Candy Halliday - A Ranch Called Home

“Let’s forget about court and custody battles, and move on to the solution I think I’ve found to this problem,” Sheriff Dillard said. “Gabe, you told me earlier that Ben would be the fourth generation of Coulters to run the Crested-C Ranch. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“But,” Dillard said, “you also told me that the main reason you want Ben to go to Colorado is because the ranch isn’t going to mean anything to Ben unless he grows up on the land. Is that also correct?”

“Yes,” Gabe said, and he looked straight at Sara. “And I want to apologize to you, Sara, for not making myself clear back at the jail when I—”

“Move on,” she snapped.

Women! Gabe thought. He’d sooner deal with a thousand-pound grizzly.

“Okay, Sara, let’s move on,” Sheriff Dillard agreed. “Ben’s best interest will always be your first concern. Right?”

She nodded curtly.

“And that brings us to the other option I want both of you to consider,” Dillard said. “The only logical way to settle this problem is with a compromise. Let Ben go to Colorado with Gabe and live on his own land, Sara. But you go with them.”

She laughed.

That old bastard tricked me! was Gabe’s first thought.

There hadn’t been a woman on the Crested-C since his mother died. And if he brought a woman home now there would definitely be hell to pay. Smitty, the old grouch, had run off every cleaning lady Gabe had tried to bring in over the past fifteen years.

And what about his ranch hands? Many of them had only known the Crested-C as an all-man’s world and that’s the way they liked it. No need for social graces. No need to wipe your feet, or watch your language. Gabe would have a damn mutiny on his hands if he brought a woman home.

“If that’s your idea of an option,” she said, “forget it. I’m not interested.”

Gabe breathed a sigh of relief.

Dillard banged his fist hard on the table.

Sara jumped.

So did Gabe.

“I’m not talking about what interests either of you!” Dillard boomed. “I’m talking about Ben’s best interest. The boy needs a family, and he has one. He has a mother and he has an uncle. Instead of playing hide-and-seek all over the state of Texas, or battling it out in court, the two of you need to put your selfish issues aside and do what’s best for Ben.”

Gabe squirmed. He’d boasted earlier that he’d do whatever it took for Ben to live on the Crested-C. That a man was only as good as his word. That his word had never been half-assed.

Dillard was putting those assertions to the test.

And Gabe knew it.

Now it was time to stand up and be the man he claimed to be. Or, go ahead and admit his word was only half-assed, just as Dillard had originally accused.

He chanced another glance in Sara’s direction.

She was staring right at him.

Gabe quickly looked away.

He didn’t like her accusing glare—or what she’d said about taking Ben away from his mother not being in Ben’s best interest. It brought back memories Gabe thought he’d buried long ago.

Unsettling memories.

Memories that cut open wounds that even time could never heal completely.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I’m saying this, but for once I have to agree with Howard,” Dessie said. “I’m sorry, Sara, but this could be a new beginning for you and for Ben. You could finally be a full-time mother. And Ben could grow up in one place, put down roots.”

Sara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Dessie was supposed to be her ally.

“You can’t be serious!” Sara gasped.

“I am,” Dessie said. “If you and Gabe battle it out in court, Ben loses. Either he loses his heritage or he loses his mother. I say Ben deserves both.”

Sara put her hands on her hips. “And you really expect me to take Ben to Colorado to live with a total stranger?”

“I’m not a total stranger. I’m Ben’s uncle.”

Sara shot him a mean look. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“I realize that,” he said. “But according to Sheriff Dillard, you were on your way to Mexico to live with a total stranger. I’m not sure I see the difference.”

Sara’s cheeks flushed crimson at the truth.

“He’s right, Sara,” Dessie said. “At least he’s Ben’s uncle.”

How dare my friends take sides with him?

But shocked didn’t cover her reaction when Gabe stood and held his hand out in her direction.

“I’m willing if you are, Sara,” he said. “Come to Colorado with me and live on the ranch. For Ben’s sake.”

For Ben’s sake.

Everyone was talking about what was best for Ben. But she was being backed into a corner.

And Sara didn’t like it!

“For Ben’s sake,” Sara said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice, “I’m going to pretend we never had this conversation.”

She refused to shake Gabe’s hand.

And she was trying so very hard not to cry. Her friends siding against her threatened to pop the cork on a lifetime of bottled-up hurt. Instead of wallowing, Sara let her anger loose.

“Shame on all of you. How dare any of you act like you know better than I do what’s best for Ben.” She jammed a finger against her chest. “I happen to be a victim of other people deciding what was in my best interest. And do you know how that turned out? By the time I was eighteen I’d lived in four different foster homes. The houses were all nice enough. And the foster families were all pillars of the community. But it didn’t make one bit of difference! I was always the outcast. And that’s the same way Ben and I would be treated if we moved to Colorado to live on a ranch with his dead father’s brother.”

Sheriff Dillard started to say something, but Sara silenced him with one look.

“And don’t anyone try to tell me that isn’t true,” she said. “I would always be the unmarried woman living with some man. Respectable women in town would whisper about me behind their hands. And Ben would get in fights on the playground over the ugly things other kids said about his mother. I lived that life. And I won’t have Ben living it, too. So don’t any of you dare try to tell me what’s best for my son again.”

“Oh, Sara, honey,” Dessie said, reaching for Sara’s hand.

Sara jerked her hand away.

She pushed her hair carefully back into place.

Once she’d regained her composure, Sara turned to Dessie and said, “I’m going to get Ben now. We’ll be waiting for you in the station wagon.”

Then she looked straight at Gabe. “If you want to file custody papers, Ben and I won’t be hard to find this time. I’m tired of running from you. We’re staying in Conrad.”

Sara expected a comeback, but he didn’t say a word.

He just kept standing there, a blank look on his face.

Exasperated, Sara stomped off.

“MARRY ME,” Gabe blurted.

The minute he said it, he knew it was the right thing to do. He’d asked Billy once what he intended to do if he did find the boy and his mother.

“I’m going to do the same thing you would do if you were in this situation,” Billy had said. “I’m going to ask her to marry me. And if she accepts, I’m going to bring her home and provide the best life I can for her and my son.”

Gabe had been proud of Billy’s answer.

But it had taken Sara’s outburst before Gabe realized she was right on target about how she and Ben would be received in his small hometown if she lived at his ranch, no commitment between them. That’s when Gabe had felt his brother’s hand on his back, pushing him to finish what Billy couldn’t.

Sara’s spine was stiff, her fists still clenched in anger over a lifetime of other people pushing her around. He had a file filled with information on the lousy cards life had dealt her: no father in the picture; a mother arrested more than once for drugs and prostitution. The file was filled with details of a dozen different reasons why Sara Watson should have turned out to be the type of person Gabe assumed she was before he met her.