidents in her life, and this cowboy was at the brunt of both of them. She laid her head against the steering wheel, blew out a breath, and then began to bang her forehead against it. “How could this day possibly get any worse? Hopefully he’s just passing through town, and I won’t have to see him ever again.”

  A beeping sound interrupted her thoughts. She looked around in her truck and spotted her cell phone lying on the floorboard. Snatching it up, she looked at the screen. The icon alerted her that she had a voice mail, and she beeped it on.

  “Sami.” She instantly recognized Bart’s voice. He was one of the ranch hands back home, and that meant one word. Trouble.

  “There’s been an accident at the ranch. It’s Brent, the crazy young’un was trying to break one of the horses your dad brought in yesterday. The thing threw him right into the fence. I don’t think his injuries are too serious, but he’s banged up a bit, but I think his leg might be broken. Your dad is on his way to the hospital with him now, and he asked me to call you and let you know. Now, I don’t want you getting all riled up over this. I think Brent’s gonna be okay.”

  Just the thought of her younger brother being hurt shat
tered Sami’s heart like one blow with a sledgehammer. What was he doing thinking he could break a horse? Even though he was fifteen-years-old, he’d never broken one of the horses before. She had to fight the images of worse case scenarios flashing through her mind as she drove at record speed to the hospital.

  Fifteen minutes later, Sami’s legs felt like Jell-o as she ran into the emergency room entrance. She spotted her older brother, Miles, sitting slumped over in a chair, staring at the floor.

  “How’s Brent?” she asked as she flopped down onto the seat next to him. “What happened?”

  “I haven’t heard anything yet.” His brows knitted. Then he leaned back three inches and his brow knit further. “Girl, why are you all wet?”

  Sami waved him off. “Long story. I’ll tell you later. Where’s Dad?”

  He nodded in the direction of the double doors. “He’s back there with Brent.”

  They waited for almost an hour when their father finally came out.

  “How is he?” Sami asked as she hurried to her father’s side.

  Worried lines creased his forehead as he gave Sami a reassuring but weary smile. “His left leg is broken, they’re about to set it now. He has a few bumps and bruises, but the doctor said his X-rays show no internal injuries. They’re going to keep him overnight for observation. He should be able to go home in the morning.”

  Sami and Miles simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”

  Sami hadn’t seen her father look so tired in a long time. He looked from Miles then back to her. “You two know with Brent being out of commission for a couple of months, we’re going to have to discuss hiring a temporary hand to help get the cattle ready for the sale, right?”

  Even at the age of twenty-seven, Miles was trying to be the stronger one as he put his hand on their dad’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Dad. It’ll be okay. If we have to hire another hand, we’ll just hire one. It’s that simple. Can we see Brent, now?”