by Sky Winters
“Because I have watched her. You should have seen her face when we carried you in here after you were shot. She looked like her whole world was falling apart when she thought that you were already dead. The second that she knew that there was a chance you could make it, she threw herself in to helping you. She did not do that because she respects you or even likes you as a person. She worked like the devil to save you because she was working to save the man who she loved,” Hank pointed out, unsure how Liam had missed the signs of Anna’s feelings for him.
“Just because she is a caring and compassionate woman who took care of me does not mean that she loves me. I did not say she was not a caring, loving woman,” he said dismissively.
“You have been punishing that girl since she arrived,” Hank yelled, smashing his fist down on the table.
“You do not know what you are talking about,” Liam said, his own temper rising.
“You have been punishing her for Melanie leaving you. You have kept her at arm’s length. Every time you felt yourself getting close to her, you pulled away. She is not Melanie. They may both be beautiful woman, but that is the only thing they share. Anna is the most loyal female I have ever seen and you have been treating her like she is that whore who left you at the altar,” Hank said, making no effort to hide his contempt.
“I did that for her. What do I have to offer her? I am a broken man. Melanie broke my heart. Anna deserves more than the pieces of a man’s heart. She deserves someone who can love her fully,” Liam said, no longer hiding his pain and confusion.
“How can you say such things to me and not admit them to her?” Hank asked in shock. To have such a chance at love and not take full advantage of it incomprehensible to him. Hank was one of the few people who had been on the ranch since the time when Melanie had broken his hart. He had watched Liam turn from a young man, deeply in love and optimistic about the future, to a bitter man who thought of nothing but work and business. It had been a hard thing to watch and it was even harder to watch him turn on his one chance to have love in his life again.
“She had a true love. She does not want me to be her husband. She liked our arrangement as it was. Anna does not love me,” he said stubbornly, unwilling to admit that he was allowing the one true love of his life to leave him.
“If she was so happy with the way things were, why is she gone?” Hank left before turning and leaving Liam alone with his thoughts. Liam only hesitated for a moment before running at top speed for the stable. He could still catch her and he needed to try. He needed to try to let himself be happy, even if he was risking breaking his heart all over again.
Chapter 7
Liam rode like lightening towards the train station. Knowing that she was on foot made it easier to know the path that she had taken. She would need to stick to the smoothest path. Still, it was a long, arduous journey on foot and it did not take her very long on horseback to find her. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her outline on the horizon. He spurred the horse on even faster and he was upon her in moments.
“Where the hell are you going?” he shouted as she jumped off the horse’s back to confront her. It took her a moment before she could answer him. She was so shocked that he had come after her. It was clear that he was angry and hurt. It shocked her that he cared enough about her to feel such emotions at her departure. She knew it would be an inconvenience for him, but such feels came of true caring.
“I am going home,” she said stubbornly, shaking the thought that he might actually care for her out of her head.
“This is your home. There is nothing left for you there,” he snapped, grabbing the handle of the bag that she was struggling to carry and yanking it from her hands.
“I cannot stay here like this,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.
“We had an arrangement. I have never broken it or mistreated you, have I?” he demanded, looking as though he might just lift her up and throw her over the back of his horse.
“No,” she said, pausing before saying more. She felt her own anger rising and she knew that she was on the verge of telling him exactly how she felt and exactly why she was leaving him.
“Then why are you leaving me. Answer me!” he ordered. Still, Anna kept her feelings in check. She did not want to burden him with her confession of love. If he knew, she was quite sure that he would wish her well and send her on her way, never wanting to see her again if he knew that she loved him.
“It was different before,” she said vaguely, looking off in the distance as she spoke.
“Why? Why? What has changed? Is living here with me suddenly so objectionable to you?” he cried, grabbing her arms and forcing her to look at him. The passion in his eyes took her breath away.
“No, it not objectionable at all. That is why I have to go,” she said, flustered by his physical closeness to her. He had never touched her in such a way before and it was exhilarating to have his hands on her. She was surrounded by his scent and it made it hard to keep her wits about her.
“You are not making any sense,” he snapped, releasing her arms so that he was free to pace back and forth in agitation.
“Our arrangement was fine before I realized…” she began, stopping before she allowed the words to escape her mouth. She knew that the moment that she told him that she was leaving because she loved him, he would be fully lost to her and she could not bring herself to say the words that she knew would put a permanent wall between them.
“Realized what?” he demanded as he stalked towards her. They stood toe to toe as he towered over her, waiting for her to explain to him why she had run away. It took all of his effort to keep from gathering her in his arms and holder her close to him so that she could never leave him. The thought of never seeing her again weighed heavily on his heart and he was not entirely sure that he could stand to let her walk away from him.
She was mesmerized by the look in his eyes. He looked so sad and hurt and she could not allow that to continue. He had been hurt too much when his fiancé abandoned him without explanation. She owed him the truth, no matter what it meant for her.
“Before I realized that I am in love with you. Having a business arrangement was one thing when the only feeling I had for you was respect. Now that I love you, I cannot go through life living so close to you, caring for you with my whole heart while you look at me like one of the ranch hands,” she said, barely louder than a whisper. She felt her eyes filling with tears and she was too emotionally and physically exhausted to fight them.
He stared at her in shock. He had heard Hank’s words, but he had never imagined that she had truly left the ranch because of her feelings for him. Now though, he knew that it was the truth. She loved him so deeply that she had been willing to walk away from her comfortable life at the ranch because living with him would have been more painful than returning to a life on her own.
“You love me?” he asked, needing to hear her say in one more time to be able to believe that it was true and real.
“Yes,” she said, her tear stained face full of emotion and her voice betraying the depth of what she felt for him.
“When did you fall in love with me? What did I do to earn your love,” he asked in amazement, reaching out his hand and resting it on her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away a wayward tear.
“It starts the day you taught me to ride, though I do not think I realized it until you were shot. When I saw you like that, I felt such fear, just like I did when they brought Robert home after his accident. I knew then that I loved you, no matter how much I tried to hide from my own feelings. Then, when you told me about you fiancé, I realized that you were telling me that you were never going to open yourself up to love again. I do not blame you for it but I cannot stay to live like that, loving you while you look at me with no more affection than you do Hank,” she said as the tears began anew.
“So you are leaving me just like she did?” he asked bitterly as the pain from his past bubbled to the surface.<
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“No. She left with an empty heart. I am leaving with a heart full of love for you. I cannot help that,” she said, as angry as he was after his accusation.
“Where will you go?” he demanded. He wanted to gather her to him and tell her that he loved her too, but he needed to understand what she had decided to run away too. He needed to be sure that her love for him was true before he bared his own heart.
“I will return to the orphanage where I grew up. The old woman who runs it was always fond of Robert and me. She will let me stay there and help out with the children and the cooking until I find another situation,” she said boldly, unwilling to show him how afraid she was of the uncertainty of her own future.
“Why didn't you leave the day I told you about my fiancé?” he demanded. He thought back to how weak and tired he had been when he and laid there and told her of his own painful past. “If you had left then, you might have made a clean escape. I was not strong enough to chase after you. You would have been back to West Virginia before I had the presence of mind to realize that you were gone.”
She could no longer keep her temper in check, shouting “Because I could not bring myself to leave until I knew you were alright. I'm needed to be here to help you heal, no matter how much it hurt me to fall more in love with you each day while you grew more distant.”
While her eyes looked absolutely murderous, Liam’s softened. Her words and the anger that sparked in her told him all that he needed to know. Her love for him was not temporary or feigned. It was genuine and deep and he could not believe that he was such a lucky man. To have earned the love of the finest woman that he had ever known was an amazingly humbly feelings and he swore to himself right then that he would spend the rest of his life earning the love that she had for him.
“You cannot leave,” he said, taking both of her hands in his and pulling her close to him.
“I told you that I have to,” she said, trying to pull away but he tightened his grip, holding her fast.
“No, you cannot leave because I love you too,” he admitted bluntly. He made no effort to say it in flowery words or with a surplus of sentiment. He said it with all the conviction of fact though, and the look of intent and devotion on his face told her that he meant it.
“What?” she asked, falling against him as her knees buckled as the emotion overtook her. He gladly supported her, sweeping his arm around her waist and holding her tightly against him. If he had his way, in fact, she would have spent all the rest of her days held tightly in his arms, where he could know she was safe and keep her that way.
“The only reason I have been so distant is because I did not think you wanted my love. I thought you wanted only a safe place where you could mourn Robert. I did not want to let you even suspect my feelings because I did not want to make you feel like I was pressuring you. Just having you close was enough,” Liam admitted, using his free hand to cradle her face. He looked down at her with such love and devotion that she could not believe that it was real.
“Robert was my best friend. He would have wanted me to be happy,” she said gently, raising her hand and running it though his hair to comfort him. The thought that he had been going through the same torment that she had been, worrying that he was going to spend a lifetime loving her while she did not love him, brought her a renewed hope for their future. If he had been willing to love her for a lifetime, while thinking that she would never love him in return, spoke to the depth of his feelings for her.
“If you will let me, I will make you happy all the days of our life together,” Liam promised her. Though she had regained her composure, he was still holding her tightly. She suspected that he had a fear that she would vanish from his site the moment that he ceased to touch her.
“As long as you truly love me, I will be the happiest woman on earth,” she said, gently pulling him down to her and kissing him softly to seal their new vow to each other, a vow of love.
“I love you. I have known it since the moment I woke up and saw you there, fussing over me when I was shot. Just your presence brought such peace to my mind and to my heart. Don't ever leave again. I could not bear it,” he said as he rested his cheek upon the top of her head. Indeed, his first thought as the shot gun blast had torn through his body had been of her face. Seeing her there, by his side, when he awoke, exhausted and in pain, the site of her beautiful face had meant the world to him. She had been the reason he fought so hard to heal, though he had not even admitted it to himself.
“I will never leave you again. I am so sorry,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head against his chest to listen to the steady, healthy beat of his heart. Thinking of that awful day when she had almost lost him brought back an echo of the terror she had felt that day. Listening to his heart was all that kept the fear and sadness at bay.
“Don't be sorry. If you had not gone, I would never have known that you love me,” he said, laughing at the ridiculous truth of his words. Their situation was complicated and messy. They both had hearts that were heavy with sadness from the past, but love had still taken root. Together, they had begun to heal without even realizing it.
“I should have been braver and told you,” she said, laughing at all that they had suffered because of their unwillingness to be honest with each other.
“And I should have shown you all I felt for you. We have the rest of our lives together to make it up to each other,” he said as he kissed the top of her head gently.
Liam gently helped her up on to his horse and swung himself up behind her. He looped a hand around her waist to keep her steady on the horse and used his free hand to guide the horse back to Vista Roja. He took his time, enjoying the silence of sitting here with her back pressed against him, the lavender scent of her hair surrounding him.
Anna was in no hurry either. These were the first moments of their new life together, bound by love rather than responsibility and duty. She leaned against him, feeling his heart beating behind her. It was dark when they finally returned to Vista Roja, but there stood Hank on the porch, smiling.
-The End-
THE WIDOW’S CHOICE
Chapter 1
As Anna placed the last item in her travel trunk, she could not help but take a moment to look around the empty room. All that was left in the bedroom that she had once shared with her husband Robert was the bare bed and a small dresser in the corner. The room had once been her favorite place, full of love and laughter. Now, it was just a sad reminder that Robert was gone and she was alone in the world again. At the age of 23, she had been through more heartache than most people see in a lifetime. She had grown up in an orphanage with no family to call her own. Robert had been the only bright spot in her young life. They had grown up together, taking care of each other and married as soon as they were legally able to do so.
For a few years, she knew true happiness as his wife on the little farm they worked so hard for. Then, in one afternoon everything changed. When Robert fell from a horse, his wounds were too severe to survive. After his death, there was no joy left for her in the home they had shared and she did not have any way to keep the farm going. She had been desperate and lost and suddenly, she had realized just what she needed to do. She needed to start over and becoming a mail order bride seemed just the way to do it.
Still, as she stared around her empty home, her heart sank at the thought of leaving it all behind. It had been the only real home she had ever had and it physically hurt her to think of leaving it. She was near tears when she heard her neighbor pull up in his wagon. He had taken pity on her and offered to take her and her belongings to the train station. As he loaded her trunks, she walked around and tried to memorize every detail of what she was leaving behind so that she could carry it with her always.
The train ride was a long one, with many rainy days of endless countryside flying by her window. When she finally arrived at the train station in Wyoming, she was relieved for the journey to reach an end. She had accepted Lia
m McNeil's letter of intent primarily because he had been the furthest away from her life with Robert in West Virginia. A ranch in Wyoming was a long way from their little farm and all of the painful memories that she was trying to leave behind her. She left the train to see a man in his forties with sandy hair and kind eyes watching her. He was not at all what she had imagined Liam McNeil looked like, but she did not much care. She was not looking for love or even attraction. She just wanted security and a fresh start. He would do just fine.
"Ms. Plamer," the man asked as he approached her.
"Yes. Mr. McNeil, I assume," she answered, doing her best to look confident. She had nothing in the way of fine cloths, but she had worked hard to mend the dress that she had chosen for the journey so that she would appear like a proper wife for a rancher.
"No, I am afraid I am not," he said, clearly uncomfortable as he took his hat from his head and held it in his hands, realizing it was the proper thing to do.
"I am a bit confused," she said, trying to keep her fears concealed. She was officially worried that she had been lured to Wyoming under false pretenses and it was plain to her that she had no other place to go.
"He had business at the ranch that he could not step away from. I am his foreman, Hank Dillon," the man explained, putting her mind at ease.
"Pleasure to meeting you Mr. Dillon," she said, taking an immediate liking to him as he reached out a warm hand to shake hers.
"You can just call me Hank," he said with a warm smile that made her feel like things might just be alright after all. "If you will just point out which trunks are yours, I will get them loaded up and we will get you out to Vista Roja," he added as he began to walk towards the baggage that was being unloaded.
"Thank you," she sighed, relaxing for the first time in days.