A Reunion For The Rancher. Brenda Minton

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СКАЧАТЬ why everything is going wrong and I can’t seem to make it right. I can’t be the mom Brandon needs. I’ve never been a good wife. I’m just empty. I have to go.”

      “No.” Carson reached for her hand, but she evaded and headed down the steps.

      “I’ll be back soon. I promise,” she called out as she got in her car.

      He would have gone after her, but Brandon came out of the house, wide-eyed and mouth agape. When the little guy looked as if he was about to run after the car, Carson snatched him up.

      Together they watched the little red car speed down the driveway.

      “So, Brandon, have you had breakfast?” He didn’t know what else to say.

      Or what else to do. He didn’t know what to do with a kid. He didn’t know how long it would take his sister to get her head on straight. Days? Weeks?

      Brandon sniffled and a few tears slipped down his cheeks. “I spilled the milk last night, and there wasn’t anything to eat this morning.”

      Carson pulled the door open and marched his nephew inside. First things first: food.

      As he rummaged around looking for kid-friendly food, he thought about Jenna. His sister had seemed lost for years. Their mom’s death had rocked their family, but maybe it had been hardest on a girl just about to enter her teens. When he looked back he realized she’d always drifted. She’d gone from relationship to relationship. She’d never quite found herself. And now Brandon was suffering for it.

      He found cereal in the cabinet that hadn’t been opened. It looked like the kind full of sugar and obviously what a boy would most want for breakfast. He poured a bowl for Brandon, then poured one for himself.

      As soon as he got Brandon settled at the table with breakfast he needed to call in the theft of the trophies. It didn’t amount to much, but they needed every theft on record.

      He thought about how he would question Ruby Donovan and her brother without really appearing to blame the younger man. Because everyone was a suspect at this point. He wouldn’t doubt if some people in town were putting his name on a list.

      As he contemplated, something crashed. A shriek followed. He hadn’t been watching Brandon. He turned in time to see the curtain rod over the French doors come crashing down. The curtains fell, the picture frames on the wall to the left of the door shattered and glass flew everywhere.

      Brandon was in the middle of the mess on an overturned chair.

      “What in the world?” Carson lifted the boy out of the mess.

      “I was going to try and get that spider.” Brandon pointed.

      Carson groaned and shook his head. He had to find something to do with a five-year-old until Jenna came to her senses. But first they needed breakfast and a trip to the Donovans’.

      * * *

      Ruby walked down to the old barn that had been on her family farm since almost the beginning. And it looked every bit of its almost one hundred years. The weathered, wood-sided structure leaned a little from time, from wind and rain, but it was sturdy.

      There were a few stalls inside, a hayloft in the top of the barn and a good corral. It was perfect for the business she wanted to start: teaching young children to ride. It wouldn’t bring in a lot of money, but until she could buy more livestock to replenish what had been sold off over the past few years and get a job, it would have to do.

      Derek joined her, looking over the barn with the same critical eye she’d used moments earlier. He brushed a hand through his dark chestnut hair. The sun captured just the slightest hint of red. He was tall and thin, too thin. He had her hazel eyes but with darker, thicker lashes. He looked like their dad. And it worried her that sometimes he acted like Earl Donovan. Restless. Their dad had always been restless. He’d been a cowboy, a saddle bronc rider and an alcoholic.

      “How can I help?” Derek asked. This was the new Derek, the kid who wasn’t quite twenty but wanted to change his life. She didn’t credit prison with that change; she credited his newfound faith.

      People might doubt that faith. She didn’t. It was no jailhouse conversion.

      “There isn’t a lot we can do,” she admitted. “I have to get students. So far I have three. That isn’t even going to pay the feed bill. I need ten a week. Even that isn’t a living.”

      “We’ve got a dozen steers we can take to the auction next month. By then they should bring enough to keep us solvent for a little while. And I’m going to get a job at the steakhouse washing dishes.”

      She closed her eyes at the revelation. “Thank you.”

      “It’s my farm and my family, too. Sometimes you forget that, Ruby. It isn’t all on you.”

      She leaned into his shoulder, and he patted her back before moving away. She smiled, because he’d never enjoyed her displays of sisterly affection. “I’m proud of you, Derek.”

      “And I’m not going to let you down. I’m almost twenty. It’s time for me to get my head on straight and figure some things out.”

      “Yes, well, I’m nine years older than you and I can say the same about my life.”

      “You had a career, sis, and you gave it up to come home and help out. You’ll get another job.”

      “You’re right. I will. I really hope I can get on with the state. I’m just not sure I want to continue being a caseworker.”

      He walked with her to the field where a half dozen ponies and small horses grazed on grass that was brown. The animals were all colors, all sizes. But they were gentle and well broke.

      “There was another theft last night,” Derek said as he leaned against the wood fence. “You know they’re going to come here, right?”

      “I know.”

      Four head of cattle from a farm that ran hundreds of head. Why just four? The thieves were being careful? Or maybe unsure of how to dispose of the animals?

      From what she’d heard they were hitting farms that had recently purchased animals, so the cattle weren’t yet branded. That was smart on their part and meant the thieves knew the ranches.

      A truck pulled up to the house. Ruby glanced in that direction and groaned. “Why?”

      “Because the guy still has a thing for you?” Derek said with a grin.

      “I think that’s the furthest thing from the truth.” She watched as Carson Thorn got out of his truck, and then she watched as he stood there waiting for something. Or someone.

      She saw the someone. A little boy with dark hair and the same confident swagger as Carson. The two headed her way, discussing something that appeared to be of major importance if the serious look on their faces meant anything. Carson shook his head. The little boy frowned. Carson looked away but not before she saw his lips turn in amusement.

      “Carson,” she greeted with her best formal tone. All business. That was how she wanted to keep him, in the category of the past, and business.

      “Ruby,” СКАЧАТЬ