by Mary Leo
It was time. Wedding or no wedding, he had to show her what he’d done.
“Come with me, sweetheart. I’ve got something to show you.”
* * *
WHEN COLT PARKED his SUV in front of the old M & M Riding School, Helen braced herself. Sure she’d come to terms with what he was doing, but she felt apprehensive about seeing the destruction.
Also, ever since her night with Tater she’d been having contractions and she was having one as they pulled up to the school. Dr. Guru had examined her and said they were nothing to worry about, but considering she still had two more weeks to go until her due date, Helen was very worried. The doctor had told her to go to the hospital if they intensified, and Helen was now considering what intensified actually meant. Ever since Gavin had been freed from the hay bin, they’d gotten worse. Not quite bad enough to be rushed to the hospital...yet. She was hoping they were simply a false alarm kind of thing. Especially since almost every guest had followed them over from the Granger ranch, including Mush and Suzie.
She would have liked it much better if she, Colt and the boys had been able to drive over by themselves, but then living in Briggs was like that. For better or worse everyone wanted to be in on the latest gossip, scandals and good news.
Colt came around and helped her out of the SUV, took her hand and led her past the row of Rocky Mountain maple trees that hadn’t quite lost all their leaves yet. Once past the trees she immediately noticed the old house was still standing. Funny thing was, it didn’t look anything like the last time she’d seen it. Instead the house appeared to have been freshly painted, and the front porch had been fixed. And there was a new roof and the bright red front door was partially open, as if someone lived there.
“Colt, what is all this?”
“It’s ours, babe. Yours and mine. We own it now.”
“But what about the other ranchers and the storage plant? Isn’t that what you’ve been doing out here?”
He tilted his head and gave her a smile. “That’s what I was trying to tell you the other night at the tavern.”
“But I wouldn’t listen.”
His smile broadened as he took her hand. She was so full of love for him she couldn’t contain herself and her eyes watered. He noticed and gladly gave her his handkerchief.
“We did it,” Buddy said, excitement bubbling in his voice.
Colt’s boys were dancing all around her, along with Scout, who wore a blue dress and tan grown-up cowgirl boots. Helen thought she liked her pink ones better.
“We all did it. Nearly everybody we know. Daddy said it had to be ready when Gramps and Edith got married. And today they’re getting married. We did it!” Gavin said, opening his arms and twirling around.
“Do you like it?” Joey asked. “We fixed it all up real pretty so you could be our other mother. We have one up in heaven, but we need one down here, too. Our mama up in heaven can’t scold us and tell us to be good or make us hot chocolate. But you can.”
Helen leaned over and gave him a kiss on top of his head. She wanted to kiss his little face, but she couldn’t reach it. Her contracting belly got in the way. Tears tumbled down her cheeks and she wiped them with Colt’s hankie.
“I’d love to be your other mama, if it’s okay with Gavin and Buddy.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” all three boys shouted, giving her great big hugs.
“Yay!” Scout cheered. “I have a new auntie!”
And once again, everyone clapped and cheered.
When the kids’ excitement died down, Colt said, “She hasn’t even seen the whole place yet. Let’s complete the tour.”
This time Gavin took her hand. “Well, come on and hurry up. It’s pretty. I even have my own room. We already moved in, and Dodge and Edith are moving into our house as soon as they get back from Texas for their honeymoon.”
“Texas? Why Texas?”
“Didn’t Milo tell you?” Buddy asked, but he didn’t wait for her reply. “He gave Gramps his winning trip to the ranch on that cooking show. Amanda couldn’t go because of school and Milo doesn’t want to go anywhere without Amanda. They’re in love.”
“He never told me a thing.” She turned to Colt. “Or was that the big news he wanted to share at Belly Up?”
“I think so,” Colt said, making a face then nodding.
“How’d you keep all those secrets for so long, Gavin?” Helen asked.
“Easy. You were never here, but, oh boy, once I saw you today, it was impossible!” He threw his hands up in the air.
She looked over at Colt and he took her other hand, and as he did, another contraction rocked her and this time she held her breath. This one really hurt, but Helen still would not believe it was her time. She really didn’t want to disrupt Edith’s wedding any more than it had been already.
“It’s all for you, sweetheart. It’s because of you that I finally got my head on straight,” Colt told her as he led her inside the house, which was nearly finished, except for paint and furniture.
“We brought over our beds and our clothes and the kids’ toys, but everything else we either gave away or stored in the barn.”
Travis, who had been trailing behind them, explained the details of the house and the upgrades he’d made. Then everyone went out to the school and had a tour of the renovated classrooms. There were only three that Helen planned on using for lectures mostly.
When they walked out to the covered arena, Helen fell in love with the place all over again. It was meticulously restored and could now easily hold competitions with the added seating on the right and left sides.
As she turned to tell Colt how much she loved him and everything she’d seen, she felt something run down her leg. In that instant, a crushing pain rocked her hard and she clutched Colt’s arm so tight she could feel his entire body tense.
“What’s wrong?” he said, a frightened look crossing his face.
“My water broke.”
“Let’s get you to the hospital.”
She instinctively knew that wasn’t possible. This baby was coming out now. “There isn’t time.”
Buddy came over. “What’s wrong with Helen, Dad? I’m scared.”
“The baby’s coming. Don’t be scared. Everything’s going to be fine. I promise.” His face reflected assurance and confidence. It gave Helen exactly what she needed to brave out the contractions.
“Are you sure?” Gavin asked as he came up behind Colt.
Colt gathered his sons in front of him. “You boys have my word, so don’t be scared or worry.”
Helen looked down at her new sons. “Don’t you guys stress about a thing. I’m going to be just—”
But the pain gripped her so strong she couldn’t finish her sentence.
Edith hurried over without having to be asked. Like Dodge, she had that sixth sense about people, and at that moment, Helen couldn’t think of another person in the entire world she’d rather have to help deliver this baby more than Edith Abernathy, The Perfect Nurse.
Edith turned to Colt. “Fetch Kendra and Maggie’s sister, Kitty. Them girls are good at babies.” Then she wrapped her white fringed shawl around Helen’s shoulders and said, “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you someplace private.”
And as soon as Helen saw the shawl up close she knew it was the exact shawl from the picture of the nude in Belly Up.
“It’s you,” Helen told Edith. “You’re the woman on the chaise lounge.”
“Certainly it’s me. Anybody can see the resemblance if they looked at her face instead of her body. I was one hot tamale in those days. Still am, according to Dodge.”
Helen giggled. “He knows?”
“Only man in this whole town who knew it was me. I had to marry him after that just to keep him from spreading it around. Now let’s you and me go hav
e ourselves a baby.”
Epilogue
Helen eased Tater into a faster canter, making their usual tight circle in front of the course. The buzzer sounded and Helen drew her first weapon, leaned forward in the saddle, and Tater took off at lightning speed for the semicircle of five red balloons. At once, Helen aimed her .45, clicked back the rough hammer, pulled the trigger and popped the first balloon, then the second, third, fourth and fifth. She quickly holstered her gun and drew the second firearm, all the while guiding Tater around the red barrel at the far end of the course. She took aim once again and popped each of the five remaining white balloons on the run down as she and Tater raced straight to the end of the course. Holstering her second gun, totally in sync with her horse, totally in tune with the power of the event, Helen knew she’d finally won the championship.
Moments later her winning score came up on the huge digital board at the end of the arena.
The crowd cheered as the announcer yelled his “woo-hoo” into the microphone. Then he gave the audience her official time and Helen knew for certain she was the national champion. This win came with a payout worth over one hundred thousand dollars, and the trophy buckle she coveted.
“We did it, boy,” she said all full of smiles and happiness as she stroked Tater’s neck then patted his hindquarters. She pulled out her earplugs then waved to the crowd. The cheers got louder and echoed off the metal stands that surrounded the arena. Tater seemed to know they’d won and trotted out of the arena with his head held high.
Tater slowed to an easy canter as they made their way through the metal gate. Then, in the next instant, a female reporter rode up beside her for an interview from the local paper.
“Helen Granger, how does it feel to win the national championship?”
“It feels great, thanks. But I couldn’t have done it without my family cheering me on.”
“We’ve heard a lot about them recently, how they’re with you during all the events, and especially about your son Buddy, who seems to be following in your footsteps.”
“It’s been a joy to watch him do so well. He works hard at the sport, and I’m sure that one day he’ll be sitting where I am right now.”
Helen felt certain Buddy would one day win his share of championships.
“There’s been some rumors that this is the end of the road for you. That you won’t be going on to try for the world championship. Is that true?”
Helen spotted Colt, the boys and their sweet toddler, Loran, waving like mad up in the stands. “Absolutely. It was a dream of mine to win just one title and my family supported me while I’ve won several. It’s been a fabulous run, but now I want to focus my attention on my family and my riding school.”
“With four children and a riding school to run, it’s hard to imagine all that you’ve accomplished this past year. Any insight you want to give us on how you did it?”
“Simple. I’m married to the best cowboy a cowgirl could ever ask for. He’s been there for me through it all, and I’m truly blessed to have him by my side.”
The reporter looked over at Helen’s family. “You have a beautiful family. You must be very proud.”
Helen tugged at her lapis lazuli necklace as she gazed up at Colt, who wore a warm grin as he held little Loran in his right arm, while the boys stood on their seats waving.
He mouthed, “I love you,” just as Loran knocked his hat off his head. Colt went to grab it but it got away from him and rolled right into the arena. Joey climbed over the gate to retrieve it, followed closely by Gavin and Buddy.
Two wranglers came running out after them, which caused the boys to dart out of their reach. The audience must have thought they were part of the show and cheered for the boys. The announcer played an old cowboy song that only enhanced the ensuing chaos. The reporter put her microphone down and sat there watching. Colt called for his boys to let the hat go and come on back to their seats, but the boys acted as if they couldn’t hear him.
Finally, Buddy picked up the rolling hat, and held it up for his dad to see. Then he bowed to the audience as if he’d just accomplished a major task.
The next rider and the audience applauded as the Granger boys climbed back over the railing to get to their seats.
Colt looked over at Helen and shrugged. Helen smiled and shrugged back.
Then Helen looked at the reporter and said, “Without a doubt, they’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from ROPING THE RANCHER by Julie Benson.
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Chapter One
“I don’t care how good the therapy is supposed to be. There is no way I’m letting you get on a horse,” Stacy Michaels said to her younger brother when they left his neurologist’s office.
“This isn’t about me. It’s about Dad, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is.” Stacy punched the elevator down button with so much force she chipped her fingernail.
“Dad died filming a movie stunt. This is a therapy program,” Ryan insisted.
Since he’d been only a few months old at the time, he knew nothing about their father’s death other than what he’d been told. While an eleven-year-old Stacy had been in the movie as well and witnessed the entire event. Even now, almost sixteen years later, some nights she still woke drenched in sweat from the nightmares.
The months before her dad’s accident had been the best time in Stacy’s life. She smiled at the memories of working with him on the movie and how she soaked up every drop of attention he poured on her. The image of him beaming when he told everyone within earshot how she was a chip off the old block and that one day she’d be a star flashed in her mind.
Her life had been perfect.
Then a week before filming ended, her father, playing a fifteenth-century knight, was shooting the big battle scene against her character’s kidnappers. When his mount became spooked by the special effects, her father fell and the horse trampled him to death, with Stacy a few feet away.
Now her brother wanted her to give the okay for him to become a patient of a therapeutic horse program. Not as long as she was his guardian.
“There has to be another option.”
“You heard what Dr. Chapman said. We’ve tried everything else. This is my best shot to walk without this damned walker,” Ryan said, as he struggled to maneuver onto the elevator.
A year ago Ryan had been driving when a man walked out onto the street from between two parked cars. Unable to avoid the man, Ryan hit him and then barreled head-on into a telephone phone pole. The man nearly died. Both of Ryan’s legs were crushed and he’d sustained a brain injury that left him with control and balance issues. Despite two surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy, he still needed a walker. The investigation cleared Ryan of any wrongdoing, but he’d still carried a fair share of guilt over what happened.
Stacy stared at her brother, his eyes filled with determination and, more importantly, hope. Her breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t seen that emotion in his gaze for months. He deserved every chance to get his life back to what it had been, but how could she let him get on a horse? �
��I don’t know.”
“Please, you’ve got to let me try this. Whatever the risk, for me it’s worth it.”
She told herself he wouldn’t be racing around hell-for-leather on a movie set with cannons booming around him like their father had been. From what Dr. Chapman said, the horse Ryan rode for therapy would be walking or at most trotting around an arena with multiple volunteers to ensure nothing went wrong. She glanced at her brother. He was so young. How could she deny him this chance to get his life back? “You win.”
“You’re the best.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
Once in the car Ryan stuck his nose in the program brochures the doctor had given them, occasionally tossing out information. “Most of the programs have spring sessions starting this time of year. That means I can start right away. In ten weeks I could be ditching my walker.”
“Where’s the closest one?” Stacy asked, her mind starting to work on how she’d carve time out of her schedule to accommodate his therapy sessions.
Then a thought hit her. Her next movie, The Women of Spring Creek Ranch, was scheduled to start shooting next week in Estes Park, Colorado.
Unless she figured out a way to be in two places at once, she had a problem.
* * *
“MOM, RYAN HAD another appointment with the neurologist this afternoon. You told me you’d be there.” Stacy fought to keep her voice level despite her growing irritation as she walked into the living room of her mother’s recently redecorated Malibu beach house.
“I went out to lunch with some friends and lost track of time.”
More likely she lost track of how many cosmos she’d had, and based on her bleary-eyed gaze, smeared mascara and rumpled blouse and slacks, she had passed out the minute she got home.
Which was exactly why Ryan had asked Stacy to sue for guardianship. They’d both hoped Andrea losing custody of her son would be the wake-up call she needed to pull herself together. So far that hadn’t been the case.
