Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch

by Carolyn Brown

  “Nurse for what?” Mia came into the kitchen and went straight for the coffeepot. “Mama can’t leave the ranch. This is our home.”

  Pearl explained what they had been talking about in a few words. “No one would be leaving the ranch. We’d just be adding a doctor to the list of who lives here.”

  Mia took a sip of coffee, then set her mug on the cabinet and started setting the table for breakfast. “Too bad you’re not a vet. We could sure use one so that we wouldn’t have to pay Stevie so much.”

  Cody chuckled. “Maybe I can help save enough on doctor bills to offset what Stevie charges. Who is this guy anyway?”

  “Not guy.” Addy was glad to steer the conversation away from herself. She needed time to think about Cody’s offer. “Remember Stephanie O’Dell? She would have been a couple of years younger than you in high school.”

  “She had red hair even curlier than yours and big blue eyes,” Cody finished her sentence. “Kind of tall and thin, and she cleaned up in the science division of every academic meet we went to. Kind of embarrassed me since she was a freshman, and I was a senior.”

  “That’s Stevie O’Dell.” Addy slid the muffins into the oven.

  “She’ll be at the rodeo events in Honey Grove tonight,” Sonny said. “She volunteers her time to be the onsite vet. I can’t wait to see how the little kiddos do on the mutton busting. I love that and the calf riding and the calf scramble.”

  Addy had begun to shake her head before Sonny finished. “Grady said that you are to have more rest for a few days. You don’t need to be sitting out in the heat at a dusty old rodeo.”

  “Grady’s not my doctor anymore,” Sonny said. “Cody is my new doctor, and if he doesn’t agree with me, then that’s too bad. That little episode has taught me that I’m not wasting one more second sitting around and waiting for this disease to put me on my back. I’m going to live my life. Pearl and I are going to the rodeo, and as soon as Henry gets settled in Colorado, we’re going to spend a few weeks with him. After that I’m taking her to Las Vegas. You boys are home. You can take care of Sunflower.”

  “But we’ll only be gone for a week at a time,” Pearl said. “I want to spend as much time as I can with my boys.”

  “We’ll be together and having a good time, not sitting at home waiting for me to die, and when I’m home, I don’t want y’all to treat me like an invalid either.” Sonny opened his arms. “Come over here and give me a hug, Pearl.”

  When Pearl bent to hug Sonny, he pulled her onto his lap and kissed her cheek. “I’m the luckiest man alive to have had you beside me all these years.”

  “You’ve always been a hopeless romantic,” Pearl said through misty eyes.

  “That’s why you fell in love with me when we were just sixteen years old.” Sonny smiled and kissed her on the other cheek. “Promise me you’ll travel with me, and let me do what I can for as long as I can.”

  “I promise, sweetheart,” she said. “I’ll go with you wherever you want to go, but if we get any more grandchildren, I want to be home to enjoy them.”

  Addy had been so intent on watching the beautiful display of love that she didn’t even notice Jesse getting up to stand behind her. When she sighed, he slipped his hands around her waist and whispered, “That’s the kind of relationship I want.”

  “Me, too,” she agreed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Thank God for a breeze that ruffled the leaves on the trees on Friday afternoon, Jesse thought. He worried about his dad being out in the hot sun, too, after the episode he had had, but there was no talking him out of going to the parade. Sonny agreed to sit in a canvas chair, but he declared that he had judged the little kids’ bicycle part of the parade for fifty years, and he wasn’t turning his job over to anyone else that year.

  “Mia, darlin’, go get some nachos from that vendor across the street for me and Pearl to share while we figure out which bicycle is best.” Sonny handed her a twenty-dollar bill. “And we’ll want a large root beer, too. Keep whatever change there is to get yourself something to eat. We won’t be going back home until after the events tonight. I want to visit with the folks.”

  “Dad, you could use a couple of hours rest between now and the mutton busting,” Cody told him.

  “I can rest when I can’t go anymore,” Sonny said. “Now, y’all go on and stop hovering around me like buzzards waiting for me to die.”

  “Sonny Ryan!” Addy scolded. “I’m not a buzzard!”

  “No, honey, you’re a pretty little dove, but these two are so worried about me leaving this earth that they’re forgetting to live. Jesse, take this woman by the hand and let the whole town know y’all are a couple, or an item, or whatever the hell y’all call it these days. If you don’t, some guy like Grady will come along and steal her from you,” Sonny chuckled.

  Jesse quickly grabbed Addy’s hand and kissed the knuckles. “Do I need to carry a pistol?” he joked.

  “I reckon not,” Sonny answered. “Hey, Dr. Stevie.” He waved and yelled across the road.

  Stevie waved back and jogged over to where Sonny and Pearl were sitting. “I heard you had to spend some time in the hospital. You should have called me. I’ve treated rangy old bulls like you for a long time.”

  “I’d say that next time I would, but Cody has come home, and he’ll be takin’ care of me from now on,” Sonny told her.

  Jesse tugged on Addy’s hand, but she held her ground. “Just a minute. I’m trying to decide if I want tacos, which are that way”—she pointed to the left—“or corn dogs, which are in the other direction.”

  Stevie gave Cody a steely glance. “We’ve got a doctor here in Honey Grove, and a dozen or more within a thirty-minute drive.”

  “How many of them make house calls?” Cody met her stare.

  “You’re crazy if you think that will work in this day and time,” Stevie said.

  “Maybe so, but I’m going to give it my best shot,” Cody said.

  “And if you fail?” Stevie asked.

  “I might go back to school, get my vet credentials, and give you some competition,” he teased.

  “In your dreams,” she retorted and stormed off toward the chutes.

  “There’s something between them,” Addy whispered to Jesse.

  “Yep.” Jesse grinned. “Always has been, but neither of them will wake up and see what’s in front of their noses. Remind you of another couple we know?”

  Addy laughed.

  “I’m thinking tacos.”

  “Sounds good,” Addy said.

  Everyone they passed wanted to welcome Jesse back home again and ask about Sonny. This was the first time some of the folks had seen Jesse since his return. Several of them took notice of the fact he either was holding Addy’s hand or else had an arm around her waist. When he started to introduce her to most folks, they just smiled and said they already knew her, then asked if her folks still liked living in the panhandle.

  When the two of them finally made it to the taco vendor, Addy asked, “What’s going on with Stevie and Cody?”

  “They went to the same college, and she kind of had a crush on Cody then. He was a senior when she was a freshman.” Jesse moved up to the front of the line and ordered half a dozen tacos and two bottles of root beer.

  “What happened?” Addy carried the root beers over to a picnic table that was set up under an awning.

  Jesse followed her with the paper boat holding the tacos. “I’m not sure. Cody never talked about it, and I only knew because Mama found out through the gossip vine. I think she kind of told him how she felt about him, and he broke her heart. Truth is, I had forgotten all about it until I saw them together, and I could be wrong about the whole thing.”

  “Is she married or engaged?” Addy asked.

  “You’d have to ask Mama about that,” Jesse answered. “But speaking of that, are you going to move in with me when I move into Henry’s house?”

  “Are you asking me to?” she asked. “I thought
we were going to take things slow.”

  He handed her a taco. “Yep, I am. We can give it a trial run in the bunkhouse. That would be the slow part.”

  “Do you think we need a trial run?” she asked.

  The hair on Jesse’s neck tingled, which meant something wasn’t quite right. “Are we having our first fight ever?”

  “No, not the first one,” she answered. “You remember when we were in the ninth grade?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He picked up a taco, unwrapped it, and took a bite.

  “You told me I looked like a mop that had been hung on the clothesline to dry,” she reminded him.

  “Well, you said I looked like some kind of bird trying to take flight when I ran because I had chicken legs,” he said.

  She opened both bottles of root beer. “That was our first fight ever.”

  “What’s this one about?” he asked.

  “I want to know if…” she started.

  He laid a hand on hers. “Yes, we have moved up a step or two from being just friends, and I like where we are, but you wanted to go slow. You should have the freedom to spend the night with me in the bunkhouse, but I also want you to know if you need some space, I won’t get angry if you stay in the ranch house.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I like the place we’re in, too.”

  “Even in this heat?” Cody sat down beside Jesse.

  “You should be used to this after the places where you’ve been.” Jesse really wanted to talk to Addy some more about their present and future, but he sure couldn’t tell his brother to get lost. “Where were you before you made that trip to London?”

  “Sudan, and you are right about the heat.” Cody picked up one of the tacos and took a big bite.

  “What made you decide to quit and come home?” Addy asked.

  “Bullets,” he answered. “Things were getting rougher by the year, and I’m getting older right along with them. I’m ready for a quiet life as a country doctor and rancher. I figure I should be ready to get my practice going by fall, so I’m available to help on the ranch until then. Have you given any thought to being my nurse, Addy?”

  “Not much, but I’ve got to admit, it’s tempting. Now that Jesse is home, and you’re on the ranch, I won’t be needed as much,” Addy answered. “Especially if Sonny and Pearl are going to be traveling a little more.”

  “I won’t think about hiring anyone else until you make up your mind. There’s no rush. I want to take the summer to relearn the ranchin’ business,” Cody said.

  Jesse picked up another taco. “It’s like ridin’ a dirt bike, or a four-wheeler. You just get out there, go to work, and it all comes back to you. Do you think Lucas will ever come back here for good?”

  Cody shook his head. “Not unless Dad decides to buy a bunch of horses for him to train. He loves what he does, and when he comes home for a week, he gets bored.” He looked across the table toward Addy. “He’s the quiet, brooding one of us three brothers. Do you remember him?”

  Addy nodded. “Very well. He was a year younger than me and Jesse, and he was always sweet to me.”

  “Three of us, and we’re all different as night and day,” Jesse said.

  “You got that right, brother.” Cody got up and headed toward the taco stand. “I’m getting a few more. Y’all want anything else?”

  “How about a plate of nachos to share? We’ve still got thirty minutes to kill before the parade starts.” Jesse reached over and gave Addy’s knee a gentle squeeze. “Another root beer, darlin’?”

  “I think I’ll wait for a real beer at the rodeo grounds tonight,” she answered.

  “That’s my girl.” Jesse hoped that he was still saying that when he and Addy had been together as long as his mother and father.

  That means a lifetime commitment, the voice in his head said.

  I’m ready, he thought, but I need to give her time to catch up with me.

  * * *

  Addy thought that Sonny looked weary by the time the mutton bustin’ started with the little kids aged six and under, but he whooped and hollered for every one of them. Jesse sat on one side of her, the fingers of one hand laced in hers, the other wrapped around a bottle of cold beer that they were sharing.

  “One of my first memories was trying to stay on the back of a rangy old ram when I was four years old,” he said with a grin. “Someday, we’ll have kids we can dress up and watch ride in this event.”

  “Kids or grandkids?” she asked.

  “Both,” Jesse said. “I’m a foster kid who was adopted. We can always get a family that way.”

  “I could never be a foster mother.” Addy didn’t want to burst his bubble, but she had to be honest. “I would get too attached, and it would kill me to have to give a child back, and I can’t even begin to imagine giving back a little baby.”

  “How about adoption?” Jesse asked. “My folks were almost our age when they took me and my brothers in and then adopted us when they could.”

  “That’s a whole different conversation.” She pointed. “That little girl is going to outdo all the boys that have ridden up to now. You see the way she’s easing down off the side of the chute. I’ve seen cowgirls approach a bull or a bronc the same way. Betcha she comes from rodeo folks.”

  “And here’s Breanne Wilson, coming out of chute six,” the announcer said into the microphone as he nodded to the two cowboys to open the gate. “She’s six years old, and man alive, look at her ride in those pink cowgirl boots and that shiny shirt. Folks, I believe she’s going to hang on for the full time. Good Lord! The bell has rung and she’s still riding. Look at that ram go!” Two rodeo clowns chased after her and finally lifted her off the ram’s back. She whipped off her helmet to show a full head of blond curls and took a deep bow. “And that’s the way it’s done, folks. Breanne has a score of eighty points, the highest of any tonight. Congratulations, young lady.”

  The crowd went wild and the little girl blew them kisses before she went back to her chute, where her mother and daddy waited. “Hey, all you daddies of little girls up there in the stands, I want y’all to remember this next feller’s name. It’s Wayne Crawford, and he’s proven for the last two years that he’s a real muttin’ buster. In a few years, if he comes to date your daughters, you tell him to get lost, because he does not know how to let go.”

  Sonny’s laughter could be heard all the way to where Jesse and Addy were sitting.

  “Daddies don’t need to worry.” Mia sat down right behind them. “Girls are smart enough to see through those kinds of boys. It might take them a while, like it did me, but…” She gasped. “Good God! That’s Ricky down there in the arena. He’s one of the cowboys opening the chutes.”

  “No, it’s not,” Addy said. “That’s Pete.”

  “Thank you, Jesus!” Mia whispered.

  “Hey, Mia,” Sonny called from two bleacher rows in front of them, “you in the mood for some cotton candy?”

  “Always, Poppa.” She stood and started toward the concession stand. “How about you and Nana. Y’all want some, too?”

  “Yep,” Sonny said, “and two root beers.”

  “What was Mia thanking Jesus for?” Cody sat down beside Addy.

  “That one of those cowboys out there isn’t Ricky O’Malley but his brother Pete,” Addy answered.

  “Mama told me all about the trouble last time we talked on the phone,” Cody said. “Looks like I’m not the only one who dodged bullets.”

  “She might have gotten grazed,” Addy said. “She turned pretty pale when she thought that was Ricky out there.”

  “She’s young,” Cody said. “She’ll get over it.”

  “Did you ‘get over it’ with Stevie?” Jesse teased.

  “That was a long time ago,” Cody said. “Lots of water under the bridge since then.”

  Addy’s thoughts went to all the water that had run under the proverbial bridge in the past twenty years since she and Jesse had said their goodbyes. She would never have th
ought they would be given a second chance to have a relationship again and yet there they were, thinking about babies and grandbabies.

  He hasn’t even told you that he loves you, the voice in her head reminded her. This could just be the heat of the moment for both of you.

  * * *

  The folks around the breakfast table on Saturday morning had grown to seven since Henry had joined them. Now Sonny sat at the head of the table with Pearl to his right and Henry beside her, Cody on the other end, and Jesse, Addy, and Mia on the other side. Addy had thought that Sonny would be totally exhausted after the previous day, but he looked more alive and happier than he had in years.

  “Henry, Pearl and I spent some time talking yesterday afternoon, and we’ve made some decisions,” Sonny told his foreman and then addressed everyone else. “Henry’s going to leave us on August first, and Jesse will take over in his place. That next week, Pearl and I are going to Colorado for a long visit. When we get back, we’re going to move into Henry’s house. It’s plenty big enough for the two of us. Cody can have the bunkhouse for his house and office, and Jesse, Addy, and Mia can live in this place.”

  “It’s the sensible thing to do,” Henry agreed. “Pearl will have less to clean. My little place was built on a concrete slab, so there’s no stairs for Sonny to worry with.”

  “I can’t imagine living in this house without y’all in it,” Mia sighed.

  “Change is good for folks. It keeps us on our toes so we don’t get to taking life for granted,” Sonny told her. “We’ll only be a quarter of a mile away, and when we’re home, you can have the job of driving me around the ranch every single day.”

  “Mama?” Cody asked from the other end of the table. “You’ve lived right here in this house your whole married life. Are you good with this?”

  “I’m the one who outlined the whole plan,” she answered. “I’m actually looking forward to it, and to doing some traveling with this handsome husband of mine. I want to thank you two boys for coming home so we can do some of the things we didn’t think we’d ever get to do, but I also don’t want to waste precious time I have with you.”