Second Chance Rancher. Brenda Minton

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СКАЧАТЬ well, we’ll figure this out.” With that, Lucy left the room, the hungry poodle fast on her heels.

      A truck pulled up as she washed dishes. Dane had towed the old farm truck back to the house for her. She let out a long sigh, rinsed the plate she had just washed and walked to the front door. Dane Scott stood in the yard, eyeing the mess that had once been the Palermo ranch. A frown settled on his too-handsome, too-tan, too-everything face. He pushed back the cowboy hat that shaded his features and pulled the sunglasses off his too-straight nose.

      Lucy wanted to go back inside, lock the door and pretend she’d never been sixteen and in love with Dane. Heat climbed into her cheeks thinking about her teen self and how she’d dreamed he’d take her away from this ranch and her father.

      That was all ancient history, years of water under the proverbial bridge.

      “Don’t just stand there drooling,” Maria whispered from behind her, humor lacing her tone. “Put him in his place. Never let them see you dream, sis.”

      Lucy walked down the steps, pretending Maria hadn’t spoken.

      “Dane.” She grabbed the yapping poodle as it ran circles around his stock dog. Other people had real cattle dogs. The Palermo family had a poodle that couldn’t find the door to go outside and wouldn’t know a cow from a tree. “Thank you for towing it home for me. Maria and I will fix the fence.”

      His blue eyes narrowed, then his gaze shifted to the point beyond her left shoulder where she knew Maria must be standing. He nodded just slightly as he refocused on her.

      “You don’t have to fix it, Lucy. I’ll send a couple of my men over to finish up the repairs.”

      “We’re responsible. We’ll fix it.” She kept her tone even, because she wouldn’t argue the point.

      He tipped his hat back and leveled those blue eyes of his on her. “I’ll fix the fence. While I’m here I wanted to make sure I can renew my lease for the three hundred acres.”

      “Of course you can. Why wouldn’t we keep the agreement?” She wondered if there was something she didn’t know. Something she should know.

      He shrugged. “I guess I thought you were going to stick around and might want to use that land.”

      She glanced back at her obviously pregnant sister. The teenager was sitting on one of the older rocking chairs on the covered front porch that ran the length of the house.

      “I guess I won’t be going anywhere, not for a while. But I’m not going to need that land. I’ll make do with the two hundred we’ve been using.”

      “You didn’t know?” Dane’s voice was smooth, quiet and concerned.

      He meant about Maria. She briefly closed her eyes and shook her head. In that moment it would have been easy to return to the girl she’d been, the one who had confided in him, shared secrets with him.

      No, she told herself. That was a long time ago. A dozen years might as well have been a lifetime because they’d both gone through things. They’d changed. The kids they’d been, those two teens who had met up while riding horses, or in town every once in a while, those two were long gone.

      “No. I didn’t know,” she answered. She wasn’t getting the Sister of the Year award. “It looks as if I should have come home sooner. I tried a few times, but work...”

      She didn’t owe him explanations. He was a neighbor. He leased part of their land. He wasn’t their keeper.

      He was her past. A very unhappy part of her past.

      “Understandable,” he answered, anyway. The one word was meant to let her off the hook. She didn’t need that, either.

      “No, it isn’t. But I’m here now. And it looks as if I have a lot of work to do. Starting with your fence.” She let her gaze slide away from his piercing eyes to a stable that needed repairs, a wood fence that had fallen down in places and a lawn that was overgrown.

      In the distance an ATV could be heard. She glanced west, the direction the sound came from.

      “That would be Essie, coming to give me her opinion of the place and my life,” Lucy said, more to herself than to her neighbor.

      “She does have opinions.” He grinned as he said it. They all knew Essie. She ran a café in town and had her own small spread about a mile down the road.

      In the midst of the worst of her nephew’s religious antics, Essie had rebelled. She’d refused to attend his services, her first offense. And then she’d tried to stop him from beating Lucy. That had earned her a black eye and an escort from the premises. It wasn’t until after his death that Essie was allowed back on the property.

      “Yes, she does have opinions.” Lucy watched the four-wheeler and the woman controlling it, a bright red helmet covering her now-graying hair.

      “I’ll unhitch your truck and leave it by the garage. But let me know if you need anything. And don’t worry about the fence. I can get it taken care of.” He gave them a parting nod with a tilt of his white cowboy hat before he climbed back in his big Ford King Ranch and drove slowly in the direction of the garage, their old truck clunking along behind him.

      “The temperature goes up ten degrees every time he’s near. Hot. Hot. Hot.” Maria appeared at Lucy’s side, a cheeky grin on her face. She took the poodle from Lucy. “I’ll get changed and we can get to work on this place. But you might want to go splash some cold water on your face first.”

      Lucy shook her head and walked away from her little sister, who was grinning as if this was all a big joke and they weren’t in serious trouble.

       Chapter Two

      Lucy headed for the barn where Essie had parked. Essie shot her a critical look, shaking her head as she hooked her helmet on the handlebars of the ATV. Her long gray hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Twin slashes of rose-tinted blush dotted her cheeks. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a photo of downtown Bluebonnet Springs on the front.

      “What’s Dane Scott doing here?” Essie said with the faintest trace of an accent. She’d moved to the United States forty years ago. Her husband, Emit Jackson, had been an American soldier. She’d loved him at first sight and would have followed him anywhere, she’d always told them.

      Lucy’s father, Jesse Palermo, had arrived in Texas ten years later. He’d moved to the States when his bull riding career had been at its peak and the big money had been found outside his native Brazil.

      It should have been obvious why Dane was there, but Lucy could play along. “He towed the truck home.”

      Her aunt gave her a half grin. “He’s still a good-looking man.”

      “I suppose, but he’s a bit young for you.”

      Essie cackled at that. “Pity, but it’s true. But then, I was never in love with him.”

      Had she been in love? It had been years ago and she’d convinced herself that it had simply been infatuation. Or maybe she’d been attracted СКАЧАТЬ