Last Chance Ranch

Chapter Two: A Not So Warm Welcome

Troy was out checking fence line that afternoon; just doing his job, minding his own business. If he happened to be re-checking the line by the main road again, that was pure happenstance.

He saw the smoke from the taxi in the distance and he smiled at the sight of it, he wasn't even sure why. He gently squeezed his big sorrel gelding with his thighs and the well-trained horse leapt into action.

When he came riding up to the broken down old taxi, he squinted in the light...and finally saw her.

Troy was hardly even aware of it as he dismounted, dropping the reins to ground-tether his horse.

He hopped the fence easily and started striding towards her without having any plan in particular of what he was going to do when he got to her.

###

He spoke her name.

She heard him and turned around, sliding a fancy phone away into the pocket of her little white dress.

Troy stopped in his tracks.

From the back, with her curly ponytail of brown hair blowing in the breeze, she resembled the girl that he used to know.

But the face of the woman sneering back at him was not one he recognized.

She was beautiful, yes.

She still had the same gorgeous, delicate bone structure, but her features had sharpened. Her lips were painted a bold red and the sunglasses covering her eyes were the size of a ten-gallon hat.

The truth hurt.

This wasn't his girl.

###

On paper, Troy was still almost everything she'd been expecting.

He was indeed wearing faded denim and a weathered cowboy hat. He wasn't astride his horse, though, he was striding right for her.

What was more unexpected, however, was his face beneath the brim of his black hat.

There was no devilishly mischievous smile to meet her there, no sizzling eyes. In fact, from what she could see of his eyes, they looked...sad.

###

Samantha realized that they were just standing there staring at each other on the empty road while Nathaniel looked on curiously from the sidelines. He was pretending to try to work on the car, but he was really just watching them with a goofy smile on his face.

"Well, hi there, stranger." She finally said, smiling with perfunctory politeness. Years of hobnobbing with the art crowd of New York had taught her social graces, if nothing else.

"Come here, give me a hug." She told him, stepping up to him and sliding her arms lightly around him. She'd meant for it to be a casual, passing sort of thing. A brush off, at best.

Hell, she'd even hugged Nathaniel when he'd picked her up at the airport; it should have been no big deal. Just another hug in a long lifetime of hugs.

Yet as soon as she was pressed up against him, she realized what a fatal mistake she had made.

Because it wasn't just anybody she was hugging, it was Troy.

The last time she'd been in his arms...

Samantha felt him politely hugging her back, but it was clear that he would rather have her at arm's length, so she eased away from him.

She attempted another forced smile, but when she looked up into his face, she was met again by that strange sadness in his eyes.

She licked her lips and laughed nervously, catching a wayward strand of her hair as it swept across her face. "Well, aren't you gonna say anythin'?" She asked him.

"Welcome home, Samantha." He said, but his voice was oddly empty. "We missed you."

She cocked her head.

We.

Not he.

"So, car trouble again, Nate?" Troy turned away from her then, dismissing her as he went to talk car with Nathaniel.

Samantha gaped after him.

Incredible.

She'd only been back all of five minutes and he was already infuriating her.

With a huff, she turned away, back to her useless phone.

She texted her friends back in New York, venting to them about the rigors of country life. The messages wouldn't send, of course, but she was hoping and praying that there would at least be Wi-Fi at the ranch.

"So, darlin', looks like I'm takin' you up to the house from here." Troy's voice made Samantha start violently.

She whirled around, phone clutched to her chest.

Troy frowned down at her from his formidable height of 6'4". Now that was an expression she recognized on him.

Incongruently, her lips twitched.

Then his words registered with her. "What?"

"Car's not goin' anywhere. Why not I take you up to the ranch on Curly here? Tow truck's gonna be a while."

Samantha stared back down the road, aghast. "But all my things-"

"I can send someone down here with the truck to get 'em." Troy said smoothly, then added in a mutter as he glanced away from her, "Shoulda just let us pick you up in the first place."

Samantha scowled up at him. "I'm in a dress and I don't have the right shoes to go riding." She pointed out, rather triumphantly.

His frown deepened to match hers. "You're tellin' me you didn't pack some better clothes, woman? Have you really forgotten that much about life here?"

She scoffed and huffed and puffed, but Troy wasn't going anywhere and the tow truck wasn't showing up anytime soon, so she didn't have much choice but to go around to the back of the car and change into 'better' clothes, according to Troy.

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