Ace's Wild. Sarah McCarty

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      “You’re going to come with me.”

      “Where to?”

      “Miss Wayfield’s.”

      “The schoolmarm?” He looked horrified.

      Ace couldn’t blame him. He couldn’t think of a much worse fate for an eight-year-old boy than to be stuck with a schoolteacher. But then again, he couldn’t think of a much worse fate than for a schoolteacher to be stuck with an eight-year-old boy. He smiled to himself. “Yep, she’ll know what to do with you.”

      The boy took a step backward out of his reach. “Why does she have to do anything with me?”

      Luke came up behind him, stopping his retreat. “Because you’re eight, because you can’t take care of yourself, but mostly because people care about you.”

      “I can take care of myself.”

      “Just saying it doesn’t make it true, son.”

      “I can!”

      Luke shot him a warning glance. “We know you can but remember Ace telling you he lost that bet?”

      The boy nodded.

      “Well, he lost it to Miss Wayfield.”

      The boy blinked. “Miss Wayfield gambles?”

      With every breath she takes, Ace thought. The woman had a daring side that nobody but him seemed to see.

      “She worries about you, boy. She sent me out here to check on you and your dad and she said if I found things were not looking good, that your dad needed help...”

      Luke rolled his eyes at the tale. Ace glared at him over the boy’s head.

      “That I was to bring you back to town.”

      “What am I going to do in town?”

      “Well,” Luke said, “if you are as hungry as I am, have a steak dinner.”

      Ace could practically see the saliva flooding the kid’s mouth, see the hunger in his eyes, but then Terrance shook his head, and his face took on a stubborn expression.

      “I don’t have any money.”

      “You don’t need any money. I lost the bet, remember?”

      “What was the bet?”

      “The bet doesn’t matter. What matters was the penalty.”

      “And what was that?”

      “Steak dinners all around,” Luke chimed in.

      “For me, too?”

      Especially for him but keeping the boy’s pride in mind, he nodded. “For you, too, kid.”

      “And my dad said it’s all right?”

      “Yup.”

      “I don’t know if I should go.”

      “He told me to take you.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

      “And you’ll send the doctor?”

      Ace heard the kid’s stomach growl. He had to admire the boy’s sense of honor. As hungry as he was and as much as he wanted that steak dinner, he wasn’t leaving until he was sure his dad was all right.

      “I’ll send the doctor.” The boy seemed satisfied. “Do you have anything you need to get? Anything special you need?”

      The kid licked his lips, looked at Ace then at Luke then at Ace then back at Luke again. “I do have something.”

      “What?”

      “It’s real special.”

      Ace was out of patience. “Then fetch it.”

      Luke glared at Ace. “If it’s in the house, tell me where it is and I’ll get it.”

      “It isn’t in the house.”

      They followed Terrance over to the corner of a fallen-down shack behind the house. The boy hesitated, looking around carefully before reaching in and pulling out a box poked through with holes. Very carefully he lifted the lid. Ace expected him to pull out marbles or pretty-colored rocks, the normal boy things. Instead, he pulled out a baby rabbit.

      “This is Lancelot.”

      Luke choked. “Mighty big name for such a little critter.”

      Terrance nodded and stroked the rabbit, which looked completely relaxed. “It’s from one of the stories Miss Wayfield told us. He didn’t have a home.”

      Tucking the bunny in his shirt, he squared off against Ace and Luke. From the expression on his face, he was ready to take them both on if they made a comment. The boy held the bunny through his shirt. “He needs me.”

      Ace didn’t have anything to say to that.

      “He does!”

      “Well, that’s that, then.” Ace wasn’t going to fight a kid over a rabbit. “Is there anything else?”

      Terrance shook his head.

      “Then let’s get a move on. I’ve got a game waiting.”

      They headed back to the horses. The boy didn’t look at the house again, but he tensed as they passed it as if expecting his father to come out and take away that steak dinner.

      Ace put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. Terrance didn’t look up after the initial tensing, and he stayed tense under his hand. Ace didn’t know what Pet was going to do with the boy but whatever she did, it had to be better than this.

      “It will be all right, son.”

      Terrance looked at him, disbelief clearly in his gaze.

      Ace resisted the urge to squeeze his shoulder again. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you’ll see.”

      “Nothing like a steak dinner to change a man’s perspective,” Luke added.

      At the thought of dinner, the boy perked right up again. Luke mounted Buddy. Ace gave Terrance a boost up behind.

      “Watch that rabbit now. You don’t want to crush him.”

      Terrance nodded. Good Christ. Was this what he’d come to? Babysitting a kid and a bunny? Ace shook his head and swung up on Crusher.

      “Then let’s get going.”

      The sooner the kid and the bunny were Pet’s problem, the happier he’d be.

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