Jared's Texas Homecoming. Patricia Thayer

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      Dana returned to the table with a plate of eggs and a basket of her butter biscuits. “Yeah, too bad that isn’t true. If it were, I’d have ranch hands lined up outside my door.”

      “Mom, I’ll work for you,” Evan volunteered as he reached for a biscuit.

      She ruffled her son’s dark head. “Thanks, but I’d be happy for you to pick up your room and give me a few kisses.”

      He puckered up and Dana leaned down and took his offering. “Bert and Jared need to give you a kiss, too.”

      Dana fought the heat flaming in her cheeks. She lost. “Oh, I’m pretty stingy with my kisses. I save them for my best guy. You.” She tickled his ribs, making him giggle.

      Jared sat back and watched the exchange between mother and son. Marsh would be happy to see how good they were together. Once again he reminded himself he should leave. It had been a lot of years since he’d worked on a ranch. Just that short time right after he’d left Graham Hastings’s house some dozen years ago. He smiled to himself, recalling another time when he and Marsh were twelve and thirteen and attended a summer ranch camp for wannabe cowboys.

      Maybe he’d just finish the week, then go and stay in town until his truck was repaired. While he was here he could replace some of the stall gates in the barn. How long could that take? He knew that Bert was limited to the amount of work he could do. Just feeding stock and keeping the fences repaired and upright was a full-time job.

      That’s what they’d been doing since five this morning when Bert had come to get him. Having had a restless night he’d already been awake. He’d been thinking about Dana, and the direction of his thoughts were dangerous. That’s the reason he needed to finish this job and get going. His pretty boss was trouble.

      “What ya doin’?” Evan asked.

      Jared stopped his hammering and turned to find the boy standing behind him in the wide concrete aisle inside the barn.

      “I’m fixing Sammy’s stall. Some of the boards rotted out and I thought I’d replace them. You don’t want your pony to get hurt, do you?”

      The boy shook his head. “No, I love Sammy.” He glanced around the barn. “Where’s my pony?”

      “I took him outside so the noise wouldn’t scare him.”

      Evan gave the situation some thought. “Do you have a horse?”

      “No, I don’t.”

      “Do you want one?”

      He pulled another rusted nail from the rotted wood. “I probably did when I was your age.”

      “Do you know how to ride?”

      Jared bit back a smile at the artillery of questions. “Probably not as good as you, but I manage.”

      “I bet Mom will let you ride Scout. He’s gentle and doesn’t bite or kick.”

      “That’s good to know in case, but I’m busy for a while repairing the stall.” Jared replaced his hammer in his tool belt.

      “Wow, what’s that?”

      “My tool belt.” Jared crouched down to show the boy his different tools and the pouches for nails and screws.

      “That’s cool.”

      “I’m a carpenter. I need to have a lot of different tools so I can do my work.”

      “Can I help you? I know how to use a hammer. Bert showed me one time.”

      Jared scratched his head as if thinking about it. “I guess I could use a helper. Maybe you can hand me nails and tools.”

      The boy’s dark eyes lit up. “Really?”

      “As long as it’s okay with your mother.”

      “She went into town. Bert’s watchin’ me.”

      “I guess we should ask him. Then maybe you can help me carry some more wood from the side of the barn.”

      “I’m strong, I can do it. Come on,” Evan called as he took off to the corral to ask Bert. A smiling Jared walked after him as the boy eagerly chattered with the older man, selling his case. Bert looked toward him. Jared nodded his approval and the foreman gave the child permission. He found he was looking forward to spending time with Evan. He was a great kid.

      The next two hours flew by. Surprisingly, Evan didn’t get tired or complain about the work. The boy held tools, handed Jared nails and did just about anything Jared asked of him.

      They were working on the third horse stall and Evan was still talking nonstop. The current subject was about some wild mustangs.

      “Are there mustangs on the Lazy S?” Jared asked.

      Evan shook his head. “They live in Mustang Valley, but that’s really close to here.” He pointed off to the west. “Over by the Circle B that Hank owns. He’s Bert’s friend. But Bert says Hank turned the ranch into a sissy dude ranch.”

      Jared couldn’t help but laugh.

      “They got a whole bunch of people who go there just to look at the mustangs. They pretend to be cowboys and cowgirls. Bert says it’s plumb crazy. That city people are loco.”

      “How big is this place?”

      “Real big.” There was a pause as Jared hammered in another nail. Evan handed him another one. “They want Mom to sell them some of her land.” The boy picked up the conversation. “But Mom never will ’cause when I’m growed up, the Lazy S is gonna be mine.”

      “So Hank has been after her to sell?”

      Evan shook his head. “No. She says it’s Hank’s boys. They aren’t really his boys, they just lived with him.”

      Was someone pressuring Dana into selling? “How do you know they aren’t his kids?” Jared asked.

      “’Cause Bert said they have a good-for-nothing daddy. Hank took them in and saved them from a life of crime.”

      “Who are these boys?”

      “The Randells.”

      Dana finally had made it back into town. A lot of good it had done her. The bank hadn’t been interested in listening to her idea to expand the cattle operation. Worse, they refused her the additional money she needed, only allowing her a sixty-day extension on her current mortgage. Things didn’t look good. She turned off the highway and headed down the road to the Lazy S.

      Why not just give up? She could sell part of the ranch to the Randells. Cade had talked with her several times about wanting the section that was attached to the valley and their property.

      Dana wiped way her tears. She didn’t want to think about it now. There was still an outside chance that she could scrape up enough money when she sold off her yearlings. But what would she and Evan live on for the next six СКАЧАТЬ