Читать книгу Reunited With The Rancher - Brenda Minton - Страница 13

Chapter Two

Carson watched as Kylie walked away with his children. When he turned around, Jack had walked off. His hand trembled as he reached for a lead rope and unlatched a stall. Carson stepped aside as his father led a horse to the center aisle. The gelding sidestepped a bit and tried to pull back on the lead rope. Jack held him tight and crosstied him.

“What are you doing?” Carson asked.

“What I had planned on doing before you came stomping in here bent on retribution. I have a buyer coming to look at this gelding and I plan on having him ready to be looked at.”

“That horse is mean.” Carson eyed the animal as he stomped, trying to be free of the lines that held him steady while Jack brushed him out.

“Yeah, he is. But the fella buying him doesn’t care. He works cattle and he says he’ll ride it out of him.”

“I didn’t come here to talk about horses,” Carson reminded his father. “I came to tell you I’m not interested in your clinic. I’m not interested in whatever other way you want to make amends for what you did to me. To us. You had no interest in us for twenty years. Don’t start now.”

“I’m not starting now,” Jack said as he brushed the sleek red neck of the horse. “I thought you might like a change of pace so I sent you the offer. The least you could do is stay here and take a look at the clinic.”

Stay and be tied to Jack. The next thought took him by surprise. He couldn’t stay here and face Kylie each day either. And he had a feeling if he was on this ranch, she’d be here, too. All hazel eyes and sunshine smiles. He still pictured her as a kid of thirteen, laughing, riding bikes, swimming in the creek. She’d changed. But hadn’t they all?

The ranch had changed, too. Not just the obvious: new cabins, new stable, new livestock and fancy fences. The name had changed, too. Mercy Ranch. Mercy. He did wonder about the name change. From the Rocking W to Mercy Ranch.

“Why Mercy Ranch?” he asked.

“Mercy,” Jack said as he stroked the back of the horse with a soft-bristled brush. “Mercy means to offer forgiveness when it is in one’s power to punish.”

“I know the definition of the word. Why did you rename your family ranch?”

Jack grinned at him. “Because of mercy. I didn’t deserve it, but I received it. And now I can pay that forward. All of the men and women you see on this ranch are wounded warriors. Military veterans. It’s a place for them to start over. Or a place to settle down. It’s about mercy. Even the mercy we show ourselves.”

“Kylie?”

“Her story is her business. I can only tell you my story.” Jack grimaced and dropped the brush he’d been using on the horse. “Well, this is bad timing.”

Carson stepped forward, saw the lines of pain in his father’s face and the perspiration beading across his brow. “Jack?”

Jack slid a bottle from his pocket and managed with shaking hands to get the lid off. Carson took the pill bottle from him and shook one into his hand. With a sigh Jack put the pill under his tongue and he didn’t object when Carson led him to the office where there were several chairs.

“You need to sit down. We don’t want you standing up as your blood pressure decreases. You’ll end up facedown on the floor.”

“Kylie will think you knocked me out.”

“Yeah, right. I’m prone to violence. I’m calling 911.” Carson pulled his phone out.

“You’ll do no such thing,” Jack growled. “I’m fine. Give me a minute. While we wait, you can finish that horse and put him back in the stall.”

Carson reached for Jack’s wrist and felt his pulse. Rapid but steady. “How often does this happen?”

“Often enough that I need pills. Go take care of the horse.” He took a deep breath. “Please.”

“I’ll put him in the stall.”

“Too citified now to do some chores?” Jack badgered as Carson left the office.

Carson gave the horse a quick brushing. He was untying him when another man came walking down the aisle. He appeared to be in his late twenties. He was tall, walked with an easy gait and when he got closer, Carson saw that he had silver-gray eyes. Those eyes pinned Carson with an angry stare.

Carson focused on the eyes rather than how much the younger man looked like him, looked like his brother Colt. He told himself it was coincidence. Plenty of people had gray eyes. That didn’t make them related. Right?

“Where’s Jack?” the younger man asked.

Carson led the horse to the stall. “He’s in his office.”

“Jack?” the other man called out, walking past Carson, shoulder checking him as he went.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Carson muttered as he followed him to the office. “He can’t walk back to the house. Is there a wheelchair around here? Or we can carry him.”

“I can walk,” Jack growled. “Isaac can help me.”

Isaac, the gray-eyed stranger had a name.

Carson motioned toward the door. “Be my guest. Isaac will pick you up when you fall on your face.”

“You wouldn’t make a good local doctor. You need a better bedside manner.”

Carson tamped down on a smile. “Right. I guess I’m a chip off the old block.”

They sat there for a minute staring each other down, then Jack sighed. “Isaac, I’m afraid he’s right. These old legs are too shaky for that walk back to the house.”

“I’ll get a wheelchair.” Isaac headed toward the door. “Say one thing to upset him and you’ll answer to me.”

Carson didn’t bother to respond. He waited until the other man—Isaac—was gone before he approached Jack again. “I assume you’ve been to a specialist?”

“Yeah, I have. It’s nothing major.”

“I would beg to differ, but what do I know. I’m only a doctor.”

“Without a bedside manner.” Jack closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter,” Jack said. “Stay here for a few days. We can talk.”

“I don’t think so.” Now, knowing Jack was sick, Carson didn’t have the heart for the confrontation. He’d come here expecting the same ranch, the same Jack West, and nothing was what he’d expected.

He pulled a chair close and a moment later Kylie appeared pushing a wheelchair. Carson looked behind her, then he looked to Isaac, looming just inside the door. “Where are my kids?”

Kylie pushed the chair close. “They’re with Eve. Don’t worry. She’s watching them. I just thought it would be easier to do this if they weren’t here. And less traumatic for them.”

He didn’t leave his children with strangers. For good reason. Kylie must have seen something in his expression, because she sighed.

“Carson, they’re safe. I promise.”

“Of course they are.” He glanced at his watch and opened the pill bottle again. “Time for a second dose.”

“You take a second dose,” Jack grumbled, but he took the second pill.

“Well, that’s a good sign,” Kylie said as she slid an arm behind Jack to help him up out of the chair. “Come on, Oscar.”

“I’m not a grouch.” Jack managed a half grin as he said it.

“Yes, you are.” Kylie smoothed Jack’s hair and gave him a thorough looking over. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m good.”

“I’ll help him get up.” Isaac took over, lifting Jack to his feet and helping him into the wheelchair.

“Getting old stinks,” Jack said. His voice was weaker than it had been.

Carson reached for his wrist and felt for a pulse.

“Still have a heart?” Jack asked.

“You’re not funny,” Kylie whispered, with tears in her eyes.

Carson averted his attention and looked down at Jack. “You do still have a heart. But I think it would be good to get you to the house and get you in bed.”

It took ten minutes to get Jack back and settled in his recliner in the living room. He insisted he would be most comfortable in the big leather chair. Kylie brought him water and something for the headache, brought on by the nitroglycerin.

Carson was checking Jack’s blood pressure with a monitor Kylie had given him when Isaac appeared with Maggie and Andy. Maggie had her arms around Isaac’s neck and she jabbered, telling him a story that he probably couldn’t make much sense of. Andy followed, but he was expressionless as he tapped a steady rhythm on his leg, a sure sign he was distressed by the unfamiliar situation and place.

He had to get them somewhere and get them settled. Soon. Andy needed a stable place, his things around him, structure. The only way to provide that was to get where they were going as quickly as possible, and find a home where they could start over.

As he considered his next move, the puppy that had been with Kylie appeared. It immediately went to Andy, and Carson watched as his son dropped to the floor and put his arms around the animal. Andy’s features relaxed and he smiled as he pulled the puppy close and buried his face in its yellow fur.

Maggie gave the dog a few pats, then she toddled up to Carson. He lifted her and she leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Potty.”

“The bathroom is through the kitchen and next to the utility room,” Kylie offered. “I can show you.”

“Thank you. We’ll take care of that and then we need to get on the road. I want to be in a hotel before bedtime.”

“No.” Andy spoke quietly, his face pressed against the dog.

“Andy?” Carson reached for his son, but Andy pulled back, shaking his head.

“I don’t want to go.”

“But we have to.” Carson shifted, putting himself clearly in his son’s line of vision.

Andy looked up, suddenly focused. He shook his head and pulled the Labrador puppy close. “No. I want to stay.”

Carson paused at the unexpected outburst from his son. Because Andy was on the autism spectrum, even though it was mild, he rarely put more than a few words together.

The puppy seemed to be the key.

“I’m sorry, Andy, but we can’t stay.”

Andy shook his head again. Carson became aware of Kylie moving closer. Briefly her hand touched his arm. He looked up and she smiled, thoroughly undoing something inside him that he’d been holding together for thirty-two long months. Now wasn’t the most opportune time for him to remember that he had once loved holding a woman close. A teenager, he reminded himself. They’d been little more than kids when they’d known one another. They’d held hands, made up impossible dreams for the future, and then it had ended.

“Andy could take a walk with Skip before you go,” Kylie suggested. “It’ll give him a chance to unwind, get some fresh air. It might make it easier for him to get back in the car. I’ll take him down to see the new calves while you change Maggie.”

Kylie held a hand out to Andy and he watched his son slip his small hand in to hers. He’d just been taken by surprise again.

* * *

Kylie led Andy out the back door and down the steps. The little boy seemed to be keeping his focus on Skip, and the more he did, the less he tapped at his leg.

“Do you like to swing?” she asked as they crossed the lawn in the direction of the swing Jack had maintained with fresh ropes and the occasional new board. The swing, always a reminder that a long time ago there had been children on this ranch.

Now there were veterans, both men and women. They worked on the ranch with the cattle, with horses Jack raised, and even with the dogs. They were also learning new skills doing construction projects in town.

Kylie glanced down at the little boy holding her hand. He glanced in the direction of the swing and then his gaze briefly shifted to meet hers. He nodded in answer to her question.

“I think your daddy played on this swing when he was a little boy. Would you like for me to push you on it?”

Again he nodded.

When they got to the swing, she lifted him to the seat and showed him how to hold tightly to the rope. She gave him a push and his hands tightened even more. The next time she pushed a little easier and noticed that he relaxed.

As she pushed the swing she told him about the ranch and about knowing his daddy when he was a boy. She didn’t share the part about how her heart had broken when he left. He hadn’t said goodbye. It had broken her heart because she’d allowed herself to believe the fairy tales they’d spun as they’d ridden bikes and played in the creek. At thirteen she’d really believed that someday they would get married.

And like all young girls, she’d believed in their dreams of a perfect life and a happy home, where no one would ever yell or hurt them. Ever again.

She’d found happiness on this ranch. She felt secure here. And she wondered if Carson was chasing after happiness, too, hoping to help his children feel secure in a life, a world, that had dealt them an incredibly difficult hand.

She looked down at the dark head of the boy in the swing and smiled. She could so easily get attached to him and to his sister. She could get attached to their father, too. She loved Jack like the father she’d never had, and she knew how badly he wanted to reconcile with his children. But she knew it would only be heartache for her if Carson and his children stayed for more than a day.

She glanced at the spot where Skip had been playing with a stick. The puppy and stick were both gone. She slowed the swing and scanned the area but didn’t see a trace of the puppy.

Great. She’d gotten distracted and the Labrador had done what he most loved: wandered off. “Andy, keep swinging. I’m going to look behind the shed for Skip. Stay right here in case he comes back. He would be very sad if he came back and we were gone.”

Andy nodded and he remained on the swing, his little legs kicking back and forth. The shed, a mere twenty feet away, was one of Skip’s favorite places to hunt feral cats. She could hear his low, puppy growl. As she rounded the corner of the shed, he took off.

“Skip,” she called out, knowing it would do no good. He would never make a good service dog if she couldn’t break him of his need to chase cats.

She was coming back around the shed when she saw Carson and Maggie heading their way. He glanced at her and then looked around, his fatherly concern evident even from a distance.

“Where’s Andy?” he asked as he got closer.

“On the swing,” she answered. But he wasn’t. “He was right there. I told him to wait.”

Carson shook his head. “He walks away. I should have warned you. Hold Maggie and I’ll find him.”

“It’s only been two minutes. He couldn’t have gone far.” She took Maggie and the little girl patted her shoulder and whispered, “Oh, Andy.”

Kylie turned in circles, scanning the yard, the fields and the road. Where could Andy have gotten to so quickly? As she started her own search in the yard, Isaac walked out the back door of the house. She waved him down and he headed her way at a lope.

“What’s up?” He pushed the brim of his cowboy hat back revealing just the edge of the scar that ran from his jaw to the place just above his left ear.

“Andy ran away from me. Two minutes and he was gone. If you get Max, he could help.”

Isaac was already walking away. “I’ll get him and a couple of the guys. We’ll spread out in the field and head toward the pond. Kids always seem drawn to water.”

“Thank you.” The words came out choked as tears filled her eyes and clogged her throat.

“Don’t mention it. And don’t worry, we’ll find him.” With that Isaac took off, heading first to the kennel where Max barked as if he already knew he was needed.

Kylie shifted Maggie to her left side, giving her weaker right side a break. The toddler leaned her head on Kylie’s shoulder and started to sing, “Jesus Loves Me.”

“Yes, he does, sweetie,” Kylie told her. “And he loves Andy. So we’re going to pray real hard and we will find your brother.”

They had to find him. Her heart ached, knowing that because of one moment of her distraction it could result in a child being lost. The thought cut deep because it brought back the accident. A distracted moment and their convoy had been attacked.

She’d lost so much that day.

She’d never expected that five years later she would be here. She’d thought her world would never be right again after that day. But she’d managed to save herself and she’d dragged Eric Baker from a burning vehicle. He had proposed on the spot, telling her it was meant to be.

They’d known each other, had dated a few times, but he’d convinced her that her rescuing him that day had sealed their lives together. They’d lain there waiting for help, laughing at every stupid thing just to keep from crying.

Two months later they’d gotten married.

A year later he was gone and she was alone. Again.

Her heart thudded hard as she became frantic, worrying that she wouldn’t find Andy. What if he’d gone toward the road or the pond? What if he wandered to the woods and darkness fell? She glanced toward the west at the sun that was barely a sliver of orange as it sank over the horizon. It would soon be dark.

“Maybe he went inside?” she said to Maggie, but she had fallen asleep in her arms. “Right, well, let’s go check inside.”

She headed for the patio and the back door of the house. As she hurried through the home she called his name. She checked the kitchen, the utility room, the garage. As she walked back through the dining room, Jack called out to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

She didn’t want to worry him. He’d already had one spell.

“Well?” he questioned as he reached for water, his arm and hand shaking uncontrollably.

She picked up the water glass and held it for him. “I lost Andy.”

“You lost him?”

“One minute he was on the tree swing and the next minute he was gone. Isaac is getting Maximus and a few of the guys to help search.”

“They’ll find him.” Jack reached. “Let me hold that sleeping princess. It might be the only chance I ever get to hold her.”

Kylie placed the child in his arms. Maggie shifted a little, then settled back into a sound sleep.

“I knew I didn’t have much of a chance of getting him to stay,” Jack said as he studied his sleeping granddaughter. “I’ll take the time I can get. You go help find Andy and the two of us will be just fine.”

“If she wakes up?”

“Rosa is here. She’s cleaning upstairs and she’s going to make soup. We’ll be just fine.”

The housekeeper. Kylie had forgotten that Rosa planned on coming in for the evening because she would be gone over the weekend to attend one of her sons’ weddings.

“I’ll go help them look. You stay put.” She leaned to hug Jack. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”

He grinned. “I know you will. And in the meantime, I get to spend time with sweet Maggie here.”

Kylie gave him a last look and headed out the front door, just in case Andy had gone that way. The look on Jack’s face had been priceless. She knew what this visit meant to him, even if it didn’t go the way he’d planned.

She knew what this visit meant to her, too. It made her question everything she’d believed about her life here. She had spent four years finding herself, building a stable and happy life. For the first time, she had hope. She had real faith. She was truly happy.

And she didn’t want anything to change, because change was unpredictable.

And what was more unpredictable than a man from the past with his two children showing up out of the blue?