by Barbara Gee
Kelly heard her mother speaking in the background, and then her dad chuckled.
“Mom says to tell you to come over for brunch tomorrow. She’ll make you blueberry pancakes to make you feel better.”
Kelly laughed. “No need to twist my arm. Tell her thanks. We’ll be there at 10:00.”
“Great. Bye, honey. See you tomorrow.”
“Night, Dad. Love you.”
Kelly hung up and finished straightening up the kitchen, then went to get James headed toward the bathtub. Once he was tucked into bed, she planned to dig into the mint chocolate chip ice cream she’d added to her grocery basket earlier in the day. Somehow she’d known it would come in handy.
Chapter 2
Saturday night a week later, Kelly was enjoying dinner with three of her favorite people in the world. Heather, Jordan and Natalie were her best friends, and they had requested a dinner date to get up to speed on Kelly’s plans to visit her estranged in-laws.
“So you’re leaving right after school next Friday?” Heather asked.
Kelly cut into her tender, medium rare steak and nodded. “We’re going to stay in a hotel by the airport overnight. Our flight leaves at 6:00 Saturday morning, and I don’t want to have to get James up at 4:00 to make the drive.”
“Why did you get such an early flight? I mean, it’s not like you’re in a hurry to get there,” Natalie reminded her.
“Because I saved two hundred fifty bucks by choosing an earlier flight, and the hotel only costs seventy-five.”
Heather twirled her pasta on a spoon, frowning. “I think Mr. and Mrs. We-Changed-Our-Minds should have paid for your tickets.”
“Actually, they offered,” Kelly admitted. “But I wouldn’t let them. Call me stubborn, but I don’t want to accept a single cent from them. Plus, I don’t want to give them a chance to make me feel obligated to them in any way if things don’t work out and I decide to come back early.”
“Good thinking,” Natalie said. “Do you promise to keep in touch with us during the week? We’ll be dying to know how it’s going.”
Jordan, the most protective one of their group, spoke up. “I wish you’d let me go along, Kel. I’ll pay for my own ticket and everything. I just can’t stand the thought of you all by yourself on a huge Texas ranch, surrounded by strangers, with people as horrid as James and Maggie Matherson as your hosts.”
Kelly chuckled. “Much as I’d love to have you run interference for me, Jordan, the emails I’ve exchanged with Maggie over the past couple months make me feel pretty confident they won’t lock us in our room with only bread and water.”
“But what exactly has she said to convince you of that?” Jordan pressed. “All she says is ‘we need you to come so we can meet James and explain things in person.’ It could all be an act.”
“With what motive?” Kelly wondered. “I understand what you’re saying, but as much as I’m dreading this visit, I do somehow feel they’re sincere. What finally convinced me was Maggie saying they’ve been meeting with their pastor and he encouraged them to contact me.”
Heather shrugged. “Duh. I think most pastors would do all they could to help members of their congregation mend their fences. Especially a fence as mangled as this one!”
“But that’s just it,” Kelly said. “Jamie had never gone to church until we started dating. He never even went to Sunday School as a kid. He said his parents thought church was a waste of time when there was always so much to do on the ranch. So the fact that James and Maggie have a pastor at all is a pretty big deal, and I feel that it has something to do with all this.”
Natalie frowned. “I don’t see why they couldn’t come to you. Why make you go all the way to Texas?”
“The audacity!” Jordan agreed. She raised her brows and assumed a haughty expression. “Kelly, my dear long lost daughter-in-law,” she said, complete with her version of a Texas twang, which actually sounded more like a terrible British accent. “We’ve decided that we actually do want our grandson to be a part of our lives now, so get yourself on down here to Texas just as soon as you can so we can take a look at him and see if he’s worthy of the great Matherson surname.”
“James is worthy of any surname,” Kelly declared. “But it didn’t happen like that. Maggie sent me an email first, remember, and left it up to me as to whether we communicated any further.”
“She’s lucky you’re such a good mother,” Natalie stated, scraping up the last bite of her salad and looking enviously at Kelly’s steak and mashed potatoes. “If you didn’t care so much about your little boy, you would have told her to stuff it and not given her a second thought.”
Jordan nodded and pointed her fork at Kelly. “Which you should still do if they give you a hard time in any way.”
Heather laughed. “Are you sure Jordan can’t go along, Kelly? She would be the perfect body guard.”
“The Wild Rose ranch would never be the same,” Natalie agreed.
“Thanks anyway, Jordan. But I’ll be fine.” Kelly smiled at her friends. “You guys are great. You always have my back and I hope you know how much I appreciate it.”
“You say the word and we’ll come to Texas and get you. And the guys will come too,” Heather said, referring to hers and Natalie’s husbands and Jordan’s long term boyfriend. “The Mathersons of Texas are no match for us Virginians.”
Kelly laughed. “I’m actually not sure who I would put my money on.”
Jordan grinned at Natalie. “Stephan would definitely put us over the top, Nat. The cowboys would take one look at your pansy man, dressed in his designer duds, every hair in place and nails buffed to perfection, and run away screaming in terror.”
The four women all started giggling at the image that conjured up.
“Don’t call my man a pansy,” Natalie said, attempting to sound serious. “He goes to the gym at least three times a week!”
Jordan had to wipe tears as she started laughing harder. “Yeah, so he can watch himself in the mirror while he works the elliptical. Oh gosh, I can see it now. Stand down, cowboy, or our metro-sexual friend Stephan will punch you in your square, manly jaw. I mean geez, Nat, I bet there’s not a man named Stephan in all of Texas!”
“Oh dear, I think we may indeed have to count him out of this fight,” Natalie managed to say between gales of laughter. “Stephan can’t go to a ranch. He might get disgusting horse poo on his Italian loafers, and being forced to punch someone would completely wreck his manicure!”
Kelly reached across the table and squeezed Natalie’s hand. “He’d do it for me, though. You know he would. You three have the best guys in the world and they’ve been there for me every time I’ve needed them since Jamie died. If there was a fourth man around like them, I wouldn’t still be single.”
Heather and Jordan added their hands to the other two.
“There’s a fourth one out there, Kelly,” Heather assured her friend. “I think the three of us are actually more impatient for you to find him than you are yourself, but it’ll happen. When you least expect it, it’ll happen.”
Kelly shrugged. “Maybe. But at least I have little James. If he’s the only man God has planned for me, then he’s enough.” She grinned at her friends. “Let’s get out of here. It’s going to be a busy week, and I need my beauty sleep.”
Jordan motioned to the waiter and asked for their checks, then smiled wryly at Kelly. “Beauty sleep you say? If you get any more beautiful, Kelly, I’m gonna seriously have some major jealousy issues.”
“Shut up, Jordan,” Kelly teased. “You’re gorgeous and you know it. All of you are—inside and out. Thanks for being my friends.”
Chapter 3
“Here, James. These are our seats.” Kelly steered James into the correct row on the plane and he eagerly settled into the window seat. He had flown once before, but barely remembered it. He was determined to enjoy every second of the flight now that he was older.
Kelly tested his seat belt to make sure he’d fastened it c
orrectly, then tended to her own and sat back to await takeoff. Ugh, her stomach already hurt. It wasn’t the thought of flying that was bothering her, however, it was the fact that in a few short hours she would come face to face with Jamie’s parents. No matter how long the trip took, she knew she would never be ready for that moment.
She’d spoken briefly to Maggie last evening after arriving at the hotel. Maggie had assured her there would be someone at the airport to pick them up and take them to the ranch, where they would have lunch waiting. Kelly had managed to get on a nonstop flight to Dallas, and with the one hour time difference, they should arrive at the ranch right around noon. It promised to be the most awkward, uncomfortable meal of Kelly’s life, and thus the stomach ache.
She tried to remember James Sr. and Maggie. She had only met them twice, and both times had been rushed dinners, when they’d taken the time to visit Jamie at TCU. Kelly had been eager to meet them, but neither had wasted much time getting to know their son’s girlfriend. Obviously they’d considered her nothing more than a passing fancy, and ninety percent of their conversation centered around the Wild Rose and pressuring Jamie to get over his silly fixation with going to graduate school so he could get back to the ranch where he belonged.
Jamie had been apologetic after both dinners, and had promised to take Kelly to the ranch for an extended visit, when his parents wouldn’t be on a tight schedule and they would have more time to get to know each other better. But as his relationship with them deteriorated, he didn’t want to put Kelly through what would no doubt become yet another angry confrontation, and so the visit had never happened. Eventually, Jamie stopped going home altogether. Instead of giving him reason to reconsider his desertion of the ranch, his parents’ harsh treatment and constant demands that he come home where he belonged had ended up driving Jamie further away.
And so the family had split apart, and until two and a half months ago, Kelly had no reason to believe that a reconciliation would ever happen. Even now she questioned such an outcome. Although this trip was at the behest of James Sr. and Maggie, Kelly was not expecting a warm welcome for herself. Her prayer was that she could get through the next week without incurring any new damage to the relationship, for James’ sake. It was little James they really wanted to see, and if they truly wanted to be a positive part of his life, Kelly could put up with an uncomfortable week. At least, she hoped she could.
“Here we go!” James announced happily as the plane backed away from the gate.
“Yep. Here we go,” Kelly said, wishing she were as excited about it as her happy little boy.
“What am I gonna call them?” he asked, his face screwing up as he thought about this for the first time.
“Call who?”
“My new grandma and grandpa. I can’t call them Gran and Pops. So what do I call them?”
“Oh, well, I’m not sure what Texas grandparents like to be called. I guess we’ll leave it up to them. Maybe they’ll want to just be plain Grandma and Grandpa.”
“Did you remember to ask if they have a dog?”
Shaking her head, Kelly smiled. “Sorry, sweetheart, I thought of it last night when I was on the phone, but then your grandma started talking about our ride from the airport and I completely forgot again.”
“I think they’ll have one. I read all those books we checked out of the library about ranches, and they all had dogs.”
“Well if they don’t have dogs, at least they’ll have horses. That’s almost as good, right?”
James nodded slowly. “I guess. But horses and a dog would be best. Did you remember my boots? ‘Cause I’ll need them to ride the horses.”
“I sure did.”
“And Pops gave me money to buy a real cowboy hat.”
Kelly raised her brows, as that was news to her. “Oh he did, did he? And where is that money?”
James patted his pocket. “I promised Pops to not lose it. He said I could give it to you to keep it safe, but I’m six now, and six year olds can have their own money in their pocket.”
“Okay, but don’t take it out of your pocket until we get to the ranch.”
“I won’t. I’m gonna get the best hat ever. Do you think my new grandpa will take me to a hat store?”
“If he doesn’t, I will,” Kelly promised. “We’re ready to take off sweetie. Watch out the window and see how cool it is when we leave the ground.”
As James turned to the window, Kelly leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and prayed yet again for strength and a positive experience for her son. She took his hand between both of hers and held it. How could anyone not love this boy, she thought, overwhelmed by the intensity of her own feelings for him. She vowed that if James and Maggie hurt her child in any way, she would indeed leave Texas early. And she wouldn’t look back.
Kelly held James’ hand as they debarked and headed toward the busy baggage claim area. She wished she knew who was picking them up. She knew it wasn’t going to be James Sr. or Maggie themselves—maybe Amy? Or maybe they would send one of the ranch hands. Would they have a sign?
Scanning the crowd as they waited for the baggage conveyor to start, Kelly didn’t see any signs reading “Matherson.”
“There’s our suitcases!” James announced soon after the conveyor started going around.
“Sure enough,” Kelly said, heaving the heavy cases to the ground and extending the handles.
“Let me pull one,” James begged, wrapping his hand around the handle next to Kelly’s.
“Okay, but we’re just going to go stand by that wall over there and wait for someone from the ranch to find us.”
“Excuse, me, are you Kelly Matherson?”
Kelly turned, her gaze alighting on the smiling face of a man about her age. He was a couple inches under six feet, she estimated, with short cropped dark hair and warm, golden brown eyes.
“Oh, hello. Yes, I’m Kelly. Are you our ride?”
“Indeed I am,” the man said, extending his hand to shake hers. “I’m Chad Steele, Amy’s husband. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re here. It’s truly an answer to prayer.”
Kelly tried not to show her surprise at his reference to prayer. “Thanks. We’re, um, excited to be in Texas. This is my son, James.”
Chad stooped and shook James’ hand, his smile widening. “Pleased to meet you, James. I’m your Uncle Chad.”
James’ eyes grew round. “I have an uncle?” He looked up at Kelly for confirmation.
“Looks like you do,” Kelly told him. She explained to Chad that she had no siblings, so James had no other aunts or uncles.
“I’ve always wanted an uncle,” James said happily. “My friend Bryan has six uncles and four aunts, and I’ve never had a single one. I can’t wait to tell him I have an uncle now. Can I call him tonight, Mom?”
“We’ll see,” Kelly said.
Chad squeezed James’ shoulder. “Sorry we couldn’t meet sooner, James, but I’m happy to be your first uncle. And guess what? You have an aunt too. Aunt Amy. How does that sound?”
James’ grin said it all. “It sounds great. Can I see her?”
“Sure can. She’s my wife, and we’re all going to eat lunch together out at the Wild Rose. Are you hungry?”
“I’m starving.” James happily turned the suitcase over to Chad as they headed toward the exit. “Uncle Chad, do my new grandma and grandpa have a dog?”
Kelly couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s the question of the day, I’m afraid. We have a very small yard at home and I haven’t allowed James to get a dog, but he prays for one every single night.”
“But ranches have big yards, right, Uncle Chad? So there’s lots of room for a dog. Maybe two dogs!”
Chad chuckled and tousled James’ hair. Maggie had told Kelly that Amy was three months pregnant with their first child, and Kelly decided that Chad had the makings of a pretty good dad.
“Sorry to disappoint you, James, but we don’t have any dogs that live on the ranch. But one
of our neighbors has a great dog, and he comes over pretty much every day. I’m sure he’ll let you play with Dodger all you want.”
James’ face fell at the news that there was no resident dog at the ranch, but he tried to look on the bright side. “Does the neighbor really visit every day? And does he always bring his dog along?”
“He comes a lot, maybe not every single day but close. He works with our horses. And yes, Dodger always comes along. He rides in the back of the pickup.”
“Is he tied in so he doesn’t jump out?”
“Nope, he’s just a real smart dog and knows better than to try.”
“I hope Dodger likes me. Is he a Border Collie?”
“Naw, he’s a big brown lab. Do you know what they look like?”
James nodded. “I like labs. Mom says they’re outside dogs so we can’t ever get one to put in the house.”
“Labs like to have lots of room to run around, that’s for sure,” Chad said. “Here we are, think you can climb up into this truck?”
“Cool!” James said when they stopped by a big black pickup. “Can I sit in the back seat by myself?”
“You can sit in the back, or in the front between your mom and me, whichever you want. We have a little over an hour to drive, so you can get comfortable.”
“I want to sit in the back. Man, this truck is huge.”
Chad explained that it had to be big, because it was sometimes used to pull horse trailers. That took the two of them off into a lengthy discussion about horses, and Kelly found herself relaxing. If nothing else, James’ discovery of his Uncle Chad would be something good to come of the trip.
James became enthralled with Texas as soon as they left Dallas and started driving through more sparsely populated countryside. Chad cheerfully answered all his questions, such as “what’s growing in that field” and “why aren’t there cows in all the fields like in my books” and “does my grandpa’s ranch have black cows or red cows” and “will there be any lizards in my bedroom ‘cause my teacher said she’s been to Texas and there are lizards here.”