by Jillian Neal
“Uh, bro, you know kidnapping’s illegal right?” Holly squeezed him fiercely. She always did. “Hey, little guy,” she added, tickling J.J.’s belly, making him squirm to get away from her.
Rolling his eyes, Austin brushed a kiss on J.J.’s fat cheek. “Yeah, I know, but I found him, figured he’d make a great next-generation bull rider, so I took him.”
Summer shook her head at him. That sunset glow bloomed across her cheeks again. Releasing Holly, Austin wrapped his arm around Summer instead.
Brock and Luke were both smirking, and Hope was beaming ear to ear while rubbing her baby bump that had doubled in size since the last time Austin had been home. “All right, this is my big brother Luke, my cousin Brock, his wife Hope, and my kid sister Holly. Everyone, this is Summer Sanchez, my girl, and her son J.J.”
Luke’s mouth hung open stupidly, and Brock was trying to cover his laughter.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Summer.” Hope, of course, threw her arms around Summer, nearly choking her in her exuberance.
“Oh, goodness, uh, it’s nice to meet you, too. When are you due?” She gestured to Hope’s bump.
“October 23rd.”
“I’m glad you two came out. Wasn’t sure you were gonna,” Austin commented.
Recovering from his laughter, Brock linked his hand with Hope’s. “My girl,” he goaded Austin’s phrasing for Summer, “wanted to see what Frontier Days were all about. She’s never been to a rodeo. I figured this was the best one to see. ‘Course, if you get your ass thrown tonight, I’ll never get her to another one, so if you could not get yourself hooked, we’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll make that a priority strictly for Hope’s enjoyment.”
Hope elbowed her husband, and Summer chuckled.
Luke extended his hand to Summer. “Ms. Sanchez, saw you ride a few times. Hell of a barrel racer. Not sure why you’re hanging out with my brother, but it’s an honor to meet you.”
The heat in Summer’s cheeks intensified. Austin had hoped she’d be comfortable around his family, not embarrassed. “Thanks. That’s sweet of you to say. Hard to race when you have a little one, and Austin’s not so bad. God, he stinks when he gets outta them chutes, though.”
Everyone erupted in laughter. Delighted she’d come out of her shell, Austin planted a firm kiss on her cheek. “You like my stink, darlin’, don’t even deny it.”
Before anymore quips could be made, Austin’s parents were upon them. His father glanced from Austin, to the baby, to Summer, and back again. “Oh, dear Lord in heaven, Jess, he’s only been gone four months, right? It ain’t been longer than that?” His father sounded genuinely frightened.
Austin laughed. “Mom, Dad, this is Summer Sanchez and her little boy, J.J. Summer, this is my mom, Jessie and my dad, Ev. You all get to know each other cause I’m bringing ‘em home with me.”
Summer’s eyes goggled, and every single Camden lip sealed in shocked silence.
“Austin!” Summer gasped.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Summer,” Austin’s mother stepped in to save the day. She embraced Summer readily. “When Everett brought me to the ranch the day we met, he eloquently announced to his parents that he’d up and found me on the side of the road and wasn’t letting me leave. ‘Course, he hadn’t said any of that to me, which made it a rather awkward supper. His mama kept staring at me like she was half-worried I’d been dropped in the back fields by a spaceship. Austin comes by it honest. I tried to teach it out of him, but he’s stubborn as one of them bulls he insists on throwing himself off of. He likes to give me grey hairs.”
In that moment, Austin watched Summer fall in love with his mother. Summer threw her arms around her once again and let his mama mother her. Smiling, he let the feeling of being with his family, a portion of them anyway, soothe his weary soul.
“May I?” Jesse extended her arms for J.J.
“Oh, sure.” Summer nodded. Austin handed J.J. to her and she slid seamlessly into the role of step-grandmother.
“Ms. Sanchez, I’d heard you’d quit racing. Shame, too. Came up watchin’ your old man as well. You were better.” Austin’s father winked at her and gave her a quick hug.
“Oh, thanks.” Summer seemed to still be reeling from Austin’s announcement. He was sure he’d hear about it later, but he’d never seen any reason not to shoot straight with people.
“Lot a story there, dad.” Austin shook his head.
“Figure there’s a lot of story right here, son.” Ev nodded to Summer.
Austin watched his mama study the lot of her family. “Well, Hope, baby, you need to get off your feet, and I need a cup of coffee something fierce. Summer, why don’t we leave the men here, and we’ll go heap pregnancy advice on Hope, ‘cause heaven knows she don’t get enough of it every single place she goes back home. If one more person slobbers all over her bump, I’m gonna smack ‘em. Only I get to do that.” She patted Hope’s belly, making everyone laugh.
“Oh, I better not.” Summer looked positively terrified to leave. “J.J. needs to go down for his nap soon.”
Wrapping her up in his arms, blocking her from everyone and everything around them, and keeping her from escaping, Austin kissed the top of her head and whispered, “She wants to get to know you, sugar. Relax for me. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Hope probably holds memorial services for flies she has to swat. She’s that kind, and Holly’ll just tell you every embarrassing thing I did as a kid. I promise no one’s gonna make you do anything you don’t want to do. Deep breath.”
Obviously panicked that Summer was uncomfortable, Hope bit her lip as she studied them. “I’d love to talk to you about J.J. We’re having a little boy, too. I keep hearing about all of the trouble Brock, Austin, and Luke got into when they were growing up. I’m getting worried.” Everyone offered her nervous chuckles. Time advanced around them, but for the moment it seemed to stop for the Camdens.
Summer pulled away from his embrace and managed a half nod. “Okay, sure.” Sure, was most certainly not something she was feeling, and everyone knew it.
“You go on. I’ll take little man back to the cabin and put him down for his nap. You all can head back when you’re done. I’m sure there are plenty of Camden trucks here now.”
“Are you sure?” Summer pled.
Lifting J.J. back out of his mother’s arms, Austin lifted him high in the air and brought him back in one quick motion. J.J. belly laughed and applauded before he threw his arms around Austin’s neck and hugged him. “He look unhappy to you?”
“No, he loves you.” Summer’s expression said she wasn’t happy with that fact. He prayed his mother might help convince her that maybe all of this was fate.
Chapter Thirteen
A half-hour later, Luke, Brock, and Ev watched in stunned disbelief as Austin gently laid J.J. in the portable crib. He was sound asleep.
Standing at the small refrigerator in the ranch cabin, Ev shook his head. “You got anything stronger than Root Beer? I need a drink.”
“Sorry, dad. Didn’t really think I should be drinkin’ around J.J. Saloons will be open in a few hours.” Austin settled on the old plaid-wool sofa and tried to figure out how to explain what had happened between him and Summer to his family.
With a grunt of annoyance, Ev took a root beer and joined his sons and nephew in the small sitting room. “Talk,” he demanded.
“Met her in Cody. I don’t know, Dad, kinda felt like I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her trying to scalp Brant Preston in the Silver Dollar Bar. Didn’t you always say that was a Camden thing? You knew you wanted mom as soon as you saw her on the side of the road? Grandpa wanted Gran as soon as he laid eyes on her in that USO-thing or something? Great-granddaddy Camden fell for Mimi when he saw her protesting for Women’s Suffrage.”
“That happen to you with Hope?” Luke sounded deeply concerned. Austin noted the far-away look in his eye, but he didn’t comment.
Brock sighed. “Kinda, I guess.
I knew I wanted her as soon as she walked into class, but things were real complicated for a real long time, as you know. I guess I always knew I wanted her in my life. We were best friends from the moment we met. I will say that. Maybe it is a Camden thing.”
“Took me a few days to talk your mama into staying on the ranch though, Austin. You’re already playing daddy to her kid and sharing her bed,” Ev sighed.
“Sharing her bed has nothing to do with why I’m crazy about her, Dad.”
“I’m sure it ain’t hurting your feelings too bad either, though.” Luke rolled his eyes.
“No, it definitely ain’t.” Austin would never deny that.
“So, Summer’s up and ready to move to the ranch with you?” his father demanded. “Whose idea was that exactly?”
“Mine. She’s not after anything, Dad. She hasn’t even agreed to it, anyway. I can’t seem to convince her that I want her, despite all the complications. I made her a deal that I’d prove myself for the next two weeks while we’re here, and if I succeed she comes back with me. For the past few months, she’s been a rodeo gypsy because of her ex and J.J. Not like she’s got a home to go back to.”
Squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his temples, never a good sign, Ev was quiet for a moment. “Look at me, son.” Austin stared his father down. “Your entire life, if someone told you that you couldn’t have something, that was the one thing you went after with everything you were. You look me in the eye, and you promise me that you don’t want Summer just because she told you that you can’t have her. Because that girl’s been hurt bad. I can see it in her eyes. Don’t know how. Don’t know when, but hurt and scared as a horse that ain’t been tended nicely, and she has a little boy that deserves someone full time, every time, day-in, day-out, even when it’s the damn hardest thing in the world to do. This isn’t something you can walk away from like you’ve done four-dozen other women across this great country.”
“I know that, Dad. Okay, I know. She has been hurt by her old man, and by her ex-husband, and by life itself. I’m not in this lookin’ to get out. I know what she wants, and I know what she needs. I’m in this to stay. If you’da told me back in April that I’d want to come home with a girl I was lookin’ to keep and a kid, I know I would have laughed in your face. I know you’re shocked. Hell, I’m still in shock, but I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything, even more than that damn buckle I’ve been chasin’ half my life.”
“You’d give up the circuit for her?” His father’s test didn’t even make him bat an eye.
“In a heartbeat.”
“Right now?”
“No, but she don’t want me to right now. I owe Minton and I owe Max a showdown in Vegas, and you know it.”
“You don’t owe Max anything, Austin, but that’s the ghost you’ve been chasin’. It ain’t ever been that buckle. What if something changed and Summer wanted you to quit right now?”
“Why would she want that? There’s maybe two events between Cheyenne and Vegas. I’ll be right there with her setting up a life most of the time. I’ll take both of ‘um with me when I compete.”
“Let’s just say she did.”
“Fine, yes, I’d walk away, but that ain’t me. I don’t back down from something I’ve committed to. You taught me that.”
“Yeah, I taught you that, and you need to remember that lesson more when it comes to Summer and J.J. than anything else.”
“Noted.” Austin was growing weary of this interrogation.
“Wait. Why was she trying to fight Preston? Ain’t he the head of that huge stock supplier outta Dallas? He’s been in the papers with that bull of his. PBR thinks he’s doping him or something?” Luke had processed enough of the story to have recalled that bit of information.
“Brantley Jr. is the kid. His old man runs Preston Cattle. Both of ‘um are shit sacks. Wouldn’t surprise me if they are amping that bull. But,” Austin sighed, “Brant Jr. is J.J.’s dad. He’s Summer’s ex.”
“Preston hadn’t been a name thought of too fondly by the entire Midwest for a long while, son. Cowboys got land, and they got cattle, and they got horses and homes, but ain’t none of that matters if they don’t got a worthy reputation. How’d she get mixed up with the likes of them?”
“Her father basically handed her off, trying to get her out of the rodeo because she was stealing his thunder. It went downhill from there. It’s a damned mess. She’s trying to get full custody of J.J. because Brant is an abusive asshole. I intend to help her do that.”
“He hurt her?” Brock edged forward on the couch, immediately ready to defend Summer. He’d grown up with an abusive father and didn’t take too kindly to anyone that lived by the school of thought that you get your way with your fists.
“Several times. Don’t worry though, I’ll take care of Brant Jr. when the time comes. All I can do not to stomp his ass into the ground with my boots every time I see the rat-bastard.”
“You need any help you let us know. I’ll get Grant out here if we need him,” Luke readily vowed.
“Simmer down, all of you. I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you tearing Brant Preston limb from limb might not help Summer get J.J.,” his father reminded them. “And I’m not real excited about the Camdens and the Prestons reenacting the Hatfields and the McCoys.”
“There’s fights worth fightin’, dad,” Austin vowed.
“Agreed, and if she’s who you want, son, I’ll do everything in my power to help you two make a life on the ranch. Your mama and I will be there for both of you every step of the way, you know that, but you got to play your cards right, Austin. She might not want this as badly as you do.”
“She does. I know. I can tell. She’s just scared and hurt, like you said. If you want to help me, then help. Tell me how you convinced Mama to stay there with you.”
His father adjusted his cowboy hat that he’d balanced on his knee, and considered. “Well, your mama, I mean … you know ain’t nobody on God’s green planet that’s gonna tell her what to do. I tried to show her I’d be there for her no matter what. Took care of her. Taught her about the ranch and listened to her when she told me about being a buyer for that fancy department store. She wanted to learn to shoot, so I taught her. I just gave it everything I could, finally begged her not to leave. She did, you know. She went back to Denver for a little while. Scared the shit outta me. She kept saying she was coming back, but I was sick worried she wouldn’t. Day she showed up, I kept her in my arms, wouldn’t let her go ‘til she said she’d marry me.”
“How ‘bout you? How’d you get Hope to stay with you?” Austin turned on Brock.
“Well, that was different. Hope and I had been best friends for so long, and she was more convinced than I was that I could keep her happy. I had no idea she’d want to move back to the ranch. My wife is an angel sent straight to me from Heaven, and there ain’t no other way to explain it.”
“All right, well, I have two weeks to convince her, so you got any advice?”
Brock hemmed for a moment before he nodded. “I’m happy to help, man. You know that. I guess it’s like Uncle Ev was just saying, listen to whatever she wants to talk about. You gotta listen even when she ain’t talking, actually. Women are like that. They’ll make comments about out-of-the-blue shit, and you gotta put it all together like a puzzle. Like Hope wanting to come out here. Couple weeks ago, she started talking about how she was feeling much better now that the nausea’s gone. Then she made a few comments about getting out of the Glen for a few days. I finally put it all together when she reminded me that she’d never been to a rodeo or seen you ride.”
Austin considered all of that. “Summer keeps talking about how being back in Cheyenne reminds her of being a teenager. That something I should be paying attention to?”
Ev rolled his eyes. “He’s always been real quick-like.”
Luke and Brock chuckled.
“Yeah, if she only gave you two weeks to convince her to move in with you, I’d listen to
most any clue she might give up,” Brock vowed.
“Agreed.” A dozen ideas began to formulate in Austin’s head. It was completely understandable that after a year of nothing but stress she might want a night to feel free as a bird again. He could do that, if he could get her to agree. “Hey, Dad, do you think you and Mom might keep J.J. for us tomorrow night, if Summer agrees?”
“We do have a little experience with youngins. It’s fine by me, but she might not want to leave him with us. She barely knows us.”
“Hope and I will help,” Brock readily agreed.
“Yeah, I’ll convince Holly, and we’ll help, too,” Luke sighed. “Surely the six of us can keep up with one barely-walking toddler.”
“He’s really good. Don’t cry too much. Loves his mama something fierce.” Austin grinned as he eased back to the nook near the bathroom to check on J.J., who was still sound asleep sucking the thumb of the arm he had clutching the horse Austin had purchased for him.
Summer couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed this hard. As much as she was enjoying Austin’s family, part of her wished they weren’t so great. It would make her end of Cheyenne decision much easier.
“So, Austin’s never lived with anyone before? Another girlfriend or anything?” She couldn’t help but wonder, and his mama kept encouraging her to ask anything.
“Honey, you are something I’ve been praying for since that boy was about sixteen years old. I knew it’d take a woman like you to bring my baby boy home. He’s been roaming the earth for more years than I care to count looking for something that he couldn’t seem to find. Fate has a funny way of working things out. When I saw the way he was with J.J. and wrapping his arms around you I finally understood. He’s been looking for you.”
“Wow, no pressure or anything, Mama.” Holly shook her head.
Summer continued, “Do you really think that? Do you think fate intervenes like that?”
“Yes,” Hope leapt back into the conversation. “Someday, I’ll tell you about how Brock and I ended up together, but trust me, fate intervenes when you least expect it, and sometimes in an explosive way.”