“I don’t think he’d leave the ranch, Cade. I’m not just sayin’ that to make you feel better either. I really believe he loves it here too much to run away,” she said.
“I hope you’re right.” He stopped the four-wheeler, tipped his hat back, and yelled, “Benjy, can you hear me?”
The howl of a lone coyote off in the distance was his only answer. He checked the time. Ten more minutes until he had to call again and he dreaded hearing the sadness in Skip’s voice.
He was about to start the engine when he heard a slight whimper, or maybe he only imagined it. He removed his cowboy hat and strained his ear. No, there it was again but he couldn’t tell where it came from or if it was human. It could be nothing more than a baby coyote that had gotten lost from his mother.
“Benjy,” he called out again.
This time the whine was a little louder and it came from his left. He turned his head that way and yelled again. “Benjamin!”
Beau came bounding out of the underbrush, jumped up on his knee, and wagged his tail. Then he dropped down on all fours, ran back toward the way he’d come and stopped to look over his shoulder.
“He wants us to follow him,” Retta said.
Cade started up the engine again and drove slowly in that direction, but before they got to the old cabin, they could hear kids laughing and talking. He parked behind a big scrub oak tree and pointed.
“Would you look at that?”
“Looks like they found him first.” She sighed. “I’m just happy he’s okay.”
He flipped around, drew her to him, and kissed her hard.
“What’s that for?” she asked when the kiss ended.
“For going with me and keeping me from losing my mind,” he said.
“You did the same for me, Cade. I’d have gone crazy back at that house,” she said.
“So are you going to give me a thank-you kiss?” he asked.
Her arms snaked up around his neck and then her lips were on his in a long, lingering kiss that left him breathless.
“Thank you,” she said.
They left the four-wheeler and walked the rest of the way. Benjy was surrounded by the kids, and Little Bit was tied to the porch post with a piece of rope.
“Mornin’, Cade.” Benjy grinned. “Guess what? I tracked Little Bit to right here with my flashlight. I found him and then I got some rope from the cabin and tied him up. I knew you’d come find us. Donkeys are not idiots, but they don’t have a big brain. Is breakfast ready? We don’t go to the funeral today, do we?” Benjy asked.
“Not today but Mavis and Skip have been worried about you. Think you could ride in the truck with Justin and hold on to Little Bit so he don’t jump out the back?”
“I’ll help him,” Kirk said. “It might take two of us.”
“Or three,” Faith said.
“How are you getting back?” Benjy asked.
“Retta and I’ll go the way we came, on the four-wheeler,” Cade said.
Benjy nodded. “A four-wheeler is really called an ATV, which means ‘all terrain vehicle.’ They used to make three-wheelers but they rolled over easier than one with four wheels.”
“That’s right.” Cade smiled.
“I went to the barn to sketch Little Bit and I left my drawing things there,” Benjy said.
“We’ll get them when we get the donkey back in the barn,” Levi said.
“You can sketch what you want,” Cade said. “But how about we make you a picture album of our time together and all the kids? Then you can take it with you to look at whenever you want. And I’ll do everything I can do to see to it you visit us for a little while every year on the ranch.”
Benjy nodded and looked Kirk in the eye. “I will need a picture of you to put in my book.”
“And I want one of you. You ain’t so weird after all,” Kirk said.
“A picture book will help you to remember and be smarter,” Benjy told Kirk.
Kirk shot a look toward Benjy, but he didn’t comment.
Cade’s hand brushed against Retta’s on the way back to the four-wheeler and she quickly tucked hers into it. He hated to let go but at least she’d have her arms around him when she got on behind him.
Chapter Sixteen
The kids all gathered around Benjy when Skip and Mavis came from the house to meet the truck. Cade parked the four-wheeler a few feet from the yard gate, and he and Retta both hung back, just staring at him. Cade finally turned around and brought both her hands to his lips where he kissed the palms.
“I worry about him so much in a foster home. They might not understand that he’s a borderline genius but so socially limited,” she said. “Mavis said that she and Skip are going to talk to the social worker about fostering him, but their age might throw a wrench in the works.”
“I still belive in miracles.” He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and then snapped several pictures of the kids with his phone. “These can be the pictures that help them remember the day they all pulled together to find him.”
“It was so cute when he wanted everyone, even Kirk, to have one, too. That boy’s got a big heart,” she answered.
“Okay, kids, let’s go put the food on the table,” Mavis called out.
“Coffee still hot?” Cade asked.
“Pot is full and ready,” Retta answered.
His eyes met hers and held for several seconds. “Thanks for everything.”
“No thanks necessary. I love that kid,” she said.
“You are going to be a fantastic mother someday,” he said.
“Thank you for that. I had some fine role models so I hope so.”
He wanted to really kiss her but there were too many people watching for that.
“That was definitely flirting.” Justin followed him into the house.
“You’re just cranky because you’re hungry,” Cade said. “We have had a good day. We found Benjy and he’s not hurt. We’ll discuss whatever is between me and Retta another day.”
“So you admit something is there?”
“Hey, I fell head over heels in love with Macy Simmons in the third grade, but I got over it. I’m not in love with Retta but if I was, I could get over her just like I did Macy when she moved away and Julie when she walked out on me,” he said.
“I don’t like you much when you are in the ‘gettin’ over it’ stage,” Justin said.
“Well, I don’t like you much when you meddle in my business or when you are cranky because you are hungry.”
“The new word is hangry.”
“And you’ve got a double dose of it.” Cade headed toward the dining room, where the kids were already gathered around the table.
After grace, Kirk leaned around Skip and asked, “Wasn’t you afraid of the dark, Benjy?”
“No. Dark don’t hurt a person. It’s just the absence of light. Only what is in the dark will hurt somebody and the ranch don’t have them kinds of people on it,” he answered.
“Well, I don’t like the dark,” Kirk said. “If I go out in it, you should go with me since you aren’t afraid of it.”
“I’ll do that and we’ll learn things,” Benjy said.
“Listen up everyone,” Skip said. “From now on you have to clear it with me or Retta before you leave the bunkhouse and the new rule is that you must always take someone with you.”
Kirk raised his hand. “I call Benjy.”
The pancake platter emptied quickly, so Retta carried it back to the kitchen to make more. Cade followed her with the excuse that he needed to refill the milk pitchers. She looked downright cute with her hair up in a ponytail, shirttail untucked, and those tight fittin’ jeans. Would she ever figure out that she was a ranch woman or would she find a high-powered executive to share her life with?
The idea of another man holding her in his arms and kissing her shot a blast of jealousy through him. He moved closer to her. “Can I help?”
“Sure you can.” She nodded. “You can get that milk back to the
table and come back to take back what pancakes are finished cookin’ in to them. I’ll finish up and bring in the rest.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Cade dropped a kiss on her forehead.
Benjy was telling the other kids about the picture books they were going to make when Cade set the milk on the table. “And we all get a picture book to take home with us when we leave so we can remember all the good times we had here. But I won’t be goin’ home because my granny is dead.”
“Really?” Alice passed the plate on to Gabby. “But where will we get the pictures?”
“Cade and I will take them with our phones,” Retta answered from the kitchen.
“A couple of times a week, maybe starting Friday,” Cade said. “We’ll get out the craft supplies and each of you can make a scrapbook. You can put pictures or write in it whatever you want.”
“All of us together?” Benjy asked.
“Yes,” Cade answered quickly. “All eight of you right here at this table. I’ll be taking pictures all week and I’ll have a bunch printed and ready for you to put into your books on Friday evening after supper.”
Retta carried in a platter full of pancakes and set them on the table.
“I thought I was supposed to bring those,” Cade said.
She sat down beside him. “Got them done faster than I thought.”
Cade hurried to the kitchen and returned with another platter stacked high.
“I can help take the pictures.” Levi took the platter from him, piled three onto his plate, and handed them off to Benjy, who did the same thing and gave them to Justin.
“Me too,” Justin said.
“Will Kirk say I’m weird if my book isn’t like his?” Benjy kept his eyes on his plate.
“No, I won’t. We’ll all make our books like we want to. You ain’t weird, Benjy. You’re just too smart for the rest of us,” Kirk answered.
“Amazin’ progress this mornin’, wouldn’t you say?” Cade laid a hand on Retta’s knee under the table and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You were wise to say that we needed to let the kids go help hunt for him.”
She covered his hand with hers. “It turned out better than I would have ever figured possible.”
It didn’t take long for the kids to start bickering again that afternoon when they headed out to the corral to practice their roping skills. Retta followed behind them and listened to Kirk brag about how he could outdo any of them and Faith telling him that he better be ready to back up all that big talk with some action.
“Is this keepin’ it normal?” she muttered.
“That’s what’s best for Benjy right now,” Cade said and then jogged on ahead to get the ropes out of the barn.
“Kid really needs a mama and a daddy a lot younger than me and Mavis. Why don’t you and Cade adopt him?” Skip asked as he walked up behind her.
Retta stammered and stuttered and finally got out part of a coherent sentence. “Because we are not…and because I’m leaving…and because…”
Skip’s laughter rang out over the pasture. “Didn’t know anything would rile you that much. You got a thing for Cade, don’t you?”
“I don’t really know what I’ve got for Cade,” she told him.
“Well, you got to figure that out before you can go forward.”
“But I think it’s amazing that you and Mavis are thinking of taking Benjy. He’d be happy with y’all.”
Skip nodded. “I hope that they let us have him. We took in Levi and raised him from a baby. I figure we got enough years in us that would be good enough to raise another kid, but don’t say nothing to the kids until we’re sure. I’d hate to get Benjy’s hopes up and then shatter them,” he said.
“My lips are sealed.” She grinned.
Levi pulled his truck into the barn with a load of feed in the back at the same time Retta and Skip arrived at the corral.
“Hey, if you’ll come out here and show them some of your fancy work, I’ll unload the feed,” Cade called out.
“You got a deal.” Levi hopped out of the vehicle and then jogged over to the corral fence.
“Retta, you can go help Cade while me and Levi work with the ropin’ business,” Skip said.
Cade hefted a bag up on each shoulder and carried them into the barn with only a nod toward Retta when she followed him into the barn and rolled a wheelbarrow out to the truck, dragged three bags out onto it, and pushed it into the area of the barn where he’d put the other two. When she turned around to go for more, their paths crossed and her breath caught in her chest at that gorgeous display of strength and sheer masculinity.
When the job was done, she sat down on a hay bale and fanned herself with her straw hat. Trying to keep her eyes off him as he leaned on a support post, she said, “So I’ve been wondering—” She took a deep breath and banished the real thoughts in her head about how it would be to fall back on the hay with him and make out like a couple of teenagers. “I’ve been thinking about—” Mercy! She couldn’t tell him what was really on her mind and yet, she couldn’t remember what she was about to ask. “About how we’re goin’ to get all these kids to the funeral. It’ll take a caravan of vehicles,” she finally blurted out.
“I talked to the preacher and he’s letting us borrow the church van. He’ll deliver it this evening sometime and we’ll take it back tomorrow when we get home.”
Home!
She’d heard that word several times from the kids and Benjy throughout the day. Her home had always been the farm in southern Oklahoma. Even in the college dorm and in the apartment she’d rented after she got her first job, home was where she was raised, where her father lived, and where she went back to on holidays and summer vacation time.
Now she had no home.
“What are you thinkin’ about?” he asked.
“Home. It just now hit me that my home is gone,” she said honestly. “I’m in that limbo state between when one door has closed and another hasn’t opened yet. I can sympathize with these kids in foster care, not knowing if it’s permanent and knowing that it probably isn’t. I’ll be okay once I get a job and an apartment of my own.”
Cade wiped sweat from his forehead with a red bandanna. “I can’t imagine not having a permanent home. Longhorn Canyon has always been that for me.”
“It’s not a good feelin’.” She got up and settled her hat back on her head.
“Thanks for helpin’,” he said.
“You’re welcome. I don’t hear kids arguing anymore out there in the corral, so we’d better check on them. They may have poor old Skip roped and tied to a fence post,” she said.
He reached out a hand and tipped up her chin. “Mavis says that home is where the heart is. Find your heart, Retta, and you’ll find your home.”
He lowered his lips to hers and brushed a sweet kiss on her. It didn’t last long because four little girls dashed into the barn saying that they were finished with roping posts and now they were going to throw the football through the tire.
“Benjy is going to help me,” Alice whispered before she took off in a dead run.
“Wouldn’t you just love to have that much energy?” Cade laughed.
Oh, honey, I would have even more than that if we were in the right place, like tangled up in sheets under an air-conditioning vent. Or even in a hayloft on an old quilt with our sweaty bodies…she shook her head to clear it and pulled her phone from her hip pocket to catch a picture of her girls, hand in hand, headed out of the barn.
With hair fixed and wearing their Sunday best, the girls were ready fifteen minutes early that Tuesday morning. Retta had laid out a simple black suit—the very one that she planned to wear to her job interview—but when she saw that the girls were wearing the same little sundresses that they’d worn to church the past two Sundays, she hung it back up. Choosing a long denim skirt and a pearl snap shirt, she hoped that Cade wasn’t disappointed in her, but she couldn’t make those children feel like they weren’t dressed fancy enough.
The white
bus emblazoned with the church logo was parked in between the two bunkhouses. At the right time, they all marched outside and Levi opened the doors for them.
“Don’t you ladies all look nice,” he said.
“Thank you,” all four chorused.
Retta was glad to see that all the cowboys were wearing jeans and nice shirts, but no ties or suits, when they got into the bus. Once they were all inside, Cade sat down beside Retta, leaving the seat across from them for Mavis and Skip.
Skip leaned across the aisle and said, “It was pretty quiet on my home front this morning when we got back from breakfast.”
“Mine, too,” she whispered.
“Mavis got a call as we were leavin’ the house. The social worker says we got a good chance,” Skip said.
“I really don’t like funerals,” Cade whispered.
“Me, either, and—” She paused.
“Been too soon since your dad died, right?”
She nodded. “I thought I was ready for him to go and I wouldn’t wish him back in that kind of pain, but I had no idea how long this whole grieving process would take. I grabbed my phone last night to call him and tell him all about our day with Benjy.”
“They say you have to go through the five steps of grieving,” he said.
“And every one of them is tough,” she said. “Are we going to a church?”
“No, just a graveside service. The sister who was the executor of her will is frail and isn’t able for much more than that. I hope that it brings closure to Benjy. He’s so different that I don’t know what to expect.”
He’s a good man, came her father’s voice.
She looked out the side window at a couple of miles of mesquite bushes, Angus cattle, and cow tongue cacti. She felt a movement and turned to find that Cade had leaned his head back, pulled his hat down over his chest, and crossed his arms over his broad chest.
Half an hour later, Levi pulled the bus through the open gates into the cemetery. An arched sign above the entry announced that it was the Slidell Cemetery. It was smaller than the Waurika Cemetery, where she’d laid her dad to rest, and had fewer trees. Retta spotted only a few offering shade in the hot morning sun. A barrel at the side of the gate held lantana plants and a sweet potato vine that crept down the sides.
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