Rancher's Son Read online

  “And if the cattle spook?”

  “Let ’em.” Though a stampede was nothing to laugh at, the cows would stop when they reached the next watering hole or creek. “Not like there’s a cliff or anything they can run themselves off of.” He paused. “You seen Jimmy?”

  Worry flickered in Seth’s watery blue eyes. “Not a hide nor hair. Not since supper. Has the boy gone missing?”

  “He told Sarah he was coming to see me, but he never made it. How ’bout helping us look for him?”

  “You got it.” Seth dumped the armload of rain gear on the floor and strode out of the barn as fast as his bowed legs would take him.

  Ty began working his way back toward the center of camp. His pulse thumped harder every time he looked around a corner and didn’t spot the child. He met up with Sarah, who’d run into Doris somewhere along the way. The cook raised her hands, palms up. Her calm demeanor didn’t fool him for a minute. Though she and Seth had raised plenty of kids—including him and J.D.—Doris had also made enough trips to the E.R. to pay for a new wing at the hospital. She knew all too well the dangers a young boy could find.

  He shifted his gaze to Sarah. Her voice climbing, she asked, “He wouldn’t have gone to see Lacy on his own, would he?”

  Ty swallowed a groan. The old branding pen where he’d put the cow for the night was a fair walk straight into the approaching storm.

  “Guess I’d better check it out.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Sarah insisted.

  Ty started to argue, but one look at the sky convinced him there wasn’t time for a discussion. “Let’s hustle,” he said simply.

  They took off at a fast jog. Halfway to the stream that ran past the pen, Ty questioned the wisdom of the last two enchiladas he’d eaten at dinner. But the burning in his chest was more than indigestion. Concern for the child twisted his stomach into knots and made it practically impossible to draw a full breath. His feet plunged into the rapidly rising creek and the possibility of a future without the little tyke hit home. His chest seized. He didn’t know what he’d do if anything happened to the child.

  “I don’t remember the water being this high,” Sarah called over a gust of wind.

  “Must be a hard rain upstream.” A rain that would be on top of them within the hour. More for the chance to hold her than because she needed help, Ty grabbed Sarah’s hand as they sloshed through water that had risen to their knees. He pointed. “The pen is just over that rise, there.”

  Bleached-white seashells crunching beneath their feet, they clambered over a low mound that had once been a landfill of sorts for an ancient Indian tribe. Ty stepped in front of Sarah as a palmetto branch churned past turning end-over-end like a tumbleweed. Relief surged through him the moment he spied Jimmy standing beside the slat-sided fence. In his pajamas and boots, the boy was such a comical sight, Ty didn’t know whether to hug the child to death or yell at him for leaving the camp alone.

  “Mr. Ty. Ms. Sarah. Did you come to see Lacy, too?” He smiled up at them.

  Sarah started for the boy, but Ty was faster. He scooped Jimmy up and hugged him tight to his chest. Recriminations could wait until later. For now, they had to get into the barn before the storm hit.

  Or before they got run over by a herd of frightened cattle, he thought as a low drone filled the air.

  Sarah heard it, too, and aimed a questioning look his way. If worry had filled her eyes before, something close to panic had risen in them now. “Is that rain?” she asked, hopefully.

  Ty gave his head an abrupt shake. “Cattle. We need to get across the creek, now.” He leaned forward, looking Jimmy square in the face. “Hey, kiddo. I’m going to swing you around onto my back. You hang on good and tight ’cause we’re gonna run.”

  Sarah’s hand in his, Jimmy hanging on for dear life, back to the stream they ran while the drone turned into the sound of thundering hooves and bellowing cattle. Ty’s feet hit the far bank where he risked a quick look over one shoulder just as the first wide-eyed cow crested the small rise behind them. With Sarah’s and Jimmy’s lives in his hands, he prayed that the cows would stop when they reached the water’s edge.

  Just in case they didn’t, he aimed for a small copse of scrub oak. The trees weren’t tall and they wouldn’t offer much protection if the herd headed their way, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances. Outrunning a stampede was not an option.

  He boosted Jimmy into the highest branches and ordered the child to stay put. His arms around Sarah’s waist, he helped her scramble onto a nearby limb.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “Don’t you worry about me. They won’t come this far.” At least, he hoped they wouldn’t. If they did, he’d do his best to turn them aside and protect the ones he cared for.

  Ty drew in a deep breath as the first of the milling throng of cattle took one look at the creek and veered north. Fifty head of cattle weren’t enough to make the ground shake, but Ty thought it sure felt like it when the bellowing herd thundered past.

  “Where’d they go?” Jimmy wanted to know when the last cow had disappeared.

  “Not far,” Ty answered. “They’ll run for a while, till they figure out they can’t outrun the storm. Then, they’ll settle down.” There hadn’t been time to worry if nearly being trampled to death would scar Jimmy for life. Now that the danger had passed, he searched the boy’s face and breathed a sigh of relief at the awed excitement he saw there.

  As if to remind him why he’d come looking for Jimmy in the first place, another crack of lightning lit the darkening sky. Ty automatically counted the seconds. He reached fourteen before the thunder rolled.

  Damn. The storm was less than two miles out and moving closer by the second.

  “We don’t want to be in these trees anymore. Time to make tracks.”

  He nodded to Sarah, swung Jimmy onto his shoulders and off they ran. Dodging palm fronds that sailed past in the freshening breeze, they covered the ground quickly. Still, rain pelted them before they were halfway back to the campsite. They ducked into the barn seconds before thunder clapped on the heels of a nearby lightning strike.

  Ty grasped Sarah’s hand and pulled her close while he held Jimmy in a tight embrace. He wondered if this was what it was meant to be a husband, a father—to protect the ones you love. If it was, he thought, it was exactly what he wanted.

  A not-so-discreet throat clearing brought awareness that they had an audience. Ty gave Sarah a final squeeze and gently kissed the top of Jimmy’s head before he set the little tyke on the ground. While Doris rushed over with towels and Jimmy regaled her with the story of his exciting adventure, Ty stood, his arms folded across his chest.

  Okay, so the boy probably wasn’t his. But the experience they’d shared had put things in a new perspective. Millie had been his wife and, by law, he was the child’s father. He wanted to be there for all the important events in Jimmy’s life, to keep him safe, and to help the boy become a man. Knowing what a huge task he was about to undertake, he sought Sarah’s gaze. Once he told her what he planned to do, would she walk away, her job complete? Or could he make her stay?

  Chapter Ten

  Sarah thought her jaw might hang open when Ty simply shrugged aside a few congratulatory slaps on the back and went to look for his guitar. Or at least she did until she looked into Ty’s dark eyes and saw that he was putting on a brave front. For Jimmy’s sake. For all their sakes. In that moment, she admitted to herse
lf she’d fallen the tiniest bit in love.

  Forcing herself to follow Ty’s example, she squared her shoulders and straightened her trembling lips into a bright smile. When some of the ranch hands staged an impromptu flat-foot competition, she led Jimmy into the circle. Feet slapped faster and faster against the plywood floor in a hybrid mix of Irish folk and tap dance. Soon the little boy’s laughter competed with Ty’s guitar, Seth’s banjo and the welcome thunder of clapping hands. By the time Josh walked off with a dish of Doris’s peach cobbler, his prize for the best performance, Sarah had developed a strong case of hero worship to go along with her deepening feelings for the man who’d saved her life.

  Unwilling to leave his side once the storm abated and the party broke up, she watched Ty saddle Ranger.

  “You’re going out?” she asked, amazed that he was still able to function after all they’d been through.

  “Told the men I’d take first watch with the herd.” Ty lifted the stirrup over Ranger’s back and pulled the cinch to tighten it.

  “Can I come?” she asked before she could stop herself. She held her breath wondering what she’d do if he didn’t want her company. If, despite not saying a word about it, he was angry with her for letting Jimmy slip away from camp.

  Ty tilted his head to give her an inquiring look. In a voice that bore no trace of reproach, he asked, “What about Jimmy?”

  “Doris and Seth asked him to spend the night in their cabin.” She scuffed one foot against the rain-soaked ground, surprised by a sudden onset of shyness. “I think she blames me for putting us all in danger.”

  “Don’t even go there.” Ty guided the stirrup into place and turned to face her. “Doris is just smitten with young James. We all are. Besides, if I recall correctly, you weren’t the first to let that boy get out of sight.”

  His soothing tone put an end to the accusations she’d been hurling at herself ever since she’d realized Jimmy was missing. She let out a deep breath and blinked back tears.

  Ty placed one finger beneath her chin and lifted until she met his gaze. “I’d love to have the company if you aren’t too tired.”

  As keyed up as she felt after their brush with death, sleep was hours away. Gazing at the man who was dangerously close to stealing her heart, she wondered what it’d be like to spend the rest of her life with someone who doled out forgiveness like a second helping of dessert. She swallowed. “Give me a minute to saddle Belle, and I’ll join you.”

  Moments later, they led the horses into a night which, like the storm, had worn itself out. Away from the lights of the city, a million stars glinted against a pitch-black sky. Damp grass muted the sounds of the horses hooves enough that Sarah heard water babbling in the creek. In the distance an owl hooted.

  “That was one of the tightest spots I’ve ever been in,” she admitted when Ty pulled Ranger to a halt upwind of the exhausted cattle. A shiver passed through her as she wondered what might have happened if he hadn’t been there.

  “Everything turned out okay. As long as you and Jimmy didn’t get hurt, there’s nothing to worry about.”

  The last wispy cloud sailed away from the moon, and silver light bathed the open field, but Sarah didn’t have to see the rancher to know his aw-shucks-ma’am grin was firmly in place. “We’re fine, thanks to you,” she whispered.

  Six months ago, she’d been too intent on protecting her charges to listen to Ty’s side of the story. Now, she needed to know every detail about the failed Big Brother program. “You were so calm, so wonderful with Jimmy, it made me realize that Chris and Tim had to have been perfect hellions to get under your skin the way they did. What did they do that was bad enough to get them sent home?”

  For a long minute, Ty didn’t answer and Sarah thought she’d hit a nerve. Her breath stalled, not starting again until he lifted his hat and brushed a hand through his hair.

  “They acted as if the rules were meant for everyone but them. I held my tongue and didn’t say anything until one of ‘em snuck out for a smoke. Fool kid started a grass fire.”

  “Fire?” Sarah sucked in a sharp breath. She remembered the blackened trees and scorched earth around Little Lake. No wonder Ty had been so upset with the boys.

  “It was just pure luck we were close to water. We only lost a few acres, and the grass there’ll grow back eventually. It could have been a lot worse.”

  “Ty, I’m so sorry,” Sarah said, shaking her head.

  “If they’d said so much as one word about being sorry for what they’d done, I’d have kept ’em on for the rest of the drive. But they copped an attitude, and I couldn’t risk ’em pulling some other fool stunt.”

  Which explained why he’d shown up in her office full of piss and vinegar, but not why he’d had sole responsibility for the boys. Hadn’t the Big Brother program been a fraternity project?

  “It never seemed fair that your friends put up the money for the program, but you got stuck doing all the work,” she offered.

  “I wanted it that way. As a tribute to J.D.”

  “Your friend? I saw his picture that first day at the Circle P. Doris said you two were close.”

  “Yeah.” Ty snorted. “You could say that. Two peas in a pod, she called us. From the day we met, all the way through high school, we did practically everything together. Baseball. Horseback riding. Fishing. Summers, weeks would pass when we never even left the Circle P.”

  Having spent the past six days on a cattle drive through some of the prettiest country she’d ever seen, Sarah understood the attraction. But the social worker in her wondered at a different aspect of the story. She lifted one eyebrow. “His parents didn’t mind?”

  “Only when they sobered up long enough to notice he was missing. Which wasn’t often. His folks weren’t worth a nickel, but J.D., he was the brother I never had. Always the peacekeeper.” He chuckled. “With Seth and Doris’s brood on the ranch back then, by the end of the day, we usually needed one.”

  “Sounds like he was an exceptional friend.”

  “Yeah,” he said tightly. “Even after Millie and I got serious, it was always the three of us. She’d cheer at our football games on Friday nights. We’d take her to the movies on Saturdays.”

  Ty slapped his hat against his knee.

  “J.D. was right about one thing—he said all along that Millie wasn’t right for me, wasn’t the kind of gal who’d stick around. Even when moving back to the ranch was the farthest thing from my mind, he insisted I could do better.”

  “But you married her anyway.”

  Leather creaked as Ty squared himself in Ranger’s saddle. “She was my first. First love, that is. All through high school, she led me around the way teenage girls lead randy teenage boys. When I left for college, I thought she was worth waiting for.”

  While Ty filled her in on his history with Millie, Sarah fought a growing dislike for Jimmy’s mom. From the story he told, it sounded as if the rancher had done everything he could to earn his wife’s love, when love should be something freely given and not paid for with fancy houses in the city.

  “I’m making her sound like a bad person, and she wasn’t,” he said at last. “Maybe she was the right person at the wrong time. Or maybe our marriage was doomed no matter what we did. Who knows? I do know I was already restless by the time my dad got sick. Tired of suits and ties and long commutes. For me, coming back to the ranch was the best decision I’d ever made. But Millie, she never accepted my struggle to keep a roof over our heads, the lan
d beneath our feet.”

  Sarah swept their surroundings with an encompassing gesture. Even in the dark, the beauty of the land was unmistakable. “I’m not sure how anyone could turn their back on all this.”

  “There was a time I didn’t think I’d ever set foot on the Circle P again so, to a certain extent, I can understand the way Millie felt. The other stuff was harder to see past.”

  Ranger snorted and pawed the ground with one hoof. Ty took a moment to calm the horse, and when he continued his own agitation had faded, making him sound more sure of himself.

  “I got through J.D.’s funeral on my own. Not telling me about the baby, that’s a little harder to understand. Since she’s not here to ask, I guess there’s some questions I’ll carry to my grave.”

  Sarah let a sigh ease out between her lips. She had her own unanswerable questions. Like why parents hurt their own children. How the very people who were supposed to provide a safe haven for victims of abuse and neglect often ended up causing more harm than good. How she could continue to work for a system that was so hopelessly broken. “Some questions just don’t have good answers,” she murmured.

  “And some do,” came Ty’s quiet response. The metal on Ranger’s bridle jangled. “What do you think? Any room in your life for a rancher who’s barely making ends meet?”

  Across the open field, a restless whip-poor-will trilled notes into the dark.

  “There might be,” Sarah said past the lump in her throat. Belle’s ears rose and she blew out a rough breath. “Easy girl,” Sarah soothed. She rubbed one hand over the silky mane.

  “I’d sure like it if you came back to the Circle P for a while after we deliver the cattle to Kissimmee.”

  Ty’s voice had dropped so low Sarah had to lean in to hear him. Her answer, though, required no thought. It rose unbidden to her lips. “I’d like that,” she said. “Very much.”