36. Sarah
Chapter 36
Sarah
I woke up to the sound of rustling clothes. Blinking my eyes open, I looked around the dark space. The blinds in Ranger’s room were open, but no sun was shining through.
“What time is it?” I croaked, my throat dry from sleep.
Ranger came to my bedside. The mattress dipped with his weight as he sat next to me, stroking my hair away from my face. “Way too early for you to be up, sugar.” He pressed a kiss to my temple, his stubble scraped against my skin. “How’re you feeling?”
Slowly, I rose to my elbows and sat up against the pillows and headboard. Last night…my parents…Ranger and I storming out. Right. I was so distraught last night, that Ranger brought me back to his place. We didn’t say much, he just held me while I cried. I scrunched my face, feeling the remnants of dried tears from last night.
Where there was an ache in my chest last night, this morning I felt only lightness. Almost like I cried all the tears I had left for my parents.
“I think last night was the last nail in the coffin for my parents and me. When I agreed for us to have dinner with them, I was hopeful that they might be trying to put their differences aside and get to know me for the woman I am now. But that was never their intention. All they wanted to do was trap me and you in their home so they could berate us.
“They’re never going to change. Now, I have to find a way to move forward and live a life without them in it.”
Shadows played across Ranger’s face. His brows were bunched together as he contemplated my thoughts. “Last night definitely wasn’t the outcome I wanted for you, but I think you’re right. You gave them one last shot and now you have closure.”
“Yeah,” I smiled. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was because I’d expelled most of my emotions last night, but I felt hopeful. Today was a brand new day. One I didn’t have to live feeling bogged down by the expectations of others. I could be myself, fully. I knew the pain of losing the relationship with my parents would come in waves, but right now I was empowered.
“I’m going to cook you breakfast.”
His face lit up despite the darkness of the room. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to sleep?”
“Yup! I’m sure.”
“Okay.” He scooped me up in his arms and led me out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
I held the large mixing bowl against my hip as I ran the hand mixer through the blueberry muffin batter until all the flour lumps were gone. Ranger sat at the kitchen island, a steaming mug of coffee in his hands as he watched me work.
“I know this is probably a given, but would you like to be my plus one to Willow and Johnny’s wedding?”
His grin was wide over the rim of his mug. “I was wondering if you were going to ask me or if you had some other guy in mind.”
I sat the bowl on the counter and looked at him. “I mean yeah, there’s this guy named Joey who I was thinking of asking.”
Ranger snickered.
“But I decided to choose you instead.”
“And why’s that?” he teased.
“Because you have bigger biceps.”
Porcelain hit the countertop when he put his mug down. Then he rose from the stool and started rounding the island. “Is that right?” he mused, eyes narrowing on me.
I bit my lower lip. “Mmhmm. Yours are way bigger.” He slinked towards me, movements slow and feline. “It was the obvious choice.” I shrugged, then he snatched me up into his arms sending me into a fit of giggles and squeals.
“Ranger!” I screeched, his hands digging into my sides after he plopped me on the kitchen counter. His tickle assaults kept coming, I could hardly breathe. And I loved every second of it because I knew we could joke about things. That no matter how protective he felt over me, he trusted that he was my person and there wasn’t anyone else in this world I wanted more than him.
I tried slapping his hands away, but it was no use. He was much stronger than me and I couldn’t say a word past the laughter that had my lungs burning.
Someone behind us cleared their throat. Ranger stopped moving his hands along my ribcage, his attention shifting to the person behind me. I looked over my shoulder to find Callie Rose and Miles standing in the kitchen entryway smirking at both of us. “Are we interrupting something?” Callie Rose asked.
I hopped off the counter and made sure my pajamas were covering everything.
“Nope!” My voice came out high-pitched. “I was just making everyone breakfast before you got started with your day.”
Miles watched Callie Rose saunter into the kitchen and take one of the seats at the island. I was in her childhood home with her brother who I knew she was wildly protective over. There was no telling what she might be thinking of me right now.
“What’re we having?” she asked. My shoulders slumped, releasing the tension. Maybe I’d passed the test and she approved.
“Blueberry muffins and bacon if that’s okay with you. ”
Miles clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Alright! That sounds like my kind of breakfast.”
I smiled and noticed that the edges of Callie Rose’s lips tilted upward too. “It’ll be nice to not have to cook for these two buffoons every day. I’m glad to pass that torch over to you, Sarah. When you’re here that is.”
Ranger poured his sister and Miles a cup of coffee, sliding them each across the island counter. “Buffoons is a little harsh, Cal.”
“Yeah,” Miles chimed in. “I like to think of us as charming men. Hard workers. Studly even. You know”—he nudged her with his elbow—“all the wonderful qualities that speak truth to who we really are.”
Callie Rose snorted and rolled her eyes. But that didn’t stop her from leaning towards Miles. It was almost like she couldn’t help that gravity pulled her toward him. Interesting , I thought. Not that I’d touch that with a ten-foot pole, but I wondered if Ranger saw that his little sister had feelings for his best friend. Or maybe he was too oblivious to notice.
She made some retort towards Miles and Ranger while I put the muffin mix into a pan and slid it into the oven before starting on the bacon.
Their banter filled the space for the remainder of breakfast until all the plates were cleaned and placed in the drying rack next to the sink. I loved it. All the noise in the house. The teasing and poking at one another. It felt like how a home should feel, I realized. It was never something my parents, Theo, and I did. Most of the time we hardly talked to one another when I lived in their house. Or when we did speak, it was usually them telling me I was doing something wrong.
Watching Ranger with his sister and Miles showed me that family was what you put into it. And they certainly had a lot of love to share.
I took the day off and had Stephanie bring in one of her friends to help run the front while she kept the kitchen running. I wasn’t quite ready to risk going in public where my mother might bombard me again. So, I’d made myself a small picnic and packed a blanket to bring with me to watch Ranger and Miles work the cows. They were in the field today. I’d found the perfect spot to watch on top of one of the hills overlooking the valley.
Ranger looked hotter than ever on top of his workhorse, Phillip. His face was mostly hidden from the brim of his cowboy hat, but I loved watching him move in the saddle, his strong arms spilling out of his rolled-up sleeves. How the man still only wore a t-shirt and flannel in this weather was beyond my comprehension, but I didn’t mind it too much it it meant I got to see his muscles more easily.
“Hey,” Callie Rose greeted me, a basket of flowers hanging on her arm. There was an arrangement of violas, dahlias, marigolds and chrysanthemums .
“Hi,” I replied, moving to the left of the blanket so she could sit down.
“They’re working hard today.” She paused, looking out at the field of cows Ranger and Miles were herding.
“Yeah, they are.” Shielding my eyes from the midday sun, I looked up at her as she sat down. “What’re the flowers for?”
She set the basket of flowers in front of us and started laying them out one by one in a row. “When I was little, my mother would gather a basket of flowers at the turning of every season. We’d sit together and make flower crowns. Afterward, we’d dress up really nice, put on our crowns, and dance. I thought it might be nice to bring that tradition back, now that I have another woman in the family to do it with.”
My heart nearly burst when she handed me a dahlia and smiled at me. “I’d be honored to do that with you, Callie Rose.” I didn’t hide the tears that started to well in my eyes. I wondered if she had some idea of what had happened with my parents. If Ranger had made a comment to her. But I also knew that pain recognized pain. She’d lost both her parents too and even though our experiences were different, we’d both experienced the sorrow of losing them.
She showed me how to thread the long stems of the flowers together and before long I had the beginning workings of a flower crown.
Callie Rose was working a flower through the stem crown as she said, “I wasn’t too sure about you at first. I thought you might be just like most of the other blue bloods in this town. Elitist. Snobby. Mean. But you brought my brother back to me, Sarah.” She looked me in the eyes. “That’s a debt I’ll never be able to repay.”
I placed my hand on her knee. “I wouldn’t want you to. Loving your brother has been the most incredible thing to ever happen to me. He’s shown me that there is so much more to life than I ever thought possible. He’s shown me that I can be loved even when I don’t think I deserve it.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m so happy we have you in our family now.” Her lips quivered with each word.
I hugged her tight. She was stiff in my arms for only a moment before I felt her shoulders sag and her body loosen. Then her arms came to wrap around me. “Me too,” I whispered, rubbing her back up and down.
When we pulled apart, she wiped the tears from her face and said, “They’ll never let us live it down if they catch us crying together.”
I laughed. “Oh, I know. They’d make fun of us for years.”
She reached for my flower crown. Holding it close to her face, she looked around the edges of my handiwork. “This isn’t half bad for your first time.”
When she handed it back to me, I took it and started threading more flowers through. “Thank you.”
When we finished the crowns and the boys wrapped up their work for the day, Callie Rose let me borrow one of her dresses. With our hair and makeup done up, we paraded around the house, cooking dinner side-by-side until dusk turned into night and Ranger brought out his guitar. This time he played a happy melody—one filled with joy and mirth while Callie Rose and I danced. I laughed until my belly hurt and my heart was near bursting.