SECOND CHANCES AT MG RANCH by Karen England Page B

the same time. Loren was growing up and they had to give her room to spread her wings. Isn’t that what they had done by giving her the ranch?
    It had never crossed their minds that she might take a liking to the ranch and Sam. They both shared the same feeling that this was their own fault for asking Sam to stay.  They continued to sit in silence, waiting for Loren to return.
    Meanwhile, Sam entered the dark shadows of the barn. He had been sure that she would have come to the barn to seek solace with her horse, but the barn was dark and quite. There was no sign of her. But if she didn’t come to the barn, then where did she go?
    He walked into the darkness and softly called out her name, “Loren?  Are you in here?” There was no sound except for the echo of Sam’s own voice.
    He waited.  Still only silence surrounded him. He continued to move about in the darkness, listening for any sounds of disturbance. He approached the light switch to flip on the lights for better observance when he noticed that Dakota was not standing in his stall.
    He quickly jumped to his own conclusions and guessed that she had ridden out in the darkness by herself. He couldn’t believe that she would be so stupid again, knowing the dangers that might be out there.  Well, yes he could, he admitted to himself. Sam had quickly learned that Loren could be bold and stubborn when it suited her mood.
    His first thought was to let things be. Let her learn a lesson in stupidity. That thought didn’t last long before he decided that he must go after her. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take him long to find her. He knew her parents would be crazy with worry. And if he admitted it, he was worried about her too. His heart was beating a mile a minute by now.
    He proceeded to flip on the lights and that is when he saw her sitting in Dakota’s stall. Her horse was lying down with his head cradled in her lap and she was rubbing his neck ever so gently. She looked as if she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and red, maybe even a little blood shot.
    At first he felt relief wash over him, that she hadn’t ridden out by herself into the dark night. Then it occurred to him that something might be wrong with her horse.  Acting upon that thought, he took some rather large steps to reach the stall door.
    “Is something wrong with him? Is he hurt?” Sam asked, not sure what to think. The horse had seemed fine when Amy had ridden him earlier.
    All kinds of things were running through his head. Did he have colic, had he been snake bitten, perhaps a twisted gut?
    His voice startled the horse and it raised its head slightly. Loren patted him, giving him some reassurance that all was well.
    When she looked up at Sam, she sensed that he was truly concerned. She felt her anger start to subside as she stared into the depths of his eyes. His eyes locked with hers, causing her issues with finding her voice. Finally, she tore her gaze from his and focused her eyes back on her horse before she tried to speak.
    “No, he is fine. I have a very trusting relationship with him,” she explained.
    Feeling relief once again, Sam just stood and watched her with him for a moment.
    “Well now that I know you are okay, I will just go back and tell your parents you are fine and that you will be in shortly,” he said as he turned to leave.
    “Do you wa nt to come in and sit with us?”  Her question surprised him.
    What he didn’t know was that the question surprised her as much as it did him. She wasn’t sure where it had come from. She supposed that it must have floated up from her subconscious mind. But it was too late to retract on it now.  Maybe he would just say no, and leave her alone.
    Her mind seemed to become so unfocused when he was around. Who was she kidding; she could barely breathe when in his presence, let alone think.
    She felt like she had been let off the hook when he turned to leave without saying another word. He flipped the lights back off. Good she