Amnesia

Chapter Twenty-Two – Liam

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Liam

After everyone left, Mallory and I cleaned up the kitchen in silence. We were both processing everything that had happened in the last few hours, with her getting her memory back.

Mallory had made us both a cup of tea, and we sat on the back porch and watched as the sky turned darker and the stars showed up one after another.

“I love it here so much,” Mallory stated as she stroked her hand over Piper’s body.

“I’m glad.”

Turning to look at me, she grinned. “In the middle of all this craziness, I’ve found something I wasn’t even looking for.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Not what, but who. I feel so safe here with you, Liam. And as insane as this all is, I feel like it was fate that brought us together. I mean, I wish she’d gone about it a little differently, but I can’t imagine my life without you in it now.”

My heart swelled in my chest at her words. “I feel the same. And I’ll be honest with you…I don’t want you to leave.”

“Good,” she giggled. “I now realize that I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

I smiled and set my cup down. Standing, I reached for her hand. “I want to be with you, sweetheart. I need to feel you against me.”

Placing her hand in mine, Mallory stood. “I want that too.”

We made our way back into the house, and I said, “You head on into the bedroom. I’m going to lock up everything and I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay,” she said softly, kissing me quickly on the lips before heading down the hall toward the bedroom. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Piper stick right by her side. My dog was falling in love with Mallory, just like I was.

After turning off the lights, I grabbed my phone and Mallory’s and plugged them in to charge. I didn’t put them on silent, just in case Randy or Jonathon had any updates.

Once I got to the room, I smiled at the sight before me. Mallory was sitting on the bed, Piper still next to her. She was wearing one of my T-shirts—and that was it. She looked so damn beautiful with her brown hair pulled up and piled on top of her head.

Winking at her, I said, “Nice T-shirt.”

Glancing down, she replied, “Oh, this old thing?” When her eyes met mine, her smile faded a bit. “I should shop for some more lingerie.”

I pulled my shirt off and tossed it onto the chair that was near the window. “Nicer lingerie, you say? Maybe we should go shopping tomorrow, if you’re comfortable about leaving, we still don’t know who this guy is. Maybe we could go to Billings. It’s only about an hour and a half from here.”

Her eyes lit up. “I would love to get out and go shopping.”

“Then I say we go tomorrow.”

She bit down on her lower lip. “I would love that.”

I crawled onto the bed and slowly made my way up to her. It was clear Piper wasn’t giving up her spot.

With a giggle, Mallory said, “Someone doesn’t want to move.”

Glaring at my dog, I said, “Piper, you’ve gotten your time with her. It’s my turn.”

Piper let out a soft bark, and I swore it looked like she rolled her eyes at me.

“Off, Piper.”

The dog stood, stretched, then took her sweet time getting off and lying on the floor at the foot of the bed.

When I looked back to Mallory, her eyes danced with excitement. I made my way to her, kissing her softly before whispering, “May I take this stunning piece of lingerie off you?”

Her cheeks blushed. “Whatever for?”

With a wicked grin, I replied, “So that I can explore every inch of your body with my eyes and mouth.”

Mallory sat up some and I pulled the shirt off, tossing it over my shoulder.

Her eyes turned darker, and she slid down on the bed. I followed and lay next to her. My hand moved lightly over her bare skin, and I smiled as I watched her breathing increase.

“Liam,” she whispered as her fingers ran through my hair. “I want to forget everything but us.”

Moving over her, I met her gaze. I wanted to tell her I was falling in love with her—or maybe I’d already fallen—but I knew it wasn’t the right time, with everything going on.

Her finger moved along my jaw as she asked, “What are you thinking?”

I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure how she would feel about my thoughts, but I needed to share them. “That you’re mine, Mallory. And I will never let anyone take you away, ever again.”

Her eyes filled with tears before she moved her hand around to my neck and brought my mouth down to hers.

The rest of the evening was spent making love to each other, eating late-night snacks, and holding Mallory as she drifted off to sleep in my arms.

Listening to her soft breaths, I closed my eyes and whispered before exhaustion took me, “I love you, Mallory.”

##

The next morning found Mallory and me in the main barn, saddling up two horses.

I hadn’t heard from Randy or Jonathon yet on what the next thing was we needed to do.

Chad was still in Chicago. The plan had been for us to go shopping, but in the end, Mallory had decided it was too soon to venture out, even to Billings. So I came up with another idea. Riding.

“Are you sure I can do this?” Mallory asked as I adjusted the stirrups for her.

“I’m positive you can. Goldie is one of our best mares, and she’s the perfect horse for a beginner to ride.”

Chewing on her lip, Mallory surveyed the horse. “She’s beautiful.”

I wanted to do something today to help get Mallory’s mind off things.

I knew she was wondering, like I was, where in the hell we went from here.

We also hadn’t talked about her past, though she’d regained all of her memories, and I wasn’t about to push her into sharing anything. She would when she was ready.

“Stop worrying. Just remember everything I told you about the reins and follow my lead.”

“You’ll be fine,” Bubba said as he walked out of the barn, leading West Wind. He and Howdy were about to go move some cattle to a different pasture, and I should have been helping, but I needed to spend time with Mallory.

Bubba pointed to Mallory. “Pretty soon you’ll be one of us, riding along the fence line and fixing broken fences.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes. Since Randy filed her report with the Lewistown Police, and her existence wasn’t a secret anymore, I’d introduced Mallory to Howdy, Jimmy, and Larson this morning.

After their initial, and very understandable, shock over everything she’d been through, they all quickly became fast friends.

Each one of them offered to teach her all the ways of the ranch. It only took me wrapping my arm around her, drawing her close to my side, and my friends instantly knew…she was taken.

I helped Mallory up onto the mare, and a wide smile spread over her face. I could already tell she was going to fall in love with riding.

“Ready?” I asked, swinging up onto Moonshine.

With an excited nod, she replied, “I’m ready!”

Moonshine started to walk toward a trail, and Goldie followed.

“I don’t even have to steer her. She’s following you!”

Laughing, I glanced over my shoulder. “You might want to practice, though.”

Mallory shook her head. “Maybe in a bit. Right now, I think I’ll let her do her thing while I adjust to just being on top of her.”

The trail widened, so I told Mallory what to do to get Goldie to come up beside me and Moonshine. She was a natural when it came to riding. Her seat was perfect; she took to the instructions like a pro, and when I asked if she wanted to trot, she replied she was ready to run.

“How often do you have to check the fence line?”

“Once a month, sometimes more if we’ve had a storm with high winds.”

“And you do it on horseback?”

I shook my head. “Not always. Most of the time, we’ll drive it, which saves time.

Some ranchers are using drones now to check on their fence lines and their cattle.

I like to look at them with my own eyes, or send out one of the guys, to make sure nothing’s wrong.

The only way you can really do that is to get up close and personal with them. ”

“So, you raise cattle, breed horses, grow hay…and it’s just you and five ranch hands? How do you get all the work done?”

Laughing, I said, “There are more people than just the six of us. We do a majority of the work with the cattle, but when we need to do vaccines and branding, or bring the cattle down into the valley before winter hits, there’ll be a lot more people here working.

There are plenty of days I’m gone all day.

It’s a long day being a rancher, a lot of hard work, but I wouldn’t want to be anything else.

I grew up watching my granddaddy and my father doing it. It’s in my blood.”

She remained quiet, and I had a feeling I knew what was going on in her beautiful head.

“You must do well with it. Your house is amazing. Not to mention, you have your own plane.”

I smiled. “If you manage it correctly, you can do very well.”

“You mentioned before that Chad didn’t get along with your parents. Do you know why?”

Shrugging, I replied, “I’m not sure. Everything was fine until my brother was about ten, then something changed. He changed. He grew distant and angry all the time.”

“Did you ever ask him what was wrong?”

I let out a harsh laugh. “Plenty of times. He never would say, and I eventually got to the point where I no longer cared. He did his thing, and I did mine. When we were in high school, we hardly spoke.”

“That had to be hard for your parents.”

“Yeah, it was, but they tried their best.” We rode on a bit longer, and I brought Moonshine to a stop. “Do you want to stretch your legs for a bit?”

She smiled. “Okay.”

“Remember how I told you to get off?”

“Yep!” she said, swinging her leg over and getting off like she’d done it a million times. “Will the horses be okay?”

I tossed the reins over Moonshine’s back and did the same for Goldie. “Yeah, they’ll be fine.” Taking her hand in mine, we started walking toward one of the small lakes on the ranch. “Do you want to talk about what happens next, now that you have your memory back?”

She drew in a breath and exhaled. “Well, I was offered this amazing job as an assistant.”

My eyes went wide and it felt like my heart stopped.

“And the location is stunning. It’s surrounded by mountains, the place where I can live is out of my dreams, and I can go horseback riding anytime I want…I kind of have an in with the owner. Plus, I think he kind of likes me.”

I released the breath I’d been holding and let out a soft chuckle. “Really? That sounds like a dream job. And he’d be an idiot if he didn’t like you.”

She nodded as she looked out over the mountain range. “I thought so, too. The downside is he’s really hot. My potential new boss, that is. He could be a distraction.”

“That does sound like a problem. This doesn’t sound like it’s in Illinois, though. Are you okay with not returning to where you grew up?”

Mallory stopped walking and faced me. “That’s the other thing. There’s nothing for me back home. No family, no job, and…well…can you keep a secret?”

I put on a fake wounded expression. “Of course I can.”

“I’ve kind of already slept with the potential new boss.”

Raising a brow, I asked, “Really? Was he good in bed?”

She giggled. “Oh yes. But that’s not all. He’s kind and caring. He was there for me like no other person has been in my entire life. I honestly don’t think I could live a day without him.”

Tugging her hand, I drew her body against mine. “He couldn’t live a day without you, either. In fact…I’ve heard from a very reliable source that he’s fallen in love with you.”

Her eyes teared up as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “I love him too.”

I bent down and captured her lips with mine.

The kiss was slow and sweet. When it broke, I leaned my forehead against hers.

“I know we haven’t known each other for very long, Mallory, but it feels like you’ve been in my life forever.

These feelings I have for you…I’ve never felt them before with anyone. ”

Her hands moved to my chest, where she traced her finger on the pattern of my T-shirt.

“I’ve only dated one other guy; Mitch was his name.

He was a high school boyfriend, and he would tell me all these stories about how when he graduated and went to college, he was going to bring me with him, and we could start our life together.

I thought I’d get a part-time job and maybe take one or two classes here and there until I graduated.

I was so happy with the idea of getting out of Arcola, even though it meant leaving my grandmother.

Mitch was the only other person besides my grandmother whom I thought loved me. ”

Pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear, I asked, “What happened?”

She let out a humorless laugh as she slowly shook her head.

“Turns out, Mitch didn’t love me after all.

The night we graduated, he told me that he didn’t see his life with me in it.

That I wasn’t going anywhere, and he needed someone who had goals…

and he was tired of waiting for me to have sex with him.

” She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them.

“I did have goals, he just didn’t like them.

And he didn’t need sex from me. Apparently, he was getting plenty of it from other girls in school. I was so stupid, I didn’t see it.”

“I’m so sorry, Mallory.”

She shrugged. “It was a blessing in disguise. I would have been so unhappy with him. He’s some big marketing guy for a firm in Chicago. He’s been married and divorced twice.”

“Wow, sounds like you dodged a bullet.”

She grinned. “I think so.”

“Well, how would you like to shadow me today? Get a feel for how things are run here on the ranch.”

She let out a little squeal of excitement. “I’d love to! I’m so ready to start helping you.”

Taking her hand in mine again, I kissed her one more time, then we walked back to the horses and slowly made our way to the main barn.