Free Yours for the Taking by Robin Kaye Page B

his mind set on something, there’s no talking to him. But that doesn’t make what you’re doing right either. If you weren’t ready to marry, you should have refused.”
    Ben put his coffee down and faced her. “He would have sold the ranch to a developer.”
    “He may have, but Ben, it’s not as if you’re ever going to live there. It’s just a place.”
    “It’s home.”
    “No, this is your home. You’ve lived here longer than you lived in Three Whores Bend.”
    “It’s all I have left of my parents, Kate.” As usual, the pain slammed into him. No matter how old he got, thinking about his parents still hurt. “I can’t lose the ranch too.”
    Kate slid off the stool and held him close. “Honey, I’ve told you, you haven’t lost your parents; they’re with you in your heart. They’re not at that ranch you disappear to every time you need to lick your wounds. Maybe the memories you have of them took place there, but they aren’t. Your parents are with you always.”
    He’d heard her say it a million times, but the only place he felt close to his parents was at the ranch. He could still picture his mother by the stove or reading to him in the meadow, his father helping him build his fort or fixing the generator. For Ben, that was where all the memories of his parents were. Where they would always be.
    She studied him. “I’ve always worried about you, you know—losing both your parents at such a young age. You were taken away from everything you knew and thrown into a much different world.”
    Ben took a sip of his coffee, set it down, and stared into it. “I was fine.” The last thing he wanted to do was talk about this. It brought back too many memories—bad ones. No one wants to think of their parents flying into the side of a mountain.
    Patting his hand, Kate silenced him with a nudge. “You went from being homeschooled to private school. From being an only child running around the mountains to one of five living under the same roof in town, with your grandfather introducing you to world leaders and grooming you to take over his empire. That’s a lot of change and pressure for a little boy.”
    “I had you and Gramps. I was fine.”
    “You’ve always been a chameleon.” Kate sighed. “No matter who you met or where you were, you seemed to blend right in. I kept waiting for you to react, to lash out, something… I thought for sure you would end up on a shrink’s couch for the rest of your life.”
    “But I didn’t.”
    Kate sipped of her coffee before dabbing her lip with a napkin. “I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I had worrying about you. I thought for sure you were burying your pain and would finally snap and show us who was really behind that chameleon persona. It never happened. It took me a while but I’ve realized that you are just comfortable in your own skin. No matter where you are, who you are with, you have a God-given ability to relate to anyone. Though, I don’t think it would hurt you to see a shrink. You’re far from perfect.” She studied him in that way she had that made people want to confess all. “And you still have that little problem.”
    Ben wanted to roll his eyes but didn’t since Kate wasn’t above giving him a smack upside the head. “What problem?”
    “You, Benjamin Joseph Walsh, are a card carrying commitaphobe.”
    Ben laughed. “Gina says I’m OCD and now you tell me I’m afraid of commitment? How can you say that? I just got married.”
    “Yes, but not because you’re committed to your wife. The only thing you’re committed to is that ranch.”
    “I need the ranch, Kate. It’s mine.”
    She gave Ben a big hug before she released him. “You and Joe are on your own with this one, Benji. I’ve decided to stay out of it. You’re a grown man and so is Joe, although sometimes you both make me wonder.”
    Ben bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Kate. If it makes you feel better, I don’t like it much