Second Chance Ranch (The Circle D series)

by Harders, Audra

  Her clear laugh called all sorts of memories to mind, but Zac shook them away. He wanted the present. He wanted more. Kids laughed as she picked her way to the front of the room, handing out hugs like salted caramel treats. “Zac’s right. Watch how we do it and follow along when you feel like it.”

  Guitar music filled the room and he began to tap his foot. He’d danced with Jen back when they were in junior high school. Back then, she had to drag him out onto the floor. By the time he figured out girls loved a willing dancer, he decided this dancing stuff was all right. He glanced over at Jen as she moved to the introductory chords.

  “Listen to the beat,” she was telling the kids. “Start by clapping.”

  Zac joined in, clapping with her. Soon they began to move and the side step, half pivot, front kick just happened. The kids continued to clap while he and Jen finished one complete move.

  “See?” Zac called into the crowd. “It’s sorta like square dancing.” A little girl at the back of the room twirled around and kicked out an impressive two-step. He waved and caught her attention. “You’re a natural. Come up here and help.”

  She sashayed her way up to the front and stood at Zac’s other side. “What’s your name, young lady?”

  “Kelsey. I love dancing.”

  “All right, then. Let’s do it.” With the music blaring, the kids clapping in time, the three of them moving, soon the whole room stepped in time to the tune.

  Jen laughed beside him, the sweetest, happiest sound he’d ever heard. “Zac, this is great! They’re loving it. You’re wonderful.”

  Warmth spread through him like hot clover honey. Pretty sad situation when such a simple line dance could make him feel ten feet tall. “Ready for a couple more steps?”

  The kids cheered. Step-step, hop, kick, turn. Jen danced beside him in fluid motion. Busy watching her move in perfect rhythm, he forgot to turn.

  “Zac, the other way.” She reached out and snagged him before he tripped over Kelsey.

  Her elegant fingers brushed his sleeve sending a zing of awareness straight through him. He caught his step and turned. Kelsey danced on his right, her feet a blur of motion. She clapped and turned and there he was again – a step behind.

  “Just checkin’ on you.” He stepped out of the line before he hurt himself and just watched the fun.

  The refrain wound up. “Boot scootin’ boogie,” the kids all shouted, shaking their hands in the air. Laughter rang along with their cheers of success.

  “Way to go.” Zac cheered. “You guys just learned your first line dance. You were great.”

  Jen clapped loud and long for the kids. Golden highlights gleamed as her hair swept across her face in disarray. The tail of her shirt puffed out from the waistband of her jeans. She hadn’t spared the energy for the dance that was for sure. His gaze traveled down her long legs to her worn, rust colored boots. He almost laughed. Jen always put fashion in the most utilitarian of terms, her boots not excepting.

  “Can we do another one?” Kelsey nudged him from the side. “That was fun.”

  Zac went into the Electric Slide, using the same steps only adding more. They had a few dancers slip and slide through the steps, but everyone caught on to the rhythm and even got their turn rights and turn lefts. By the end of the evening, he looked across a floor full of happy, tired faces.

  Patrick punched off the music. “So are you telling me this was more fun than square dancing?”

  An automatic cheer went up. Patrick shook his head. “Guess I better spend my winter brushing up on line dancing for the next season of campers, unless you want to stick around, Zac?”

  His heart jumped to this throat. He planned to stick around. He wasn’t so certain about the camp. “It’s a great place. Hey, how did your presentation to the Foundation turn out?”

  A spark ignited in her already bright eyes. “Terrific. The hospital board toured the facility and seemed impressed. They asked questions about the development of the camp and my future plans. Oh, Zac, they sounded just as excited about the growth opportunities as I’d hoped.”

  Acid churned in his stomach making it feel like a spiked lead ball ripping at his insides. Now was the perfect time to tell her. He could draw her aside and tell her the truth. He could tell her the whole deal was a huge misunderstanding and that Arthur Eklund’s will didn’t amount to a cup full of pennies…or he could savor her joy for just a little while longer. “And you were worried about impressing them.” The words stuck in his throat, but he pushed on. “Of course they loved your ideas.”

  “I know. Thanks for having faith in me.” Jen brushed up against his arm and gave him a hug. Without thinking he encircled her waist and drew her closer, the soft tone of her laugh echoing into his chest. He felt like a heel the whole time he held her, knowing by the end of the week their relationship would never be the same again. God help him, he didn’t want to think that far ahead. He hadn’t a clue of how this whole thing could possibly turn out well.

  “This is it, Zac.” Jen caught her breath. “This is what the camp here at Trails’ End is all about. Letting go and being yourself. God's grace and mercy at its best. They had a blast.”

  He breathed in the scent of her warm skin as he rubbed his nose in her hair. “So did I.”

  “Me, too.” Jen swayed in his grasp. “You can do everything, Zac.”

  He shook his head. “I’m just an old cowboy, good at training horses, cutting hay, and taking a turn around a dance floor. Nothing special about that.”

  Jen’s arms tightened around him. Her blue gaze soft and promising. “You’ve always been special, Zac Davidson. And if you weren’t so full of yourself, you’d see it.”

  If they didn’t get out of the barn right now, he’d show Jen and everyone else there how full of love he was for Jennifer O’Reilly. Stuffing his arms in his jacket, he clasped her hand and tugged her toward the door. “C’mon. It looks like your folks have everything taken care of.”

  * * *

  Jen hesitated as Zac tugged her toward the door, his warm fingers tangled with hers. Patrick and a couple of the house parents were gathering the chairs and sweeping the floor. Tina stood beside the stereo speakers, grinning at her. When she opened her mouth, Tina frowned and waved her away before catching Patrick and handing him a stack of electronics cords.

  She bumped into Zac’s shoulder. He pressed close, his arm settling around her waist. “Are you okay?”

  She’d been dismissed by Tina which was better than asking permission to leave. “Of course. I just had a great night of dancing and the kids are all happy about it. Life couldn’t be better.”

  “Doesn’t take much to make you happy, does it?” He held the door open as they stepped out into the cool night air.

  Jen waved to the campers as they ran around under the glow of the yard lights. She spotted a couple of counselors standing along the corral fence watching the kids and Jen relaxed. “It never has.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I remember a gal all bent on getting into the right school years ago. Had to have a good pre-med program. Had to be DU. You can’t tell me your little world wouldn’t have caved if the University of Denver hadn’t accepted you.”

  She rubbed her face against the hoodie jacket he wore, releasing the woodsy scent of his aftershave and taking her back years. “Getting that scholarship was sweet. Made my dad happy, too.”

  “I was proud of you.” He hugged her closely as they followed the trail to her house. “Academic, full-ride. Everything you’d always wanted.”

  He grew quiet. Jen basked in his praise. “I was proud of you, too. Rodeo, full-ride.I’ll never understand how you coupled team roping and math.”

  “The same way I did it all through high school, a little luck and a whole lot of praying.” Their steps crunched along the dirt path in time. “It wasn’t just me, remember? If you hadn’t tutored me when I had pneumonia, I probably never would have understood the way numbers worked together.”
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  She leaned into him as she kept time with his stride. “What else was I supposed to do? Your family took us in when my mom died, and then you had to go and get sick. I was just trying to keep you from driving your mom nuts.”

  “You and Kade could’ve ignored me and watched TV.”

  “Yeah, I guess we could have, but then Kade wouldn’t have figured out you knew your way around the end of the steer he couldn’t quite figure out.”

  “See? Hooking up with Kade for team roping got me the rodeo scholarship, and hooking up with you to help me with my math homework flicked the I got it switch in my brain.” He hugged her closer. “I came up with the hooking-up-with-you-as-my-girlfriend all by myself.”

  Her throat burned at his tone of longing. High school had been a great time. Too bad all good things came to an end. She laughed with half a heart. “I made you sit down and study, and you made me close the books and have some fun.”

  “Guess we were quite a pair.” They slowed as the yard light behind her house shone through the trees in the distance. There were times she thought the distance from her house to the barn was too far…tonight, it wasn’t far enough. “Probably a good thing we didn’t go to the same college after high school. We wouldn’t have gotten any studying done. Or at least, I know I wouldn’t have gotten any studying done.”

  A fleeting image of his dorm came to mind, but she pushed it away. Not tonight. All she wanted was one good night with Zac. “God knew what He was doing, no matter how much I pouted.”

  They got to her porch, the light of the crescent moon behind the towering pine almost picturesque. Zac loosened his hold of her, but didn’t let go. Jen turned in his arm so she could see his face, relish the moment. His brown eyes blended with the shadows making it impossible to read his thoughts, but shifted in all the right places making him look like a cowboy legend. Zac had always been larger than life to her. Even now, her heart thumped in her chest just like it used to whenever she saw him.

  “I’m sorry you pouted.” He drew her closer until his breath warmed her cheek. “I would’ve fixed that.”

  Her heart pounded as he swept along her cheek, his shallow breathing warming her skin from her ear to the corner of her mouth. She waited for him to pull back, but instantly realized that wasn’t how she wanted the evening to end. “Zac,” she mouthed against the rasp of evening stubble on his chin. Turning the slight degree between yes and no, she captured his lips with her sigh.

  As if time had never passed, her arms slid into place around his waist, her fingers tangling in the folds of his shirt. The solid muscles of his back moved beneath her fingers as she pressed her palms and absorbed the warmth of his smooth skin. His hands slid along her curves before his arms wrapped around her, his hands kneading her shoulders, the heat from his fingers scorching through her shirt. His lips coaxed and teased, and Jen trembled at the effort to contain her need. Zac drew back as if realizing her struggle. The depths of his dark eyes told her all she wanted to know. He reclaimed her lips and she surrendered to the faint taste of peppermint and deepening passion.

  Through the blur of her desire, she became aware of his phone ringing in his back pocket. Jen ran her fingers across the denim, trying to silence the disturbance. Zac’s hand stroked her fingers as he pulled the phone out of this pocket. Breaking away, he looked at the screen and frowned. In the inky darkness of a mountain night, the bright screen illuminated like a flashlight in a closet.

  “Davidson.” He held the phone to his ear, his head bowed until his forehead touched her head, fighting for control of his breathing. Jen savored the effect and linked her fingers as her arms encircled his waist.

  “Yes, that’s sounds good.” Zac nodded his head though the caller couldn’t see. “Got it. I’ll be there.” He clicked off the phone.

  Zac gathered her up and held her close, resting his chin atop her head. Feelings of happily ever after ran like warm syrup through her veins. She’d missed Zac. She’d missed him so much. I lost him once, Lord. I don’t want to lose him again.

  “Zac—” He kissed her again before she could finish her sentence. A kiss that spoke of need and desperation. A kiss that she matched breath for breath. When he broke away again, Jen growled in frustration. “What?”

  “They can use me. They want my bone marrow.”

  Shaking away the silken threads of their kiss, she frowned. “They called? Now? Tonight?”

  He drew her to him until not an inch of space separated them. “It was your friend from the lab. He said he tried to call you. When you didn’t answer, he called me.”

  “Zac, it’s Sunday night.” Her heart beat at a tempo to match his. She rubbed her nose in the cotton trim of his jacket and drew a deep breath of warm, male scent. When Zac didn’t speak, her mind began to create scenarios. “What’s up?”

  His lips trailed light kisses through her hair. Her lids fluttered closed as she pressed her ear to his chest, calmed by the strong thud of his heart beat.

  “They have an opening Thursday at the hospital in Denver. He wanted to book it with consent.” He squeezed her tighter. “I’m thinking of our daughter.”

  Our daughter. Jen buried her face in his jacket so he wouldn’t see the tears she couldn’t hold back.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Steaks searing on the grill.

  Zac inhaled the mouth-watering scent even as he imagined the flames licking around the tender cut of rib-eye steak with his name on it. Charred on the outside; rare in the middle. No one served steak better than Fred’s Grill and Watering Hole. He’d been to the finest restaurants in the country and nothing compared to the food and atmosphere at Fred’s.

  A lady bumped into him as he directed Jennifer past a cluster of teenagers and a couple each dressed in leather from head to toe. A tiny spot opened up in the corner of the waiting area beneath the mount of a trophy bass. They slid into the space just at the massive oak doors opened up again and another group of four entered the foyer.

  “How long a wait?” Jen squeezed into the crook of his arm as the couple in leather followed in their wake and leaned against the wall next to them.

  “About fifteen minutes. They’re due for a change of diners anytime now.” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled back giving him access to her dainty ear. “Maybe I should have slipped him a twenty to get us moved to the front of the line.”

  She snuggled closer. “We’d have a mutiny on our hands.”

  “No thanks, I just got out of one.”

  She lifted her head from his chest, her hair tickling his nose. “Don’t kid yourself. This is more like a temporary truce. If you’re shelling out for a dinner at Fred’s, I thought I’d better be nice to you.”

  “You’re doing just fine.” Her face flushed at his conspiratorial wink. He kissed the tip of her nose. “Not even prime rib from Fred’s compares to kissing you.”

  “Mmm, let’s not be too hasty.” Her grin let him know she felt the same. “Let me think about this.”

  Running his hand down her back, he splayed his fingers across her ribs, testing her toned muscles. “Don’t forget I’m putting my life on the line day after tomorrow.”

  “You’ll be asleep. You won’t feel a thing.”

  The thick murmur of her voice set his blood racing as he nuzzled her ear. “How do you know?”

  “Because I’m going to be there and make sure nothing happens.”

  Zac stopped his quest and straightened. “You’re coming with me? I thought this was supposed to be a secret. How are you going to explain going to Denver with me and leaving your camp on the last weekend?”

  Another set of diners walked through the doors. Couples shifted and Zac pulled her deeper into the corner. Jen looked across the entry and then back at him. “Don’t worry about how I handle the camp. I have it all in hand. Besides, the extraction of your marrow is a day surgery. They check you in first thing in the morning, prep, knock you out, wake you up, and send you on your way. You’ll be a little sore, but nothi
ng like what Carli will have to go through. Besides,” she paused and ran her finger along his jaw. “How do you plan to get back home? You won’t be able to drive.”

  He kissed the tip of her finger. “Friends.”

  Her body tensed and she dropped her hand. “Friends. Of course.”

  What had he said? “You make that sound like a crime.”

  “No. No, it’s not. It’s just a statement of fact.” She tried to squirm out of his arms. “You’re a pied piper of people. You’ll never be alone.”

  He held tightly. “Is there anything wrong with that?”

  Her shoulders drooped and she stopped pushing him away. “I’m just going to the hospital to make sure everything goes alright with the marrow extraction. If you want me to drop you off at a friend’s house, just give me the address.”

  “Look, Jen, I’m not trying to start a fight here.” He gathered her close until she relaxed and molded to his side again. “You’re the one who said you were coming with me. I thought end of camp weekend was a big thing. I didn’t want to take you away from anything important.”

  “I guess I’m a bit more nervous over this procedure than I thought.” She searched his gaze, the crystal blue of her eyes but a thin ribbon around her pupil. “I shouldn’t have assumed you even wanted me there.”

  Returning her intense gaze, he realized the depth of her concern. “Nothing would make me happier than knowing I had company to keep me awake on my way to the hospital. Someone to hold my hand when they wheel me off. Someone to be holding my hand when I wake up.”

  “Someone?”

  “You.”

  Her brilliant smile lit her face and he remembered why he’d fallen in love with her all over again.

  The hostess called his name to be seated before he could devour her without a thought to being in public. At a back table, the noise level from the crowd dropped letting the soft flow of easy rock music lull the patrons. Candles housed in low lanterns in the center of each table created an atmosphere of endless possibilities. All Zac wanted was a relaxed evening where he might explain the situation of the ranch to Jen and if he were lucky, maybe even get a good night kiss out of her.