He’d thought about going after her. He’d wanted to know why the money had been more important than their relationship. Wounded pride had kept him from going, kept him from asking. And in all of the years in between, when he’d known she was home visiting, he hadn’t approached her. He’d never bothered to ask Iva. Iva had never volunteered anything, other than to say the two of them should talk.
The years had hardened his heart. His pride had gotten in the way, convincing him he didn’t need her. His faith, the faith his mother had raised him to trust in, had crumbled until he’d become one of those people who did little more than say they believed in God.
The ranch had become everything. It was his life. He ate, slept and breathed ranching.
Until this month when a little boy had crashed into his life and Ruby had showed back up. But where did he go from here? He put the lid back on the box and placed the ring back in the safe where it had been for twelve years.
Chapter Twelve
The weather had turned cool. The third week in October should have still been warm. Instead, a cool front had settled over the area. He’d gone from T-shirts to long-sleeve flannel shirts. As he walked into the league building on Tuesday he couldn’t avoid Ingrid and her cinnamon rolls. She practically ran him down, holding the plate out with one hand and pushing her glasses up with the other.
“I made these last night,” she said it with a big smile splitting her face. He had to admit, they did smell pretty good.
“Don’t mind if I do.” He grabbed one off the plate. “It won’t be long, Ingrid, and some man is going to snatch you up, and you won’t have time to bake for the rest of us.”
“Thanks, Carson. I keep hoping. I joined a singles group at a church I’ve been going to.”
“That sounds like the best place for you to meet someone. Don’t you still go to Little Horn Community?”
She laughed at that. “Carson, you need to go to church. I haven’t been there in ages.”
“You’re right, I do need to go. And thanks for breakfast. I’m going to pour myself a cup of coffee and eat this roll before the rest of the members get here.”
She nodded, indicating past his right shoulder. “Ben is already here. So is Byron. They have a letter from Iva Donovan.”
“Resigning?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so. Is it because everyone is being so hard on Derek?”
“No, she’s just not able. Her health isn’t good.”
Ingrid pulled a frown that was genuine and sympathetic. “I’m real sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine this place without Iva here. But I bet you’re real happy to have Ruby back in town.”
He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say, and figured he probably looked like a fish gasping for air. Or whatever a fish gasped for. “Well, I know Iva is glad she’s back in town.”
“Of course she is.” With that, Ingrid headed back to her desk, not really hiding her soft laughter.
Thirty minutes later the meeting came to order and within minutes the whole mess of them was arguing, coming up with suspects and generally causing chaos. Carson sat down in his chair and looked at them. Grown men and women fighting like kids on a playground.
“Could I call this meeting to order?” he said with the enthusiasm of a man about to get a root canal. “Or could I just go and let the whole bunch of you fight it out?”
Ben, leaning back in the chair next to Carson’s, laughed at that. He ran a hand through his hair and grinned as he looked at the others gathered around the table. “Well, I guess you could pick up that gavel and knock a few heads. Maybe that would get their attention.”
Carson slammed the gavel on the table and sudden silence fell on the room. Ben crossed his arms over his chest and chuckled. The others looked at him.
“I would really like to call this meeting to order. Maybe the rest of you have all day. I have work to do,” he said. And a kid at home.
Brandon would be at the house by now. He was safe with the housekeeper, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t want Carson home to hang out with. Carson had realized that with a five-year-old in the house, he spent a little less time working these days.
“I guess we have Iva’s resignation from the board?” Byron McKay asked.
Ingrid handed him the letter. Byron looked it over, shook his head and shoved it back in the envelope. “I hate to see that.”
“We all do. We’ll have to fill her position when we have our monthly session of all members of the league.” Carson looked over his notes. “Lucy was going to be here, but she’s at the Garveys’, looking at tire tracks to see if they match others that we’ve found.”
Lynette Fields looked up from her cell phone. “The Garveys lost a dozen head. And then there was the Jensens’ and that truck you saw out here. They didn’t lose cattle, but someone took equipment from a garage.”
“Lucy has an itemized list at the police station,” Ben offered, leaning forward and putting all four legs of his chair back on the floor. “Does anyone have any idea who that truck and trailer might belong to?”
Byron smirked at that. “Well, if we did, Ben, I guess we’d have this little crime spree brought to an end, wouldn’t we?”
“Byron, one of these days someone is going to—”
Carson banged his gavel and gave Ben a look. “What else did Lucy have to say?”
Ben shrugged, but there was an odd glint in his eyes. “I can’t rightly remember. I think she said something like, ‘Ben Stillwater, get out of my office before I arrest you for being so stinking charming.’”
A few snickers followed his statement. Carson knew if he didn’t get the meeting back on track it would derail, and they wouldn’t accomplish anything. He had a lot to accomplish.
“I’d like to make a suggestion.” He cleared his throat to get the attention of the members present. “We have two scholarships a year and a few job placements. I’m going to offer Derek Donovan an apprenticeship. He’s good with horses, and I’d like to see him work with my show horses.”
“That’s your problem,” Byron McKay grumbled from the other end of the table. “Hire him or don’t. It’s your livestock that will come up missing.”
“Byron, you can’t keep pointing fingers at people who aren’t suspects.”
“I guess you haven’t seen that necklace the Meadows girl is wearing. How’d he buy that?”
“I guess he saved up the money,” Carson said. He pushed two fingers against his pounding temples and shook his head. “I’ve had enough of this. Iva isn’t the only one ready to resign.”
“Maybe you’re just looking for a way out so you can take that government job.” Byron, once again.
Carson shot him a look. “Let’s get back to business. I’d like to nominate Derek as a candidate for a scholarship.”
“On what grounds?” Lynette asked.
“On the grounds that he’s working hard to improve his life. He shows a real aptitude and he could use a hand.”
Byron came out of his chair. “We’re not a charity organization. Leave that to Miss Klondike and let the rest of us get back to ranching.”
Amelia Klondike turned a few shades of pink and brushed a hand through her blond hair, but she didn’t cow down to Byron’s thundering words. Instead, she met him head on. “Byron, I’m not sure why you think helping a man better himself is charity.”
“Because I think we’re feeding Derek Donovan twice. He’s stealing our cattle, and now we’re going to give him a job.”
“I think we should all think about this,” Lynette offered. The voice of reason. “Derek made a mistake a couple of years ago and he’s paid for that mistake. Now we have the opportunity to help him become a man who can support himself, and I think we should meet again next week to vote.”
Byron stood, all bluster and self-importance. “I vote no.”
“Of course you do,” Ben said to the older man’s back as he went out the door.
The members who remained finished the meeting. As they were wrapping up thing
s, Carson’s phone rang. He excused himself to answer and walked out of the office. He kept walking to the front door and then outside, pulling on his hat as he went.
“Jenna. So you haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.” He wanted to have compassion, but it got tangled up with temper because he thought of her little boy asking him if his mom was coming back.
“No, I haven’t. I want to come home.” Her voice sounded shaky.
Carson headed down the sidewalk, the phone to his ear. “I don’t see anyone stopping you.”
“Is Brandon okay?”
Deep breath. Carson inhaled and shoved his hat down, trying hard to remember this was his sister. “Yeah, thanks for asking.”
And then she started to cry. Of course she did. He was trying hard to hang on to being mad, because anger would keep him from falling for lies. When she started to cry, it chipped away at that anger.
“I love him,” she sobbed.
“I know you do.”
She sniffled. “I’m not good at doing this alone. Since Jeff left me, it’s been hard to focus.”
Okay, that helped him get back on track. “Jenna, you have to focus. You have a son and he needs you. He needs you here with him. He needs a mom.”
“I know that better than anyone, Carson.”
The need for a mom. He let out a sigh. “Jenna, life isn’t fair. I’m sorry that you felt alone.”
“We’re pretty dysfunctional, aren’t we?” she said.
“Don’t include me in your drama.” He paced, trying to avoid people walking down the sidewalk shooting him curious looks, trying to overhear.
“You’re not perfect.”
“No, I’m not. But this isn’t about me. Brandon needs for you to come home and stay home. No more walking away. Come home and we’ll get help here. Whatever you need.” He shifted the phone to the other hand, the other ear. His gaze got caught on a car pulling up to the post office.
He watched as Ruby got out, all cowgirl in faded jeans, a T-shirt and a white hat.
“Carson, I do want to come home. But I need a job and a way to take care of Brandon.”
“That’s something we’ll talk about.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Carson, he’s my son.”
“The boy that you randomly leave with me and with Amy? Who else do you leave him with?”
“I don’t leave him with strangers if that’s what you mean.”
“You’re a twenty-seven-year-old woman who has a child. You’ve been married twice. You haven’t held down a job or kept a place to live in, not since you left home and left college.”
“Okay...” Her voice drifted off. He didn’t want her defeated. He wanted her to accept her mistakes and grow up.
He told her that. “Jenna, for your son, you have to make better choices. Come home. You can live in the house on the twenty across the road. But you can’t have Brandon. I’m going to get guardianship and you’re going to allow that.”
“For good?”
“No, just until you prove to me you can hold it together and be a mom.” He glanced both ways and headed across the street. “I have to go.”
“So I can come home?”
“Of course you can come home. Jenna, we want you here.”
“I want to come home.”
“Brandon will be glad. I’ll be glad when you’re here. We’ll figure this out.”
The call ended. He slipped the phone in his pocket and headed for the post office. As he headed that way he realized his mistake. Ruby had been joined by Amelia Klondike, Eva Brooks and Sheriff Lucy Benson. Great.
* * *
Ruby had met up with Lucy Benson in the post office. The two had talked about life in the small town of Little Horn, and then they discussed the truck and trailer Ruby and Carson had seen on the service road at the edge of his property. And Lucy had apologized for searching the Donovan place. As the two walked outside, Amelia Klondike, coming out of the Lone Star Cowboy League headquarters, waved and headed their way. Ruby liked Amelia. She was old money and class, but she had a big heart and loved everyone.
“Hey, you all want to have pie at Maggie’s?” Amelia called out.
Lucy glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to head to the office and brief my officer coming on duty. But I’d love a rain check.”
As they talked, Eva Brooks, Ben Stillwater’s cousin, got out of her car. She waved and headed their way.
This was what Ruby loved and had missed about small towns. She had missed knowing people. She’d missed standing on the sidewalk having a heart-to-heart with people she’d known her whole life.
“Amelia, what about the electric bill for the Barlow ranch?” Lucy asked as they moved to the side for a couple walking down the sidewalk.
“It wasn’t me, or the Here to Help group, Lucy. I’d love to take credit for everything happening in this town, but I’m just one person and a great committee. We really aren’t behind all of the benevolence going on around here. Would you like me to give you a list of what we’ve done and plan to do in the next couple of weeks? Until this ends I wouldn’t mind giving you our monthly reports.”
“That would help,” Lucy said. “I’m sorry to put that much extra work on you, but if we have a list we don’t have to question. We’ll know who is getting what, and if something extra happens, we’ll know to do some research. I really dislike having to question good deeds. It makes me feel a little sick.”
Eva touched her arm. The pretty redhead was naturally warm and friendly. Ruby didn’t know her that well, but she liked her.
“Don’t worry about it. We all understand. If people don’t understand, then that’s a problem they have.”
Lucy’s gaze settled on Ruby. “Yes, but sometimes I have to question a friend. That’s a part of the job I don’t like. And speaking of my job, I have to go.”
As they were saying their goodbyes, Ben Stillwater drove past. He waved. Lucy shook her head and kept on walking. Her blond hair was pulled back and she looked all business in her uniform, a gun strapped to her hip.
Eva shook her head at the exchange. “He does whatever he can to rile her.”
“Lucy?” Ruby asked, surprised. “I don’t know that anything can rile Lucy.”
“Ben could rile a sloth.” Amelia smiled as she said it. “He enjoys it.”
“Yes, I guess he does.” Ruby would have said more but she was suddenly aware of the cowboy heading their way, tall and not the type to purposely rile.
“I think this is where I say my goodbyes,” Amelia said, a light, parting touch on Ruby’s arm. “It’s good to have you back in town, Ruby. Let’s get that pie at Maggie’s next week.”
“Thanks. That would be great.” Eva and Amelia drifted away, leaving her alone to face Carson.
“Is it something I said?” Carson asked with a heart-stopping grin when he walked up to her.
“I think just the idea of you heading across the street made them all think we had something private to discuss.”
“I guess we do.”
“Really? Because I think we’ve said a lot the last few weeks.”
He took hold of her arm and headed her up the sidewalk, away from the post office. “I asked the league board to consider giving Derek the scholarship and apprenticeship. I’m going to make a place for him at the ranch working with the horses. He has some real talent, and I’d hate for that to be wasted. He can use the scholarship to study ranch management, maybe equine science.”
“Why?”
He turned her to face him. She felt small standing next to him. “I want to help him.”
“Is that it?”
He gave her a half grin. “Is there a right answer to these questions? I think even if I’m honest I’m in trouble.”
Of their own volition her lips turned and she laughed a little. “Okay, maybe you have a point.”
“You’re looking for an argument?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I just don’t want him to be in the center
of this.”
“This?”
She gestured with a hand from herself to him. “I don’t want him to be hurt by whatever is going on between us. I learned the hard way that what I think is happening might not be happening. It could be over in the blink of an eye.”
“Yes.” His voice softened. “Sometimes we’re fooled into thinking someone feels what we feel only to find out they don’t.”
“Not here. Not now. We can’t have this discussion on the main street of Little Horn, Texas, with half the town watching.” She moved away from him, needing to compose herself, to remember who she was. Without him.
God hadn’t brought her home just to have her trip and fall into this well, unable to rescue herself.
“No, not here and not now. Dinner at my house. Next Monday. I’ll cook and we can talk.”
“About the scholarship?”
He moved a little closer. “About the scholarship, about us, about the past. If we’re going to live in the same town, we have to put this to rest. Or...”
She shook her head. “I have to go home. Iva is alone and I can’t leave her for long or she’s up trying to cook and clean.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Not unless you know someone looking for a job. I think I’m going to need help taking care of Iva. And she isn’t going to like it.”
“The only person I know looking for a job is Jenna when she gets back to town.”
At that, Ruby got a little off-kilter. “She’s coming back. She isn’t taking Brandon?”
“No, I’m keeping custody until she can prove to me that she’s able to care for him. I’ll get a power of attorney for now and she can sign something giving me guardianship.”
“That’s good. And I think I’ll have to look elsewhere for someone.” The idea of Jenna in her home with her grandmother? She shook her head, unable to accept the suggestion.
“What did she do?”
“Monday at dinner,” she responded. “Not here. Not now. But I can’t...” She had started to say she couldn’t forgive the things Jenna had said.
But she could. It had been teen drama and it was a dozen years ago. It no longer hurt her. And now, looking at Jenna’s life, at her struggles, Ruby didn’t have to be angry. Life had a way of changing people.
A Reunion for the Rancher (Lone Star Cowboy League 1) Page 13