Candy Halliday - A Ranch Called Home

The promise of a juicy cheeseburger sent Ben running.

As soon as Ben left, Dessie looked at Sara and said, “Before I take you to Houston, I think you should stop by the jail and talk to this Coulter man.”

“Absolutely not!”

“You heard him yourself, Sara. He isn’t going to stop chasing you until you talk to him.”

Sara’s chin lifted. “Then I’ll—”

“Keep running?”

Sara refused to answer.

“And what about when it’s time for Ben to start kindergarten in the fall? Are you going to spend the rest of your life dragging Ben from one town to another? From one school to another?”

“Don’t you think I’ve thought about that? That’s all I have thought about, Dessie. But this man wants more than just to talk to me. I could see it in his eyes. He wants Ben!”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Dessie said. “You won’t know for sure until you talk to him.”

Sara slumped onto the folding cot. “And what if I’m right?” She looked up at Dessie for an answer. “What if he wants Ben and he threatens to take him away from me?”

“Then you threaten him with a restraining order if he doesn’t stop harassing you,” Dessie said. “You’re a good mother, Sara. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

“No, Dessie,” Sara corrected, “I’m a struggling mother who can barely provide for Ben. All it takes is one call to Social Services. And I should know. That’s how I ended up in the system.”

“But there’s one thing you have that your mother didn’t,” Dessie said.

Sara looked up again. “And what’s that?”

“The courage to stand up and fight for your son,” Dessie said. “You march over to the jail right now and you tell that cowboy he picked the wrong mother to mess with.”

THE LAST PERSON Gabe expected to see again was the very person who walked up and stopped in front of his jail cell. Arms folded stubbornly across her chest, her pretty nose was held high in the air, and the expression on Sara’s face was deadly serious.

“You have exactly five minutes to say what you came to say,” she said with authority. “Then I want you out of our lives. If you ever come near us again, I’ll get a restraining order against you.”

So that’s how she’s going to play it.

He’d caught her off guard at the diner, and it scared her. She’d reappeared now to prove she was in complete control of the situation.

He rose slowly from the cot and took his time walking the short distance across the cell. He’d rehearsed the speech he planned to give his nephew’s mother a thousand times. Now, all he could think about was Smitty’s “she’ll scratch your eyes out” warning. It made Gabe thankful for the iron bars separating them at the moment.

She glanced at her watch. “Four minutes and counting,” she warned.

“I know my brother had his faults, but turning his back on his own child wasn’t one of them. It isn’t the Coulter way of doing things.”

“Well, here’s a news flash for you,” she said. “I’m not interested in the Coulter way of doing things. I have my own way of doing things. And I made the decision not to tell Billy about Ben because there wasn’t any reason to.”

“He was Ben’s father,” Gabe reminded her. “He had the right to know he had a child.”

She looked him straight in the eye. “I disagree. DNA doesn’t give you the right to be a father. You earn the right to be a father. I was eighteen and stupid when I met your brother, but I wasn’t too stupid to realize Billy wasn’t father material when he didn’t even consider me worth a goodbye when he left Houston.”

“People make mistakes,” Gabe said.

“True. But it doesn’t really matter now, does it? Billy is…” She faltered for a second, unable to say the word.

“Anyway,” she said, “I’m sorry about your brother. But as far as I’m concerned any connection Ben had with your family ended with Billy.”

Gabe frowned. “And that’s where I disagree. Blood kin is blood kin. We Coulters have always taken care of our own.”

He pulled the check from his shirt pocket, unfolded it and held it up for her to see.

“Take Billy’s insurance money,” Gabe urged. “Use it to start a new life for yourself. But let Ben come to Colorado with me. Let me give Ben the home and the heritage Billy would have given Ben if my brother had lived long enough to find Ben himself.”

Her reaction, however, wasn’t what he’d hoped for. She stared at the check as if it were a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike.

“We’re done here,” she said.

She whirled around and walked away.

“I didn’t come here to play games,” Gabe called after her. “You go ahead and get your restraining order. But I have five years’ worth of information on how well you’ve been able to provide for Ben alone. I don’t think you want me to use that information against you in court.”

She marched back to his cell.

“Now you’re threatening me?”

Gabe stepped back from the bars. She was so angry she was shaking. And the expression on her face said threatening to counteract her in court was the wrong thing to do.

“Take me to court,” she challenged. “I dare you. If I cared a flip about your money, I would have shown up on your doorstep a long time ago. But a court of law might have a different idea. Force the issue and you may end up selling your horses and your ranch and giving Ben half of the proceeds.”

The slam of the door at the end of the corridor as Sara left punctuated her words.

“Dammit!” he cursed, feeling like a first-class jerk.

He never should have offered her the money. And he definitely shouldn’t have threatened her just because she threatened him. He could see that now. But put a woman in his path, and he never had a clue what to do next.

That’s why he’d never had a woman in his life—at least not a full-time woman. Women were too complicated. Too temperamental. Too damn hard to please.

He was a rancher, not some smooth-talking womanizer like Billy. The ranch had always come first with Gabe, always would. He had horses to train. Ranch hands who depended on him for their livelihood. He didn’t have time for this kind of bullshit.

“Damn you, Billy,” Gabe muttered.

He walked away from the bars and flopped down on the solitary cot, wondering yet again how two brothers could have possibly been so different. He’d always been the responsible one—Billy never once considered the consequences of his actions.

Just like with Sara Watson.

There was no doubt in Gabe’s mind Billy had taken advantage of her being eighteen and innocent, just as she’d claimed. And Gabe certainly couldn’t blame her for coming to the conclusion that Billy wasn’t father material.

Still, Gabe would chase her forever if that’s what it took.

Unlike Billy, Gabe took his promises seriously.

And one way or another he would take his nephew home.

“WELL?” Dessie asked when Sara stormed back into the lobby of the sheriff’s office. “What did he say?”

“Just as I expected,” Sara said, still fuming. “He offered me money for Ben. And when I refused to take his fifty thousand dollars, he threatened to take me to court.”

“Fifty thousand dollars,” Dessie repeated, her eyes wide in disbelief.

“It could have been fifty million dollars and it wouldn’t have mattered to me,” Sara said, pacing to work off her anger.

“True,” Dessie agreed, “but if he has that kind of money to throw around, Sara, he’s a bigger threat to you than I thought.”

Sara stopped. “What do you mean?”

“Money talks,” Dessie said. “And big money means high-powered attorneys. I hate to say it, but you wouldn’t stand a chance against this cowboy in court.”