The Rancher's Texas Match

“Chloe wants to see if Russell can have a job helping out around here. I understand if the answer is no.”

Bea laughed at that, taking him by surprise. “That girl can still wrap you around her little finger.”

“Yes, she has a gift,” Tanner acknowledged. “And she thinks I need to get to know the man she plans on marrying.”

“We’ll find him something to do. And try not to worry. We all know Russell. We know his past. After all, Tanner, the boy spent six months here.”

“Of course. I just don’t want any problems for you or the ranch.”

“Don’t you worry about us, we know how to handle young men like Russell.”

Yes, if anyone knew how to handle Russell, it would be Bea. As he started to turn to go, his gaze landed on Macy. He didn’t know what to say to her about the book and the note. Someone obviously wanted to push her into spending more time with Colby and the other boys at the ranch. Maybe Bea? Could even have been Flint or Jake.

Maybe he would ask Jake. He’d been there yesterday. Maybe he’d overheard Tanner ask Macy to help out, and he’d taken off with the idea in order to get her over here more often.

But the book and story time were low priority. The LSCL Boys Ranch needed Cyrus Culpepper’s property. Still, as Tanner left the Silver Star, the Culpepper place wasn’t on his mind. Instead his thoughts had turned to Macy Swanson and the strange turn of events that had her front and center in his life.

Chapter Four (#ulink_a9789335-9f77-5905-a52c-c12934edee49)

The print of the grant Macy had typed up blurred a bit as she stared at it. She rubbed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She’d been at the Silver Star since shortly after three, and she had three hours to go until the dinner at the steak house. If she hadn’t agreed to the plan yesterday, she would back out and go home. But she had volunteered, and she wasn’t canceling on people who were counting on her.

Things might seem a little brighter if she hadn’t woken up that morning to a car that wouldn’t start. She’d walked to school from her house. After work, Katie Ellis had given her a ride to the ranch. Macy would have to see if the other woman was still around to give her a ride back to town.

All in all it had been a long day. The kind of day that deserved another cup of coffee. Or a really long nap. And she was getting neither of those things. Instead she was sipping on a cup of herbal tea that Beatrice had brought her, something to soothe her, she’d been told.

A light rap on the door interrupted her musings. She smiled at the woman standing in the opening, her auburn hair pulled back. A floral shirt stretched tight over her belly. For a few months Josie Markham had tried to hide her pregnancy. Or maybe the young widow had been in denial. Her husband, a county deputy, had been killed in the line of duty. Only after his death did Josie learn that she was pregnant.

The two of them, Josie and Macy, had bonded immediately. They were both grieving, both trying to figure out the next step in their lives.

“Are you busy?” Josie asked as she stepped into the room and lowered herself into a chair. She was petite and even now seemed to be all belly.

“No, not really. I’m writing a new grant for a playground. But I have to decide how to word it. I’m trying to have faith that we’ll get the Culpepper place. That changes things a bit.”

“I guess that would complicate the grant process.”

“Yes, a bit.” Macy slid the grant paperwork into the filing cabinet and locked the drawer. “How are you feeling?”

Josie shrugged, but she briefly looked away and dashed a finger under her eye. A sign she wasn’t as great as the chipper smile she always managed to show the world might indicate.

“I’m good.” She sighed, and her hand went to her belly. “Good, meaning I’m waking up each morning. I’m moving forward, even though sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in quicksand.”

“Josie, I’m so sorry.” Macy reached for Josie’s hand and gave her fingers a light squeeze. “If you need anything...”

The smile reappeared. “I know. And the same goes for you. We’re quite a pair, aren’t we? Neither of us planned parenthood this way. How’s Colby doing?”

“I’m not sure. When I see him here, he seems fine. But when I tried to take him home, he was lost and then angry.”

“He has been through so much for someone so young. Give him time.”

“It’s been a year, Josie. What if he needs more than I can give him?”

“What do you mean?”

Macy closed her eyes just briefly. What did she mean? How could she put these thoughts into words? “I worry that I’m not the right person to raise him. Would he be better if there was someone else, and I just went away?”

Josie leaned forward and placed a hand on her arm. “Oh, Macy, don’t. He needs you. He might be pushing you away, but in time he’ll let you in.”

“I hope so. And if that isn’t the case, I hope God will show me what our next step is.”

“Colby was always a good little guy.” Josie sat for a long moment, looking out the window of the tiny office Macy used. “Maybe there’s something else, something more. Does he say anything in therapy or their group sessions?”

“Not really. They’ve had a hard time getting him to open up about that night. I understand. Sometimes I’d like to brush it under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen. But he’s been stuck in the ‘anger’ stage of grief for so long. I just worry we won’t get him to acceptance.”

“And on top of that worry, now we have Cyrus’s will to contend with. I don’t know why his lawyer didn’t try to talk him out of it.”

“Do you think he could have talked him out of it?” Macy asked, already knowing the answer.

“Not a bit. And now I have to run. I’m helping Abby and John Garrett with the boys in their cabin. We’re having a cookout and game night. But Bo Harrington is attending, and his son, Christopher, is already a pill without his parents there to make it worse.”

Macy knew a little backstory, that Christopher Harrington was sixteen and spoiled. The state juvenile office had placed him at the ranch, and his parents were still determined to get him out.

“Have fun. I heard he waxed the windows of Abby’s car. And he’s pulled a couple of the other boys into his antics.”

Josie groaned as she stood. “He’s rotten. I think he has potential if his parents will learn to allow him to suffer consequences. See you later. And let me know how it goes with the meeting and the big hunt.”

“Of course I will.” She smiled and waved to her friend. She had thirty minutes to work in the library. She wanted to start organizing things for the move. With the goal of moving at the end of the month, Bea was in overdrive, trying to get everyone and everything organized.

The library would be one of the easiest rooms to pack. It was fairly new and already somewhat in order. The rest of the ranch, she shuddered to think of that process. Decades of accumulation and living and only a month to box it all up.

As she wandered about the lovely old room with the high ceilings and dark stained woodwork, she heard footsteps in the hall. Light footsteps. Not the heavy booted footsteps of one of the hands or the soft swish of Bea’s sensible shoes.

She turned and caught sight of a slip of a boy, his dark hair mussed and his sneakers scuffing back and forth on the wood floor, as if he wasn’t sure of his welcome. She knelt and held out her arms.

Colby ran into her embrace.

“Hey, sweet guy, what’s up?” She wrapped her arms around him, wishing she could take away all of his pain, all of his anger. She would. She’d do it in a heartbeat because she knew she could process it, figure it out and move on. She had been moving on for the past year. Losing her brother, Grant. Losing her fiancé, her job.

But gaining Colby.

If only she could find a way to help him move on.

He shuddered in her arms, and his hand raised to swipe at tears rolling down his cheeks, dampening her sleeve. She tried to pull him back against her, but he stiffened, unwilling to have the embrace a second longer.

“Are you okay?” She stayed on her knees, her hands on his arms.

He nodded, but his green eyes swam with tears he was fighting to hold back. She bit down on her lip, trying to think of the right words. A mom should know what to say. A mom would know how to help him. She closed her eyes and admitted her failings in this area.

“Colby, I want to help you. I want to make it all better. If you could just tell me.”