Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  He rounded the front end of the truck and opened the door for her. Then he whistled the old tune about walking her to the door all the way to the porch. He stopped at the top of the steps, put his hands on her shoulders, and drew her lips to his for one more scalding hot kiss. “Who needs role-play when we have enough heat between us to burn down the state of Texas?”

  “How about I wear chaps and boots and nothing else?” she teased.

  Pax groaned. “You’re killin’ me, woman.”

  “Try to keep that picture out of your dreams tonight,” she whispered seductively into his ear.

  Dreams, hell! he thought as he kissed her once more. Then he jogged to his truck. He’d have trouble getting that vision out of his head in his waking moments, never mind in his dreams. He was still smiling at Alana’s sassiness when he passed a guy walking along the edge of the road. The man had a backpack slung over his shoulder, a stocking hat on his head, and was wearing baggy jeans. Not anyone from around here, Pax thought, but the guy looked vaguely familiar. He wasn’t thumbing a ride, and Pax was a full fifty yards down the road when his conscience got the best of him. He pulled over and waited until the man caught up and then rolled down the window.

  “Where you headed, buddy?” Pax asked. “Need a ride? Did you have car trouble back down the road?” Pax asked.

  “Headed to the Callahan Ranch,” the guy said. “I’d love a ride. Didn’t realize that five miles was so far away. Hey, I met you at the festival this afternoon.”

  Paxton finally recognized the guy as the kid he’d talked to back at the sunglass vendor. What did he say his name was? Marty Deeks? No, that was the character that Alana talked about on the television show. Landon…something or other.

  “That’s right. I remember you,” Pax said as he shifted into gear and started off again.

  “Yep, I heard y’all might be hirin’ some help on your ranch,” Landon said.

  “We usually only take on summer help, and we’ve pretty much got all we need right now, but we can talk to my brother, Maverick, when we get to the house.” Pax turned into the lane. “Where do you come from? Got any ranchin’ experience?”

  “I’ve lived in California all my life. I’ve worked on a ranch before, but it was a smaller one,” he answered.

  Where would they put this guy if they did hire him? Their summer help showed up for work at seven in the morning and left sometime in the afternoon around four or five, depending on the work they had to do that day. If Maverick decided they didn’t need him, Pax would at least offer to haul him back to town. The kid didn’t look too prosperous. If he didn’t already have a room out at the Cowboy Motel, the only place in town where folks could stay, then Pax would get him one for the night. Anyone who was willing to walk five miles to ask for a job deserved that much.

  “This is it,” Pax said when he parked the truck in front of the house. “I’ll be able to take you back to town if we decide that we can’t use another hand.”

  “Thank you.” Landon nodded. “I’m used to running five miles every morning, but this late in the evening, I’d appreciate the ride.”

  Maverick and Iris were sitting on the porch when Landon and Pax walked up. Pax sat down on the top porch step and left the last rocking chair for Landon. There was something about the fellow’s green eyes that looked familiar, Pax thought, but then, he had watched reruns of NCIS: Los Angeles a few times, so maybe it was the fact that he looked a lot like that character, Marty Deeks, that Alana had mentioned.

  “This is Landon Griffin,” Pax said by way of introduction and motioned toward the empty chair with a wave of his hand. “Have a seat. I found him walking out here from town.”

  “What brings you out here to our ranch?” Maverick asked.

  “I’m here for three reasons.” Landon reached down and started to unzip his backpack.

  “Whoa!” Iris put up a hand. “You’re a stranger here, son. I’m not stupid. You could have a gun in that bag, and be here to rob us or do us harm. Kick that thing over to Pax and let him take a look inside it before you go diggin’ in it.”

  Landon used the toe of his boot to slide the backpack across the porch. “I promise I’m not here to hurt anyone. Go ahead and take a look. I’ve got nothing to hide from you people.”

  “You ain’t from the South, are you?” Iris asked.

  “No, ma’am,” Landon said. “Never been in Texas before today. I’ve flown over it a few times, but on land, I’ve not been outside of California. Mother preferred an airplane to a car.”

  Pax found a stack of letters tied with a faded red ribbon and a manila envelope that contained a bunch of documents in the bag, plus a couple of books, but nothing suspicious. “It’s all good,” he said. “No guns, or knives or anything harmful.”

  “Okay, go on,” Iris said.

  “Mother said you were a character.” Landon smiled.

  “How’d your mama know me?” Iris eyed him with a frown on her face.

  “First, let me give you these letters. They rightfully belong to you, not me,” Landon said.

  “Who are you?” Pax frowned.

  “Those are the letters that you two guys wrote to your mother when you were little boys,” he said. “I found them in her things. She died two weeks ago of lung cancer.”

  Pax took the bundle from him and immediately recognized his own handwriting from when he was a child. Big block letters on the top envelope said TERESA and below that was an address in California. He undid the ribbon and took out the ones he’d written, then passed the others over to Maverick. Pax clamped his teeth together so tightly that his jaws ached. He remembered putting those letters in the mailbox and waiting for days for something in return. The only thing that he and Maverick ever got back was an occasional birthday card. Even those had stopped after a couple of years. She had come to see them that first Christmas, but she’d only stayed a few hours. Two years later, she popped in for a little while on New Year’s Eve. That had been the year that Pax was nine—or had he been ten? What a time to dredge up all those memories, right when he had so many things on his plate.

  “How’d you come to have those?” Iris nodded toward the letters in Maverick’s hand.

  “Our mother is dead?” Maverick asked.

  Pax cocked his head to one side. “How did you get these again?”

  “Like I said, I was going through her stuff. She never was one to save anything, not money or anything else. Not even my high school diploma or pictures of me through the years. As far as money, it was all gone after I took care of her medical bills. I found a bank deposit key in a shoe box that only had pictures of her taken through the years of her life. When I went to the bank, those letters were in it with a few other things. Here’s the next thing I want you to see, but it belongs to me. I knew you’d need proof, so I brought it and some other documents with me.” He handed a legal paper to Pax.

  “It’s a birth certificate.” Pax held it up to the porch light so he could read it. “‘Landon Carl Griffin, born to Carl Griffin and Teresa Griffin on July 30, 1997.’ That makes you twenty-two years old in a couple of months.”

  “And that makes him your half-brother,” Iris said. “Teresa left here with a man named Carl Griffin.”

  “That’s right,” Landon said. “Carl Griffin was my dad. He died when I was ten. Mother died without ever telling me that I had brothers. Now, they are both gone and y’all are the only family I have left. I’m not here for a handout or to ask for anything other than a job. I sold my car for enough money to get here. I recently graduated from college with a business degree. I had no idea that Mother had spent every dime of the money Daddy left for me until she was gone, but that was her. I loved her, but she liked to live above her means.” He stopped and blinked several times.

  “You got any ranchin’ experience,” Maverick asked.

  “Little bit,” Landon answered with a nod. “Mother hated anything to do with ranching, but she sent me off to summer camp every year from the time I wa
s five. When I was ten she let me choose which one I wanted to go to, and my friends and I picked a working ranch. Maybe she hoped that I’d get my fill of cowboys and hate it. My friends certainly did, but I loved it. When I got to be sixteen, they hired me as a counselor, and I got to work with underprivileged kids. I’m talking too much, but yes, I do have a little bit of experience. I’ll work for room and board only if you’ll have me. I’ve got no place to live or to go until I find a job where I can use my degree. I guess y’all don’t need a business manager, do you?”

  Pax knew he was staring at the fellow, but he couldn’t stop. The young man had the same green eyes that he and Maverick had inherited from their mother. That’s why those eyes had looked familiar when he met him at the park. Now that Pax had heard his story and seen his birth certificate he had no doubt that he was Teresa’s son. The wide, full lips and shape of his face both were like hers.

  “I wanted to tell you who I was back in town when you caught me following you,” Landon told Pax, “but it didn’t seem like the right place, and besides, I wanted to tell both of you at the same time. If that ride into town still stands, I might take you up on it, now. I’ve got a room for one night at that little Cowboy Motel. The rest of my stuff is there.”

  “Nonsense!” Iris said. “He’s your family, and we don’t turn family out in the cold. Me and the girls all were plannin’ on stayin’ over at the Bar C when they get here, anyway. I’ll call Alana to come get me, and I’ll go on over there tonight. I know she won’t mind, and Landon here can have my room.”

  “Thank you,” Landon said. “I meant it when I said I’d work for room and board. You guys are my half-brothers, but you don’t owe me anything.”

  “Tell us about our mother.” Maverick’s voice sounded more than a little hoarse.

  “She and my dad liked to be on the go, so I was left with a nanny a lot. Looking back, I wonder if I wasn’t an accident or maybe the way to get my dad to marry her because he had money at the time. She was three months pregnant with me when they…” He shrugged and went silent for a minute or two. “The last year, when she knew she was dying, she kind of depended on me, and we got closer than we’d ever been. I hate to tell you this, but I never really knew her all that well. She never, ever told me about you guys. I found your letters after she was gone.”

  “How did you find us anyway?” Pax asked.

  “The return address on the letters was a starting place, and then I made a few phone calls and found out that you still lived here on the ranch, so I bought a bus ticket. I got into town this morning,” he said.

  “How’d you know that I was your brother?” Pax asked.

  Landon pulled a picture from a shirt pocket and handed it to him. “That’s one of the photographs I found in the bank box. Teresa and Barton on their wedding day is written on the back. You’re a dead ringer for your father.”

  “I always said the same thing.” Iris stood up and headed toward the house. “I’ll have my things ready when Alana gets here. Y’all have lots to talk about, I’m sure.”

  “We’ll pay you minimum wage, like we do the kids who work for us,” Maverick said, “and believe me, you will earn every dime of it.”

  “Yes, sir.” Landon nodded. “I’m not allergic to hard work, and I’m glad to have the job. You won’t have to bird-dog me.”

  “What did you say?” Iris stopped in her tracks.

  “Point me in the direction for every thing that needs to be done,” he explained.

  “I know what bird-doggin’ is,” Iris said. “I haven’t heard that expression used since my husband died.”

  “I worked with a salty old cowboy on the ranch where I spent my summers.” Landon smiled for the first time. “He used it a lot.”

  “I see.” Iris went into the house and left them alone on the porch.

  “I’m sure you have more questions, so ask away,” Landon said.

  “She never told you about us?” Pax asked.

  “Not one time,” Landon answered.

  “Did you ever wonder about her past? Where she came from? If you had siblings or maybe cousins, you might have on her side of the family—or even grandparents?” Maverick asked.

  “She told me that she had been married before and talked a little about Iris, but she didn’t mention that I had brothers,” Landon said. “When I asked her to tell me more, she said she’d grown up in foster care. Do you know something different?”

  “Little bit,” Maverick said. “She had a brother who died when Pax and I were little kids. I remember going to his funeral. Mam told us when we asked about him years later that he had two kids with his wife, and twins by his mistress who were born at the same time as his last son with his wife. The wife took her two boys to Canada, where she was from originally, and the mistress was from North Dakota, so she went back there with her son and daughter. The family had lost track of them long before her brother died. So, we have four cousins out there in the wilds somewhere. Our grandparents on that side died sometime before I was born. She wasn’t an orphan and she didn’t grow up in foster care. She grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her dad worked for the sanitation department, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. They both retired and died within a year of each other.”

  “Did y’all get to see them often?” Landon asked.

  Pax shook his head. “Maybe a dozen times in our entire lives. They didn’t like our father. From what we’ve pieced together, they thought she married down when she wed a rancher.”

  “Nothing much surprises me about Mother anymore,” Landon said. “She was a complicated woman. I often wondered if maybe she had some mental-health issues. When she was in a good mood, she was fun, but when she was in one of her bad moods, I stayed over at a friend’s house.”

  “I have a question,” Pax said. “What would you have done if we’d told you to get lost?”

  “You don’t owe me anything at all, so I would have gotten lost,” Landon said. “I love being on a ranch. I like working outside with my hands. But if I was in your boots, I might have told you to hit the road. Our mother abandoned you and what attention she had to give anyone fell on me. You could resent me for that, but I’m glad you’re willing to give me a chance.”

  “You’ve got a home here,” Pax said. “I’m getting married and moving over to the Bar C Ranch next door in a little more than a week, so even with a new baby coming, there’ll be plenty of room,” Pax said. “Your first job will be to make the tack room into your own living quarters. You should only have to sleep on the sofa a couple of nights.” As he finished talking Alana’s truck pulled into their driveway.

  She parked, got out of the truck, and crossed the lawn to the porch. “Where’s Iris? I understand she’s coming over to my place. She didn’t say why, but if y’all have hurt her feelings, I’m here to whoop up on whoever did it.”

  “Meet our half-brother, Landon Griffin,” Pax said, and then gave her the short version of what Landon had told them.

  “We’ve got two extra beds out in the bunkhouse over on the Bar C, and Lucas is always looking for experienced hands,” Alana offered. “We could probably use his expertise a little later with the bookkeeping part of ranchin’ if things work out. Get your stuff together, Landon. I’m stealing you from the Callahans.”

  Landon looked over at Pax with questions written all over his face. “Is your fiancée serious?”

  “Yep,” Pax answered, and then turned to Alana. “Are you sure?”

  “Yep, I’m sure,” Alana answered and turned to Landon. “I’ll call Lucas right now and tell him you’re comin’ in a few minutes. Pax and I will be married, so you’ll still be working for one of your brothers.”

  “Don’t you need to check references?” Landon asked. “I have a list of them.”

  “We’ll know by Tuesday night if you’re the real deal or a wannabe cowboy,” Alana said. “Two days with my foreman, Lucas, will tell the tale.”

  “A word please.” Pax stood up, took Alana by the a
rm, and led her over behind her truck. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”

  “Honey, he’s your half-brother, and that means our child has another uncle, which is good. You don’t really know him, and he could be some kind of con artist, so it’s best that he doesn’t live here on the Callahan Ranch with little Laela and your family. Lucas will see there’s a man behind his words, and if there is, we can use him on the Bar C.” She put her arms around his neck and brought his lips to hers. When the kiss ended, she said, “Let’s give him a couple of days to prove himself. I’ll feel better knowing he’s out in the bunkhouse with Lucas instead of in this house with Bridget and the baby. If he is on the up-and-up, then it’s all a win-win situation.”

  “Hey, do you think I could get that ride back to town to get my things?” Landon hollered across the lawn.

  “Go on and get in my truck,” Pax said and then turned his attention back to Alana. “Talk about tangled webs. Guess they extend farther back than the first of this month. I’ll call you and tell you all about it later. The crazy thing is I still got a lump in my throat at the idea of my mother being dead. I haven’t seen her since I was a little boy, but somehow, I never thought of her dying before I’d see her again.”

  “She was your mother,” Alana said. “You only get one. Good, bad, or ugly, it’s natural that you’d mourn for her a little.”

  “Woman, you’ve got a big heart, and you always know what to say and what to do in any situation.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll call you in a little while.”

  “Don’t call me. Come and sit on the porch with me a little while when you get our television star delivered to Lucas.”

  Pax chuckled and drew her close to him for another kiss. “Get us a couple of lemonades poured up, and I’ll try to be there in twenty minutes.”

  “What’s goin’ on out here? Maverick said that there’s been a change in plans, and I’m not leaving tonight,” Iris asked as she stepped out onto the porch.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Alana raised her voice. “I stole the new ranch hand. He’s going to live in my bunkhouse and work for us. Pax is taking him back to town for his stuff and then bringing him over to the Bar C to turn him over to Lucas.”