Heartsong (Singing to the Heart Book 2)

by Sara Walter Ellwood

  Gabe jerked when a knock sounded on the door. As he straightened, the panel cracked open and Gary said, “Gabe, we need to get rolling.”

  “I’ve got to go. I have to get back home. Momma is taking all of this hard.” Micki stood by his side. “And I can’t leave Jesse with her too long.”

  He focused on her red-rimmed cornflower eyes. She’d been crying for a while. “Michaela, I’m sorry.”

  She sniffed, close to tears again, and nodded stiffly. “I loved my sister. Despite all of her bad behavior and her marriage to your daddy, I loved her.”

  “I know.” He wanted to touch her wet cheek and take away the tears.

  Gary shattered the impulse. “Is the girl staying or going? We’ve got to move.”

  “I’m leaving.” Micki headed out the door as Gary moved to the side in the narrow passage. She glanced over her shoulder. “I’ll take care of the arrangements. If I can have your number, I’ll call you with the time of the service. That is, if you’re interested.”

  “Yeah. Call me.” Gabe dug in his wallet for a personal business card. “My cell number’s the last one listed.”

  Micki nodded again and took the card with a shaky hand.

  “What’s going on?” Gary asked after looking from Micki to Gabe.

  Gabe stopped at the door of the second bedroom, drawing the attention of the guys in the common area. “My father and his wife were killed in a plane crash.”

  “Oh, man. I’m sorry, Gabe.”

  Gabe caught up with Micki before she exited the bus. Someone turned down the music and the band waited in silence. He never talked about his nonexistent family or much about his personal life, so this was all news to them. The world only knew about the messy split between exciting new star Gabe McKenna and his wife and manager Andrea Rose less than a year after they’d eloped, but even the guys didn’t know all the facts. He wanted to keep it that way.

  “Michaela, wait.” She paused and turned to him with fresh tears drowning her eyes. “Do you know if they ever made any kind of arrangements for Jesse?”

  “I don’t know.” The quiver in Micki’s soft Texas drawl gave away her fear. She shuffled her keys in her hand and looked down at them. “What will happen to him if they didn’t? He’s just a little boy.”

  “The state will give custody to your mom. She’s his grandmother.”

  “But Momma’s not Frankie’s real mother and besides, she isn’t healthy enough to take care of Jesse. What will happen to the ranch? Do you know if Sam left it to you?”

  Gabe snorted and looked past her into the night and the glaring lights of the parking lot. “You have to be kidding. Dad told me he’d never leave the ranch or the business to me. It’s supposed to go to your sister in the event...” He stopped and met Micki’s searching gaze. “I guess it will depend on what Dad’s will says about such things. My guess is it will be sold and the money will go into a trust fund for Jesse.”

  He didn’t miss the shiver that quaked through Micki’s athletic body or the rounding of her eyes. She and her mother lived on the Lazy M Ranch. If the place were sold, they’d have nowhere to go.

  But before she could comment, Gary broke in. “I’m sorry, but we have to go.” He looked at Micki. “Gabe will give you a call when he gets the chance.”

  With a tip of her hat brim, she exited the bus, crossed the empty parking lot to an old pickup truck, and climbed in. There had been a time he’d loved Michaela Finn, but she hadn’t loved him enough to believe in his dreams.

  The guys passed by him, patting him on his shoulder and offering their condolences as they headed to their own bus for the night. Jessica hugged him and tears brimmed in her eyes. The party was over.

  He stepped down to where the driver and Gary were talking. “I’m not going to Omaha.”

  Gary turned to face him. “What are you going to do?”

  The last thing he’d ever wanted to. He didn’t care what happened to his father or the ranch, but Jesse was his responsibility. “I’m going back to Texas to take care of my little brother.”

  Chapter 2

  Micki stopped on the county road and stared at the wood arch over the entrance of the driveway. Lazy M Cattle Ranch was painted in black. The five-hundred acres in Brown County were the only home she had ever known, and soon she and her mother would have to leave. Her sister and her sister’s husband--her employers--her family--were dead, and seeing Gabe McKenna last night hadn’t helped her poor, battered heart.

  The day was too beautiful for all this angst, but she couldn’t stop the tightening in her chest or the desire to curl up in a ball somewhere.

  Sucking in a hot, dry breath of the air blowing through the open windows, she hit the gas and turned onto the gravel driveway. A few of the colts in the pasture noticed and kept pace with her for a few hundred feet until they came to the rail fence dividing the pasture.

  At the fork, about halfway down, she took a right. To the left was the main house. Without looking at the white clapboard two-story where Sam and Frankie had lived, she sped away, leaving the house in a cloud of dust.

  Micki stopped the pickup in front of the cottage where she and her mother lived. The barn and training arena were set off to the left of the cottage, the bunkhouse and her office to the right. Three of the ranch hands stood on the porch of the bunkhouse. She got out of the truck and shut the door. With a lift of her hand, she returned their waves, but ignored their questioning gazes.

  Birds chirped in the pecan trees surrounding the house, and knobby red apples hung on the snarled trees in the old orchard between the cottage and the main house. In the pasture, horses grazed on the breeze-swept grass. Although she couldn’t see them, two hundred cattle grazed on the grassland beyond the horse pasture.

  All so normal.

  When her gelding, Beau, trotted to the corral rails, she almost gave into the temptation to climb over the fence, hop on the bay’s bare back, and take off for parts unknown.

  The sound of the screen door opening and the soft whirl of an electric motor wrenched a sigh from her. She headed around the Silverado. A sad smile tugged on her lips at Jesse standing beside her mother’s wheelchair.

  “Aunt Micki!”

  She bypassed the wheelchair ramp and took the steps two at a time. “Hey, squirt.” She ruffled the boy’s dark hair and avoided looking in his deep blue eyes.

  “Did you see him?”

  With a nod, she hugged him close. “Yeah, I found him in Kansas City.”

  He swallowed, stepped back, and glanced at his feet. “He ain’t coming home, is he?”

  She fought the urge to correct his bad grammar and tugged him to her again, holding his head to her chest. God, she’d do anything to take away his pain. “He’ll be here, Jesse.”

  “Gabe never liked me.”

  His quiet words stabbed at her heart. They weren’t true, but Gabe’s no-showing until the funeral would hurt Jesse. Gabe never came home much, but from what Frankie had told her, he called and Skyped Jesse often, and he never forgot his birthday or Christmas. Pulling back, she held him and met his gaze. “That’s not true, and you know it. But Gabe also has commitments.”

  “Our dad’s dead. That should mean somethin’.” He stepped out of her embrace and ran down the stairs.

  “Jesse…”

  But he was already past her truck and headed for the orchard where he’d discovered Gabe’s old clubhouse. She took a step to follow him, but her mother’s voice stopped her.

  “Let him go, Micki. He’s in a world of hurt.”

  She met her mother’s puffy, bloodshot eyes. The constant pain Momma was in and the ravages of disease had etched deep lines on a face that had once been beautiful. “You okay, Momma?”

  Loretta Finn folded hands as crooked as the apple trees in the lap of her useless legs. She nodded, her chin-length gray hair brushing the collar of her plaid housedress. “I’m fine. So, what did Gabe have to say?”

  �
�I’m to call when the arrangements are done.”

  Her mother sighed. “Sam and Frankie hurt him a lot, but I hope he remembers Jesse needs him.”

  Micki shifted into a chair on the porch and changed the subject. “Did Cash take care of the horses?”

  Momma turned her chair around to face Micki and a shadow of a smile twisted her pale lips. “Of course he did. Cash is sweet on you.”

  “He’s also almost ten years younger than me.” Micki looked out past the potted geraniums and the blooming peace roses to the orchard. She didn’t want to talk about the crush twenty-two-year-old Cash Nelson had on her.

  “It’s only eight years. Cash comes from a good family and just got a teaching job. Besides, he’s still working on the ranch. He’d make--”

  “Momma, stop right there. I’m not getting married, and I’m definitely not marrying Cash Nelson. I’m not a cougar.”

  Her mother flattened her mouth into a fine line. “Why would you say such a thing? My mother was ten years older than my father and they were happily married. It’s all because of that woman.”

  That woman being the talent scout-turned-manager, Andrea Rose. The woman for whom Gabe had left Micki.

  “Now that’s just ridiculous. Gabe’s marriage to an older woman has nothing to do with my aversion to following in my grandparents’ footsteps. I won’t chase after a younger man for the same reason I’d never go for a much older one. I’m not...”

  “I know you aren’t Frankie.”

  She’d gone too far. Frankie may not have been her mother’s biological daughter, but Loretta had been the only mother Frankie had ever known, and Momma loved her as if she’d been her flesh and blood. “I’m sorry, Momma. I didn’t mean...” She shook her head and swallowed. “I like Cash--as a friend. Nothing more.” She bent and picked up a baseball lying on the floor by her chair leg.

  The sound of a vehicle crunching on the gravel of the drive had her turning toward it. She stood and leaned on the railing as the nondescript sedan stopped beside her truck. When a middle-aged woman exited the car, fear snaked around Micki’s gut, and she gripped the white rail. By the look of the woman’s high heels and pinstriped suit, she didn’t get out of her Brownwood office much.

  Jesse came out of the orchard and rounded the car. The woman smiled at him, but he only hurried up the steps to move in close to Micki. Her need to protect him was strong and undeniable as she wrapped her arm around his slender shoulders and pulled him close.

  Momma must have felt the same compulsion because she positioned her wheelchair at the edge of the porch steps between the pillars. “What can we do for you?”

  The woman stopped on the concrete walkway at the bottom of the stairs and glanced at Jesse. He snaked his arm around Micki’s waist and held on.

  The woman smiled and held out an envelope along with a badge.

  “It’ll be okay,” Micki said to Jesse with a gentle squeeze. He didn’t look convinced as she let go of him and made herself descend the three steps. Stopping in front of the woman, she read the identification the lady was holding out.

  With a smile the Department of Family Protective Services agent put her badge away. “Allison Fennel. Are you Michaela or Loretta Finn?” She handed Micki an envelope with the seal of Texas in the corner and her and her mother’s names in the middle of it.

  Micki numbly nodded and met the woman’s eyes. “I’m Michaela. My mother is Loretta. Why are you here?”

  She already knew--Jesse.

  “Jesse, be a good boy and go inside please,” her mother said.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Jesse stomped down the steps to stop beside Micki. “What do you want, lady?”

  Fennel’s smile dripped sugar as she leaned forward. “I bet you’re Jesse.”

  “So?”

  “Jesse, please go inside--now.” Micki ruffled his hair.

  He squared his shoulders and ran up the stairs. The screen door slammed behind him.

  “I’m his grandmother. What do you want?” Loretta’s voice was as hard as concrete.

  The woman’s eyes shifted from Micki to Loretta. “DFPS was contacted this morning by Judge Lemont Finn regarding the deaths of Samuel and Frances McKenna. It’s my office’s responsibility to make certain the child is taken care of.”

  Son of a bitch. Figured her father would get involved. Micki stuck her hands into her back pockets to keep them from forming fists. “My sister and her husband left him in our care while they were on a business trip. We aren’t stopping now. We’re his only family.”

  Micki’s throat froze shut at Fennel’s slight, lopsided grin. “I’m here at the request of the child’s grandfather. Mrs. Finn, it’s my understanding you were Frances’s stepmother. Lemont Finn’s first wife died in a car accident when she was a year old.”

  “Yes, that’s correct. Before I could adopt her proper, Lemont and I divorced. But Frankie was as much mine as Micki is.” Her mother’s voice quivered. “I loved her as my own child.”

  Dear God, they weren’t seriously thinking of giving Jesse to her father, were they? Neither Frankie nor Sam would have ever wanted that. They despised him as much as she and her mother did.

  Micki heard another vehicle on the drive, but she was too focused on Allison Fennel and her thoughts to heed the sound. A car door slammed.

  “Is it also true you do not own this house? You lived and worked on the ranch, Miss Finn?”

  “Yes, I’m the manager.”

  “You aren’t taking that child anywhere. I’m Jesse’s brother.”

  Fennel turned at the sound of Gabe’s voice. If the situation weren’t so dire, Micki would have smiled at the way her eyes bugged out of her head. She opened her mouth and closed it again. Finally, she sputtered, “Gabe McKenna?”

  The hardness of Gabe’s face never softened.

  “Gabe!” Jesse bounded down the stairs and leapt into his older brother’s arms. “You came!”

  “Of course I’d be here.” Gabe held his brother and kissed the top of his dark head. “I’m so sorry, buddy.”

  At the tenderness in his voice, Micki’s heart did a fast little flutter.

  Gabe set Jesse back on his feet and placed his trademark tan Stetson on the boy’s curls, completely covering the top half of his face.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Gabe. This lady wants to take me away to live with Grandpa Lemont.” The flash of fear in his dark blue eyes filled Micki with a need to keep him away from her father.

  Gabe knelt in front of his baby brother and rested his hands on Jesse’s small shoulders. “That’s not going to happen. So, don’t you worry about it, okay?”

  Jesse gazed at Gabe with hero worship causing Micki’s heart to swell. He’d always been good with Jesse and never held their father’s affair with Frankie against him. A fierce longing for what could have been hit her hard enough to knock the breath out of her. A lot of years had passed since she had thought of Gabe as father material, but even then she’d never considered he’d be so patient and attentive. So loving.

  Gabe tugged the brim of his hat down over Jesse’s forehead. “Now you go inside with your grandma while your aunt Michaela and I talk to the lady. Okay?” He glanced over Jesse’s head to her mother and she nodded. He winked at Micki and shooed Jesse up the steps.

  Momma held out her hand for Jesse to take, and together they entered the house.

  Gabe stood beside Micki and faced the agent. “I think you can leave now. Despite Loretta’s relationship to Frankie or Jesse, Michaela is his aunt by blood and I’m his brother.”

  The woman looked flustered as beads of sweat formed on her brow and upper lip. “I have to deliver the boy into the care of Judge Finn.”

  Gabe put his left hand into the pocket of his faded jeans. “You can explain to Judge Finn he isn’t taking Jesse away from his home at a time as painful as this. The boy doesn’t even know the man.”

  Micki jumped when he put his other arm aro
und her shoulders. The touch was light and more show than anything else, but it sent a zing through her.

  “Now if you will excuse us, we have funeral arrangements to make. Loretta and Micki have been taking care of Jesse for the past week while my father and Michaela’s sister were in Dallas. Our lawyer will be in contact with DFPS as soon as possible.”

  Gabe turned Micki around and headed up the steps to the screen door as if he’d done it a thousand times. At the open door, Loretta gave him an appreciative look as she backed away.

  Fennel followed them up the stairs. “I’ll have to inspect the home, at the very least. Judge Finn wouldn’t want his grandson subjected to an unsafe environment.”

  Micki held Gabe’s narrowing gaze. Fennel might work for DFPS, but she was also on Lemont Finn’s payroll. She’d find something wrong no matter how insignificant. When had she last picked up Jesse’s toys from the small living room? She also hoped her mother had put the dirty dishes from the past two days in the dishwasher. Micki swallowed and looked over her shoulder. “Yes, of course. Follow me.”

  She glanced around the cool interior as they entered. In the small eat-in kitchen, a few plastic cups sat on the counter, but the sink was free of dishes. An old Monopoly game lay out on the small round table. In the living room to the left, two Tonka trucks that were probably old enough to have been Gabe’s were parked next to the couch. Jesse, still wearing Gabe’s hat, sat on the braided rug in front of the couch playing with his iPad. He peeked over the screen with worry etching his forehead when they entered the house with Fennel hot on their tails.

  Gabe stopped and turned in the space dividing the kitchen and living room. Crossing his arms, he stood like a barrier in front of the social worker. “You have two minutes, Miss Fennel. I suggest you start your inspection because your time is already ticking.”