Her Man On Three Rivers Ranch

When she’d returned to Wickenburg to care for her father, she’d not been surprised by the dilapidated condition of the home where she and her brother had grown up. The roof had leaked in several places and in most of the rooms the linoleum had worn down to the subflooring. The air-conditioning had gone kaput, and with no window screens, it was impossible to open the house for any kind of relief from the heat. Her father had refused to move anywhere, so she’d been forced to make enough repairs to make the house livable for her and Nick.

Blake had thought she was still living there and yet that hadn’t stopped him from asking her for a date. The whole notion amazed her.

“Uh, no. After Dad died, I sold the property. I’ve moved to the west side of town in a white brick house with green shutters.” She gave him the address. “My little car is red and you’ll see it parked beneath a carport on the right side of the house. It’s easy to find.”

“No problem. I’ll find it.”

A few awkward moments of silence passed and then she asked, “Are you really sure you want to do this, Blake? If you’re having second thoughts, don’t worry about it. I’ll understand.”

“Would you understand? Because I wouldn’t,” he said bluntly. “Listen, Katherine, I’ve asked you out on a date because I want to spend time with you. Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

Her spine stiffened to a straight line. There was no point in skirting around the issue, she thought. “Surely you can’t be that blind. You’re a Hollister. You have no business going out with someone like me.”

“Someone like you? Since when is it wrong for a Hollister man to want to spend time with a lovely, intelligent young woman?”

Did he honestly see her in that way? “We hardly travel in the same social circle, Blake.”

“I don’t travel in any social circle. And from what you tell me, you don’t, either.”

He was making sense. Or did she simply want to believe the two of them could meet on common ground.

“I apologize, Blake. I’m insulting both of us, aren’t I?”

“Yes. You are.”

She bit down on her lower lip. “I’m sorry. I really do want to see you again.”

“Good. That’s all I needed to hear. So I’ll see you Friday evening.”

She could hear a smile in his voice and the sound warmed her far more than it should have. “Friday. Yes. See you then.”

He ended the call with a quick goodbye, and with a shaky hand, Katherine placed her phone on the table.

Right or wrong, she was going on a date with Blake Hollister.

Chapter Three (#u98f7a02c-7b53-578a-b2ec-c377a423cdb8)

Friday afternoon Blake called Katherine to confirm their date, and before their brief conversation ended, she asked if he’d mind dropping off Nick at the sitter’s on their way out of town. Blake had readily agreed and had even felt a bit flattered that she wanted him to meet her son.

But now as Blake walked to the front door of Katherine’s brick house, he wondered how Nick was going to react to his mother going on an outing with a strange man. Blake loved children, but that didn’t mean Katherine’s son would like him. It would make for an awkward start with Katherine if the boy took an instant dislike to him.

Trying not to dwell on that possibility, Blake punched the doorbell and after a moment he could hear footsteps racing through the house. When the door partially opened, he found himself staring at a tall, thin boy with dark hair and clear gray eyes. There was no doubt he was Katherine’s child. Her features were stamped all over his face.

“Hello,” he said as he warily eyed Blake. “Are you Mr. Hollister?”

“Hello,” Blake said, returning the greeting. “And I am Mr. Hollister.”

Continuing to study Blake with open curiosity, he opened the door wide and thrust out his hand.

“I’m Nick,” he said, introducing himself. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

Blake gave the boy’s hand a firm shake. “It’s nice to meet you, Nick. And it’s fine with me if you call me Blake.”

“Mom says I have to be respectful of my elders. But you don’t look all that old to me,” he said. “You want to come in, Blake?”

Blake smiled to himself. At least the boy wasn’t sulking. “That would be nice.”

Nick stepped to one side and Blake entered a short foyer.

“Mom is still getting dressed,” Nick announced as he closed the front door behind them. “She’s always slow.”

“That’s okay. I don’t mind waiting.”

The boy motioned for Blake to follow him out of the foyer. “Come into the living room. I’ll go tell Mom you’re here.”

With Nick leading the way, Blake entered a cozy room furnished with a dark red couch and matching stuffed armchair. A glass coffee table was covered with books and DVDs, while a television spanned a far corner of the room. Beyond a picture window framed with cream-colored drapes, a view of the desert almost made him forget the house was situated on the edge of a residential area.

“You can sit anywhere you want,” Nick instructed before he disappeared through an open doorway.

After taking a seat in the armchair, Blake settled back and allowed his gaze to wander around the room. Almost immediately his attention was caught by several framed photos resting on a wall table off to his left. With only a span of a few feet between him and the photos, Blake could see the majority of the images were of Nick captured at different stages of his young life. There was also an enlarged snapshot of Paulette Anderson with another woman, most likely her sister. He also recognized one small photo of Katherine’s brother, Aaron. The fact that there were no images of her late father or husband stood out like a weed in a rose garden.

Considering what Joseph had told him about Avery Anderson, Blake could understand why she might not want to be reminded of her father. But what about her husband? Was losing him still so painful she didn’t want to look at his image?

The sound of footsteps had him glancing around to see Nick entering the room.

“Mom says she’ll be ready in five minutes,” he announced. “But if I was you, I’d be ready to wait another ten. She’s just now doing something to her hair.”

The boy walked over to the couch and plopped onto the end cushion. Blake noticed he was wearing a black T-shirt with his school’s name printed across the front, along with blue jeans and high-top basketball shoes made of black canvas. In a few short years, he was going to be a very good-looking teenager, Blake decided. No doubt Katherine would have her hands full trying to keep him on the right path. Unless she married in the near future and then Nick would have a stepfather to help guide him into manhood.

Shoving away that uncomfortable thought, he asked, “What grade are you in, Nick? The fifth?”

He nodded. “I’m ten. I’ll be eleven in three months, though.”

“Hmm. I liked being eleven,” Blake commented. “It’s a fun age.”

“I wouldn’t know about that. I’m not eleven yet.”

Before he could stop it, Blake was laughing and the sound must have eased something in Nick, because he suddenly laughed along with him.

“Are you really a cowboy? Mom says you run a big ranch that has lots of cows and horses.”

“That’s right. It’s called Three Rivers Ranch.”

His interest piqued, Nick squared around on the cushion so that he was directly facing Blake. “I guess you know how to ride a horse and all that kind of stuff. Can you rope a bull?”

“I can. But it’s not something I do very often. It’s pretty dangerous. Especially when they have long horns.”

Nick thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, guess it would be. Those long horns are pretty scary. When Gold Rush Days was going on, Mom took me to the rodeo. It was exciting. I liked the bucking horses best.”