RESCUED BY THE RANCHER (2 page)

Faith let the paramedic sit her down on the
open back ledge of the ambulance.

“Do you know that guy?” she asked. “Ah, Jake, I
think it was.”

She received a smile in return. “Yeah, we all
know Jake. He’s a volunteer fire fighter.
Owns a ranch not
far away.”

Faith fought against her headache and tried to
place him.
“Last name?”

“McGregor.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar but she
couldn’t remember how exactly. It’d been a long time since she’d been back in
Fairview, Texas.

She sat and watched as her unlikely rescuer
joined the rest of the crew, giving some of the regular fire fighters a
well-deserved break.

“Mom!”

Faith turned at the call, head snapping around
as she heard her son’s voice.

She held out her hand for him and held him
tight as he snuggled close to her. He might be almost eight, and determined to
be more mature than his years, but tonight had shown her just how vulnerable he
was. How much he needed her.

They had to have somewhere to stay, and no one
else was coming forward to offer assistance. If it was just her on her own it
would have been different, but she needed to put Tom to bed and reassure him.

So if this Jake McGregor was known by the
paramedics and helped out in the community, he didn’t exactly sound like a
serial killer. Or at least she hoped.

Jake walked around with the rest of the crew
and inspected the site. The house was a goner. It hadn’t burned to the ground,
was still standing intact in part, but it was as black as coal and everything
inside was either charred or sopping wet from the water used to extinguish it.

“So you really think this was intentional?”

The Chief raised his eyebrows. “There’s no doubt
about it. Someone torched the place. I’d say a fire bomb thrown through that
front window.”

Jake swallowed. He steeled his jaw against the
anger that ticked away beneath his skin.

“There was a kid in there.” He fought to keep
the anger from his voice.

The other man gave him a look that mirrored his
own. “I know, son. Believe me, I know.”

Jake looked over his shoulder, back towards the
ambulance. He wondered if she was still sitting in there.

“Is there any reason…
”

“Right now it’s anyone’s guess, Jake.”

“Chief, over here!” someone yelled.

Jake received a slap on the back. “We’re going
to keep investigating, work with the sheriff. You get home and get some sleep.
Tell the other volunteers too, okay?”

He nodded and turned back to the road. He’d
offered the woman a place to stay, and he wasn’t going to go back on his word.
No matter how much he might want to.

She was a frightened, worried mother with no
one to turn to, and he wasn’t capable of turning his back on her. He’d been
brought up better than that.

Jake saw her sitting in the ambulance as he
approached, boy lying beside her, his head in her lap.

She
was beautiful
. Even with dark
sooty smudges on her face, in pajamas, and with her hair pulled back into a
rough ponytail, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to watch her, that it was easy
to keep his eyes on her.

He tried not to look at the boy too closely as
he walked up to the open doors. After all this time, he still thought about the
baby he’d lost. How old his little guy would be now, what he’d be doing with
him, what he’d look like. He wasn’t around children often, but when he was that
familiar lump always seemed to creep back into his throat.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

A pair of the clearest blue eyes he’d ever seen
turned his way. He hadn’t noticed them before, it had been too dark, but under
the artificial light from the truck he could hardly look away.

Jake saw something there, too. Something he
thought might have been gratitude, uncertainty, even worry perhaps. But it only
lasted a moment, before she smiled and gave her son a gentle prod.

“Sure, we’re ready,” she said.

Not for the first time, Jake felt a pang of
regret at having asked her. But he’d given his word, and she looked exhausted.

The little boy started stirring and Jake turned
away.

“Truck’s over this way. Follow me.”

FAITH had no idea why she felt comfortable in a
strange man’s car, with her son asleep in the back. Maybe it was simply the
shock of what had happened, the trauma of the whole experience. Maybe her head
was still filled with smoke or she’d inhaled too much on her way out. But there
was something oddly reassuring about her unlikely savior.

She chanced a glance at him as they drove. The
sky was starting to lighten, but it was still mostly dark, and he was staring
hard at the road ahead.

Faith didn’t turn her head too far towards
him,
just let her eyes wander in his direction – desperate
to watch him, to have a better look at him.

His face was dirty, soot from the fire making
smudge marks on his skin, but he was still handsome. Jake’s dark hair was messy
and there was stubble brushing his jaw.

She gulped.

Eyes
back to the road.
The last
thing she needed to do was start fantasizing about the man who’d offered her a
place to stay. She had enough problems in town already without thinking up ways
to make more waves – enough family issues to deal with to last her a lifetime.

Faith leaned deeper into the seat and closed
her eyes. She had no idea what she would do now. She could either get the hell
out of dodge or fight for her right to be back here. Being back sure hadn’t
worked out for her so far, but the last thing she wanted was to run away with
her tail between her legs.

When her father had died, she’d refused to come
back for his funeral, had only known because his lawyer had phoned to tell her
of his passing. News of his death hadn’t been much of a blow since he’d been
out of her life for years, but being told he’d named her the sole beneficiary
of his will had been a shock.

That
was four months ago.

It had taken her that long to decide to come
back, but she wished she hadn’t. Maybe they would have been better off without
his money.

After nine years away, she didn’t particularly
want to live here again, but there were loose ends that needed tying up, and it
wasn’t like they had anywhere else to be. Not now. She’d been kicked out of her
home, underage and pregnant back then, and she wasn’t going to run with her
tail between her legs ever again.

Faith glanced sideways at Jake again.

Oh.

Her cheeks burned hot when he glanced back.
Caught in the act.

He turned away again fast, but she caught the
hint of a smile as it touched the corner of his mouth.

“Are you new to Fairview, Faith?”

She swallowed and moistened her lips with the
tip of her tongue. She’d been dreading this question, but she guessed it was
obvious she was new, given the fact she’d had no one else to turn to.

“I actually grew up here.”

She watched as his eyebrows pulled together, confusion
crossing his face for a heartbeat. He was trying to place her, figure out who
she was.

“Have we met before?”

Faith pushed her shoulders up into a shrug. It
was more than likely he’d heard about her than actually ever met her.
“Maybe.
I left when I was sixteen and I haven’t been back
since.”

Jake took his eyes off the road and glanced at
her again.

“You have family here still?”

She sighed. Faith hated talking about family,
with the exception of her son. “My mom died when I was a kid, and my father
passed away a few months back. He was Jimmy Walker.”

She could tell he was thinking as he tapped his
fingers on the steering wheel. “Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell. But then I don’t
exactly spend much time in town these days, and I’m terrible with names.”

Faith looked out the window as the truck
slowed, pleased that Jake had no connection to her father. She couldn’t see
much, but the driveway appeared to be long, and there were post and rail fences
directly outside her window.

She might have grown up in Texas, but she’d
hardly spent any time in the country. Hardly ever set foot on a real ranch.

“So this is your place, huh?”

Jake slowed as they approached the house.
“Legacy Hills Ranch.
Home to me my whole life.”

She envied that. From the way his face lit up
as he talked about his home, it was so clear he knew where he belonged.

The house was big – two-story and impressive.
It was built from timber, weatherboards painted and well-maintained. There were
two windows upstairs, bedrooms she guessed, and a wide porch that wrapped
around at least one length of the house.

It was
beautiful.
And
most definitely not the home of a bachelor.

Faith swallowed away a tickle in her throat. It
shouldn’t bother her that he might not be single, so why did it feel like a
cloud had settled over her for just thinking about him as a taken man? She
should be happy that he might have a nice wife, a family here, but instead she
was disappointed.

She watched his hand as he turned the wheel
before coming to a stop. There was no wedding band on his finger, but then he’d
probably left the house in a hurry to attend the fire. Her heart slowed as she
noticed there was also no white mark where one might have been – just golden
brown skin.

There weren’t any lights on in the house, and
no movement to signal someone had witnessed them arriving. If her husband had
been called out to a fire in the middle of the night, she’d have been up
waiting for him to return safely.

Not
that she knew what it was like to have a husband
, but still.

Jake put the vehicle in park and turned off the
engine. Faith looked up when she sensed eyes on her.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, fine.”

He gave her a tight smile before opening the
door. Faith followed his lead, stepping out of the truck, bare feet landing on
gravel. She brushed her hands over her pants,
then
looked down.

Hmmm.
All that staring at the man beside her in the
car and she’d forgotten she was still wearing her pajamas.

Jake appeared beside her, his silhouette tall
and strong against the cab of the truck.

“Want me to carry him?”

She peered in at her son, exhausted and still
sound
asleep.

“If you don’t mind.
Otherwise I’ll wake him.”

Jake shook his head, but she noticed him take a
deep breath, his broad shoulders stooping slightly before he opened the back
door and bent in to scoop up her son.

“Will he be all right here?” Jake kept his
voice low, not wanting to disturb the boy.

He watched as Faith pulled back the comforter
and gave the pillow a plump. She smiled up at him.

“It’s perfect, thanks,” she whispered.

Jake placed her son gently down onto the bed,
turning his body to make him more comfortable and tucking the covers up under
his chin.
Warm and safe, just like every child should be.

Just
like his son should have been, in the nursery upstairs.

He turned to find Faith on her knees, arms
wrapped around his dog. Jake made a hand signal and received a sad look in
response, but his four-legged friend obeyed and padded out of the room. Faith
stood up, too, and he gestured for her to follow, closing the door behind them.

Jake hesitated, his hand still on the knob.
“Completely shut or half open?”
“Half-open, thanks.”

Faith looked so fragile, staring into the dark
room they’d put her son to sleep in. It didn’t matter how many times he told
himself that she wasn’t his concern, either. He’d invited her into his home, so
if she wasn’t his concern, then
who’s
was she?

“Would you like something to drink?” he asked,
not sure what else he could offer her.

She shivered. “Yeah, something hot would be
great.”

Jake looked at her bare feet,
then
made his way back up to her face. “You’re freezing,
aren’t you?”

Her too-pale cheeks gave her away. Damn it, she
must be ice cold! How could he not have noticed that she was in lightweight pajamas
with no shoes on? “Give me a second. Kitchen’s straight down the hall.”

He marched up to his bedroom and pulled a pair
of warm socks from his dresser drawer and grabbed the blanket folded at the
foot of his bed. Jake stopped, stared at the closet he’d never managed to
empty, and decided not to go there.
Not
yet
. If she needed clothes in the morning then he’d let her take her pick,
but the last thing he needed right now was to see her wearing his ex-fiancée’s
things.