Home on the Ranch: Montana Redemption

by Amanda Renee

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to play the video games. Especially the motorcycle one over there.” He pointed across the room to a life-size white-and-green racing bike. “You should see me on that thing.”

  “I’ve never been on that one.” Peyton looked up at her. “Can I ride it?”

  “I don’t think you weigh enough to maneuver that one.”

  “But you do. We can ride it together.”

  “Yes, Chelsea.” Ryder bounced on his bench. “You can ride it together.”

  “I don’t know how to play that game, let alone ride a motorcycle.” Chelsea had never been on one, real or fake.

  “Guess what?” Ryder asked. “Today you’re going to learn.”

  “Let’s ride it now.” Peyton jumped up from the table and ran across the arcade.

  Ryder winked as he helped Chelsea up from the table. She loved his chivalry and his need to protect the ones he cared about. “Is this what I have to look forward to? You always taking her side.”

  “Hey, when the kid is right, the kid is right.”

  “Come on!” Peyton shouted to them.

  “Oh! We better hurry.” Ryder grabbed her hand and led her through the throng of pint-size humans. “Who wants to go first?”

  “Mommy does.” Peyton hopped from one foot to the other.

  “Did Tori give you a lot of sugar this afternoon?” Chelsea hadn’t seen her daughter this bubbly since before she lost her hearing.

  “No. I’m just happy.”

  Chelsea didn’t dare ask why. There was no reason to analyze it like she’d overanalyzed everything for the past however many years. She doubted it was any one thing that had put the smile on her child’s face, but rather a combination of things that had begun falling into place. For the first time since they moved to Saddle Ridge, they’d found a balance in their lives. And whether or not Ryder played a part in that remained to be seen, but she liked where it was going.

  “Hop on.” Ryder patted the motorcycle seat.

  “Shouldn’t you go first and demonstrate how it’s done?”

  “Will that make you feel better?” Chelsea sensed a bit of mischief behind Ryder’s challenging grin.

  “Yes, it would.” Chelsea fished two tokens out of her pocket and slid them into the machine. She patted the seat. “Hop on, hotshot.”

  For a man who spent five and a half years away from all things motorcycle and video-game related, he beat the reigning high score on the first try.

  “Next.” He bent slightly at the waist and dramatically waved his arm to the side like an usher.

  Chelsea swung her leg over the back of the bike, almost taking out her knee in the process. Coordinated she was not. Ryder dropped two tokens in the slot and the plastic bike began to shake. She immediately reached for the back of her shirt and tucked it into her jeans. “I can only imagine how attractive this must look from behind.”

  “Damn hot, if you ask me,” Ryder winked. “Grab both handles.” Ryder signed for Peyton as he spoke. “The right side is your throttle. Twist it toward you to increase your speed. Don’t forget to use your hand brakes to slow down. When you see a turn, lean into it to maintain your speed, but don’t lean too much or else you’ll wipe out.”

  Lean? Wipe out? Throttle? For a video game, it all seemed too real. She watched the large screen in front of her as she twisted the rubberized handgrip. The motorcycle jerked and bounced beneath her as she drove over railroad tracks.

  “Increase your speed, you’re going to stall.”

  Chelsea came to a turn, forgot to lean and crashed into a parked car.

  “Why didn’t you slow down?” Ryder asked.

  “Because you told me to increase my speed.”

  “On the straightaway. Not on a turn.” He shook his head while Peyton laughed. “Do you want to give it another shot?”

  Chelsea attempted to dismount the bike, almost falling on her butt. Maybe horseback riding this weekend wasn’t such a good idea. If she couldn’t handle something that was bolted to the floor, she didn’t know how she’d handle riding something that moved.

  “Mommy, you have to stay on for me to ride.”

  “Oh no I don’t.” Chelsea shook her head. “Ryder can teach you.”

  “Are you sure?” Surprise was evident in his eyes.

  “She wants to have fun. Show her how to play the game the way it should be played. Only you can teach her that.”

  “Thank you for trusting me.” He helped Peyton onto the motorcycle then climbed on behind her. He leaned forward and placed both hands on hers. They’d both have to trust each other to communicate without words. Without sign language.

  Chelsea dropped two more tokens into the game and hit the start button. Her daughter’s smile widened with each turn. Her laughter increased as the motorcycle accelerated. Ryder guided her through the imaginary course looking as if he enjoyed it as much as Peyton did. It was the first time Chelsea saw her with a father figure outside of Peyton’s grandfather. She’d asked about her biological father numerous times and Chelsea couldn’t give her any answers. How do you tell a child the person who helped create them wanted nothing to do with them? Most of her friends had fathers. They may not still be married to their mothers, but they knew who their fathers were. Even though she’d never said she was sad or upset about not having one, her sadness crushed Chelsea whenever she saw Peyton watching other kids with their fathers. Chelsea would love to one day give her that gift. And once she convinced Ryder to clear his name, they’d have that chance.

  Chapter 10

  Ryder heard his mother’s voice inside Harlan’s house before his foot hit the first porch step. He hesitated, then started again when he heard someone come up behind him.

  “Hey, little brother.” Dylan, the oldest of his siblings, stood behind him, hands buried deep in his pockets. “I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t.” Ryder held up his hand. “I don’t want us to sit around apologizing all night. Especially not to me. What’s done is done. I don’t hold any grudges or have any animosity toward anyone anymore. It’s over.”

  “Do you really mean that?” his mother said through the open screen door. “Because I would love nothing more than to hear you say you forgive me.”

  The face of the woman who raised him had grown thinner and gaunter in the years he’d been away. Her shoulders appeared narrower, her hair grayer. Lines of time had etched into the skin around her eyes and lips. And yet, she was still the mother he remembered and loved.

  “I forgive you, Mom.” Ryder bounded up the stairs and embraced the woman he’d given up his freedom for. Holding her in his arms made everything he’d done worth it. “It’s over.”

  “Maybe it is for you, but I have a lot of questions.” Garrett walked up the stone path leading to the porch. “For starters, I want to know how come all this was going on and Harlan and I didn’t know about it. Dylan I can understand. He wasn’t living here then. But Harlan and I lived in the same damn town. Why didn’t you or Wes come to me? Come to us? And Mom...you had five sons you could have turned to and you didn’t.”

  Dylan placed a hand on Garrett’s chest. “This isn’t the time.”

  “Bullshit! That right there...that line of thinking is why two of my brothers suffered at the hands of our father, one of them went to jail, and our dad is dead. Because it was never the time.” Garrett punctuated the word time with air quotes. “The time is now.”

  “Why don’t we go in the house, sit down and talk about this, calmly.” Harlan slapped Ryder on the back. “I know reliving all those memories is painful for you and Wes. I’m asking you to give us one night to talk about it. To ask and answer questions without judgment.” He looked at Garrett. “To heal.”

  “Fine.” Garrett trudged up the stairs and stood face-to-face with their mothe
r.

  Ryder wrapped a protective arm around her, pulling her closer. His brother may be angry for the lies she told, but he refused to allow anyone to yell at her. He’d never seen his brother show aggression toward anyone before tonight, proving to Ryder that not knowing hurt almost as much as living through the nightmare.

  “Mom, I love you, but I need you to make me understand.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Garrett’s eyes narrowed at Ryder, letting him know he posed no threat to their mother. He dropped his arm from her shoulder and allowed Garrett to walk her inside.

  “Where’s Wes?” Ryder asked.

  “In the house.” Harlan held the door open for them. “He’s been here all afternoon.”

  The six of them spent the next couple hours talking over bottles of water instead of beer. His mother explained her affair, although she never named their uncle. Neither he nor Wes did either. As she said in her letter, who and why didn’t matter.

  She walked them through the twelve steps of recovery and even gave them information on Al-Anon meetings...the program for friends and family members of alcoholics. She read them the Serenity Prayer and the six of them asked God to grant them the serenity to accept the things they couldn’t change, the courage to change the things they could and the wisdom to know the difference.

  As he drove away from the house, his heart told him there was one last thing he needed to do before he could move forward with his life. Chelsea needed to hear the truth. For them to ever have a real relationship, she needed to know he hadn’t killed his father. He wanted their lives together to begin with absolute honesty.

  Ryder pulled into her driveway. He hadn’t bothered to call ahead. He’d spent fifteen minutes driving around trying to find the right words to explain what he’d done. He’d never told anyone he’d taken the blame for his mother. Tori had been there and had been part of the cover-up. But they hadn’t discussed it. He’d refused to. Now he had to talk about it.

  He raised his hand to knock on the door when it opened. “I heard you pull in. Is everything okay?”

  “It will be. May I come in?”

  Chelsea stepped aside and that was when he noticed she wore only an oversize T-shirt. Nothing else. Every curve of her full breasts was visible beneath the thin cotton. Her nipples grew before his eyes, puckering the fabric around them. The clock on the far wall showed a quarter past two. “I didn’t realize how late it was. I guess I stayed at Harlan’s longer than I thought. Did I wake you?”

  “Yes, but I don’t mind. Tell me what happened.” She walked toward the living room, her hips swaying ever so slightly with each step. “Did you see your mother?” she asked as she tucked her bare legs under her bottom on the couch.

  Ryder nodded as he sat beside her, struggling to find the words he needed to say. “My mom and my brothers—all of them—were there. We had some difficult conversations, but it was good. There were a lot of questions and just as many answers, but it’s finally over. I think we may have come out a little stronger because of it. Which brings me to why I’m here.”

  Ryder willed himself to continue as every nerve ending in his body went on high alert.

  Chelsea’s breathing slowed to the point he wondered if she held her breath. “Please don’t keep me in suspense.”

  He ran his palms back up and down his thighs. You can do this, Ryder. He swallowed hard when she shifted her legs and exposed more bare skin. “I want a future with you, Chelsea. And in order for that to happen, there can’t be any secrets between us.”

  Chelsea reached for his hands, stilling them. “I agree. Is there something you need to tell me?”

  Half of him believed she already knew the truth and had just been waiting for him to say the words. The other half feared she’d curse him for throwing his life away to protect his mom. Regardless, he couldn’t keep it from her any longer. “My mother was the one who accidentally ran over my father.”

  “Oh, Ryder, I suspected as much after the way you, Tori and Nate reacted to your mother’s letter. What happened?”

  “Tori drove me home that night.” Ryder’s pulse beat frantically in his neck as he attempted to tell Chelsea the story without envisioning what happened. “As we drove onto the ranch we saw my parents fighting outside. We didn’t know then what they were fighting about, now we do. Mom was trying to leave, and Dad tried to stop her. He grabbed her and she pushed him away. I jumped out of Tori’s car and told my dad to leave her alone, but my mom was already getting behind the wheel. She didn’t realize my dad had tripped and fallen behind the truck. As he tried to stand, she backed over him.”

  Chelsea gasped, covering her mouth. “How awful.”

  Ryder closed his eyes, trying to picture something, anything other than that night. But nothing came. He opened them, landing on the faint smattering of freckles across Chelsea’s collarbone. Freckles. Good. Focus on her freckles.

  “Tori leaned on the horn. I’m not sure if the sound frightened my mom or if she realized what she’d done, but she threw the truck in Drive and ran over him again, smashing into the side of the house. I banged on the door, but she had locked it. By the time I broke out the window she had passed out over the steering wheel.”

  “If it was an accident, why did you confess to it?”

  “Because my mom’s been arrested before. She has a history of driving under the influence. But no one knew that except me because it happened in another county and we hid it from the family. I figured the courts would be more lenient with me than her. There was no way I could have stood by and watched my own mother get locked up.”

  “I can understand that...it was a brave thing to do. But weren’t you concerned about how your own record would be viewed by the court?”

  “Nothing else mattered except protecting my mom. Besides, Tori serving me with divorce papers that day, losing my marriage and the kid I had considered my own destroyed me. Prison—as crazy as it may sound—was a hell of a lot more appealing than staying in Saddle Ridge and cleaning up the mess. I took the coward’s way out.”

  “You were far from a coward.” Chelsea drew his hands to her lips and began kissing them. “And I knew you didn’t do it.”

  The weight that had been crushing Ryder’s chest lifted for the first time since that night. “You and Harlan were both able to see through our story.”

  She rose to her knees and wound her arms around his neck. “You made the ultimate sacrifice to protect your mother and gave her a second chance at life. And now you have yours. You are the sweetest, most beautiful man I’ve ever known.”

  Chelsea pressed her lips against his, fervently urging his mouth open with her tongue. His fingertips grazed bare flesh as they gripped her waist. He tugged her on top of him, her bare bottom straddling his thighs. As much as he wanted to continue kissing her, he needed to see her body. All of it. He broke their kiss and as if sensing his desire, she lifted her shirt over her head, exposing her nakedness to him. This was the raw Chelsea he’d been longing to see since day one. Completely bare before him...for him.

  “Make love to me,” she purred in his ear. “Make love to me until neither one of us can move.”

  Ryder eased Chelsea onto her back and stood before her. She watched him undo every button and he watched her darkened nipples bud harder as he unzipped his jeans. He’d never wanted anything more than he did at this very moment. The throbbing ache that burned inside him had grown to a fevered pitch. Tonight, Chelsea would be his.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning, Chelsea’s body still hummed from Ryder’s lovemaking. They’d explored every inch of each other and had gone back for more. Their goodbye kiss an hour ago had the promise of more to come, but neither one of them knew when they’d have the opportunity again. Overnight dates weren’t easy to schedule with a child in the house.

  She checked the clock on the wall. Peyton would b
e home in a few hours and she needed to talk to Harlan. Together they could convince Ryder and Bernadine to tell the truth and finally clear his name. Without their confessions, Chelsea and Harlan were left in a difficult position. As officers of the court, they were required to turn them in. But she couldn’t do that, and she doubted Harlan could either. The truth had to come from Ryder and Bernadine.

  The drive to Harlan and Belle’s seemed endless. She knew Ryder wouldn’t be thrilled she’d turned to his brother for support, but together they could help them build a strong defense and hopefully Bernadine would never spend a day behind bars.

  She turned in to Harlan’s ranch, relieved to see his police SUV in the driveway, having forgotten to call first. Normally she wasn’t this unprepared. Then again, she’d never been this close to a case before.

  “Chelsea, this is a surprise.” Harlan rose from one of the rocking chairs on the farmhouse’s front porch. “I was just having my morning coffee. Would you like a cup?”

  “Um.” Chelsea gripped the stair rail for support as she climbed the steps. “Yes, please. Just cream.”

  It would give her a few extra seconds to organize her thoughts.

  “It’s non-dairy creamer. Is that all right?”

  “That’s fine.”

  “Okay.” Harlan eyed her warily. “Are you okay?”

  Chelsea nodded. “Great, I just need to talk to you.”

  Harlan gnawed his bottom lip for a moment, then opened the screen door. “I’ll be right back with your coffee.”

  “Thanks.” She wanted to say take your time but the quicker she got this over with the better for all parties involved. Although it would have been a lot easier if the people involved weren’t related to Harlan.

  “Here you go.” He handed her a steamy mug a few minutes later and motioned for her to sit in one of the rockers. “I’m assuming this is about Ryder.”

  Chelsea sipped her coffee, instantly wishing she hadn’t. She swallowed the hot liquid and cleared her throat. “It’s about Ryder and the night your dad died.”