by Mia Ross
But things between Ty and her had rarely made sense, she acknowledged with a quiet sigh. Because when you loved someone, no matter how foolish it was, you couldn’t help yourself. Not that she felt that strongly about him anymore, of course. That ship had sailed long ago, and she had no intention of taking another voyage through all that craziness.
Still, she had to admit—at least to herself—that loving Ty Wilkins was a very hard habit to break.
* * *
“Heels down, Allie,” Ty reminded her, jiggling the long line to keep Belle at a pony’s version of a jog. “Grip with your legs a little more and follow how she’s moving.” After she made the adjustment, he added, “That’s it. Looking good.”
The girl nodded and looked down at her hands, which were cemented in the low position he’d instructed her to use.
Quiet hands, he heard his grandfather saying in his memory. Horses are smart, so stay out of his way and you’ll do fine.
Thoughts of the old wrangler brought Ty both a smile and a tinge of sadness. He lived in a nursing home in Helena now, his world constrained by the Alzheimer’s that was slowly taking him away. During their last visit, he’d seemed content in his bright, sunny room, but had no idea who Ty was. When he introduced himself, Grandpa nodded absently and began talking about his grandson, a twenty-year-old who was a bright new star on the rodeo circuit.
Nine years gone, just like that. Ty’s heart still twisted in sorrow, but knowing that he existed in his grandfather’s memory somewhere made the changes a little easier to take.
Returning his attention to his eager student, he guided Allie through making a wide circle to change directions in the ring. She was a natural, he mused proudly, watching the small balancing adjustments she made without any prompting from him. Her affinity for animals, both large and small, was a real talent. With the right schooling and encouragement, that skill could land her a fulfilling job when she was older. In the meantime, she was getting a great education here on the ranch, and he silently thanked God for sending her to a family that would take such good care of her.
“And stop in the middle,” he said. Once the horse was still, he reeled in the lunge line as he strolled to the center of the ring. Hannah had appreciated a hug at the end of her lesson, but he cautioned himself to keep his distance from Allie. Running a hand along the pony’s neck, he smiled at the shy child. “You did a real nice job with her. I think she enjoyed herself. How ’bout you?”
After a moment, she offered up a shy smile and nodded. “It was fun.”
He didn’t usually get a gesture and verbal response from her at the same time, and it was all he could do to resist pulling her into a warm embrace. Instead, he gave himself a mental high five for making progress with her. “I’m glad to hear that. Why don’t you hop down, and we’ll go rub down Belle before we turn her out with her buddies in the pasture?”
“Okay.”
She dismounted smoothly, and from her seat on the top rail, Hannah asked, “Ty, can I have a ride?”
“It’s almost lunchtime, so I think we’re done for now.”
“No,” she replied, laughing as if he’d just suggested they fly to the moon for a picnic. “A piggyback ride. That’s what Mommy does after a lesson.”
He didn’t doubt that for a second, he mused with admiration. “Well, if that’s the routine, I guess we better stick to it.”
He angled over to pick up his passenger, who clambered onto his back and held on tight. Feeling like a good dad, he headed for the front barn with the pony on one side of him and Allie on the other. Sometimes, he still couldn’t quite believe that he had daughters, much less ones as awesome as these two. He’d had a wild, exciting life out on the circuit, but these days there was nothing he liked more than hanging out with his little cowgirls.
When he felt a small hand slide into his, he glanced down at Allie, and the half smile she gave him would have melted an entire Alaskan glacier. Ty’s heart swelled with pride, knowing that, in spite of his many flaws, he’d stumbled on a way to connect with this special child. Their shared love of animals was the key, he recognized. Well, that and a whole lot of patience. And then it hit him.
It hadn’t been all that hard. Was it possible that he was meant to be in their lives all along, and God had ended his rodeo career to bring him home to the children who needed him to be their daddy? It wasn’t much of a leap for him to make, and he toyed with the idea until they got to the barn and the twins began untacking their lesson partner.
“You two make a great team,” he approved, arms crossed while Allie removed the saddle and Hannah the bridle. Together, they lifted the heavy saddle pad, flipping it before draping it over the saddle on its rack. Ty recognized the careful handling as Morgan’s, who at ten years old had been the one to scold him for just dropping his tack on the floor after a ride.
“If you take care of things right, you’ll have them for a long time,” Hannah informed him in a voice that echoed her mother’s, only at a higher pitch.
“That’s true,” he agreed, handing them each a curry brush while he grabbed a comb to start on the pony’s mane. “And not just about things, but people, too.”
“You sound like Grandpa,” she told him.
Pausing in his work, he smiled over at her. “That’s just about the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, honey. Thanks.”
“He’s a good grandpa,” Allie commented, patting Belle’s shoulder while she worked.
“I have a good one, too. His name is Vernon.”
“What’s he like?” Hannah asked.
And so, Ty described the wise man who’d taught him so much about life, leaving out the sadder parts to avoid upsetting them. When it seemed like he’d rambled on long enough, he finished up with, “He’s a great guy, and I love him a lot.”
For some reason, his comment got Allie’s attention, and she gazed at him with the thoughtful expression he’d noticed on her many times. Nothing could have prepared him for what she said.
“You’d be a good daddy.”
Ty’s brain seized completely, and he couldn’t come up with a single thing to say. As they stared at him like cute blond bookends, he rallied and finally said, “That’d be cool someday.”
“We don’t have a daddy,” Hannah said in a matter-of-fact way that drove a spike into his heart. After a pause, she looked up at him and went on. “Would you like to be ours?”
Yes! Ty wanted to blurt, but logic broke in and stopped him. His promise to Morgan about keeping his true identity secret rang in his ears, and he knew if he broke it, she’d be furious. Would probably want to kill him, and he couldn’t blame her. It had taken him two months to regain her trust enough that she let him have limited time alone with their daughters. He didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.
But another part of him, one he didn’t even know existed, responded to them on a different level that didn’t know the first thing about being reasonable and cautious. It was the instinctive part of him that reacted to a panicky horse without thinking, and it was the one he followed now.
Strolling over to a nearby hay bale, he reminded himself that they were six and he needed to keep things simple and kid friendly. Then he sat down and patted the open spot on either side of him. “Come on over, girls. There’s something I need to tell you.”
* * *
“This is it,” Dad announced, shifting the SUV into Park outside a double unit in a Helena condominium complex. The buildings looked new, and the grounds were expertly landscaped, with lots of mature trees and well-maintained gardens full of flowers. Each set was a duplex with a garage in front and a covered patio out back inside a small yard framed by shrubs that defined the property lines without being too obvious about it.
In short, it looked like a very pleasant place. As they left the truck and walked up the driveway toward the front door, the odd feeling Morgan had
been experiencing all morning intensified with each step. This was her mother’s new home, she thought grimly. The woman had been here for nearly a year, and none of them had ever seen this place. There was just something wrong about that.
This reunion was for her father’s benefit, so she hung back while he went up on the small landing and rang the doorbell. For some reason, the cheerful summertime colors in the wreath hanging on the blue front door rubbed her the wrong way. It was as if she’d expected to find her mother living in a dismal studio apartment instead of this bright, vibrant place, and Morgan chided herself for being so foolish. Clearly, Mom was far from pining for the family she’d left behind. How that could be true baffled Morgan, but the evidence was right here in front of her eyes.
A slender figure showed up in one of the sidelights, blurred by the sheer curtain as it stared out at them in apparent disbelief. Out of respect for Dad, Morgan swallowed a less-than-gracious comment and tamped down her impatience for this unwelcome task to be over with already.
After what felt like an exceedingly long delay, the sound of a chain sliding reached them, and the door slowly swung inward.
She looked the same, Morgan noticed with more than a little surprise. Tall and willowy, her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, a smudge of purple spotting her chin. The smell of paint wafted out to them, accompanied by strains of the soothing kind of music that Morgan assumed people listened to when they were doing yoga. That was new, she noted wryly. Apparently, Mom had made a few changes, after all.
“James,” she said in a stunned voice. When her bright violet eyes fell on Morgan, there was a twinge of something in them. It might have been regret, but at this point, Morgan really didn’t care. “Morgan. How nice of you to come by.”
Come by? Was she kidding? She made it sound as if they’d been around the corner and stopped in on their way home. Morgan’s simmering temper was threatening to boil over, and she struggled to keep it under control. This woman had walked out on her husband and children months ago, with no warning and no explanation, and now she was acting as if it had never happened. Morgan was smart enough to realize that her mother’s disappearance mirrored Ty’s, which was probably why it bothered her so much.
Loyalty was the number one priority for her in any relationship, and they’d both betrayed her in the worst possible way. Then it occurred to her that Ty had begun to redeem himself in her eyes, and she’d finally forgiven him for hurting her so badly. Her mother was another story, but it wasn’t her place to speak up now. This trip was about Dad getting on with his life, and if keeping her peace would help him accomplish that, she’d gladly do it.
But when they got home, she was taking a long ride into the Bridger foothills, where she could scream out her frustration in privacy, with only the coyotes and hawks to hear her.
“It’s good to see you, Laura. You’re looking well,” Dad replied calmly, impressing Morgan with his control.
“I’m very happy,” she told him in a clipped but polite tone. Motioning behind her, she added, “I’d invite you in, but I’m painting the foyer so it’s a mess right now.”
“Not a problem. We can talk out here just as well as anywhere.”
“Talk?” she echoed, blinking at him as if she didn’t understand the concept. “About what?”
Morgan seriously wanted to strangle her. Because she didn’t trust herself to look at her mother without spitting, she directed her comment to her dad, who was clearly handling the situation better than she was. “You two should have some privacy. I think I’ll wait in the truck.”
“Thanks, honey,” he said. “I won’t be long.”
She turned to go and then heard her name. Turning back, she forced herself to meet her mother’s eyes directly. “Yes?”
“How are Allie and Hannah? Do they ever ask about me?”
“They’re fine,” Morgan answered politely. She could have left it there, but after all the kowtowing she’d done on behalf of the conservancy, she’d grown tired of being nice to people who didn’t deserve it. “And no, they don’t.”
Having delivered the message that had been stuck in her craw for months, she turned and strode to the SUV without even a glance back. When she thought about this later, she might regret being so harsh with her mother, but she honestly didn’t care.
She made a point of focusing on her phone to avoid watching the awkward scene unfolding on the front stoop. Every once in a while, she glanced up to make sure Dad was holding his own. She was pleased to find that he seemed to be doing most of the talking, while Mom sat there, hands folded in her lap, looking contrite.
Finally, he got to his feet and handed over the envelope that contained the forms he’d signed and brought with him. Mom stood and took them from him, clutching them to her chest while she thanked him. Then, after a brief embrace, Dad turned and headed for the truck.
As they drove away, Morgan checked the side mirror and found her mother standing in front of her pretty new home, watching them go. One of those full-circle moments, Morgan thought with a mixture of sadness and relief. At least this time it was Dad doing the leaving.
Hoping her father saw it that way, she kept her voice light. “So, how’re you feeling?”
“Sad,” he admitted with a grimace. “But I’m glad you insisted on me seeing her in person again. I got to say my piece, and now it’s over. She doesn’t want anything from me in the divorce except her freedom, so I gave it to her.”
“I don’t know why you made it so easy for her, bringing those papers with you,” Morgan seethed. “I would’ve made her sweat, waiting for me to mail them back the slowest way possible.”
He actually chuckled at that. “I know, but you’re not me. When you get to be my age, you realize there’s no shame in taking the high road. This way, it’s over for both of us today. Now I can forgive her and move on.”
“Forgive her?” Morgan echoed in disbelief. “Why? She certainly doesn’t deserve it.”
“Maybe not, but I do. Holding a grudge takes a lot of energy, and I’ve got no intention of letting this ruin any more of my life than it already has. Life is short, and to me, having peace of mind is priceless.”
Reaching over to rub his shoulder, she said, “I’m sorry, Dad. Today must be really hard for you.”
“I loved her for a long time, even after she left. Life doesn’t always turn out the way we want it to, but we have to keep going and work with what we get.” Looking over, he gave her a grateful smile. “I’ve got the best family a man could ask for. I thank God for the bunch of you every day.”
“We thank Him for giving us you,” she assured him, smiling back. She felt a lot better than she had just a few minutes ago. “You’re the most amazing dad and grandpa ever.”
“Thanks, honey. I really needed to hear that.”
The wistfulness she heard was understandable, and she let him dwell on those feelings for a few minutes. Then, she decided it was time to lift his spirits. “I’m starving. How ’bout you?”
“Sounds good to me. Is there a diner around here somewhere?”
“Diner?” she scoffed, waggling her phone at him. “I found a good, old-fashioned steakhouse that serves bison and venison. Whattya say?”
Laughing, he signaled the turn that her GPS indicated he should take. “I say let’s eat.”
* * *
It was later that afternoon when JD’s truck pulled into the turnaround in front of the house. Ty was on the front porch, where he’d been for the last hour, trying to figure out a way to tell Morgan what had happened during the day. He knew she’d be furious with him for reneging on their agreement, and he needed to find the right approach for coming clean.
Nothing had come to mind so far, so he was going to have to resort to the strategy he’d used when taking on an unfamiliar bull on the rodeo circuit. Wing it.
He was on his way down the steps to me
et her when two blond whirlwinds flew past him and out to greet her. His chest seized in outright terror, but there was nothing he could do to stop what was already in motion. They crushed Morgan in a delighted hug, alternating turns to tell her about the fun day they’d had while she was gone. And then he heard Hannah say the words that spiked through the warm air like nails in his coffin.
“Mommy, Mommy! Ty is our daddy! Isn’t that awesome?”
In a single instant, the joy on Morgan’s face froze over, and she slowly lifted her gaze to stare at him. There was no emotion in those vivid blue eyes, which had gone as icy as her expression, and he actually gulped down a wave of abject fear. He would have much preferred anger or accusations over the nothing that he was getting from her right now.
Oh, yeah, he thought with genuine remorse. This was going to get ugly.
For his part, JD breezed past the awkward moment, shepherding the girls inside to leave Ty and Morgan alone. His boots felt like lead, but he forced himself to walk over and take his beating like a man.
Facing her squarely, he waited for her to start. When she just kept staring at him, he realized this might take a while. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and attempted to get things moving with a little well-placed humor. “Ladies first.”
“Not here,” she shot back, stalking toward the fence that separated his property from the Whittakers’. When they were a good distance from the house, she stopped and spun to face him. “We had an agreement, Tyler, one that you and I both promised we’d abide by. What happened?”
When she used his full name, it wasn’t a good sign. But at least she was talking, and he appreciated her giving him a chance to explain instead of kicking him in the shins like when they were kids. So he nutshelled his conversation with Allie and Hannah before adding, “I guess I lost my head when they started talking about how much they’d enjoy having a dad of their own to do things with. I love those little girls, and you know I want to be their father for real.”
