The Rancher's Texas Match Page 8

  “Yes, definitely.”

  Jasper groaned. “Could we read now?”

  “Yes, we can read.”

  She started the story, and the boys moved closer, even Ben, who pretended to be too old for stories. She wondered about the teenager. He was quiet and respectful, always looking out for the younger boys. And yet he was here at the ranch. Someone had mentioned parents on drugs.

  Each child had a story. And they had the ranch to help them change their stories for the better.

  She was on page twenty when Eleanor stepped back into the room. “I have cookies and hot cocoa if anyone is interested.”

  The boys jumped up and hurried from the room. All but Colby. He remained at her side on the sofa, his head tucked against her shoulder.

  “What do you think made that noise, Aunt Macy?” His voice was small and worried.

  “I think probably a car backfiring.” Or she would like to believe that was the cause.

  “What’s a backfire?”

  “Hmm, good question. I guess I don’t know what causes a backfire. I can look it up, and then we’ll both learn something new. But it happens sometimes. A car will be driving and suddenly make a loud sound.”

  “Oh. I’ve heard that before. My dad...” His voice trailed off.

  Macy held her breath, waiting. He almost never mentioned his parents.

  “Colby, it’s okay to talk about them.”

  He shook his head. “I’m mad at them.”

  The response took the air from her lungs and made her heart ache. She wanted to tell him that was wrong. Instead she asked, “Why?”

  He shrugged slim shoulders and pulled away from the arm she’d put around him. “They shouldn’t have left.”

  “No,” she agreed. “They shouldn’t have left. But they didn’t have a choice.”

  “Yes, they did. They didn’t have to go out. They didn’t have to leave me.”

  Tears were streaming down his cheeks. He curled into a ball on the sofa. Macy touched his shoulder and tried to pull him close. He stiffened and wouldn’t budge.

  Eleanor appeared at her side. She briefly touched Macy’s shoulder, and then she got down on her knees at Colby’s side and put a hand on his back.

  “Care to talk, Colby?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk. Talking hurts.”

  “Yes, but sometimes it hurts and then makes it better. Did you ever cut your finger, Colby, and just when you thought it was getting better, it started to hurt and itch?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s when it’s healing. It hurts, but it’s getting better. Your parents didn’t know that, when they left, they weren’t coming back. Do you think if they’d known, they would have left? I think they would have stayed home with you.”

  He shook his head and wouldn’t look up.

  “Do you have a reason to think they wanted to go?”

  He nodded, but he wouldn’t talk.

  Eleanor brushed a hand across the top of his head. “Do you want your aunt Macy to hold you? Sometimes when I’m sad, it helps if I get a hug.”

  Without a word he turned and crawled into Macy’s lap. And he cried. She tucked his head under her chin and allowed her own silent tears to fall.

  Eleanor grabbed a few tissues out of the box on the end table and handed them to her, and then she left them alone. Macy cradled her nephew in her arms and told him everything would be okay. She hoped he believed it, because sometimes she wondered.

  * * *

  Edward unlocked the door to Cabin One, and Tanner followed him inside. He knew the kids were safe, and with Eleanor and Laura on the job, the kids were probably seeing this as a great adventure and nothing to worry about. He didn’t expect to see Macy on the sofa cradling Colby in her arms as the little boy cried.

  He also didn’t expect the crazy urge to go to them and make their problems his. As a matter of fact, when Edward kept moving, giving them privacy, Tanner told himself to keep on moving, too.

  For the first time in a long time, he didn’t listen to his better self. Nope, he headed right into the situation, settling himself in a recliner that had been pulled close to the sectional. Macy looked up, her green eyes swimming with tears.

  “Hey, Colby,” he said quietly.

  “Hey, Tanner,” the little boy said in a tearful voice.

  “Bad day?” Tanner guessed that was an understatement.

  Colby nodded against his aunt’s shoulder. “I miss my...”

  But he wouldn’t say it. He never did. Not a mention of his mom or his dad. Tanner had noticed. He’d heard other people comment on it.

  “You miss your mom and dad?” Tanner prodded. He wasn’t a therapist, but he knew all about being a kid and wanting his parents.

  In his case he’d wanted his parents to actually be parents. And he’d even kind of hoped that once the state took custody and placed them with Aunt May, that their parents would get their act together.

  He’d taken a few classes and even gone through foster parent training because he wanted to know the laws and the emotions of the kids at the ranch. He knew that, no matter how bad a home situation might have been, kids always wanted their biological parents. Colby hadn’t been taken from abusive parents. He’d had his parents taken from him.

  “Yeah,” Colby finally answered. “I miss them.”

  “That’s okay, you know.”

  Colby nodded and pulled away from Macy to sit up. He wiped his face with his hand, and Macy handed him a tissue.

  “How’s your new horse?” Colby asked, done with the tears.

  “He’s real good. One of these days, your aunt Macy can bring you out to see him again.” He’d shown Colby the horse the previous day, after they’d finished lunch.

  Colby looked up at her. “Today?”

  Tanner laughed. “I think we’re going to be kind of busy today.”

  “Because a car backfired?” Colby asked, sniffling and brushing his hand across his eyes.

  Tanner looked at Macy, and she arched a brow and gave him a well-meaning look. Okay, backfiring cars. Why not?

  “Yeah, because of that.”

  Macy gave Colby a hug. “How about cookies and cocoa now?”

  Colby slid off her lap and headed for the kitchen. Tanner didn’t know what to do after the boy left and it was just him and Macy in the living room. She looked about to fall apart. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she picked his shoulder for that event.

  But she didn’t fall apart. Instead she took a deep breath.

  “I want to fix him,” she said in a quiet voice, her gaze on the door her nephew had gone through.

  “Of course you do. It takes time. But he’s turning to you. That’s new, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is. I can’t describe how it felt when he crawled onto my lap and let me hold him. He doesn’t often do that.”

  “That’s a starting place.” He stood, needing space. “The police are on their way. Tell Edward I’ll be at the barn waiting.”

  “What happened?”

  “Someone shot a hole in the barn. Fortunately it lodged in a support pole.”

  Her face paled. “I was hoping it was just...”

  He grinned. “A car backfiring?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wish it had been.” He glanced at his watch. “And Chloe’s fiancé is going to be here in an hour. He’s going to volunteer. It’s a chance for me to get to know him.”

  “Chloe seems to love him.”

  Tanner brushed his fingers through his hair, surprised by this conversation. “Yeah, she seems to. Bring Colby by when you can to see Knight again.”

  “Knight?” Her voice had a teasing quality to it.

  “A castle needs one, don’t you
think?”

  “Yes, I guess it would.”

  He left. As he headed for the barn, Gabriel Everett was pulling up. Behind him were county police. And Fletcher. Great.

  Gabriel was out of his truck first. “What happened out here?”

  Beatrice came out of the barn, her eyebrows drawn together in worry. “We were shot at, that’s what. And keep it down, Gabriel. We don’t want to scare the boys.”

  Fletcher was upon them. “And how do we know it wasn’t one of your boys, Bea? I keep telling you all that this is getting out of hand. Fifty years ago, troubled boys were a lot less dangerous. We live in different times. These boys have different problems. And we don’t need those problems in our community.”

  “Fletcher, this is a level one facility. We don’t take boys with serious behavioral problems, and you know that.”

  “Bea, I think you take any kid that the state brings you.”

  “Maybe I do, Fletcher, but the state also knows what we’re equipped to handle. We don’t have the facilities for truly troubled youth, and so the state takes those boys to placements that can handle them.”

  Fletcher shook his head. “We need to have a meeting and discuss this.”

  Gabriel stepped forward. “Fletcher, the last time I checked, you weren’t a member of the LSCL, and so you don’t get to call meetings. I’m the president. I call meetings.”

  “Then call one,” Fletcher said. “Call one, or I’ll call the state and find out what we can do to close this place down.”

  “Don’t threaten this place.” Gabriel issued the warning in a stern voice that no one should ignore.

  Fletcher ignored it. “I’m not threatening...”

  Tanner held up a hand. “Please, don’t say it was a promise, not a threat. Because if you do, I’m going to laugh.”

  Bea chuckled. The moment slid into a less hostile one. The deputies were out of their cars and taking notes. Tanner stepped back, not wanting to get in their way. Fletcher, on the other hand, was in the middle of everything.

  Gabriel stepped close to Tanner. “This is getting out of hand with him.”

  “I know. I’m just not sure what to do about it. I think once we get to the Culpepper place, he’ll have to stop because it won’t have anything to do with him.”

  Gabriel adjusted his black Stetson. “I’m afraid he’ll fight us legally and try to close the ranch.”

  “We’ll fight back. We can outspend him.”

  “True, but...” Gabriel started but let his words trail off.

  “Gabriel, don’t tell me you’re rethinking the ranch.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m just worried. What if a boy had been in the path of that bullet?”

  The reality of that settled over Tanner, turning him cold.

  “I’d rather not think about that.” Because thinking about it brought an image of Colby Swanson for some reason.

  Tanner cared about the kids at the ranch. All of them. He saw himself in each of them. Colby was different. Maybe knowing Macy made the difference in how he felt about the boy.

  “Someone is going to get hurt,” Gabriel continued.

  “Then we have to find who did this.”

  “Yeah, I hope we can.”

  Tanner heard a door. He looked back and saw Macy leaving Cabin One. He let out a sigh and shook his head.

  “If you feel like you need to stop her, go.” Gabriel jerked his head in Macy’s direction.

  “I don’t.” Tanner shot another look her way. “I wanted to see if the two of us could sit down to discuss your grandfather. I know this is bad timing, Gabe. I know you’ve got reasons you don’t want to discuss him. But we have a dozen kids moving at the end of the month, and I sure don’t want to take a chance that we might have to move them back over here.”

  “We can talk. After the meeting at the end of the week.”

  “That works.” He glanced back over his shoulder again.

  “Go.”

  Tanner stood there a full minute, watching the officers, watching Bea soothe Fletcher’s ruffled feathers, and then he walked away.

  When he caught up with Macy, she was standing in the yard of the cabin, her back to him.

  “We have a shooter on the loose, no idea who it is and where they are, and you’re standing out here in the yard.” He jerked off his hat and looked around.

  That was when he noticed the slight tremble in her shoulders. He shoved his hat back on his head and reached, letting his hand hover above her shoulder for a second before allowing it to settle. She turned, and he lost the battle to remain detached.

  But he also wasn’t going to stand in the yard and be the next target. He took her by the hand and led her at a fast walk toward his truck. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her eyes were puffy and her nose was red. A woman in crisis. She wasn’t his problem, he reminded himself on the short trek to his truck.

  For the life of him, he couldn’t walk away from her. Even when he reminded himself that he didn’t get involved with parents who had boys at the ranch.

  He opened the door of his truck and motioned her inside. Once she was in and buckled, he drove away.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly with a hint of a sob.

  “What happened?” And with that question he knew he was digging a deeper hole.

  “Nothing.” She shook her head. “Not really. It’s just a roller coaster. And I want to fix this all for him, and I can’t. I’m mad at my brother, too. But I don’t get to be angry because I have to find a way to help Colby get past his grief and his anger.”

  “You have a right to be angry.”

  “I also have a car back at the ranch.”

  He chuckled. “You can get it later.”

  She leaned back in the seat and covered her face with her hands. A growl, muffled by her hands, split the silence of the truck. “I am angry. I’m so mad at him for leaving. I’m mad because I don’t know what to do for Colby. And the person I always went to for advice is gone. Grant is gone. I think Colby and I were both in a delusional state, thinking they would come home. But they’re not coming home. I’m not getting my brother, my best friend, back. Colby isn’t getting his parents back. They’re just gone. And it isn’t fair. It isn’t fair that I had to—”

  Her eyes closed, and she shook her head.

  “Macy?”

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. “No. I’m not going to say that. I lost a job and gave up an apartment. Colby lost his parents. What I lost doesn’t amount to anything. I lost things I don’t miss.”

  “I think you’re wrong. I think you miss your life. There’s nothing wrong with that. Accept it, or it’ll eat you up.”

  He pulled up to her house.

  “I miss my life.” She said it on a sigh. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. But I have to admit, there are days I wonder if Colby would be better off with someone else, with anyone but me. But I’m his family. We have each other.”

  “Yes, and in the end, that matters.”

  “But...” She bit down on her lip and glanced away from him, not finishing.

  “But what?”

  “What if I’m not a mom? What if I can’t do this?” She looked young sitting next to him, her green eyes troubled. “I’m sorry, you didn’t ask for this, to be the person I pour out my insecurities on. I lost the person I always went to when I was upset. I don’t know how to do this, and Grant isn’t here for me to talk to. If he was, I’d tell him I’m not sure if I know how to be a mom. And what if I hurt Colby in the process of learning?”

  “I think that anyone would question their ability. I’m guessing that even a mom who planned on having a child would still question if she could do it.”

  She reached for the door. “Thank you. I’m sorry that you had to leave when there were
probably things you needed to do.”

  He raised a hand to stop her apology. “No trouble. If I’d stayed, I might have been arrested for hurting Fletcher.”

  He got out and walked her to the front door.

  “I would have bailed you out,” she said with a hint of a smile. “If you’d punched him. Oh, what about my car?”

  “I’ll have Flint help me get it over here.”

  The car reminded him. She’d been vandalized. He couldn’t help but wonder if the person who had disconnected that hose on her car was the same person who had shot at the barn. When he got back to the ranch, he would mention that to the police.

  “Macy, you need to be careful. Just keep an eye on things around here. Keep your car locked.”

  “I will. Thank you for letting me talk about Colby.”

  “Anytime.” He said it, and then he realized the door that had opened.

  She laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t be calling at midnight to talk about my feelings.”

  “If you did, I’d answer.”

  She stood on tiptoe and touched his cheek to bring it down to her level. When she kissed him, he felt floored by the unexpected gesture.

  He also felt like a man wading into quicksand, because he wasn’t satisfied with that sweet kiss on the cheek. Standing on her porch in broad daylight, he turned and brushed his lips against hers.

  “See you later,” he said as he stepped back to leave.

  “Yes, later.”

  He drove away thinking about that old saying “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” This was one of those situations, he realized.

  Macy had soft hair, soft gestures and a soft heart. She was easy to like. He guessed if a man wasn’t careful, he’d find himself falling a little in love with her.

  Chapter Eight

  Macy pulled up in front of Lila’s Café on Tuesday morning. She was meeting Josie Markham for breakfast before she headed out to the ranch for family therapy with Colby. Since she was early, she walked down the sidewalk and stopped in front of the secondhand shop. The store had a cute selection of shabby chic furniture. Old dressers, desks, chairs and tables that were painted light colors.

  Maybe, she thought, she could purchase a few pieces to lighten up the darker colors in Grant’s house. No, not Grant and Cynthia’s house, her house.