Christmas At Cade Ranch. Karen Rock

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      “Your head...” he concluded, after having Javi work his way up from his toes, tensing, then releasing the muscle groups. He felt rather than saw Sofia’s eyes on him.

      “I can’t squeeze my head,” Javi said with a giggle. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Sofia’s relieved smile and returned it.

      “That must mean you’re a knucklehead,” he joked, and to his relief, Javi emerged from behind the couch.

      He shook his finger at James. “I heard that.”

      “Well. At least that means you don’t have cotton between your ears.”

      Javi giggled again and wriggled free of his mother’s embrace.

      “Do you want to check out Justin’s hunk-a-junk with me?” he asked, an urge to connect with Javi taking hold.

      “Okay.”

      A small hand slipped into his and a feeling of protectiveness surged. Such a trusting gesture. Tender. Vulnerable. A child’s faith could slay the most stalwart dragon, he marveled, and he felt the walls he’d built up about the boy begin to crumble.

      He led Javi out on the porch and Sofia followed.

      “Thank you,” she said to him softly, a heartbreaking smile on her face. A sliver of pink gum showed above her top teeth.

      Justin leaned out of the driver’s-side window of a rust-brown, banged-up Chevy Impala, the number 212 spray painted on its side. The engine rumbled in the night air. James’s nostrils stung from the spewing exhaust.

      “Ma! You coming? I need to get moving if I’m going to take out Daryl Loveland in the first round.”

      Joy’s hand fluttered to her hair, her necklace. “Actually, I don’t think I’ll go out after all.”

      James exchanged concerned glances with his siblings behind his mother’s back. She’d seemed so animated before.

      “Suit yourself. Hey, kid.” Justin beckoned Javi. “Want a ride before I head to the demolition derby?”

      His teeth flashed stark white against his dark beard, his grin more pirate than rancher. Justin’s many speeding tickets, accident reports and wrecks came to mind.

      “No,” James insisted. He met his family’s surprised stares, chin raised. Heedless Justin was the last person he trusted to drive Javi. “I’ll take him.”

      “Do you want to go, honey? You don’t have to.” Sofia brushed back Javi’s hair. James’s heart somersaulted at the tender gesture.

      Javi nodded, his eyes on the muscle car.

      “Want me to go with you?”

      Javi peered down at his hand clasped in James’s and shook his head. “Can I ride up front?”

      “Yes. But only because I’m going to go very slow, and you’re wearing a seat belt.” He met Sofia’s eye. “Okay, Mom?”

      She smiled tightly. “Just don’t go far.”

      “We won’t. Let’s go, Javi.”

      And a moment later, he guided the Impala down one of the dirt roads that separated pastures. The sports coupe growled and whined, bouncing over potholes, kicking up clouds of white snow, dust and pebbles. His thoughts and feelings swirled around his head like quicksilver, unpredictable and reluctant to coalesce. As he drove alongside barbed wire fences and stared at the white-crusted land illuminated by his headlights, he allowed himself to think about Jesse. Was Javi really Jesse’s son? And if so, had he disavowed the child? Why?

      Although he didn’t imagine he’d ever have children, he knew he’d never turn his back on his own. He’d always take responsibility and protect what was his.

      He shut down the traitorous thought of his brother. Believing Javi was Jesse’s son meant accepting his sibling had acted worse than he’d imagined, hurting not just his family, but inflicting pain on an innocent child. On Sofia.

      He cast a sideways glance down at the wide-eyed boy beside him. Javi huddled in the passenger seat, fidgeting with the large seat belt that crossed his lap. Cool air streamed in through the open window and he breathed in the bovine scent that mingled with the hay they’d tossed out to the livestock earlier.

      Javi was quiet. Too quiet. Concern rose. “Want me to turn around?”

      “No.”

      “Where do you want to go?”

      Another moment of silence. Then, “Home.”

      “You miss your family.” It was more statement than question.

      Javi shook his head. “I don’t have any.”

      “No grandparents?” Was Sofia an orphan? If so, then who’d raised her? Curiosity rose, swift and urgent.

      “Joy. I mean, Grandma’s my first one besides Mama. Do you think she likes me?”

      “Yes,” he said, his voice gruff. Encouraging Javi to feel a part of the family was wrong until he had proof he was truly a Cade. Yet his convictions dwindled in the face of this child’s wish to belong.

      “No one ever likes me except Mama.”

      “I’m sure that’s not true.” James turned down a left loop that would carry them back to the house. A row of wind turbines rotated slowly on a distant hill.

      “A lady behind a desk once called me a waste of space.”

      James’s fingers tightened around the cracked leather steering wheel. “That was a bad thing to say.”

      “Mama said her panty hose were too tight.”

      That pulled a laugh right out of him.

      “What’s panty hose?”

      Before James could think of how to explain, Javi asked, “Was Daddy bad?”

      James’s throat swelled. “Jesse tried his best. He was a good man, but he sometimes did wrong things.”

      “Mama says he went up.”

      James pressed on the brake when a ginger cat broke from some brush and scuttled across the road. “That’s true.”

      “You only get to go up if you’re good,” Javi said to his clasped hands.

      James flipped off his lights as they neared the glowing ranch house. “That’s why it’s important to be on our best behavior.”

      “But it’s hard,” moaned Javi.

      He grinned and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Yes, it is.”

      They pulled up to the front porch and there stood Sofia, just where they’d left her, as if she’d been frozen in place.

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