His Texas Bride. Deb Kastner

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СКАЧАТЬ in the shadow of a smile. “Yes, ma’am. I can feel the movement. I think she—”

      The young man didn’t finish his sentence as the back half of the foal slid from his mother, followed quickly by the head. Tyler whooped in excitement. “Good going, Sophie.”

      Ellie broke the sac around the foal’s head and then stood up and took a couple steps backward. “It’s time to let Sophie take over,” she told Tyler.

      Tyler grinned, really grinned, this time. “I’ve seen this part before. Never get tired of it, though.” His voice was full of excitement and pride.

      “Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” Ellie asked, her own excitement and pride washing through her as she watched the gentle miracle of a mare tending her newborn foal.

      Tyler, who had also risen to his feet, leaned over the foal, then took off his tan felt cowboy hat and clapped it against his thigh. “It’s a boy, ma’am. You have a fine colt here.”

      “Thank God for a healthy birth,” Ellie whispered and then paused, considering her words carefully. “You know, I’m so glad you were here with me today. I couldn’t have made it without you, Tyler. Sophie and I appreciate what you did.”

      Tyler’s face flushed with color, and he returned his hat to his head, low over his eyes, just as his father wore his hat most of the time.

      “Yes, ma’am,” was all he said, but despite Tyler’s attempt to shade his features with his hat, Ellie saw a glimpse of his gleaming blue eyes, bright with pride and joy.

      “Tyler James Redmond, just what do you think you’re doing out here?”

      Buck’s voice obviously startled the boy, making Tyler jump from where he’d been crouching in the stable, staring down at something Buck couldn’t see from his vantage point.

      “He was helping me,” came Ellie’s voice from behind Buck, making him jump. Just like a woman to sneak up on a man. Buck whirled around to face her, lifting one eyebrow as he stared down into her gorgeous face. Time had been good to Ellie. She looked just as stunning as she had when she was seventeen—even more beautiful, if that were possible.

      “If you’d take a good look over the stable door, you’d see what,” she said, sounding annoyed. “Tyler and I have been busy.”

      Ellie made it sound like she and his son were old friends, and Tyler was beaming back at Ellie as if the sun rose and set at her presence.

      What had she done to his boy?

      This was the same sulky teenager who refused to utter two sentences straight to his own father and never, ever smiled, at least that Buck could remember. Tyler’s constant scowl was a mirror of Buck’s own image, he knew.

      But this was something different.

      Way different.

      Ellie opened the stall door and gestured for Buck to go inside ahead of her. Tyler’s smile changed to a scowl as Buck strode in, but Buck ignored it for the moment. Buck removed his hat and tucked it under his arm.

      “So what’s the story?” he asked gruffly. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he saw the answer to his own question wriggling on the soft straw of the stall floor.

      “Your son just delivered a foal,” Ellie said, sounding as proud as if she were speaking of her own child. “A breech birth. You should be proud of him, Buck.”

      Buck was proud, but he’d never known how to express it, so he just shrugged.

      Tyler stared at Buck for a long moment, his eyes narrowing with each second, until finally he muttered something under his breath and turned away.

      “What did you say?” Buck demanded of his son.

      “If you heard me, why do you have to ask?” Tyler replied sarcastically, then strode from the stall and out the stable door before Buck could say another word.

      Buck looked at Ellie, who was staring at him as if he’d grown a third arm. “What did I say?” he queried defensively.

      Ellie vehemently shook her head. “This was a special moment for Tyler, Buck,” she snapped, staring off the way Tyler had gone. “The least you could have done would have been to say something nice, something to let him know you are proud of your only son. Was that too much to ask?”

      “Give me a break, Ellie. I was caught off guard. I couldn’t think of anything to tell the boy. You know I’m not good at saying things out loud.”

      Ellie scoffed. “That I do remember.”

      Buck had the distinct impression the subject had changed, though he’d always had difficulty following the train of a woman’s thoughts—especially Ellie McBride’s.

      But he wasn’t that oblivious. She was obviously talking about him leaving town without a word all those years ago, for which he owed her an apology, or at least an explanation.

      He cleared his throat. Ellie was still looking off the way Tyler had left in a teenage huff. Buck was used to his son’s behavior by now, but he imagined it was new to Ellie.

      “I’m sorry about Tyler,” he began, then paused when Ellie’s wide-eyed gaze flashed to him, her eyebrow raised as if to ask him a question.

      “He’s been through a lot.” Her voice was soft and gentle when she talked about Tyler.

      “And I’m sorry I didn’t handle things better,” Buck continued gruffly.

      “You’ve been through a lot, too.”

      Buck sighed loudly. “Will you please stop making excuses for me? I’m trying to say I’m sorry.”

      She looked him straight in the eye. “Apology accepted,” she said simply.

      Buck didn’t remember Ellie being so erratic with her emotions. One second she was ripping him to shreds about his behavior; the next second she was blowing it off as nothing. Even as a teenager, she’d been extraordinarily levelheaded, a characteristic Buck especially admired in her.

      At least until it had come to the building of the new highway, the Texas government’s bright idea to make a shortcut, a straight link between Dallas and Houston, which had caused what had once been a small, quiet ranching town to brim over with tourists. With that stupid highway forced on them, Ellie’s pragmatism had gotten the best of her, not that, in Buck’s estimation, the government program had done considerably much to improve Ellie’s lot in life.

      Therapy Ranch, indeed.

      “Look,” he began tentatively. “It’s good I caught you alone for a few minutes. I believe I owe you an…” Here he hesitated. The first word that sprang to his lips had been apology, the word Ellie had just used when he’d said he was sorry, but that wasn’t what he wanted to say. “An explanation.”

      Ellie looked at him calmly, her arms relaxed down at her sides. “For?” she inquired lightly.

      Ellie already knew what this was about. It was obvious to her that Buck was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and СКАЧАТЬ