Finally Home (3 page)

“
Never. And especially not to that rat, Ellinger! This ranch is mine,” Thomas stood abruptly. “How could you do this again? You are my son and this ranch means nothing to you?” He walked around the table and kissed Amanda’s forehead, “Sorry, Mandy. I’ve suddenly become very tired. We’ll have to play dominoes another night.”

With tears building in her eyes, she watched him exit the room and without a word she rose to leave, too.

“
Wait,” Noah called to her but she sped up and fled from the house before he was out of his chair.

Her legs couldn’t carry her fast enough as she sprinted across the ranch. And her mind was spinning with what she had just heard. Sell Moonlight Ranch? How could Noah want to sell such a beautiful place? And she couldn’t stand thinking of having to move away after she had just come
home!
She was so upset, she became oblivious of the bitter cold weather...and of the fast footsteps behind her.

Before she knew it, a strong hand grabbed her arm from behind and pulled her to a halt. She whirled around and found herself in Noah’s arms. Struggling to wiggle free from his powerful hold, she noticed a strange glimmer in his eyes. Could it be concern? For her?

She settled down and stepped away from him when he finally released his grip. “What do you want, Noah?”

“
To talk,” his breath was rapid, forming visible puffs of smoke in the freezing temperature that surrounded them. “I’d like to know why you’re so upset.”

She shivered as she glared at him. “You’ve already forgotten our conversation on the swing? About how much I love Moonlight Ranch?”

He rubbed his hands together. “No, I haven’t forgotten our conversation. Can we go inside and discuss this further?” He walked past her.

She turned around, unaware that they were so close to her house. "For only a few minutes. I don't have much to say to you, Noah West!"

CHAPTER ~ TWO

“
How could you even consider selling the ranch? Your father was horrified!” Amanda demanded as soon as she had removed her coat and turned on a few lights inside her cozy little house.

Noah arched an eyebrow in surprise. “Boy, for nothing to say, that’s quite a mouthful,” he placed his cowboy hat on a nearby unpacked box.

She crossed her arms and stared at him. “This is not funny, Noah. How could you be so uncaring toward your father? This ranch is his life.”

He rubbed both hands over his eyes and yawned. He hadn’t been sleeping well since his return to the ranch. His tired eyes searched Amanda’s face. “Uncaring? That’s not true. I’ve been tossing and turning every night trying to think of how I would approach my father about the offer from Mr. Ellinger. I was hoping you would give me at least an ounce of support on this. My father values your opinion.”

She looked around her house and shook her head. “I just moved here, Noah. Finally, I live at the only place that has ever felt like home to me. And you want me to support you on this unbelievable mission of yours to sell it?”

He started to answer but was suddenly caught off guard when a floppy-eared beagle bounded into the room and jumped on his legs.

“
Webster!” Amanda shouted and grabbed the dog’s collar. “Noah, I’m so sorry. He’s very friendly.”

“
No problem,” he straightened and regained his balance. “You named him Webster?”

She playfully kissed the dog’s nose and then scooted him off into another room. “I thought Webster was appropriate. The first thing he chewed up when I brought him home as a puppy five years ago was my Webster’s dictionary. At the time, the name just seemed to fit.”

Noah laughed softly. “Then it’s good that he didn’t chew up an encyclopedia.”

Amanda tried hard, but couldn’t stifle her giggle. It was very difficult to be angry with Noah when he was being so charming--and that mesmerizing smile wasn’t helping either! Once again, she had to brush away her attraction to him. She couldn’t let herself fall for someone who wanted to sell the ranch! After she opened her heart to him about loving it, he wanted to snatch it away, along with her happiness! How could she still be so enamored with him? She unwittingly stared at him, trying to figure him out.

“
You sure fade away on me a lot,” Noah’s gruff voice penetrated Amanda’s thoughts. He walked toward her, the wood floor creaking beneath his boots.

When she felt his warm hand on her cheek, she jumped. “What are you doing?”

He watched her back away from him. “Seeing if you’re still alive. You were standing there like a zombie.”

“
I have work to finish tonight, Noah. I think our conversation is over,” she began clearing three days worth of newspaper from her couch.

Circling his arms around her waist, he pulled her back from the couch. “You seemed very happy to see me earlier today. Just like the girl I used to know. So why are you being so cold and distant all of the sudden?”

She managed to scrape up enough strength to pull free from his intoxicating embrace. “Noah, I’m not that girl anymore, as you can see.”

His hazel eyes roamed over her, dark with admiration. “Yes, I can.”

She blushed brightly. “What I meant was--I, oh never mind!”

He sighed. “Before I go, I have to know that you’re not upset with me.”

“
Sorry, I’ll be upset with you until you drop this crazy idea of selling Moonlight Ranch,” she strolled toward the kitchen and hoped Noah would get the hint and leave. She was finding it increasingly hard to hold back her feelings.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the hint. He was promptly in the kitchen doorway, his tall frame blocking any chance for Amanda to escape. “My father is not in good health.”

She turned on her computer and looked him straight in the eye. “What are you saying? What’s wrong with him?”

“
I don’t want to go into it, Amanda. But he’s not getting any better. And that’s why convincing him to sell the ranch is the best thing. All the work he’s doing is taking the life away from him.”

“
Selling the ranch would be taking the life away from him, Noah. Can’t you understand that?”

The vulnerable glimmer in his eyes turned into a hard glare. “I know my father better than anyone. So don’t tell me I don’t understand him, Amanda.”

She sighed, and flopped into a chair behind the table. “We’re never going to agree on what’s best, Noah. And I’ve got some business to wrap up before calling it a night. Tell Maria that I said thanks for dinner.”

He cocked his head to one side and squinted at her. “Are you dismissing me, Miss Brookfield?”

“
Look, I have work to do,” her voice held an edge of impatience. “And I don’t want to be up all night.”

Noah approached the table and leaned over the laptop computer. Amanda started typing furiously, pretending to ignore him. “No kiss goodnight?”

Her eyes widened in shock. “W-what are you talking about?”

He smiled slyly and cupped her face in his hands. Moving quickly, before she resisted, he brushed her parted lips with his own. It was a quick kiss, very innocent.

But as Noah pulled away, Amanda found it hard to breathe. She licked her tingling lips and avoided looking at him. “Charming me will not change how I feel about selling the ranch,” she blurted out.

“
I’m really glad that you’re here, Amanda.
That’s
why I kissed you,” he slowly moved toward the doorway.

She didn’t respond. Her mind was spinning with the confusion Noah was causing. What was he doing? Playing games with her? Or trying to resume the friendship they had as kids? Or could he actually be romancing her?

Noah took her blank stare to mean she was upset with him again. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” he snapped his fingers, as a thought popped into his head. “If you don’t have any plans for Thanksgiving next week, you’re welcome to join me and my father for the holiday.”

She nodded, “Thanks, I’ll let you know what my plans are.”

Noah walked from the room, grabbed his cowboy hat, and left the house. After five minutes of silence, Amanda called for Webster. “Come here boy,” she crooned as her clumsy beagle trotted into the kitchen. She patted the dog’s head and hunched over to hug him close to her. “If only you could talk. You could tell me what you think about Mr. Noah West!”

She released the dog and watched him bounce from the room. Glancing at her watch, she moaned. It was ten o’clock and she hadn’t even started on the graphics for the web page she was working on. She had told her client that the web page would be finished before Thanksgiving. “Guess I’ll be working around the clock on this one,” she murmured to herself.

As she opened her email, she noticed a message from her mother. She wasn’t going to make it to Texas for Thanksgiving. Amanda felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. Before she left Chicago, she had received an email from her mother that confirmed travel plans for a Thanksgiving visit. Donna had then telephoned Amanda and gushed about how excited she was about seeing her. Now she changed her mind. Her email was short and stated that her husband, Paul, wanted to wisk her away to Italy for the Thanksgiving holiday. He had some friends who lived there and they wanted to meet his new wife.

Amanda swallowed a lump in her throat, fighting an urge to cry. She had been so looking forward to seeing her mother. It had been such a long time. But, just as always, she would pick herself up and brush her discontent aside.

As she began working again, her mind wandered back to earlier when Noah had invited her to Thanksgiving dinner. What if he was just inviting her to dinner so he could bring up selling the ranch to his father once more? She couldn’t bear listening to that proposition again!

Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her mind of all thoughts except her current work. But very quickly, Noah’s intense hazel eyes slipped into her head. His strong hands brushed back the thick dark hair that always fell across his forehead. Suddenly, he was on a stallion, smiling seductively as he pulled Amanda up from the ground with his powerful arms and settled her behind him on the large horse. Amanda wrapped her arms around his slender waist and held on tight as he raced the stallion across the wide open spaces of the ranch…

“
Oh no!” Amanda bolted up from the keyboard, where her head had been resting. She blinked her eyes repeatedly, trying to adjust her sight to the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. Glancing at her watch, she scowled. Seven o’clock in the morning! She must have drifted off to sleep after that fantasy about Noah last night! Oh, why was she letting him get under her skin?

Feeling confused about him was definitely the least of her problems at this point … now she was dreaming of him!

"I'm just tired. That's what it is.
Tired from the move… tired from working
. That explains my strange emotions. Noah has nothing to do with it," she whispered to herself softly.

Rising from the chair, she stretched her stiff muscles and shuffled her feet to the coffeemaker, totally convinced that fatigue was the problem!

********

Nibbling on a piece of toast smothered in grape jam, Amanda decided she was done. She had finished her client’s web page! Joyfully, she looked around the house. She also had almost every box unpacked. And it was two days before Thanksgiving. Quickly, she typed a lengthy email to her client to inform him that the web page was ready for his review.

With a satisfied grin, she leaned back in her chair behind the kitchen table, a place that had become almost stationary for her the last couple of days. Of course, she did leave the house to buy groceries, but other than that, work and the chilly weather kept her inside.

As she sipped from a mug of coffee, she heard a light knock at the door. Quickly she ran to open it, thinking of Noah.

It had been a couple of days since she had seen him. Maybe he finally realized how ridiculous selling Moonlight Ranch would be and was stopping by to give her the good news.

“
Thomas!” Amanda squeaked after flinging open the door. “What a surprise.”

He smiled awkwardly. “Hi, Mandy. Uh, my son isn’t here--is he?”

She frowned, her brows knitting together fiercely. “Here? No, Thomas, I haven’t seen him since the night we all had dinner.”

He relaxed a bit, “I’m not meaning to pry, you know. I just had to ask. It was a logical thing to assume since you two seemed to be getting along so well that night.”

Amanda was still baffled, and now a little embarrassed, by what Thomas had been thinking. She looked down at her feet for a moment and grinned.

“
Perfectly alright. I understand why you might have thought--” she stopped. Her blue eyes were suddenly wide with concern as she looked at Thomas.

“
Why are you searching for Noah? Is something wrong?”

“
Oh, I don’t know if there’s anything wrong. He’s been gone for two days and I was just wondering where he was. But I’m sure he’ll show up if he feels like it,” Thomas shrugged. He then waved his hand toward the fence. “I brought one of my cowpokes with me to fix that fence those two spunky horses of mine busted into a couple of days ago.”

She glanced at the gangly young man waiting patiently by the gate. “Thanks, Thomas, but I’m still worried about Noah. He didn’t say a word to you before he left?”