The Cowboy's Family

by Minton, Brenda

  Wyatt Johnson was sweet and gorgeous. He wasn’t looking for long-term.

  She moved another piece of puzzle into place and got up to go to bed. Tomorrow she’d apologize.

  The crazy gelding jumped sideways and lurched. Wyatt held tight, wrapping his legs around the animal’s belly. If he’d been paying attention instead of thinking about holding Rachel last night, maybe he wouldn’t have been in this position. The horse beneath him shook his head and hunched again. Wyatt held tight, waiting. The horse settled into a jarring trot across the arena.

  He’d be glad to send this one back to his owner. If it wasn’t for the fact that he liked to tell people he’d never met a horse he couldn’t break, he’d probably send the horse back today.

  He glanced to the side, making sure the girls were still on the swing. They were. As he watched, Molly jumped up and started waving. He caught a glimpse of an old truck. Molly waved and ran.

  The horse unleashed on him, bucking across the arena. Hooves beat into the hard-packed dirt of the arena. Wyatt pushed his hat down and held tight, his teeth gritted against the jolt that set him a little back in the saddle. The horse lurched again, this time nearly getting him off the side.

  He barely made it back into the saddle when the crazy animal’s head went down and his back end went up. Wyatt felt himself leave the seat and go airborne over the horse’s head. He heard Molly scream and then he hit the ground.

  Pain shot through his back and head. He rolled over on his back and worked to take a deep breath. He bent his knees and blinked a few times to clear his brain.

  This couldn’t be happening.

  Rachel yelled his name. Good way to be calm, Rachel. He shook his head. The girls were screaming. He rolled to his belly and made it to his knees. Oh, yeah, he’d been here before, sucking in a breath that hurt like crazy.

  “I guess this is a bad time to tell you I saw a few of your cows out on the road?”

  The voice came from his left. He rolled his head that way and tried to smile. But smiling hurt, too. He was way too old for getting thrown.

  “Yeah, this might be a bad time.”

  “Want help?” Rachel reached for his arm. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his feet with her hand holding him steady.

  “Daddy?” Molly’s voice trembled. He blinked and focused on her face, just behind Rachel.

  “I’m okay, sugar bug.” He drew in a deep breath. “Wow.”

  “Should I call…” Rachel bit down on her bottom lip and shrugged a little.

  An ambulance. Good not to say it around the girls and panic them more than they were. He shook his head and regretted it because it felt like it unhinged his brain a little.

  “You can call Greg Buckley and tell him to come and get that crazy horse of his. I’m done with that animal.” He’d been fighting that crazy buckskin every time he got in the saddle.

  “You think?” She smiled and his girls followed her example. “What about those cows?”

  “Daddy, are you broke?” Molly stared up at him, eyes full of unshed tears.

  “Nah, of course not.”

  Violet headed their way, picking through the dirt and rocks with high heels that he would have laughed about if he’d been able to laugh. “Do you want me to drive you to the hospital?”

  She’d been packing her stuff, getting ready to go home. Now he had other concerns.

  The girls. He sucked in a breath that hurt like crazy. And crazy wasn’t the word he really wanted to say. A lot of other words came to mind. He leaned on the fence, draping his arms over the top rail. The girls.

  He shifted to look at Rachel.

  “Could you stay with the girls?”

  “Of course I can. Or I can drive you.”

  “No, Violet can take me.” What he didn’t need or want to do was lean on Rachel. Literally. He didn’t want to be in pain in front of her. It didn’t do a guy’s ego any good to have to lean on a woman to make it to the car.

  “Daddy?” Molly stared up at him, brown eyes wide.

  “I’m fine, Mol. You stay with Rachel and I’ll be home later.”

  “Do you need help?” Rachel had stayed next to him, smelling soft and sweet. And she was asking if he needed help.

  Even if it killed him, he wasn’t going to lean on anyone.

  “I’m fine.” He touched Molly’s cheek and she smiled. “Be good.”

  She nodded and grabbed Kat’s hand. “We will.”

  He never had a doubt. But would she be afraid?

  “Okay, let’s go.” One last deep breath, and then he headed for Violet’s car with steady steps that said he would be fine.

  Violet walked next to him. “You’re such a tough guy.”

  “Yeah, well, we wouldn’t want the girls to see me cry.” He gritted the words out from clenched teeth.

  “Are you really going to cry?” Violet teased as she opened the passenger-side door.

  He waved at Rachel and the girls. “Not on your life, Violet.”

  “You cowboys think you’re so tough.”

  Yeah, that’s exactly what he thought.

  Violet slid behind the wheel of the Cadillac and turned the key. As she shifted into reverse, she glanced his way. “How badly are you hurt? No lies this time.”

  “I haven’t lied yet.” He leaned back into the soft leather seat. He wished his truck felt this good. “Maybe ribs, maybe my back.”

  “How are you going to take care of the girls when I leave? You’ve vetoed every applicant I’ve interviewed. What do we do now?”

  “I can take care of my girls, Violet.”

  “I know you can, but this changes things.”

  “You have me in the ICU and I haven’t even made it to the E.R.”

  “I’m thinking of all the possibilities.”

  “Well, I’m not. I’m fine and I’ll be home by dinner. I have a birthday party to plan. Molly will be four next week.”

  “I know. I had planned on going home to get a few things done and coming back before then.”

  “And you can still do that.” He closed his eyes and counted to twenty.

  As he counted he heard her phone dialing. He opened his eyes and waited.

  “Rachel, this is Violet. Oh, no, honey, we haven’t made it to Grove. No, but I need a favor. I’m taking John Wayne to the E.R., but he’s probably going to need help when I leave. I haven’t hired anyone because he’s picky. I know you have a lot going on, but if you could take the job temporarily.” Short pause and he wanted to jerk the phone out of Violet’s hand. “Just for a month or until we can find someone.”

  “Violet.” He whispered what she should have seen as a warning. She smiled at him and kept talking.

  “That’s great, honey. I’ll write you a check when we get back. Or when I get back. Right, just keep the house clean, cook some meals and make sure the girls have clothes that match.”

  “I can dress my kids.” He pushed the button to recline the bucket seat. “Women.”

  Because of a woman he’d taken his ring off last night. It was all connected: the kiss, her words and removing his wedding ring. He just didn’t want to draw the lines, not at the moment.

  Maybe it was just about letting Wendy go. Maybe it was about Rachel. Right now he needed a shot of something and a lot less thinking going on in his scrambled brain.

  Chapter Twelve

  “What do we do with that horse?” Rachel looked down at the girls. The two of them shrugged. Of course they didn’t know. They were two and four. Or almost four.

  Molly was about to have a birthday. Rachel worried her bottom lip thinking about that special occasion and the possibility that Wyatt would stay in the hospital. Okay, horse first, cows in the road second. Or maybe the cows should be first.

  She pulled the phone from her pocket and called Ryder.

  “Ryder.” He answered with his name and he sounded stressed and frazzled.

  “Ryder, it’s Rachel. Listen, Wyatt got thrown and Violet is taking him to t
he E.R.”

  “Oh, that’s just what I need.”

  Okay, not the response she expected. “Ryder, you guys have cows out, just a few hundred feet down from your drive. And I have this horse here, the one that dumped him, and…”

  “Rachel, I’m sorry, I can’t. Andie’s having contractions. I’m flying her to Tulsa.”

  In the background she heard Andie yell that she wasn’t getting in a plane with him. Rachel smiled and waited for the two to argue it out and remember that she was on the phone.

  “Rachel, I’ll call Jason and see if he can put those cows in. Can you handle the horse?”

  “I don’t know. I can try.”

  She looked at the horse in the arena. The buckskin stood at the far corner. He needed the saddle and bridle removed and he needed to be put in the field. Or maybe a stall. She wondered which one.

  “If you can’t get him, call Jason or Adam.”

  “Okay. Is there anything I can do for you and Andie?”

  “Pray.”

  The conversation ended and she was on her own. Rachel looked at Molly and Kat. No help there. They both looked pretty nervous. Molly’s dark eyes overflowed with tears.

  “I want my daddy.”

  “I know, honey.” Rachel squatted in front of the girls. “I know you’re worried about your daddy. He’s fine. Remember when he left, he was talking. He even walked to the car. He’s fine.”

  “He’ll come home.” Molly sobbed and rubbed her eyes.

  “Of course he will.” This wasn’t normal fear. Rachel hugged the girls close. “He’ll be fine. And while he’s gone, we’ll be fine. We’ll get that silly horse taken care of and if we need to, we’ll put the cows in. We can do that, can’t we?”

  Keep them busy. That’s all she knew to do.

  But it meant walking into the arena with a horse she didn’t trust. She straightened, trying to look taller, and gave the horse a look. As if that would do any good. A hand tugged on hers.

  “You aren’t gonna ride him.” Molly wide-eyed and maybe a little impressed.

  “No, honey, I’m not. I’m going to unsaddle him and—” she bit down on her bottom lip, “—I’m going to put him in a stall.”

  Molly grabbed her hand and with her other hand she grabbed hold of Kat. “We’ll go with you.”

  “I appreciate that, Molly, but I think I should go in alone.”

  It sounded like a movie, as if they were going into a house with monsters, or some horrible villain. It was a horse, a tan horse with a black mane and tail. Just a small little horse. Well, maybe not so small.

  “You girls wait out here.” She handed Molly her phone. She didn’t say to call 9-1-1 if something happened. Instead she smiled as if she was brave and not shaking in her shoes.

  She whistled, kind of. The horse shot her a disinterested look. Okay, she was used to that look. He must be a man. She smiled at her joke and kept walking. The horse didn’t move.

  “Buddy, it would help me out if you’d play nice.”

  The horse reached his nose under the bottom rail of the fence and nibbled at a few blades of grass. Rachel walked up to him, talking softly, saying a few prayers under her breath. Did horses smell fear? She really hoped not.

  She reached for the reins that had been dragging on the ground. The horse snorted and raised his head. He jerked away from her but she held tight.

  “Listen, horse, I’m not a cowgirl like Jenna and Andie, but I do know how to hold on tight. I am not going to let you win.”

  The buckskin edged close and snorted, blowing grass and grain all over the front of her shirt. “Oh, that’s real nice.”

  She held both reins and led the horse back to the barn. He plodded along behind her as if he was Kat’s little pony. She rubbed his neck as they walked.

  “So now you’re going to be nice?”

  For a brief moment she relaxed but then she remembered how it felt when she watched Wyatt go flying from the horse’s back. She didn’t want to remember how it felt to watch him hit the ground and stay there, motionless.

  From across the arena she heard her phone ring. She glanced back. Molly held it up.

  “Go ahead and answer it. Tell them I’ll call back.” She didn’t want to yell, to startle the horse.

  She had decided the best course of action was to unsaddle him, take off his bridle and leave him in the arena. She could get him a bucket of water and hay.

  First, the saddle. She wrapped the reins in a hook on the wall of the barn and the horse stood perfectly still. She pulled the girth strap loose and eased off the saddle. He moved away from her and she thought about how easy it would be for him to turn and kick.

  Instead of thinking about that, about possibilities, she unbuckled the strap on the bridle and pulled it over his ears and off his head. The horse stood for a moment, a little unsure. Finally he backed away from her and turned to trot to the other side of the arena.

  She had done it. Now to take care of the girls. She turned as a truck pulled up the drive. Jason Bradshaw. He hopped out of the truck and headed her way, his big smile making things feel better.

  “You got him unsaddled.” Jason opened the gate for her. “I’ll put him in a stall and feed him for you.”

  “What about the cows in the road?”

  Jason picked up Kat and tickled her until she laughed. “I put them back in and fixed a loose section of fence. Have you heard anything yet?”

  “Not yet. I don’t think they’ve had time.” She glanced at the girls because she didn’t want to have this conversation in front of them.

  Jason sat Kat on the back of Rachel’s truck. He motioned for her to walk with him. Rachel followed. The cowboy, his red hair cut short, had a smile that made everyone feel better.

  “Rachel, do you know about the girls?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Jason rubbed his jaw. He glanced from her to her truck where the girls were waiting. “This should be up to Wyatt, but there’s something you should know. In case Wyatt doesn’t get home tonight, you need to understand that Molly gets pretty upset when he isn’t here.”

  “I’m not sure if you should tell me something that Wyatt hasn’t told me.”

  “He’d want you to know. For the sake of his girls. Molly and Kat were with Wendy. They were alone until he got home that afternoon and found them.”

  And she got it in a way that ached so deep inside her she didn’t know if she could draw in a breath. She thought about those two little girls alone with their mother. But Wendy wouldn’t have been with them. She took the pills and left them alone.

  Rachel turned away from Jason because it was too much to know this secret about the wife that Wyatt had loved. Still loved.

  But he’d taken off his wedding ring. She’d noticed it as she’d helped him up. She wondered if it had been about the kiss or what she’d said. Or had it been something he’d been working up to and he finally realized it was time?

  “I should take them inside and fix their dinner.”

  Jason walked with her back to the truck. “He doesn’t tell people because it’s Wendy’s memory. He doesn’t want that to be what people think about when they remember her.”

  “I understand.”

  Jason lifted Molly and Kat out of the back of the truck. He gave them each a hug as he set them on the ground. “You girls help Miss Rachel. She’s going to stay with you until your daddy gets home.”

  “Will he come home tonight?” Molly held on to his hand.

  “I’m not sure, Molly. He might come home tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. Either way, he’ll be fine and so will you. Rachel is going to stay with you.”

  She was staying. She smiled at the girls. They looked at her, both wide-eyed and full of trust. Of course she was staying.

  It was after midnight when Wyatt walked through the front door of his house. He had eased up the front steps because two steps were easier than five or six when a guy had a few cracked ribs and a couple of pulled muscles. Oh, y
eah, and a concussion.

  He didn’t remember, but the horse must have landed a good kick in his side as he went down.

  Violet walked behind him. Poor Violet, he guessed she really wanted to go home after a week of the drama in Dawson. He smiled because she hadn’t said too much. She’d actually been pretty terrific, fighting with the doctor when they wanted to keep him overnight.

  No way could he leave his girls overnight. He knew the look of terror in Molly’s eyes when she thought he wasn’t coming home. He remembered eighteen months ago walking through the front door and finding her in the playpen with Kat. The two had been red-faced, eyes swollen from crying and nearly breathless from sobbing. That memory would never leave him.

  “Wyatt, you have to let your mind rest.” Violet touched his arm. “I know that look on your face. I know what you’re thinking. The girls are fine. I’ve never seen them better.”

  “I know.” He took careful steps into the living room. He’d sleep on the couch tonight instead of climbing the stairs.

  But the living room was occupied. He stopped in the doorway. Molly and Kat slept on the couch. Rachel slept curled up in the chair near the couch. A fire, only embers, glowed in the fireplace. It felt good and smelled good. The temperature outside had dropped after a late-evening storm rolled through. The fire was pretty inviting.

  Yeah, right, the fire.

  “This is sweet.” Violet touched his shoulder. “Now where are you going to crash?”

  “The sofa in my office.” He didn’t move, though. Either because it hurt too bad or, he looked at the girls and at Rachel Waters, it hurt too bad. He smiled at Violet. “What about you?”

  “I’ll stay up with you.”

  “You should get some sleep.” He nodded toward the stairs. “Go, Violet, I’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll stay up with him.” A sleepy voice from the living room interrupted their conversation. Rachel stretched and sat up. “I’ve been sleeping for a few hours. You go to bed, Violet.”

  He really didn’t need a babysitter. He considered arguing, but he didn’t have the strength and he knew he’d never win against two women. Rachel was already on her feet, a blanket around her shoulders.