2. Ranger
Chapter 2
Ranger
Long chestnut hair, rich espresso eyes, and rosebud lips haunted me from the time I left Sarah’s Bakery to this very moment as I walked up the steps to the main house. Maybe it was my prolonged stint in prison that had me fawning over her like a fucking puppy. Nearly ten years without contact with a woman did something to men like me.
I’d never been a player. The girls I hooked up with always knew exactly what they were getting with me. I made sure there was no mystery to the situation. Brutal honesty was a trait my father passed down to me.
I could still remember all the moments we shared together. The first time he had me break in one of the new horses, I’d hit my ass on the dirt too many times to count and my father just stood behind the barrier of the training ring giving it to me straight. Telling me how I was messing up and what I needed to do to fix it.
He never sugarcoated what he said and I always appreciated that about him because I knew exactly what I was getting. There was never a question in my mind about what he meant or what his intentions were in various situations.
So, I’d brought that quality into myself—worked on establishing my own truth and communicating openly about it. Especially when it came to women. Because I’d never been with a woman who I wanted to spend more than one night with. There were plenty of great ones who shared my bed. Smart, witty, adventurous. But none of them drew my attention the way Sarah Williams had this morning.
Which I found odd given I was six years her senior and barely had any contact with her other than seeing her around when I would pick up my sister from school. But two summers ago when I saw her at Deacon’s summer bonfire, I felt like a shadow that had found its muse. I couldn’t seem to stay away from her that night. Watching the reflection of the flames in her dark eyes as she tilted her head back and laughed at something her friend, Willow had said. The gentle curves of her body had my hands aching with the need to run them all over her. To pull her into my lap as I buried my face in her neck.
Fuck .
I pulled at my jeans, trying to loosen the crotch area where my dick was annoyingly erect. Not exactly the look I wanted to have as I brought my sister and Miles muffins for breakfast.
Taking a quick pause in front of the door, I adjusted myself so I wasn’t showing before I cleared my head of any remaining thoughts of Sarah .
Most ranchers ate breakfast before they started work for the day, but it had always been tradition for my sister, Callie Rose, and me to eat breakfast together and despite all my years of trying to get that girl out of bed before the sun rose, I’d failed. So, I learned to accept my fate and celebrated the fact that I was even able to have these mornings with my sister again.
Ten years without them was hard. Even though it made the ranch work feel more difficult some days not getting a head start in the mornings, I cherished this time with my sister knowing how quickly someone else could take it away from us.
Stepping through the door, I called out, “I have breakfast!”
There was rustling and the sound of stools scraping against the hardwood. I rolled my eyes, remembering I needed to add some furniture pads to the kitchen stools before they wore holes into the floor. Callie had done a great job of keeping up with the place while I was away, but there were still a ton of things I needed to do to keep everything up to par.
Miles, my best friend since kindergarten, rounded the corner from the kitchen first. “Oh, man! You got stuff from Sarah’s Bakery ? She has the best cupcakes I’ve ever had.”
When Miles grabbed the box of muffins from me I asked, “When have you gone to her bakery?”
A strange pull tugged in the center of my chest when I thought about Miles hanging around Sarah. We were similar in our approach of being honest with the women we slept with and I’d never been a jealous man. If a woman wanted someone else that just meant she wasn’t the woman for me.
But this reaction I was having about Sarah was foreign to me. And I couldn’t help but think about the comment she made to Deacon over the phone.
“But who the hell is going to want to be with a thirty-year-old virgin, Deacon?”
How a woman like that had gone her entire life without being shown the passion of sex was beyond me. Or maybe she was one of those who chose to save themselves for marriage. Not that there was anything wrong with that approach, it just wasn’t the kind of ideology I subscribed to.
“I go there all the time, man,” Miles said before stuffing his face with one of the muffins. “Like I said, best cupcakes around, and when the sweet tooth starts barking at me she’s got the best fix in town.”
I tried to hide the sneer from my face but when I looked over to my sister, she stopped her hand mid-grab and looked at me, her eyebrows raising in question. I shook my head, silently telling her to let it go. She shrugged and finished her reach for one of the muffins.
“So, what’s the plan for the calves?” Miles asked.
I swallowed a bite and chased it down with the coffee Callie Rose had waiting for me on the counter. “I figured we could grab the calves on the front pasture and tag them first while we slowly transition the ones on the back pastures forward. I think we can have them all wrapped up by the end of the week with just the two of us working. ”
“Speaking of just the two of us, have you thought any more about hiring another hand?”
It was truly wild to see just how far the ranch had come in such a short period of time. While Miles and Callie Rose had kept things going while I was away, they barely broke even most months for the past decade. It wasn’t for a lack of their efforts though. Ranch life was hard work and if you didn’t have the gift of choosing the right cows and building relationships with wholesalers, you’d likely fail. My father never had the passion for it which was why he went into the military.
But every man who owned this land in our family before him had been gifted the ability to ranch well and that was passed on to me. So, when I got released I immediately got to work and within a year, I had the place turned around so that we started making a decent profit. Now, that profit was growing more and more which also meant the ranch was expanding and we’d need to hire some additional hands.
I just didn’t like the idea of having strange men around my sister. Miles had always been around and we’d established one rule since our friendship began. My sister was completely off-limits. He’d respected that rule, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust other men to do the same.
“Let’s get through the rest of this year and we will re-evaluate in the new year. I think we can manage just the two of us until then.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.” Miles scarfed down his third muffin and grabbed his cowboy hat from the counter. “I’m going to get a head start. I’ll see you out there. ”
When he was through the door, Callie Rose lowered her coffee mug from her lips and said, “So, are you going to tell me what that horrible look on your face was about or should I start making guesses?”
She was always the one catching me off guard with her annoyingly good observation skills. I tried to play it off. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about all the work we have to do to get the calves tagged in time.”
“Bullshit.”
I heaved a long sigh. “I don’t want to do this with you right now.”
Ever since I’d gone away, I’d developed a habit of keeping my cards close to my chest. Prison was every bit as bad as people made it out to be and to protect yourself, you either aligned with the right people or you kept your head down and stayed out of sight. Not wanting to affiliate with any assholes and have expectations follow me on the outside, I chose the latter route and it definitely had a lasting impact.
Before being convicted, I told Callie Rose everything. She wasn’t just my little sister, but my best friend. When our dad died in the war and our mom left us shortly after, we were all the other had to depend on.
Ten years was a long time, though. Even though she was still my best friend, the thought of being vulnerable and sharing what I was feeling had my skin crawling with tension. Vulnerability made you a target on the inside and even a year after my release, I was still adjusting to life on the outside.
She leaned forward on the island, her elbows propped on the table before giving me a look that told me this conversation was nowhere near over.
But she gave me some respite when she said, “Okay. I’ll give you some space. But I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
“Thanks,” I murmured over the rim of my mug.
We stood in comfortable silence while each of us munched on the blueberry muffins and sipped on our coffees. Mornings like this were what I missed most when I went away. The freedom to just be. To enjoy the simple moments without having someone else telling me that it was time to go back to my cell.
When I looked at my sister, I wanted to say those things. I wanted to tell her how much this time with her meant to me. But I kept my mouth shut. That fear of vulnerability proving stronger than my own will at this moment.
Thankfully, she broke the silence before my thoughts dragged me back to a place I didn’t want to go.
“Do you think you could help me with some of the wiring for the grape vines? They’re really starting to take off and I want to get the wiring complete before I’m in over my head.”
“Yeah. How about tomorrow? I can take the second half of the day to help you with that.”
“Perfect. I was planning on taking today to focus on pruning and getting them ready for the first frost of fall.”
Callie Rose had always helped around with the ranch, but right after I went away, she left for college while Miles maintained what little cattle we had. She got her degree in agriculture business. She wasn’t allowed to bring her paper degree into the visiting area of the prison when she graduated, but I could see the pride on her face. She was a first-generation college student and now she was using that knowledge to make our family ranch even more successful than I could imagine.
Even though our town was small and tucked away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, there was a lot the townsfolk had to offer. From artisan coffee shops, countless festivals, and Sarah’s divine desserts there was plenty to keep everyone satisfied. But the one thing Pebble Brook Falls didn’t have was a winery. Knowing how much the town’s wealthy would eat up the possibility of having fine wine made in their hometown, my sister had capitalized on an opportunity and I’d do everything in my power to help her succeed.
Eventually, she had plans to build a large seating venue at the south end of the property, next to the vineyard for people to come for tastings. More recently, I heard her talking to Miles about using it as a wedding venue sometimes too. She had a lot of grand plans and the first step was making sure the vines did well.
I watched as she drained the rest of her coffee and grabbed her small coat off the hook in the hall.
“See you out there,” she said before turning for the door.
“Cal?” I called after her.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. “I’m proud of you.”
The smile that hit her face reminded me of how she smiled as a young girl. Bright and full of life. In that moment, I felt overwhelmingly thankful that I had my sister. Even if I wasn’t ready to open up fully, I could tell her how much she amazed me.
“Thanks, Ranger.” As I watched her bound toward the front door, a little piece of my wall came crumbling down.