Cowboy Sanctuary (The Dixon Ranch)

by Michelle Hughes

  “January 9, 2015.” In her defense, she’d just told me what I’d asked, but my anger was brimming over to the point that I had to hand him back to her. Going over the dates in my head, it was perfect timing. He was nine months old. I’d missed nine months of my boy’s life!

  “You know I’m not letting you take him off this land?” What the hell that meant I was going to do with her, I wasn’t sure of yet. Mothers, even horrible ones, had a right to be around their kid. I knew the court system wasn’t going to be in favor of letting a single man raise him, even in this day and age.

  “I think he’s better off with you.” The words that came out of her mouth floored me. What the hell did she mean, he’s better off with me?

  “So you’re just going to leave the kid with me if I’m the dad?” I asked. She had to want something. Money? That made sense, considering what I knew about her.

  “I’m not his mother.” Was the woman delusional? She continued, “Look, I know you think I’m Danielle, but she’s my twin sister, or she was. Her husband killed her, but the courts refused to believe he was a murderer. All I want to know is that Jeremy will be safe, and he’ll never be around Derrick again.”

  How could anyone come up with such a twisted story like that? Could she be telling the truth? “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe anything you say. Got any proof?” How could I possibly believe something like this had happened? I lived in the real world, not some fairy tale one where people did horrible things to another person. Then I remembered what had been done to me.

  “Do you have Internet out here?” She glanced around my house, and I could tell she was a city girl through and through. People tended to believe we Southern people didn’t use technology; probably believed we still used an outhouse too.

  “Well, no, ma’am. I just wait for my mail to come in on horseback.” Her eyes widened like she actually believed that lie, and I couldn’t stop from smirking. “My computer’s in the study,” I said. Rolling my eyes at her gullibility, I motioned with my hand, and she followed behind me. I’m sure her little city girl heart was shocked to see a huge indoor library filled to the brim with books. “So what am I looking up?”

  She handed Jeremy over to me, and I was startled as she sat down and took over my machine. After typing in something, she stood back up to take my son. Taking her place, I sat down to read over the obituary and followed up with the trial and how it ended. Apparently this girl wasn’t Danielle, and I owed her an apology. The story was exactly the reason I preferred living here in the country. I liked my slow country life and would take it any day over the trash that happened up North.

  “What kind of trouble are you in, miss?” Hell, I didn’t even know this girl’s name. Danielle and I hadn’t done much talking during our time together.

  “I’m Dana. Dana Waterfield. You don’t need to worry about me.” I could tell that she was scared, though. If she really believed this man Derrick had murdered her sister, then what would he do to her?

  “Does he think Jeremy is his?” If Derrick did, things were going to be a little tougher than I’d first thought. Dealing with a monster mother was one thing, but dealing with a father who possibly had crime connections was something entirely different.

  “I think he did until a few months before her death. Danielle said he was getting violent, and she wanted a divorce. He kept holding Jeremy over her, so she was going to tell him the truth. Personally, I think when she did, he killed her, but there wasn’t enough proof. I doubt he even dirtied his own hands.”

  I could see the disgust on her face as she quickly spoke through her thoughts about what had happened. She seemed sincere, but I didn’t know her well enough to be a judge of character.

  “Sounds like this guy is a real piece of work. Are you sure he killed her? Apparently the court didn’t come to that same thought.” I was having a hard time remembering Dana wasn’t her sister, and I had to wonder if twins didn’t have the same personality. She seemed like a nice girl, now that I wasn’t remembering her sister, but what the hell did I know? I’d thought her sister was nice enough too.

  “I know he mentally abused her, and he threatened to kill her if she ever left him.” Seeing tears fill Dana’s eyes, I felt sorry that she was mixed up in all this, but a part of me wondered if Danielle had lied to her too.

  “Did you hear him say those things, or did she tell you he did?” I asked. I hated to be the voice of reason here, but truth was I wouldn’t trust a thing Danielle said. I guess I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, though. That part of my life was over, and I had new one to begin. Making up for the time I’d missed in my son’s life would be the start.

  “No, not specifically. I saw how he bullied her, though. Dani was terrified of him. He monitored all her phone calls, never let her leave the house without a driver. He virtually kept her prisoner.” The rage in Dana’s eyes told me she meant what she said, and I allowed myself a moment of pity for the woman who had left me high and dry.

  “I’m sorry things worked out the way they did.” I had no idea what to say to this girl. When she started to cry, I wanted to get on my horse and ride away. I didn’t deal well with an upset woman. I don’t know what made me stand up and hug her and my son simultaneously. Jeremy obviously didn’t like the sight of his aunt crying either, because he started wailing. My boy had a huge set of lungs on him. “Why don’t you let me hold him, and you go get yourself fixed up. The bathroom is upstairs, second door on the left.”

  I watched her walk away with a small nod and held this precious little baggage in my arms. His big crocodile tears stabbed my heart, and I knew my son wasn’t allowed to cry again. Carrying him into the kitchen, I rambled through the cabinets for one of my nephew’s teething biscuits. He was about the same age as my nephew, Levi, so I figured it was safe for him to have one. The little guy grabbed it from me and went to town, nibbling on it with gusto. I chuckled at his zest for life.

  “That your boy?” Frank had graciously disappeared while me and the little lady talked, and had probably overheard everything. There wasn’t much that went on here at the ranch everyone didn’t know. We were one big family.

  “Guess so. I’ll have one of those tests done, but I think he’s got enough of the Dixon genes that it’s pretty obvious who he belongs to.” It didn’t even cross my mind to consider this boy could belong to someone else. My finger pressed against the tiny dimple in his chin, and I felt my heart swell with pride. I think I already loved him, and we’d just met.

  “That girl’s not his momma, though. Maybe she could be?” Leave it to Frank to come up with some crazy idea like that. I didn’t even know her, and even if I did, she didn’t look like the type who would enjoy living in my world. I bet her high-heeled shoes came from some fancy designer, and she’d never worn a pair of cowboy boots in her life.

  “Not really my type.” Although physically she had my body aching, I could throw that out to the wind because it had been a long time since I’d had a woman in my bed. Danielle had put me off sleeping around. Even if I were in the market, what kind of man would sleep with the sister of the mother to his child, no matter how horrible she’d been?

  “That girl is every man’s type. If I was a few years younger, I’d be putting on the moves.” Thinking of Frank that way was a memory I was going to have to scrub out of my brain with bleach.

  “Why don’t you go tend to my horses, and leave the girl to me.” Before I smacked him upside the head. Not that I would ever hit Frank, because he was twice my age and I respected him, but still. Dana didn’t deserve to be thought about that way.

  “All right, then. But you make sure to treat that girl nice. Pretty women like that are hard to find.” I knew what he meant because outside the local bar in town, where most the women were just looking for a one-night stand, there weren’t many good women left. Most of them married right out of high school.

  As Frank walked off, Dana came back looking just as beautiful, if a little puffy eyed from he
r tears.

  “I guess we need to get in touch with my lawyer to see what needs to happen next,” I said. Our lawyer had been a family friend since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My pop had gone to school with Mr. George, and I wouldn’t use anyone else.

  “Is there a hotel Jeremy and I can stay in while you take care of all the legalities?”

  She’d obviously forgotten my boy wasn’t leaving my land, but I was ready to put her straight on that. Still, I wasn’t about to kick her out of his life, because Jeremy needed a familiar face until things were fixed.

  “No need for that. I’ve got two extra rooms, and you’re welcome to one of them. We will need to get some things for him in town, though.” I could call up my mom and ask her for some baby things she had stored there for Levi, but Jeremy was going to need them anyway, so why not buy new?

  “Are you sure we’re not putting you out? I mean, I don’t know you, and you certainly don’t know me. You want a stranger staying in your house?” Dana was nervously fidgeting with her hands, and I tried to think about things from her perspective. Here she was, a woman all on her own being asked to stay in a house with a man she didn’t know from Adam.

  “Look. This is a real strange pickle we’ve got ourselves in right now, but you have my word I’m a perfect gentleman. I know I might have come on angry earlier, but I hope you can see why that was. Your sister hired me to breed her horse, then took off, owing me a huge sum of money. I had some really bad feelings toward her.” I still would if she wasn’t ten feet under. “I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and trust you, so I’m asking you to do the same for me.” I hoped she didn’t make this harder than it needed to be, but Jeremy wasn’t leaving.

  “Danielle did some things I know she wasn’t proud of, but she was in a really bad place,” Dana said. Her hands moved to her hips, and if she weren’t so adorable I’m sure the expression on her face might have seemed threatening. Since I towered over her height by almost a foot, she was about as threatening as a lamb.

  Again I was reminded that speaking ill of the dead was tactless, and I let the subject drop. “Regardless, I’m sure you understand that I want my son here, where I can protect him in case that man wants to make trouble.” If she meant well, and for some reason I wanted to believe she did, then Jeremy’s safety would be more important to her than anything else.

  “OK,” she agreed. “I don’t know how far Derrick will go once he figures out I’m not bringing him home. Hopefully he won’t think to come looking here unless Danielle told him you were the father.” The fear in her eyes was something that would’ve made any good man want to protect her.

  “I won’t let him hurt you or my son. You’re safe here.” That was a promise I meant to keep. I knew that I was going to have to involve the sheriff in this, which should have been easy, considering he was my older brother, but Travis was a stickler for doing things by the book, and I didn’t know what that meant in our situation.

  “I can take care of myself, but you’re right. We’ll be safe here until . . . ” Dana left the words hanging in the air and looked like she wanted to cry again. For some reason, I didn’t get the feeling she was an emotional person. There was something about her demeanor that said she was made of stronger stuff than that. “Will I still be able to see him once . . . well, you know?”

  I understood. She didn’t know me, and couldn’t have any inkling that I’d never keep my son away from his family. “Of course you will,” I replied. “I think us getting to know each other might help you see I’m a good man too. You did the right thing bringing Jeremy to me.” It hit me that this woman could have just run off with my son and never let me know about him. I guess I owed her a huge deal of gratitude.

  “Thank you. He’s all the family I have left, so you can understand how losing him would destroy me.” She lifted her beautiful chin proudly, and I decided my earlier thoughts were right. Dana was a very strong, proud woman. I wondered how two sisters could be so completely opposite.

  She agreed to go with me into town, and we spent the next few hours picking up the essentials Jeremy needed. I allowed her to pick out most of the things, because while I’d been around kids, I’d never had to provide for them before. My Silverado’s bed was jammed full as we made our way back to the ranch.

  I’d left a message with my brother, and he’d obviously called in the whole family because a group of cars and trucks waited for us as we pulled in. Dana held Jeremy tight against her chest as I was bombarded with a dozen questions at once. All eyes were looking from me back to my son and his aunt. The little man was not pleased, and his cries told me he didn’t like being surrounded by so many unfamiliar people. I took control.

  “Y’all head on into the living room and let us calm down my boy before we talk.” I normally didn’t order my family around, especially Mom and Pop, but my son didn’t need any more stress than what he was already dealing with. Thankfully they didn’t put me in my place and realized the situation. Jeremy was clinging to Dana like his life depended on her, and it did something to my heart.

  He’d already been through so much in his young life, and I knew Dana was his lifeline. This was a problem I didn’t know how to deal with, but something needed to be worked out. How could I convince her to stay, at least until Jeremy felt comfortable with me? Maybe she would want to? That was a worry for another time. Right now my family was inside waiting for answers. “Hopefully they’ll keep calm until we get him settled inside,” I muttered to myself.

  I pulled out the box with the playpen in it and walked with Dana inside the house. Thankfully no one started demanding answers and kept things quiet. Jeremy was staring uncertainly at his big new family, and I was proud of him for being so brave. “Pops, do you think you can put this thing together? I think my boy needs a safe place to rest while we figure out what to do here.”

  Nothing else needed to be said. We were a close-knit family that helped each other out. I was going to get a talking to from Mom, I was sure, about having a kid without being married, but that would be a private conversation. Being out here in the middle of nowhere, you tended to count on folks, and I’d been blessed with great parents.

  “Could someone bring his high chair in? I’m sure he’s hungry by now.” Dana spoke softly, apparently nervous around my people, though she had no reason to be. Outside of Travis and his attitude, they wouldn’t judge her without knowing the story.

  “I got that.” My younger brother Ranger all but ran to the truck to do her bidding. Dana’s smile had him returning one of his own, and I knew he’d be hitting on her. I don’t know why that irked me, other than the fact that I had enough to worry about without Ranger hooking up with my kid’s aunt. He had wanted Danielle, and since she and Dana looked so much alike, I was sure he’d be interested.

  My family followed him out and began hauling in all the things we’d bought. Dana fed Jeremy while they set up his new room. That’s the way things were done here. When Jeremy grew sleepy-eyed, she took him upstairs, and I sat down for the talk with my family I wasn’t looking forward to. Travis knew I’d slept with Danielle, but sleeping around wasn’t something we discussed with the folks. I could tell my mom was ready to give me one of her famous talks, but she kept quiet.

  After explaining what had happened with as little detail as possible about my sleeping around, it was clear why I thought the kid was mine. They all had a million questions, and I didn’t have enough answers to satisfy them. When Dana finally made it back downstairs, she answered what she could, filling in all the blanks.

  “You ain’t gonna like what I gotta say, but that man should be notified. Right now you could be charged with aiding and abetting, and this young lady can be charged with kidnapping. It’s really her word against Derrick’s, and until we have real proof Jeremy’s yours, he needs to be turned over to the presumed father.” Travis had his jaw set, telling me he wasn’t pleased with giving me the information, but I didn’t give a damn if he was happy or no
t. My boy wasn’t going to some damn criminal while this was dragged through court. Maybe it was because I wanted to believe the worst of that man, but I trusted Dana’s word.

  “That ain’t happening, so unless you’re gonna arrest me, come up with a better idea.” I didn’t mean to yell, but no way was I letting my kid leave this house!

  “You need to calm down and think rationally. The last thing you want to do is sit in jail while we figure this out. I said it’s what should happen. I could lose my job by what I’m about to say, so you’ll give me a little respect.” I knew Travis was only giving me the facts, and I nodded to show I was hearing him.

  “What other options do I have?” I asked. Travis’s face grew grim, and I knew this was his expression when he was deep in thought.

  “Why were you in possession of the boy?” Travis spoke to Dana, ignoring my question.

  “Derrick was charged in a separate assault case prior to the murder of my sister and had to serve out three months on that charge. The court granted me temporary custody while he served his time.” She looked embarrassed about the situation, but she wasn’t the one who should be humiliated.

  “Sounds like this guy has been in trouble with the law a few times if he served time for assault. That buys us a little time maybe. How long was custody granted for?” Travis rubbed his chin, another habit he had when trying to piece together information.

  “Until his jail time was served. Which was early this morning, but he asked me to keep Jeremy until he found a caregiver.” Dana’s eyes lit up with emotion. “So legally I’m still his guardian until he tells me otherwise!”

  “Does he have a way to get in contact with you?” Travis was making sure everything was legal, and any other time I would have respected that he was doing his job. Right now I just wanted to make sure my kid wasn’t going back to the wrong father.

  “My cell phone.” Dana seemed to relax as she thought about it, probably realizing that she hadn’t broken any laws yet.