A Rancher To Love. Trish Milburn

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      A jolt of her anxiety returned. In her mind, she really hadn’t examined options beyond staying with Conner. With him she thought she might feel safe. She feared being alone again, even in a different town. What if she felt just as scared in Blue Falls as she did Houston? What if the fear never went away?

      Not wanting to hop that train of thought, Leah pushed the fears aside. She knew they’d reassert themselves later, but for now she wanted to enjoy a reprieve.

      “It does make sense,” Conner said. “And I think I know the perfect place.”

      * * *

      TYLER LOWE WATCHED his five-year-old niece sitting on the opposite side of his kitchen table nibbling on her grilled cheese sandwich, quiet as the proverbial church mouse.

      “Maddie, is the sandwich okay?” He wasn’t a fancy chef, but he thought he made a mean grilled cheese.

      Maddie nodded but didn’t speak. She’d been like this for the past month, ever since her mother had dropped her on his doorstep almost without taking time to stop the beat-up car she was driving. His fists tightened as the familiar anger at his younger sister rushed to the surface again. Kendra had always been flighty, a handful for their parents, but she’d graduated to unfit mother when she’d started drinking and taking drugs. It was a sad state of affairs when a single rancher and farrier with no experience raising children was preferable to a child’s own mother.

      Even so, each day he felt more like an abject failure. What had his niece endured that had turned her from a happy, energetic toddler to the quiet child who almost seemed scared of him? Once upon a time, she’d crawl up on his lap and pat his face with her chubby little fingers. But she likely didn’t remember that. Now she was no longer energetic or chubby, and he was just a guy her mother had left her with, someone she didn’t know anymore.

      And he had no idea how to reach her.

      He reverted back to silence, too, thinking how he needed to take her shopping for new clothes soon. Not surprising that Kendra had left the child behind with only one small bag of clothes and the stuffed puppy that was never far from Maddie’s side. Since her arrival, he’d bought her a few things. But with school right around the corner, she needed not only clothes and shoes but also school supplies. And when had school supply lists become as long as his arm, and for a kindergartner? Evidently she had to have everything from crayons to safety scissors to boxes of tissues.

      A little more than a month ago, he’d have never thought he’d be enrolling a child in kindergarten for the fall. He was about as equipped to be a parent as a bull was to fly jumbo jets. And he was discovering that raising a kid was expensive, even if you just provided the basics. No wonder his sister had left her only child in his care. Yes, it was an unkind thought, but abandoning Maddie had been the last straw.

      “Honey, why don’t you wrap up the other half of your sandwich and bring it with you?”

      Maddie met his gaze, a tentative question in her pretty green eyes.

      “I’ve got to go to another ranch to work on a horse’s feet.” And of course there was no way he was leaving a five-year-old home alone. He didn’t think a babysitter was a good idea either, at least not yet. His gut told him that being left with yet another person she didn’t know wasn’t the best thing for Maddie right now. He might not know what was, but that wasn’t it.

      Maddie slipped out of her chair and wrapped her sandwich in a napkin. She held it in one hand and her puppy in the other. She didn’t even question that she had to go with him, which some instinct told him wasn’t normal. Weren’t kids her age normally full of questions, curiosity on steroids?

      God, he hoped he figured out how to communicate with her soon. It was like living with a child who’d very nearly taken a vow of silence.

      Maddie kept her sandwich wrapped as he drove toward town, but she did seem to be interested in the countryside. She sat up straight in the booster seat he’d gotten her.

      He pointed across a field. “The couple who live in that house raise little horses. They’re only about as tall as you. Maybe we can go and see them sometime. Would you like that?”

      Maddie hesitated for a minute but then nodded.

      Okay, that was a tiny positive step. He wanted to ask her why she didn’t speak any more than she did, but he hoped waiting and being kind to her would lead to her speaking on her own. Maybe starting school next month would help. She’d be around other kids her age, at her level. He just crossed his fingers that the experience didn’t freak her out too much, the way it had Kendra when she’d started school. The school had called his mom because Kendra wouldn’t stop crying. It had taken what seemed like forever to his eight-year-old mind for his sister to stop bawling like a baby at school.

      As they continued into town and then down Main Street, Maddie seemed to soak up all the sights. The people on the sidewalks, the displays in the windows, everything. There was a curious little girl in there if he could just figure out a way to get her to come out.

      He spotted the small ice-cream stand that sat near the lake. Every kid liked ice cream, right?

      “Hey, would you like an ice-cream cone?”

      Maddie looked at him and he could tell from the bright look in her eyes that she wanted to say yes.

      “I think I’ll have one, too. I like peach flavor. What do you like?”

      “Strawberry.” Her response was almost a whisper, but at least it was something.

      “Strawberry, good choice.”

      They waited in line behind a small group of women who, judging by the bags they held, were in town for a day of shopping. When it was his and Maddie’s turn, he placed the order.

      “This must be your niece.”

      He turned at the sound and saw Verona Charles with her own niece, Elissa Kayne. “Yes, this is Maddie.”

      Verona smiled as she leaned down to eye level with Maddie. “Well, aren’t you just the prettiest little thing.”

      Maddie remained quiet, and he sensed that part of her wanted to take a step away from the other woman. Too many new people coming into her life too quickly.

      “It’s nice to meet you, Maddie,” Elissa said, speaking to her in a normal adult tone, not that cutesy kid voice most people used.

      “You, too.” Two whole words. Progress.

      Tyler met Elissa’s gaze, and he saw the questions there. But she was kind enough not to pry. No doubt the whole county had heard how Kendra had abandoned her daughter. He really hoped that knowledge didn’t trickle down to any of the kids who would be Maddie’s classmates because kids could be cruel to each other. And even though he didn’t know the specifics, he knew in his gut that Maddie had been through enough.

      When their ice cream was handed through the window, he grabbed them and extended Maddie’s to her. She immediately took an enthusiastic lick, making him smile.

      “She’s got the right idea,” Verona said. “Give me a double scoop of strawberry.”

      As Verona started to turn toward him, he said, “We better be off. Work calls.”

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