The Comeback Cowboy

by Cathy McDavid

  “Oh, Pop,” Lani Donnelly chirped. “Is that anything to say to your daughter-in-law?” She turned to Adele, a too-sunny-to-be-real smile on her face. “Don’t just stand there, baby girl, come give your mom a hug.”

  Chapter Four

  Adele didn’t move right away. She couldn’t. Waves of hurt, anger and resentment hit her all at once and kept her rooted in place. She was vaguely aware of a guest coming out of the business center and leaving through the lobby entrance. She was acutely aware of her grandfather standing beside her. For a man with debilitating arthritis, his spine had snapped as straight and rigid as an iron bar.

  “Please, baby girl.” The pleading in her mother’s voice penetrated the haze surrounding Adele.

  She shored up her defenses, only to discover they weren’t as impenetrable as she’d hoped. The sad and neglected little girl inside her still longed for the comfort of her mother’s arms and the reassurance that she was loved.

  “You okay, Dellie?”

  At Pop’s question, Adele glanced down, to see that her hands were shaking.

  “I’m fine.” And she was fine. Pulling herself together, she wrung the tremors from her fingers and raised her chin. No matter what, her mother wasn’t going to hurt her again. Not after Adele had worked so hard to create a good life for herself.

  “Hello, Mom.”

  They each took a step, then two, and met in the middle. The hug Adele offered was reserved. Not so for her mother, who clung to her, then burst into great racking sobs.

  Adele wanted to remained unaffected, but couldn’t. Years of mistrust and disappointment, however, enabled her to extract herself from her mom’s desperate grasp.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” Lani dabbed at her eyes. “I’m just so happy to see you. It’s been months.”

  Almost two years, but Adele didn’t bother correcting her.

  They were about the same height and had once possessed similar figures. A weight loss during the last two years had left Lani painfully thin. Combined with her rough-around-the-edges appearance, she looked years older than her actual age. Her green eyes, highlighted with too much makeup, darted around the lobby with the desperation of a starving animal seeking its next meal.

  “You should have called to let us know you were coming.” Adele struggled to keep bitterness from creeping into her voice. Her mother may have hit rock bottom—the only reason Adele could think of to explain the unexpected visit—but that didn’t erase all the bad memories.

  “The battery died on my cell phone, and I haven’t had a chance to replace it.”

  She was lying. Adele could feel it in her gut. Her mother had probably been unable to pay her bill without the help of a man.

  Was else was she covering up?

  “You look good, Pop.” Lani smiled at Adele’s grandfather, though her eyes were still filled with tears.

  “You don’t.” Leave it to Pop to cut to the chase.

  “This last year’s been pretty hard on me.” She swallowed.

  He hobbled closer. “Is that why you just showed up out of the blue?”

  “I, ah…”

  One of the housekeeping staff entered the lobby pushing a cart laden with cleaning supplies, fresh linens and a vacuum. After a hesitant glance at them, she changed direction and went into the TV lounge to begin her work.

  Lani rolled her suitcase from one side to the other. Uncertainty clouded her features, and she blurted, “I need a place to stay for a few days. Maybe a few weeks. I know it’s a lot to ask, and Lord knows you have every reason turn me away, but I’ve got nowhere else to go. I’m willing to work off my room and board.”

  Adele took a step back, stunned by her mother’s request. She didn’t know what shocked her more—that her mother had the gall to show up unexpectedly and ask for a favor, a big one, or that she was actually willing to work. Lani hadn’t voluntarily sought employment that Adele could recall.

  “I don’t know, Mom,” she hedged. “We’re kind of full right now.”

  “I can always sleep on your couch.” The offhand remark came across as desperate. “You’ll hardly know I’m there. I swear.”

  Adele almost choked. Her mother sleeping on her couch? Not in this lifetime. “Mom—”

  “She can stay in room nine.” Pop stepped around Adele.

  She started to protest, not wanting her mother anywhere near Seven Cedars, only to shut her mouth when Pop took hold of her mother’s suitcase.

  “Come on, we’ll take you there now. Dellie, grab the key and bring the golf cart around.”

  Though they ran the ranch together, it technically belonged to Pop. Adele might disagree with his decision, and would tell him later when they were in private, but the choice to let Lani stay was his to make.

  She promptly spun on her heels and fled to her office without glancing back.

  In addition to eighteen fully equipped cabins, they had a building with nine hotel-like rooms behind the main lodge. Number nine was on the end, the smallest of the rooms, and contained only a twin bed. For that reason, it was usually vacant. The room had been reserved for the upcoming weekend, but the guest had canceled.

  It looked to Adele as if they wouldn’t be renting number nine out even if they did get a last-minute request.

  Removing the room and golf cart keys from a cabinet in her office, she exited the lodge through the kitchen’s back door. The cart was parked under the large cedar tree where she’d last left it. She preferred driving ATVs, and used the golf cart mostly to transport guests and their luggage.

  Not once had she imagined that her mother would ever be a guest.

  The reason Lani had given for her unannounced visit didn’t ring true. Though it was obvious she was in dire straits, Adele couldn’t shake the sensation there was more going on than a run of bad luck. The question was what?

  “Here we are,” she announced when they pulled in front of room nine.

  The three of them climbed out of the golf cart’s one bench seat with noticeable relief. Pop insisted on removing Lani’s bag from the back and wheeling it inside.

  Adele opened the door to the room and handed the key to her mother with some reluctance.

  “Thank you.” Lani’s voice cracked and her eyes welled with fresh tears. “Both of you.”

  “Come on, Dellie.” Pop patted Adele’s shoulder. “Let’s give your mother a chance to get settled. Dinner starts at six,” he told Lani. “If you want, after you eat, you can go to the kitchen and help the staff clean up. They’re always shorthanded. Cook will tell you what to do.”

  Lani simply nodded and quickly shut the door behind them.

  Her mother’s hurry to be alone might be because she was going to start crying again, Adele thought, and her determination to remain unaffected battled with concern. Not caring was easier when Lani lived hundreds of miles away.

  “She’s in sorry shape,” Pop said once they’d gotten back in the golf cart and were putt-putting down the road to the lodge.

  “Is that why you agreed to let her stay on?”

  “Partly.”

  “You’re not usually such a softy. Especially where Mom’s concerned.”

  In fact, the last time Lani had dropped Adele off at Seven Cedars, Pop had told Lani that Adele was staying with him for good and for her not to set foot on the place again. Adele had been fourteen at the time, but she remembered their huge fight as if it had been last week.

  Lani had respected Pop’s demand and never come back. Until today. Adele had finished out high school in Markton and then left for the University of Wyoming, seeing her mother only on occasion. When she’d returned to Seven Cedars after graduation, it had been like coming home.

  “Maybe it’s time to let bygones be bygones.”

  Adele wasn’t so sure about that. There were too many bygones to let go of easily.

  They reached the lodge, and she parked the golf cart under the same tree. Pop started to get out, but she stopped him wi
th a hand on his arm.

  “Considering the way Mom’s always treated you, you have no reason to show her the tiniest kindness, much less forgiveness.”

  Pop sighed, removed an unused toothpick from his front shirt pocket and stuck it in his mouth. “Your mom’s made a lot of mistakes in her life, but she did one thing right. For which I’m very grateful.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She gave me and your grandmother legal guardianship of you back when you were fifteen. She didn’t have to do that.”

  “She gave you guardianship?” Adele’s jaw went slack.

  “Your dad signed off, too.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Lani didn’t want you to think your parents had abandoned you.”

  “But they did,” Adele insisted. A year after that dreadful day and terrible fight.

  “Depends, I guess, on how you look at it. They weren’t such bad parents that they didn’t realize you needed a real home and someone to take care of you.”

  With that, her grandfather left Adele sitting alone in the golf cart, reeling from her second shock that day.

  All this time, she’d believed her grandparents had wanted her. Had fought to have her.

  Instead, her mother and father had simply handed her over, like an old set of golf clubs or a broken TV.

  Worse, none of them, not even Pop, had had the decency to tell her.

  A WALL OF CHILLY AIR greeted Ty the moment he stepped outside his cabin. For a moment he considered driving to the barn, then decided a brisk walk would jump-start his sluggish system.

  Normally an early riser, he was up and at it even earlier than usual thanks to a restless night. The reason for his tossing and turning was the same as his trip to the barn at half past the crack of dawn. Hamm hadn’t been himself yesterday and appeared to be favoring his right front leg. After having his other horse suffer a debilitating injury, Ty was cautious when it came to Hamm. Some might say overly cautious.

  In his mind, he had good reason. He couldn’t afford another setback. Not this far into the rodeo season.

  He briefly considered stopping at the dining hall and grabbing a cup of coffee. They weren’t scheduled to start serving for another twenty minutes, but as Stick had promised on Ty’s first day, Cook was very accommodating to the guests. Ty’s concern for Hamm took precedence, however, and he made straight for the main barn.

  The ranch hands had just begun feeding when he got there. While Hamm was happy to see him, he was more interested in breakfast. The big horse paced back and forth in anticipation as the feed wagon moved slowly down the aisle. Ty used the opportunity to observe the worrisome front leg.

  Hamm grabbed a bite of hay even before the thick flake was dropped into his feed trough. He then ignored the hay in favor of the grain that followed, snorting lustily.

  Now that he was standing still, Ty entered the stall and ran his hand over Hamm’s front leg, paying particular attention to the knee area. It looked normal. No swelling or bruising. Next, he hefted Hamm’s foot and, using a pen-knife, checked under the shoe. Hamm didn’t so much as blink during the entire examination. Could be because he was fine. Could be because he was too busy eating to care about a little tenderness.

  After another minute and a pat to Hamm’s rump, Ty decided to get that cup of coffee in the dining hall and come back when the horse had finished eating. Then he’d take him to the round pen, work him a few minutes and get a better look at the leg, just to be one hundred percent sure.

  Maybe he’d ask Adele to join him and give an opinion. She had a good eye when it came to both riders and their horses. It also gave him an excuse to see her. She’d missed dinner the previous evening. He assumed whatever work she’d mentioned at lunch with Garth and Reese must have kept her busy.

  In the dining hall, the aroma of breakfast proved too tempting to resist. When one of the waitstaff brought out a tray of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, two somehow made it onto Ty’s plate before he realized it. He no sooner sat down to eat then he noticed Adele cutting across the large and noisy room toward the kitchen.

  Her gaze didn’t waver from the floor in front of her, which was certainly strange. She was often in a hurry, especially in the mornings. But she always had a wave or smile for the guests. Ty’s curiosity lasted only until she disappeared behind the kitchen’s double doors and he took his first bite of the warm and gooey cinnamon roll.

  Thirty minutes and one full stomach later, Ty was back in the barn. Haltering Hamm, he led the horse to the round pen. There, he put him through his paces, mostly satisfied that whatever had been bothering him yesterday, if anything, was no longer an issue. Nonetheless, he’d watch Hamm closely during morning class.

  After walking him several times around all three barns to cool him down, Ty returned the horse to his stall. Class didn’t start until nine, leaving a good hour to kill. Not really enough time to go back to his cabin. Ty supposed he could grab another cup of coffee in the dining hall.

  It was then he saw Adele heading into the small barn where she and Pop kept their private stock. Even at a distance, she still appeared distracted. Then it hit Ty. Her mare—Crackers?—was due to deliver any day. That could explain Adele’s unusual behavior, especially if there was a problem with the birth.

  On impulse, Ty followed her into the barn and, as he’d guessed, found her at Crackers’s stall. She had her arms resting on the door and was staring, unseeing, at the mare and newborn foal standing by her side.

  “She had the baby,” Ty said, approaching quietly.

  Adele started at the sight of him but recovered quickly. “Sometime last night. A filly.”

  The foal, initially wary, relaxed enough around her human visitors to begin nursing. Ty noticed she stood straight and that her weight was good. A blanket of white spots covered her hind end. “She looks healthy.”

  “Seems to be. The vet is coming out later this morning to check on her.”

  “Nice markings, too. Going to be an Appaloosa like the mare.”

  For the first time that morning Adele looked Ty fully in the face. He was momentarily taken aback by the dark smudges beneath her eyes. She hadn’t slept well, either.

  “Are you okay?” The question slipped out automatically.

  “I’m fine.” She tried to smile, but it was lopsided. Then it wobbled.

  “Adele.”

  All at once, she let out a sob. Her attempts to swallow a second one failed.

  Ty responded without thinking. Reaching for her, he pulled her into his arms.

  Her immediate response was to stiffen and draw back, as if she suddenly realized what she’d done.

  “It’s okay,” he murmured, and she relented, burying her face in his shirt.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” He patted her back.

  Normally, Ty avoided crying women, or at least kept his distance. Like a lot of his male brethren, he supposed, he didn’t know what to say or how to act. His confusion was ten times worse if he was the cause of the woman’s distress.

  For some reason, it felt different with Adele. And not just because he was relatively certain someone else was responsible for her being upset.

  He guessed she didn’t often let down her guard. That she did so in front of him, allowed him to offer her comfort, showed just how much she trusted him and—was it possible?—liked him.

  Tilting her head back, she looked up at him, blinking back the last of her tears. “I can’t imagine what you think of me.” Her damp lashes had formed tiny spikes that surrounded her liquid green eyes.

  Ty was captivated. Driven by a force he couldn’t resist, he lowered his head and pressed his mouth to hers.

  Just one taste. One tiny sip of her petal-soft lips. He wanted more. Any man in his right mind would. But even this infinitesimal piece of heaven was more than he was entitled to. Whatever upset Adele had left her vulnerable, and he wasn’t one to take advantage of that.

  With a last featherli
ght brush of his lips against hers, he drew back—only to have Adele stop him with a tug on his jacket. Clutching the thick fabric in her hands, she drew him closer.

  Clearly, her emotions had gotten the better of her, and she wasn’t thinking straight. If Ty were a gentleman, he’d tactfully disengage himself from her embrace. At the first touch of her tongue to his, however, his emotions got the better of him. When he heard Adele’s soft moan and felt her arms circle his neck, he was a lost man.

  The longer their kiss lasted, the more difficult it became for him to restrain himself. She felt exquisite, a maddening combination of taut muscles and soft curves. She tasted even better, like biting into another one of those freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

  Just when the last of his restraint threatened to snap, she broke off their kiss, stepped back and placed her palms on his chest. Both of them were breathing hard. Her tears, he noted, had dried.

  “Adele.”

  She shook her head and shushed him with a finger to her lips.

  He hoped she wasn’t planning on apologizing, because he sure wasn’t sorry about what had happened. No way. “If you’re—”

  She silenced him with another head shake, and cut her eyes to a place just over his shoulder.

  All at once the hairs on Ty’s neck rose, and he sensed they weren’t alone.

  “Shoot,” he muttered.

  “Yeah,” Adele agreed.

  A moment later Ty heard a loud voice say, “What in tarnation is going on here?”

  He turned, expecting to see Pop.

  What he didn’t expect was the woman accompanying him, her face an older, harsher version of Adele’s.

  Grinning saucily, she gave Ty a thorough once-over. “Well, ain’t you something.”

  Behind him, Adele softly swore.

  “IS SHE YOUR MOTHER?”

  “Yes.”

  “You look kind of alike.”

  Adele grumbled to herself. If Ty had so easily spotted the resemblance, so would everyone at the ranch.

  “She here for a visit?”

  “Sort of.” After only two meals, dinner last night and breakfast this morning, Lani was fast becoming useful in the kitchen—a surprising turn of events that didn’t make Adele one bit happy.