Page 15 of Second Chance with the Rancher

Like fuck he didn’t have to. He was responsible for putting her in that predicament in the first place, of course he’d be there. He was just glad that she called him and didn’t go it alone and keep him in the dark.

Her sister, Pasha had worked at a hospital in Seattle for a time, so she got in touch with a former colleague there and arranged for Mieka to fly from Florida to Washington and have the abortion performed legally by a trusted physician friend. Pasha had intended to go and be there for her sister, but ended up having to stay home with her sick children last minute. That’s when Mieka called Nate.

Did it hurt that she only called him when her other support system fell through and she would have otherwise kept him in the dark? Of course, it fucking did. But he never said any of that to her. He just flew to Seattle and held her hand.

She opted for the pill version of an abortion, which in Nate’s opinion had been the wrong choice. Mieka was in a lot of pain. The cramps had her in tears and she sat on the toilet for hours bawling. And in the end, she needed a D&C anyway because an ultrasound showed remaining cells that didn’t expel from the pill and if left in her body could cause infection. So she ended up going through both procedures.

He stayed with her through everything. Brought her whatever she needed, food, warming pads, hot water bottles, pain meds. And then when it was all over, she got on a plane and left, disappearing in the morning from their hotel room without so much as a goodbye note.

“Why’d you leave like that?” he asked, emotion choking his throat to the point where his words came out strained.

“I thought you were mad at me for going through with it,” she said after a long pause of quiet. Her bottom lip wobbled slightly and her nostrils flared. “I wasn’t going to tell you. But then … then when Pasha canceled, I knew I couldn’t do it alone and I didn’t want anyone else to know.”

“Why didn’t you tell me until you needed me?”

“Because I thought you’d try to convince me to keep it. That you would paint a picture of a beautiful family life out here in the country where we could raise the one-night-stand baby on a farm in the fresh air and with his, her or their cousins.”

“And that sounds like a terrible way to raise a child?”

“That sounded like hell to me, at the time. I wasn’t ready to give up my life, to give up my career … to give up my body to someone else. And we … what are we?” She pointed her finger back and forth between them. “We had sex once, Nate. Your brother married my sister. But that doesn’t mean we should be forced to be something we might not necessarily be destined for, right?”

That hurt like a fucking riding crop to his bare ass.

A life with him, here, sounded like hell.

Her gaze softened as his hardened. “I’m not trying to offend you. And a life like that doesn’t sound like hell, now. It’s not the life for me, but it also doesn’t sound like hell, either, and I apologize if me saying that offended you.”

“It’s fine,” he ground out.

Her lips pursed for a moment. “I can see that it did.”

Sucking in a big breath through his nose, then pushing it out as he raked his fingers through his hair, he stood up from where he’d been rubbing Bruno’s belly and approached her. Her brown eyes went wide and a tremor of fear had her blinking rapidly. He could see the pulse in her neck pick up and she swallowed.

“Let me show you what a life on this ranch can be like, Minx. You’ve got time. Nowhere to be. An arm and a heart to mend. Let me show you.” He wrapped a strand of her caramel-brown hair around his finger and tugged until their faces were less than six inches apart. “It’s hard work, but it’s not hell.”

She pulled in a big breath through her nose and when she pushed it out through her mouth, they were standing close enough that it hit his lips in a warm puff. “Are you upset I had the abortion?”

He shook his head slowly. “I’m upset you assumed I would try to talk you out of it, and didn’t trust me enough with the truth until you were desperate. That tells me you don’t know me well enough and I think now’s the perfect opportunity to change that.”

Her eyes widened.

“I’m not a bad guy, Minx.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?”

She nodded but just barely since he still had hold of her hair. “I do.”

His lips twisted and he gauged her warily. It would be so easy to just tug on that strand of hair a little more and crush his mouth to hers. He could tell by the way she licked her lips and her gaze softened and warmed that it was what she wanted. But if he wanted a chance with Mieka, not only to show her what a great life could be had on this ranch, but also with him, he needed to play the long game. He wasn’t going to fuck up this opportunity by jumping into the physical with her. Even a kiss could make things blurry.

The next time they kissed he wanted it to be romantic. He wanted her to want it for the right reasons. Not because she was high, lonely and depressed. But because she wanted him.

The next time he took her to bed it was going to be in an actual bed and he was going to make sure they remembered every second of it.

He saw what his brother had with Triss and Nate wanted that, too.

He wanted a partner. A person, and a family to love, and the more he stared into the gold flecks of Mieka’s eyes, the more he realized he wanted it all with her.

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