Home To Texas - Ransom My Heart Part 31

IXUft.urft 1 1y 12ruI I her walk across the room to bring it to him. She was wearing jeans and

a tank top. She had probably been out to the stables already whilehe'd just lain here, sleeping like a dead man."And what would that be?" she asked, smiling at his tone."Whatever's wrong with you this morning?""It feels a little like I've been rode hard and put away wet," he said.

Her hand hesitated, the mug just beyond his reach.

"Don't you pour that coffee on me," he warned, seeing the temptation in

her eyes.

"I swear I can't move fast enough to get out of the way."

"Is that what happened last night? You just couldn't move fast enough

to get out of the way?"

"That's not exactly how I'd describe what happened last night," he said, and finally she put the mug into his outstretched hand and sat down beside him on the edge of the bed. She watched as he took the

first swallow, rolling the heat and flavor of the coffee around in hismouth."Was that Sam on the Phone?" he asked.He took another swallow, still savoring it. She didn't say anything, and finally he glanced up to see if he was missing something. The laughter that had been in her eyes was gone.

"It wasn't Sam," she said.

"Something wrong?"

"It was Blake Cunningham."

"You thinking about buying some more land?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Actually," she said softly, "I'm selling some."

It took a minute to penetrate, his brain overly relaxed by all the

problems that had finally seemed on their way to resolution last night.

"I didn't know you owned any land but this place."

"I don't."

He didn't say anything for a moment, trying to figure it

(Jayte wuson ,o t out.

"Why?" he asked.

"You said you wanted Amanda to have the ranch, and I thought after last

night--" "Last night..." she interrupted, and then she hesitated before she completed it.

"Last night didn't change anything about this."

His heart had stopped about halfway through that.

"This?" he repeated carefully."I owe Sam a million and a half dollars. I don't have any other way torepay it. Even if we eventually get back what Drake took..." Sheshrugged.

"Blake has found a buyer who wants it all. Everything that's here--lock, stock and barrel. I used to wonder when I was a little girl what that meant."

"You're selling the horses?"

She nodded, the cost of it in her eyes.

"Even Light foot Harry and your mares?"

"He wants it all."

"d.a.m.n, Samantha," he said. For the first time he looked away from her,

thinking about the dreams that had crowded into his head this morning, waking up in this house, listening to her footsteps moving through the small rooms. The same stupid adolescent dreams he'd had before.

"He doesn't care if you pay it back," he said, and then wondered why he had bothered. They both understood that Sam didn't want the money. She was the one who cared.

She was the one to whom the debt mattered.She shook her head, not even trying to explain. This was part of therelations.h.i.+p she and her father shared. Chase might not understand why Samantha felt the way she did about accepting help from Sam, but heunderstood the ramifications of it."I'm sorry, Chase. I always wanted Mandy to have this.Something of yours. But ... it's more important that we have Mandy back. That's the only reason I took Sam's money in the first place, and I'll never begrudge anything it costs to pay him back. Mandy's worth any sacrifice."

He nodded. She had said nothing about them. Nothing

Kansom My Heart about making plans together. One-night stand? hethought.Was that what last night was? Another one-night stand?

"I hope you won't begrudge it, either," she continued.

"I know that you haven't really had time to get to know Mandy, but I think--" "Don't say it," he warned her, his voice cold.

"Don't even suggest that I might value this chunk of desert more than I

value her."

"I know you don't. But I also know that this is your heritage. I know what that means."

"Mandy's my heritage, not rocks and sand. But you don't have to sell the horses. I'll take care of whatever's left after the land is sold."

"Sam said you made good money," she said.

That meant she was at least thinking about letting him handle part of

the debt. But it also sounded like she was thinking he had salted away a good portion of what he'd made in the last few years.

"And I spent it about as fast as I made it," he confessed, not

begrudging that, either.

"But there's always more where that came from. Sam'll wait for hismoney.""More trips into Mexico you mean," she said softly."Negotiating. Carrying other people's money. Putting yourself at risk, a risk that increases each time."

"It's what I do, Samantha."

"It doesn't have to be."

He smiled at her.

"We talked about this. Even if Buck Elkins needed a deputy, which I

haven't heard he does, I can't go back to that. Or to the DEA.""You could work for Sam."He knew what she was thinking. She had said the old man needed some help, someone to see to things on the ranch that he no longer could handle himself.

"I don't think so." He hated to burst that particular bubble, but he couldn't see himself turning into Sam Kincaid's fight-hand man.

She didn't argue the point.

"The other's just so dangerous. You even admitted it. Too many people know you, know what you do."

"I can't live off Sam Kincaid's charity any more than you can," he said.

She nodded and then the silence was back. The uncomfortable kind. He knew he needed to ask, even if the answer wasn't what he'd been dreaming about. He still needed to know.

"So where does that leave us?"

She looked up at him, her eyes quickly dilating. Shock, this time. She hadn't been expecting the question, he realized.

And maybe that meant... "Where do you want it to leave us?" she asked, her voice very low.

Fish or cut bait, his daddy used to say. Now was the time. No more years wasted on regret because he hadn't had sense enough to make it plain to her how he felt. He'd already done five years of that, a long enough sentence.

"Together," he said.

"You, me, Mandy. Married. A family. A real family. And there's one job I'll be willing to do for Sam," he added.

"Free of charge."

"What's that?" she asked, her lips beginning to curve.

"Make him that grandson he's always talking about."

THE WEDDING WOULD BE at Mount Ebenezer Baptist Church, the tiny wooden church the McCullars had always attended, where Chase and Mac had gone to Sunday school all those years ago. She and Chase didn't talk much about that decision. It just seemed right somehow.

She had told Sam that Sunday evening when she'd gone to the ranch to pick up Mandy and to tell him all that Chase had learned about Jason Drake's treachery. Her father hadn't said much, beyond the expected protest that she ought to be married at home, but he had offered her her mother's wedding dress. She had taken the veil and had even thought about wearing the beautiful silk-and-lace designer gown, but theirs wasn't going to be the kind of wed ZfU lU?l'Onl 1 1y FIUFI ; ding Sam and her mother had had, with the cream of Texas society there to offer their blessings and good wishes.

The vows she and Chase would exchange were somehow too private for Sam's kind of show, the Kincaid kind. This wedding wasn't really a beginning, wasn't even a celebration.

It was simply a culmination, maybe a maturing for them both. The church was big enough to hold their real friends, and in some way having the ceremony there would include Mac, too. She thought that might be important.

She had wondered how to tell Mandy, but in the end it had been far easier than she'd imagined. She had told her the truth--almost all of it. That Chase was really her daddy and that he'd had to go away for a long time, but now he was back and they were all going to live together.

"But where will we live?" Mandy had asked, a small worried crease forming between her deep blue McCullar eyes.

Samantha had mentioned nothing to her daughter about the sale of the small ranch, knowing that the loss of the horses would shadow even the joy of acquiring a daddy, so she hesitated, unsure what rea.s.surance she should give.

"Will we have to go live at Aunt Jenny's?" Mandy prodded at that hesitation.

Samantha realized then that the question had nothing to do with the impending sale, only with her own explanation of where Chase lived.