“Once the kids settled in and I finished a conference call, I got lost in the beautiful scenery.” The big yawn punctuated how tired she looked.
“Were you up late last night because of the trip down here?”
She shrugged. “Kinda. Work last night, the kids, more work this morning. A couple fires I had to put out that couldn’t wait. We got a late start on the road, but I managed.”
Luke wished she’d say more about work. He really wanted to know if she actually contributed to the company or just made a good show of it while others did everything. Still, all that plus a call in the car. “You must have had one hell of a day.”
“Every day is one hell of a day.”
Before Luke could ask her about that exhaustion-fueled comment, the boys ran down the steps calling for her.
“Mama, can I have my tablet now?” Jack asked, his eyes pleading with her.
“I’m tired. I want cartoons.” Nick yawned.
“Who are you?” This came from Jack, the more curious one.
Sarah looked up with the question in her eyes, too.
He should have properly introduced himself. His mother raised him better.
“Luke Thompson. I own the ranch behind your grandma’s house.” His eyes fell on her again and he said, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Hers narrowed with anger and suspicion, but she didn’t say anything about him being the lawyer who’d contacted her about this visit because Jack jumped up and down at Luke’s feet. “Grandma says you have horses, and barn cats, and fields of corn. I like to take the leaves off corn. Can we see your horses? We’ve never seen a horse.”
Luke took the rapid-fire questions and statements in stride. “Yes, I have horses and barn cats. There is a vegetable garden that has corn growing in it. You’ve never seen a horse? What kind of place do you live that you’ve never seen a horse?”
“We live in a city and Mama won’t let us have a dog.” Jack and Nick looked accusingly at her.
“Outnumbered again. You can’t have a dog until you can take care of it yourself. Mama is too busy to take care of any more little ones all by herself. You two are more than enough.” Sarah ran a hand over each boy’s head. She tickled both of them and handed Jack the backpack.
“Grab your tablets out of the back seat, then back up to the house.” She waved her hands to get them moving.
Luke watched the pair do as they were told, then run up the porch steps. He thought of his own brother and how they were always together when they were young. “The boys are great.”
“And yet you want to take me to court and try to take them from me?”
Luke regretted that she’d put two and two together and blamed him for Margaret’s actions. “I don’t want to take you to court. I don’t think it’s good for anyone involved to fight over children. Which is why I convinced Margaret to let me send the letter requesting the visit.”
“Yes, it was a very nicely worded order to bring them here.”
He tried to explain why he got involved, even though he didn’t really want anything to do with this family drama. “Sean and I were childhood friends. Margaret was devastated by his death and she misses her grandkids.”
Sarah held her hands out wide. “Yet she’s given me the cold shoulder for the past two years. If she wanted to see them, all she had to do was call and ask.”
“Would you have brought them to her?”
“Yes. Because I’m a reasonable person.”
He actually believed her. “She doesn’t think so.”
“Because she doesn’t know me at all.”
He wondered if the things Margaret said about her were really true. “Well, she’ll get to know you over the next six weeks.” Despite the circumstances, and because of his overwhelming attraction to her, he’d like to, too.
“All she wants to know is anything she can use against me. That’s why you’re here. Right? To dig up all the dirt you can to present in court.”
“I came by to lend some moral support because she’s expecting you to make this . . . difficult.”
“Me. She’s the hostile one.”
“I have to say, you showed restraint.”
She mellowed. “I will make sure my boys have the best time they can with her because they deserve to know their grandmother. But if she thinks she can take them from me, then both of you will find you’re in for the fight of your life.”
Luke liked a challenge, but he didn’t want to fight with her. “It’s my hope, and I think Margaret’s, too, that you two will work out your differences for the kids’ sake.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, she seems like she wants to work things out.”
“Give her a little time.”
“I think it’s obvious I’ll be the one doing all the giving.”
Luke wondered about the pampered princess Margaret described and whether she and the woman standing before him were really one and the same.
Maybe over the last few years Sarah had changed.
Maybe she wasn’t at all like Margaret described.
“Now you’ve seen that I’ve delivered them to her. I assure you I will stay out of her way and let her enjoy her time with them. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get our things inside. The sun is setting, and I need to feed my bottomless boys.”
Luke wasn’t quite ready to go.
He liked a good puzzle, and Sarah was like a thousand pieces sitting on a table just waiting for him to sort out and fit together. It would nag at him until he figured out who this woman truly was. And he would find out.
Chapter Five
Sarah didn’t know what to make of Luke. He didn’t seem quite sure of her, and she could only blame Margaret for that.
Sean had never mentioned Luke as a childhood friend. Then again, he really only liked to talk about himself. And he’d been a live-in-the-moment kind of guy. She’d liked that about him, because she often thought about her crummy past and found herself wallowing in all the bad instead of focusing on how far she’d come and all the good in her life.
Once the boys came along, she had so much good to focus on with them.
She wanted to place some of the blame on Luke for Margaret threatening to take her to court, but he seemed sincere that he thought they could resolve their issues with this voluntary visit. Even if it had been forced.
Luke didn’t take the hint to leave and pulled all three suitcases out of the back of her SUV. “I’ll take these in for you. You grab the other stuff.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
He started toward the house. “I know. Just being neighborly,” he reminded her.
She wondered if there were indeed ulterior motives at play.
Fine. Let him and Margaret watch her. She expected to be scrutinized by Margaret the whole time she was here anyway. So be it. They’d see. She loved her boys. She was a good mother. No one could say any different.
She grabbed the computer bags out of the back of the car, slammed the lid, and caught up to Luke on the porch. The second they walked in the front door, Margaret called out, “Take the two bedrooms at the top of the stairs on the left.”