Sam chuckled, “Ya think?”
“Yep, but first can you give me a coffee to go? I’m moving into my place today—in between keeping the peace around here.” That got him a few chuckles. Zane meant it as a joke but there was part of him that still couldn’t get used to the way things were here in Mule Hollow. He felt like he could become complacent here and for a man who’d lived his life constantly on the edge, where a moment of complacency could cost a life…he was having a hard time adjusting. Brady seemed to have done it and yet, he still seemed reliable, capable. Zane was determined to adjust to this new lifestyle. Especially after talking with Rose last night.
He’d gone home with a lot to think about. He’d let go of any remaining anger he’d felt at Rose as they’d talked. Though it was clear she might not ever get past what he’d done to her.
“Here’s yor coffee. So you need any help moving in out thar?”
“Thanks, Sam. And no. I’ll be basically camping until my things arrive out of storage. What I have with me will fit in the front seat of my truck.”
“You gonna git Rose ta decorate fer ya?” Stanley asked, as he reached for a handful of sunflowers.
Zane thanked Sam for the coffee and paid up. “I don’t know, Stanley, maybe you need to put in a good word for me. She had dinner with me last night, but I’m not sure it changed her feelings toward me.”
“Seriously?” he asked.
“’Fraid so. I think I’m going to need more intervention than even you or the Mule Hollow matchmakers can give me.”
App scrubbed his chin. “Maybe you need ta take some positive action of yer own—if you want Rose.” He looked toward the table of cowboys. “Or maybe you’d rather wait until one of these lamebrains gets smart and goes and woos her off her feet.”
One of the cowboys grinned and started to say something, but Zane shot him a warning glare that had him digging into his pancake instead.
“That’s what I thought,” App said with a smug grin.
“You fellas have a nice day,” Zane said, deciding the conversation had gone as public as he cared for it to go. As he got in his truck and pulled onto Main Street, Rose drove up and parked in front of the dress store. His adrenaline spiked seeing her and for a guy who’d just been thinking he was losing his edge, every fiber of his being went on red alert.
He watched as she got out of her car. Yes, he sat right there in the middle of the street blocking traffic, if there had been any traffic, and watched her. She saw him and instead of turning a cold shoulder she strode toward him.
“Good morning,” she said, stopping a couple of feet from his open window. She looked as far from happy as a person could look.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, skipping the pleasantries. She was about to tell him that the entire evening had been a mistake and she never wanted to see him again—which would be hard since he wouldn’t be able to give her what she wanted.
“It’s Max.”
Alarm shot through Zane. “Is he okay?”
She nodded but didn’t look convincing. “I mean he’s not lost in the woods or anything. But, well…” She looked tearful and her gaze slid away before coming back to him. “I think maybe you should go talk to him. I mean, I don’t really know what to do for him. And maybe…” She swallowed hard and Zane knew asking for his help had to be hard for her. “Maybe he needs his dad to explain all of this…you know, this.”
“Yeah, I know what this is,” Zane said, trying to give her a little help. “Did something happen?”
She nodded. “He’s really angry with me.”
“I’ll head out there right now.”
“Thanks.”
Zane watched her go into the shop. Then he headed toward her house. She had asked for his help with their son. His heart filled with hope. But he also knew that something big must have happened between her and Max. And that worried him.
He found Max in the barn tearing down lights.
“Max, what are you doing?”
“I’m getting rid of these stupid lights.”
Zane took a moment to let the angry words sink in before he moved forward and started unraveling a strand of lights from the top railing of a stall. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what? There’s nothing to talk about.”
“If that’s the case, then why are you so mad?”
From beneath lowered brows, Zane watched Max’s jaw tense before he jerked down another strand. He threw the shredded lights on the ground and glared at Zane. His thin body was rigid, his fists clenched at his sides.
“All my life she’s been a fighter. Telling me…” He smashed his fist against his side. “Telling me that as long as I kept getting up when things went wrong that that was what counted. That it created strong character. That it’s not what happens to us but how we react to it that makes us strong.”
“I think that’s good advice. And true.” And it sounded like Rose.
“Oh, yeah, well, it’s a lie! Just like half the stuff she ever told me. You, her life in the witness protection program, our life in those shelters—everything. But the biggest lie of all is that she got back up. She didn’t get back up.”
Zane had questions bounding around in his head but he kept silent. The kid needed to expel these feelings. Rose had said from the beginning that Max was taking things too well. She’d been right and he hadn’t taken it seriously enough.
“She never did,” Max said again in disgust. “She’s not brave like I thought. She’s afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Of you.”
“Of me?” Zane felt blood thundering in his head, pounding away. He knew Rose was afraid but the last thing she’d want was for Max to know it. The kid was too smart for his own good.
“Yeah, she’s afraid of messing up. She said so. And messing up means she’s afraid if she marries you and you turn out to be a jerk she’ll have messed up again.”
“She has every right to be afraid.”
Max’s face fell. “Of you?”
Zane nodded. “Yes.”
“But you’re a Ranger. You’re a deputy. She should know you’re not going to hurt her.”
“C’mon, Max. You know full well this has nothing to do with me lifting a hand to harm her. We’re talking about her heart here. And a heart isn’t always as tough as we want it to be. I have already hurt her heart.” Zane prayed for the right words to help Max because he felt helpless looking at him.
“It doesn’t bother you knowing she loves you but that she doesn’t want to be with you?” Max asked, breathing hard, his chest heaving as if he’d just finished a race.
Zane gave a derisive laugh. “It bothers me more than I can express. But, Max, I’m part of the reason she’s like this. I left her. It doesn’t matter why or that I didn’t know about you. It doesn’t matter that in my head I thought I was doing right by her. She’s not just scared. Max, she’s hurting and holding it back just as much as you’ve been doing ever since you found out she lied to you.”
Max spun toward the fence and kicked it so hard Zane feared the board or the foot would break. “Yeah, let out some of that anger. It’s okay. You’re allowed. And your mom is allowed to be angry, too. She is a remarkable woman. It’s just that everything is catching up and she’s having to adjust to it just like you are. Just like I am. This can’t happen overnight. We might want it to. But it can’t.”
Swiping his sleeve across his eyes, Max turned back to face Zane. His eyes were bright and rimmed in red. Zane wanted to yank him into his arms and hug him tight; instead, he laid a hand on his shoulder.
“You know. I didn’t sleep much last night. Spent it thinking and asking the Lord to show me the way. I looked up a verse in first Corinthians, bits and pieces of it kept ringing through my head and I wanted to read it in its entirety. Do you know the one I’m talking about?”
Max’s gaze shifted to his feet. “Corinthians,” he said, looking thoughtful. “That’s Paul, right?”
“Is that the one about love is patient and kind? I see that one written on wall hangings all the time.”
Zane smiled. “Yeah, that one. Well, that part of the verse is the most popular and it’s true in this instance very much so. If you love your mom, you will be patient and kind right now. But it’s the part of the verse toward the end that God spoke to me with. If you want to read the whole passage, it’s 1 Corinthians 13:1–7. Verse seven says that love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Beneath Zane’s hand Max’s shoulder heaved up then down as he sucked in a long, deep breath. Zane let his hand drop and waited.
With stronger eyes Max looked up at him. “Is that what you’re doing right now?”
Zane nodded. “I don’t know what will happen with your mom and me. But God knows…and I’m trusting, hoping and hanging in there, persevering with those things in my heart. But it’s the protecting part that God had jump off the page at me. I love you, son. I’ll always be here for you to protect and guide you no matter what happens between me and your mom. But right now, I’m trying to protect her heart. It needs time. I know God put this verse on my heart to help me understand.”
Max looked around the barn. Zane knew he was looking at all the lights. “I was rushing her with all of this.”
“Maybe a little. But it came from your heart and there is no fault there. It might have been just what we needed to jolt her forward. Who knows? I’d have never thought in a million years to do something like that.” He laughed. “And I loved it!”
“You did?”
“Yeah, you might have turned your ol’ dad into a romantic.”
Max laughed and rolled his eyes. “I think girls like that sappy stuff.”
“I think you’re going to make some girl very happy one of these days. But for now, how about that cactus patch out at my house you were so anxious for me to buy? What say you put your dreams back on track and come help me move in and then we get to work?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Zane gave in and pulled him in for a hug. “You’re doing great, kid.” Max hugged him back and Zane had never felt as perfectly at peace and grateful to be alive as he did in that moment.
Chapter Seventeen
On Wednesday morning Rose was dropping an order of jelly at Pete’s when Zane walked in. She smiled, feeling grateful, for whatever he’d said to Max on Monday, it had worked. Max seemed more like his old self and was now working at Zane’s each day harvesting the patch of prickly pear. She hadn’t pushed to find out what had been said, feeling at peace with the idea that maybe she didn’t need to know.
Ashby had announced on Tuesday morning that she was expecting a baby and Rose had been thrilled. As was everyone else. But despite Ashby’s wonderful news, Rose had still had to endure three days of questions about how her special dinner date had gone. It had been stressful enough trying to convince everyone that nothing had changed. Except, looking at him now, she knew that something had. She didn’t feel angry at him anymore.
But that was it. She was accepting that maybe they could live in the same town and share their son.
Looking at him as he strode into the store, she told herself that the kick to her pulse was simply because she was startled that he was a mess. There was mud caked to his boots and the bottoms of his jeans and even his shirt was damp. It was only nine o’clock!
“What happened to you?” Pete asked the question she wanted to ask.
Zane looked sheepish and Rose smiled as he hung his head momentarily.
“You know that donkey that Cort and Lilly Wells have?”
“Samantha,” Pete said. “Everyone knows that donkey.”
“And so do I now. I was on my way into town this morning and saw her. She’d gotten herself stuck in the mud in that cow pond up near the road. I had to go get Cort to help me get her out of her little situation. It was a chore and a half.”
“I’m so glad you saw her,” Rose said. “Is she okay? Lilly would really have a hard time if anything happened to her sweet Samantha.”
Zane looked amused. “She’s fine. She grinned over her shoulder at me with those big lips the whole time I was trying to push her fat little bottom out of the mud. Cort was on the other end with a rope.”
Pete hooted. “Sounds like you got the bad end of that deal. But that donkey grins at everyone. That donkey is a regular prankster.”
Rose laughed. “She’s funny, all right. Why didn’t y’all offer her some banana taffy?”
Zane looked pained. “That’s how we got her out finally. Lilly got there after a bit since she’d had to take time to get the baby up. But once she got there with her pocket full of that yellow taffy and waved it under the ol’ girl’s nose she popped right out of that mud.” He shook his head. “It was the strangest thing I’ve seen.”
“That’s Samantha. She was probably just having a little spa time,” Pete said, grinning. “Was there something you needed? Besides a bath?”
“No, nothing, Pete. I was actually looking for Rose. Would you mind if I stole her for a moment and have a word with her?”
Pete looked from Zane to Rose. “I don’t mind if she don’t.”
“Sure,” Rose said, as she took the last jar of jelly out of the crate and set it on the counter by the other ones. Zane reached for the empty crate at the same time she did and their hands touched. Her pulse quickened like quicksilver and she immediately drew back.
“I can carry that,” she said even as he carried it toward the door. “I’m capable,” she said, following him.
“I’m sure you are,” he said. “But I’m doing it anyway.” He grinned over his shoulder at her like they were best friends.
And just like that her temper at him flared—or maybe it was just being near him that made her feel so vulnerable and scared and flustered that she was mad at herself and not him.
She hurried from the feed store and opened her back door, waiting as he set the crate inside. He was a mess and she found herself envisioning him stuck in the mud with Samantha and she couldn’t help smiling.
He straightened and caught her. “Hey, stop laughing.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just, I’m sure you didn’t know keeping the peace in Mule Hollow would involve rescuing banana-taffy-loving donkeys.”
He turned a tinge of pink. “No, I didn’t. It’s a whole other world here.”
“Yes, it is,” she said, holding his gaze for a beat as they seemed to both think back in time.
“Everything better at home?” he asked, at last, filling the awkward moment.
“Yes. I don’t know what you said to Max, but he seems more like himself.”
“Good. He was just wound up. He’ll be okay. He’s been working real hard the past couple of days.”
She nodded, trying to relax, but the conversation seemed forced, stilted. She was simply too tense standing beside Zane.
“So, when are you going to come out and see the place? I’m basically camping there right now while I wait on my things to arrive from storage. But I’d like to show you the place. And talk.”
She was so tempted. She’d been praying that God would ease her mind and her heart where Zane was concerned. It hadn’t happened yet. All she felt was stomach-churning turmoil as she looked up at him. “I really can’t today. I’ve got jelly to make after work.”
He rammed his hands into his jeans and looked so much like a disappointed Max that she couldn’t take it. “Maybe tomorrow evening, though.”
He smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”
She smiled, both from the smile on his face and that he’d stolen Max’s quote.
“Are you going to the hospital in the morning?” he asked.
“Yes, the same group who went Sunday are leaving before daylight. I’m so excited for Dottie and Brady.”
“Yeah, t
hey seem pretty excited.” He stepped back but looked almost as if he didn’t want to leave. “I better get back home and cleaned up so Mule Hollow isn’t embarrassed by their law enforcement. Y’all be safe and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Rose watched him hop into his truck, then she hurried across the street to the store. Her legs were as wobbly as they’d been the day he’d first come to town. The torture just never seemed to end where the man was concerned.
“Y’all should have seen Zane and Cort!” Lilly Wells said over the wind. They were in the big pink convertible speeding down the highway, with the top down. Rose was sitting in the backseat between Molly, the reporter, and Lilly. Lacy was driving and Sheri was riding shotgun. Lacy and Sheri both had on fluorescent ball caps, but their short wispy hair was still dancing around their ears. Molly also had on a ball cap with her long ponytail sticking out the back but Rose and Lilly hadn’t thought about hats. Looking at Lilly with her dark corkscrew tendrils whipping in the wind like string cheese in a mixer, she was afraid of what her own hair was going to look like when she got to the hospital.
“He said you got her out with taffy,” Rose said.
Lacy glanced over her shoulder, her eyes wide. “Oh, did he now! Did y’all have a nice conversation about it?”
Rose blushed and looked to the side, only to be met by Molly’s inquiring gaze. The last thing she wanted was for Molly to go writing about her and Zane in her newspaper column. “I just spoke to him briefly. That’s all. Absolutely no news there,” she said to Molly.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not writing about you and Zane. Given your background, you know, hiding out and all, I just don’t think me plastering y’alls romance across the nation would be a good thing. Even if you are supposed to be out of danger now.”
Well, that at least was a blessing. Except she had said romance. “There isn’t any romance.”
“And just why not?” Lilly asked. “He was so cute yesterday. You should have seen him all big heroic man that he is back there with his shoulder pressed to Samantha’s rump. You know, poor thing is the size of a small elephant. And she kept slapping him in the face with her tail.” Lilly chuckled. “I told her it wasn’t very nice but she just grinned. Truth is, though, I didn’t tell the men this but she could have walked out of the mud anytime she wanted.”
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