He hadn’t been there for Zach when Cale died, either. What kind of friend ignores that level of pain?
But worst of all, he’d abandoned Sabrina when she’d needed him most. He’d abandoned her and then he’d convinced himself they were both better off, even though every day of every year they’d been apart, he’d regretted it.
And now, just when it seemed like he was getting a second chance, it all went to shit.
So Sabrina had been planning to hurt him in return. Big deal. He deserved it. And anyway, she’d changed her mind. She could have kept it to herself, but she didn’t want any lies between them, not anymore.
He’d already forgiven her, he realized, though when it had happened, he couldn’t say.
“Let’s take a breather,” Sabrina called, pointing to an overhanging rock. “My legs are cramping up.”
Good, Mitch thought. He’d make a fire and get them both a hot drink. He needed the distraction anyway.
What had she said? From now on, whatever happens between us…
Was she leaving the door open for them to…start over?
…
He looked terrible, Sabrina thought. And not just because of Hailey. Mitch fumbled with the lighter, dropping it before he managed to ignite the tiny blue flame on his camp stove.
“I didn’t know it got so cold up here,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “I mean, it’s summertime.”
He grunted. “Go across to the next range and you’ll find snow. Year-round.”
“Let’s hope she didn’t go that far.” Sabrina spoke through a clenched jaw, to keep Mitch from seeing how badly her teeth were chattering.
He looked sharply at her, then handed her a dented metal cup. “Here. I put lots of sugar in it for you. It’ll help.”
He took a large slurp from his own mug, burned his mouth and jumped, sloshing the hot liquid over his hand. He let loose with a string of muttered curses, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She thought about when she splashed tea on her own hand, and he’d held it between his, how she’d touched his tattoo.
How he’d touched her tattoo.
They were in way over their heads, both of them. Mitch could have called off their fake engagement a week ago. He didn’t need Della anymore. If anything, he wanted to run her out of town on a rail.
When it had stopped being about revenge for her, Sabrina wasn’t entirely sure. Maybe it never had been and she’d been fooling herself the whole time.
Mitch’s grip had steadied, she was glad to see.
“You’re more worried than you let on,” she said finally.
“Of course I’m worried.” He glanced upward. “Young girl, lost in the mountains. But if we don’t take a break to warm up and reorient ourselves, they’ll be searching for us, too.”
“Yeah.” Sabrina looked at him through the steam rising off her tea. His eyes were lined with fatigue, and he didn’t meet her gaze. “But there’s something else going on with you.” Sabrina waited for the fireworks of denial to erupt. To her surprise, Mitch remained motionless.
“I should have known,” he said finally, his voice low and rough. “Damn it, I’ve been where she is. I was the same age as her when my mother died. I should have seen it coming.”
“Oh, Mitch!” Tears threatened. How well she remembered that time in his life. She wanted to pull him into her arms and hold him, until the tide ebbed again.
Suddenly Bono woofed and scrambled to his feet, slipping and sliding on the wet earth.
“What the…” Mitch looked around, scanning the distance. Then he leaped up. “I think I see her! Stay with the fire; I’ll bring her back.”
Before Sabrina knew it, he was galloping away, leaning over Maya’s neck, water streaming off them both. He was killing himself trying to fix things that weren’t his fault, to make up for mistakes long since forgiven, to prove himself the man she’d always known him to be. He was such a good man, and he didn’t believe it of himself.
A scuffling sound startled her and suddenly Bono came around the corner.
“What are you doing back here, baby?”
And if Bono was here…where was Mitch? Sabrina jumped up, spilling the rest of her tea in her haste. She’d leave the camp stove here. She’d leave everything here.
Monty seemed as anxious to go after them as she was and Bono kept running ahead, then back, as if to ask what was taking them so long.
The rain had slowed to a light drizzle now but the ground was still soaked. Monty stumbled as he stepped around a slippery rock, then shied, whinnying.
“Easy, boy!” Sabrina held on, looking ahead to find out what had frightened him. The sight that met her eyes turned her insides to water.
Maya, standing alone, reins dangling in the mud.
While Mitch lay motionless at her feet.
“Mitch!” Sabrina screamed, sliding off Monty without thinking. “Mitch, hang on, I’m coming.”
She fell to a stop on her knees, beside Mitch. Bono hovered next to her, licking at Mitch’s face.
“Mitch? Talk to me sweetheart, what happened?”
Please, God, let him be okay. Please, God, I’ll do anything.
Then she mentally slapped herself. Think, Sabrina. You’re a nurse. So act like one.
“It would really help,” she said, running shaking hands over his body, looking for injuries, “if you were having a baby.”
He coughed then and she nearly passed out with relief. “Can you hear me?”
Mitch groaned. He tried to move onto his side but fell back, gasping with pain.
“Talk to me, honey, tell me what happened!” She couldn’t see any obvious fractures, no head injury. He was moving enough that his spinal cord was probably okay.
“Probably is not good enough. You are definitely hurt somewhere.”
“Can’t…breathe,” he managed, finally.
“Pneumothorax. Hemothorax.” Or even a pericardial injury. She pictured a punctured lung, leaking air into his chest cavity, suffocating him slowly. She ripped open his shirt, running her hands up and down his chest, but there was no open wound. “A closed rib fracture could be just as deadly, though,” she muttered. “Sorry, but this is gonna hurt.”
She heaved him, all two hundred pounds, onto his side to minimize decompression of the lung.
Mitch cried out.
“I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry, I know it hurts. But you are not dying on my watch.” She held him for a moment, more to reassure herself that he was still alive. He couldn’t die now, not when they were so close to…something. “We’ve got unfinished business, bucko, and you’re not getting out of it. I don’t care what you try.”
She shoved his shirt up to check his back. No wound there either. But a nasty bruise was swelling up just beneath his shoulder blade.
“You’re…killing…me,” he gasped.
She held him again while he struggled for breath, her tears mingling with his. Suddenly she realized he was laughing through his tears.
She lifted her head. He was definitely laughing, but it obviously hurt him to do so.
“You think this is funny?” The adrenaline pouring through her system turned fear to anger. “You’re out here, in the rain, maybe dying right in front of my very eyes, and you’re laughing?”
“If I’m dying,” he gasped, wincing, “we should…have sex again. Soon.”
She nearly choked. Then she nearly choked him. “What is wrong with you? It’s not enough that you torture me with this whole fake engagement thing, making me fall in love with you all over again, but now you’re putting me through a fake death?”
Then her words caught up with her and she stopped.
“Oh,” he moaned, alternating between laughing and wincing. “I heard it.”
She sat back in the mud. “What?”
“No more lies, right?” He tried unsuccessfully to prop himself up on one elbow. He slumped back with a groan, all teasing gone. “Whatever happens between us?”
She wiped
his face again. “This isn’t really the time.”
“It’s exactly the time.” His eyes glittered dark and serious in the thin flashlight beam.
“Fine.” She met his eyes. “You want the truth, here it is. I’m in love with you again. But I know you’re leaving. Maybe you’ll be back one day, maybe not. Whatever happens between us, you’ll always be in my heart.” Her voice faltered.
Mitch reached out and pulled her down on top of him, until her face was inches from his.
“Whatever happens,” he said, “you’re the love of my life. We’ll find a way.”
For a moment she was afraid to trust her ears. “What?”
“Gonna make me say it again,” he whispered, “in my condition?”
She burst into tears, burying her face in his shoulder. After all this time, all that pain.
Wait. Pain.
She jumped up, galvanized. “You need help. Tell me what happened.”
“Well,” he said, still struggling for breath. “It’s like…this. Maya shied at something. I…fell off. Knocked the wind out. You…rode up, yelling about…ribs…and pneumonia, and babies…and love…”
He was gray-faced with effort and the grin was gone. Heat was leaching out of his body. He was probably going into shock. She had to get him home.
Somehow.
Bono lifted his head suddenly. Then he barked and ran off. He returned moments later, his tail waving wildly.
“Sabrina?”
“Hailey?” Sabrina grabbed the girl. “My God, we were so worried about you! Are you okay?”
Hailey nodded.
“Thank…God,” Mitch mumbled.
“Mitch is hurt,” she said, fear ratcheting up. “He needs medical attention. Think the two of us can boost him onto Maya?” She turned to Mitch. “If we get you up, honey, can you hang on?”
“Probably… not.” His words were slurring now.
“Well, you’re gonna have to,” Sabrina said, hearing the panic in her voice.
Somehow, with a lot of stifled groans and muttered curses, Mitch ended up back in the saddle. He was sitting crooked, protecting his side, and it looked to Sabrina as though he might fall off at any moment.
“You get on behind him.” She pointed at Hailey. “Hang on to the horn. Your arms will act like a brace. You keep him on that horse, do you understand? Monty and I will be right next to you, on his bad side. If he slips, I’ll catch him.”
She’d carry him home on her back, if she had to.
And step by painful step, they made it back to Three River Ranch, where Bliss pulled Hailey off before the girl even knew she was there.
“Someone get my car,” Sabrina said, cradling Mitch sideways. “And help me get him down from here.”
“Oh my God!” Rory flew to her side and together they eased Mitch off the horse, into a sitting position on the porch. “What happened?”
“I’ll tell you on the way to the hospital.”
“Forget that stupid Smart car.” Rory ran to her big SUV. “I’ll drive. Bliss?”
“Go,” she answered immediately. “We’re fine here.”
…
Mitch lay in the emergency room, desperate to get out of there, or at least get a bit of privacy. He was in line for X-ray, but he’d managed to smuggle his cell phone out of his pocket before they’d whisked his mud-soaked clothes away.
He glanced around. Ever since he’d gotten the wind knocked out of him, he’d known exactly what he had to do. He hit his partner’s number at Granger-Ellis.
Jon Ellis answered. “Mitch? What’s up, man? I’ve been waiting to hear from you.”
“I don’t have time to explain, so just listen.” This might be the single stupidest decision of his life. And at the same time, the best. Quickly, succinctly, before he could change his mind, he outlined the situation. Jon listened in silence.
“Do you understand?” Mitch felt as though he was balancing on the precipice of a steep cliff. “I want you to put in an offer. Give them the full asking price. Use the numbered company. Keep my name out of it.”
“Another secret, Granger? It’s tough to look out for your best interests when I don’t know what’s going on.”
Mitch sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything, I promise, just not now. The main thing is, Della Fontaine must not get a hold of Hard Tack. Understand?”
“How can I with all the cloak and daggery?” Jon huffed. “This comes out of your shares entirely. It’s going to be an accounting disaster.”
“I know, I know.”
“You owe me big-time for this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “It’s just money.”
He felt lighter than he had in years. This was the right thing to do, he just knew it.
He was sure of himself, finally.
Mitch sat in the spare room at Three River, wishing Sabrina was with him. She’d sunk to the floor in tears when the doctor had announced that it was nothing more than a couple of cracked ribs. And in the week that followed, she’d seemed almost…frightened. Although he couldn’t be sure, since she’d been swamped with women thoughtlessly giving birth when he wanted the town midwife to himself.
He toyed with the pen in his hand, tired of signing documents, his chest tight and aching. Idly he fingered an itchy spot over his heart, feeling for the scab. It wasn’t an exact match to hers, but it was close.
He got up from the desk and paced to the window.
Whatever was happening—or not happening—with him and Sabrina, at least he’d undone the damage of bringing Della to town.
Jon Ellis was sending the legal documents to Gus’s attorney, Jonah Clarke, as soon as possible.
He simply couldn’t sit by and let Della destroy a family who’d already lost so much, so he’d decided to buy the place himself. He had to, for Hailey. He knew all too well how it felt to be motherless, left with a father who was barely hanging on.
It would be a long time before Mitch got a cent in dividends from Granger-Ellis. Jon was pissed, but his friend was a hothead. The company would be fine. Anyway, Mitch was beyond caring. He had enough money. He’d always had enough. He just hadn’t known it.
For once he was putting that money to good use.
He’d had an idea percolating for a while now, ever since something Sabrina had said had stuck in his brain.
Three River Ranch was solid again, now that Carson had turned it into a mustang sanctuary. It wasn’t a money machine, but he and Rory were able to live comfortably, providing a secure future for their family but, more importantly, a daily example of what it meant to believe in something. Rory trained service dogs for special-needs children, and ran camps for the families who would receive these special animals. Zach and Des, at Twinridge, had found something similar. Twinridge beef was served in the best restaurants in the country, and lauded by foodies and environmentalists alike for its humane handling methods and sustainable management practices.
Des, building on her experience with Zach’s dad, had created a center for therapeutic horseback riding, hippotherapy. They usually used the riding ring at Three River, but the lines between the ranches were blurring more and more each year, it seemed. Sabrina had started another clinic in Lutherton. Babies, it seemed, never stopped being born, and Bree had a special heart for those women who had little or no support but still wanted to do the best for their children.
Everyone was doing something good for someone else. They were all contributing to each other’s success and happiness.
Except him.
While everyone else was making the world a better place, Mitchell Granger was making a name for himself and in the process becoming a very wealthy man.
A man who would fit into the crowds Della Fontaine ran with.
Nausea washed over him at the memory of the man he thought he wanted to become. He had been so desperate to prove that Derek Granger’s oldest son, the disappointment, the loser, was someone successful and important, that he’d forgotten to consider wha
t Mitchell Granger, the man, actually cared enough about to spend his life on.
But now he knew. If only he’d figured it out earlier, all this trouble might have been avoided.
He would turn Hard Tack into a place for the kids who fell through the cracks, the ones at risk, the ones with no reason to believe in themselves. Kids in trouble needed a place to go where they’d learn about hard work, discipline, and yes, as Della had said, accountability. But they’d also learn about community, safety, nature, and what it felt like to be connected to the land, the animals, and the people around you.
And while it was all coming together, Gus and Hailey could stay put. They wouldn’t be shoved out of their home. Hard Tack’s first young offender, Mitch thought, was Hailey.
Which solved one part of his life.
The bigger thing, the more important thing, the only one that mattered, was Sabrina.
Mitch gathered the papers on his desk with a sigh. They were in a strange place. They’d started their “engagement” as adversaries, both with their own agenda. But then they’d moved on to friends. In bed. Who loved each other.
But now what? Where did they go from here? He had no idea.
Did she want him to stay? She expected him to leave, she’d told him that. What did that mean? A long-distance relationship? Surely not.
But was he coming back? That was the question.
Fluffy white clouds scudded past the mountains outside, as if the storm of last week and all its accompanying drama had been nothing but a nightmare.
Surely she knew that he’d stay if she wanted him to. But she hadn’t asked. Why?
Suddenly he understood.
Sabrina wasn’t going to ask. She wanted him to decide, on his own, to stay. She wanted him to choose her. To choose them, because he believed in them. Not because he’d been trapped, or coerced or tricked into it.
The next move was his.
Chapter Fifteen
“What!?!” Della’s screech could be heard clearly across the yard. The guesthouse door slammed and her footsteps crashed across the gravel, up the wooden porch until she was planted in front of Mitch, her hands on her hips. “They got a better offer! At the last possible second. For that dump!”
Fake Fiance, Real Revenge: A Three River Ranch Novel (Entangled Bliss) Page 17