The Cowboy’s Sacrifice

by Danica Favorite

  “You don’t get much of that in the city, do you?” Ty asked, stopping and smiling at her.

  He almost seemed like a different man from the one she’d met at the café. But that had been the story with Chris, as well. Chris had been charming enough to get her to let her guard down and marry him, and then he’d flipped a switch into being a controlling monster. He’d still been charming, when it suited his purposes. Which was why, even though most people would be tempted to trust Ty, Rachel wasn’t going to fall for the easy smiles and newly relaxed posture.

  She returned his smile then glanced at Katie, who’d bent to look at something on the ground.

  “What do you see there?” Rachel asked.

  Katie held up a rock. “It’s sparkly.”

  “That’s quartz,” Ty said, squatting to Katie’s level and examining the rock. “We have a lot of it around here, but I think you might have found the prettiest one. Do you like rocks?”

  Wide-eyed, Katie nodded. She hadn’t known the attentions of a man like this. When Chris had been alive, he’d mostly been aloof, seeing his child as a status symbol. Unless it was to his benefit to make people think he was a doting dad. Everything about Chris’s interactions with Katie had been fake, whereas this tiny moment passing between Ty and Katie seemed real.

  As Ty explained about the rocks in the area to Katie, he seemed genuinely interested in the little girl. Rachel had grown up with a lot of fake interest, and she’d learned fairly quickly to spot a phony. Except with Chris, until it was too late. And yet, as she studied Ty, bearing in mind that he had ulterior motives in befriending them, at least temporarily, she couldn’t find fault in him.

  “Why don’t we put that in your backpack, so your hands are free for our walk?” Ty asked Katie, reaching for her backpack.

  Before Rachel could explain that Katie didn’t like people touching her backpack, Katie was helping him take it off, opening it so he could put the rock in.

  Katie trusted Ty.

  On one hand, it was heartwarming to see her open up to a new person, but on the other, Rachel couldn’t help worrying what was going to happen when Katie lost her new friend.

  “We should keep going,” Rachel said. “It’s a long walk and we still have a ways to go.”

  Ty stood. “The lake will still be there. But a walk is no fun if you can’t stop to admire the pretty rocks. Isn’t that right, Katie?”

  Katie looked up at him like he was a hero. “Mom is always in a hurry. She tells me to put the rocks down and leave them for other people.”

  Turning his gaze on Rachel, Ty said, “Your mom is a smart woman. We can only take a special rock or two, because otherwise, there won’t be any left for other people who need a good rock. But we chose the perfect one, and now we can leave the rest for someone else.”

  He winked at Rachel, like he thought he was her ally. It was nice of him not to rub in the part about her always hurrying, but he hadn’t needed to say all that about leaving rocks for her benefit.

  When they continued on their walk, Rachel noticed that Katie immediately reached for Ty’s hand, and he took it, like holding hands with a four-year-old was the most natural thing in the world.

  “You’re really good with kids,” Rachel said. “Do you have any of your own?”

  Ty shook his head. “I wish. But I am active with the kids in our church, and of course the children of guests here on the ranch. Ricky isn’t the only person here with a soft spot for children. He won’t hire anyone who isn’t good with kids. He thinks it’s important to instill the love of ranching in a person as early as possible.”

  She hadn’t thought of the impact of getting the children involved in the ranch, but she remembered the website talking about Ricky’s vision of making the ranching legacy live on.

  “That sounds like a good aim,” she said. “Is that what the rock lesson was?”

  He gestured at a boulder along the side of the path. “Part of ranching is knowing the landscape around you, which includes the rocks. The best way for someone to get interested in ranching is for them to pursue their natural curiosity. If someone like Katie loves rocks, who knows? Maybe she’ll end up a geologist if she follows that interest. Why not encourage it? That’s what makes a successful ranch. Everyone doing what they love in harmony.”

  That didn’t sound like the cranky man she’d met in the café. “Where does being a lawyer fit into that?”

  He paused for a moment while Katie stopped to look at more rocks. “Protecting the ones I love is my passion. I’m a good lawyer, and the ranch needs someone like me to make sure it’s not taken advantage of. I can’t rope a cow, and that’s okay. Wanda can’t, either, but she sure cooks up nice meals to feed the guys who do.”

  Teamwork. That was what he was getting at. But where Rachel came from, that kind of rhetoric only went so far. People worked together, sure, but only as far as they could to get ahead.

  So what was Ty after with all his rah-rah talk?

  As the path meandered through the forest, Rachel found herself relaxing even more. Ty and Katie were chattering like old friends, and while Rachel still wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her daughter warming up to him so quickly, she did like how he’d point things out to Katie and patiently explain to her what they were.

  More complications she didn’t need in her life.

  All she’d wanted to do was show up, spend a nice weekend with her daughter, talk to Ricky and find a family member who might be willing to donate a kidney. Was that so much to ask for?

  Okay, fine. It was a big ask. You didn’t just go up to strangers asking for kidneys. But what else was she supposed to do?

  The familiar fatigue started to hit, as if her body was reminding her that she was on borrowed time. Her doctor had told her to take it easy, and she mostly tried, which was why this hike was a pleasant change. She hadn’t done much of anything lately, and it was killing her. But as they rounded a corner, she could see the lake, and it would be a shame to stop now. She’d find a nice rock to sit on, and she’d feel better in no time.

  Ty seemed to notice her slowing down.

  “Am I going too fast for you? I got caught up chatting with Katie about the rocks and I wasn’t paying attention to you. I’m sorry.”

  She hated the sincere expression on his face. Because that made it harder to maintain her resolve to keep her distance. Why did he have to seem like a genuinely nice guy?

  “It’s okay. I’d forgotten how much higher the elevation is here.” Rachel gave him a small smile and paused to take a sip of her water.

  “At least you’re focusing on your water intake. We get a lot of visitors who don’t heed our warnings about drinking enough, and they end up with altitude sickness.”

  If she’d trusted Ty, this would have been the perfect opportunity to explain about her kidneys and how it was crucial for her to monitor her water intake. But that would have opened her up to more questions. And revealing her real reason for meeting Ricky.

  Which she wasn’t ready to do.

  Once again she wondered if Ty was genuinely this nice, or if he was trying to break her.

  “Even in Denver, altitude sickness is a danger,” Rachel said, recapping her water bottle then turning to Katie. “You should have a drink, too.”

  Katie took her bottle out of her backpack and did as she was told. Rachel hadn’t explained the extent of her illness to her daughter, because how was someone so young supposed to understand? But sometimes she wondered if it was a mistake. What if Rachel was gone sooner than she thought?

  They continued their hike, heading toward the lake spread out before them, complete with a dock. She imagined that later in the season there would be some boats there, as well.

  “It’s something, isn’t it?” Ty asked, looking even more relaxed than he’d been when they’d started their hike. “Best view in Colorado, as fa
r as I’m concerned.”

  He held his hand out to Katie. “Let’s see what kind of fishing pole we can find for you.”

  A small shed stood off to the side of the lake, and Ty pulled a set of keys out of his pocket as he approached. The more Rachel saw of the setup here, the more she could understand why Ty had been so taken aback at her showing up unannounced. Not only did the ranch have this lake but she’d also seen the stables and riding arenas. Based on what she’d seen on the website, they had winter sports, including sleigh rides and snowmobiling. All of this must take a great deal of effort from the staff.

  “The website doesn’t do this place justice. This shack’s a bit worn, but it’s quaint,” Rachel said, turning her attention to Ty. He’d wanted to discuss the advertising plan, so she might as well bring that back into focus, as opposed to the fact that she was starting to like him.

  Ty opened the shed door. “Ricky had some of the kids from the youth group build it as a school project. A few of us have told him he should update it, but he’s sentimental since the kids did it.”

  His quick admission of it not being perfect surprised her. He’d been so defensive in the café.

  “And the bounced emails and unanswered phone calls? The ranch seems like a large operation, and you say you’re doing just fine, but it seems like there are some things you can do to improve it.”

  It wasn’t her job to tell him what needed fixing, especially since she was trying to drive more business to the ranch. But it seemed like a waste of a good ad campaign if they didn’t also address some of the functional issues.

  “You have a point,” Ty said. “I did leave a note to check on the email issue. I’ll find out what’s going on with the phone, as well. Our office manager quit a week ago, and we haven’t found a replacement yet. We have college students who work with us over the summer and handle a lot of that stuff, and they aren’t due until next month.”

  He sighed, took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair. “Look, I know I was rude to you earlier in the café, and I’m sorry for that. We’re overloaded right now, and with all the additional nightmares with trying to find Cinco’s kid, my fuse is a little short.”

  She spied more of the vulnerability she’d seen on his face in the café, and wondered if maybe she’d judged him too harshly. That, and the mention of Cinco again made her wonder...if Ricky was likely her grandfather, could Cinco have been her father? Her mother had always told her that her father was a good-for-nothing cowboy who’d spun pretty tales and made a lot of promises he’d never intended to keep.

  And maybe some of her mistrust of Ty was that he, too, was a cowboy. A cowboy lawyer. Two strikes, which made it impossible for her to give him the chance at a third.

  “So what’s the story with Cinco and his kid?” Rachel asked, trying to sound casual. He might have been worthless in her mother’s eyes, but sometimes she dreamed of having a father. “You’ve mentioned a story there, but not fully.”

  Ty shrugged. “Cinco was Ricky’s son. Ricardo Ruiz the fifth, Cinco for short. He was a famous bull rider, killed doing what he loved best, riding bulls. Ricky didn’t like that his son endangered himself, so they fought about it and eventually became estranged. When Cinco died, his wife was pregnant, but she wanted nothing to do with Ricky because of all the bad blood. Ricky let her go, thinking he didn’t deserve a family after pushing away Cinco. But now that he’s older, he knows it was a mistake, and he wants to make it right.”

  Sighing again, Ty looked at Rachel. “We went public when the investigators couldn’t turn up anything. Which means we’ve had a lot of crazies showing up, claiming to be Cinco’s child. They’re all charlatans, and it breaks Ricky’s heart a little more each time to get his hopes up, only to find it’s a lie again.”

  In a way, Rachel could understand what that felt like. So many times she’d hear from the doctors about potential matches, and they’d either not work out, or someone sicker would need the kidney. No one had ever lied to her about that, but when you were faced with the end of your life, with so many unmet dreams, to have your hopes dashed was particularly painful.

  She wasn’t a charlatan. The results on the DNA website didn’t lie. She was related to Ricky, with a close enough match that he was likely her grandfather. So why couldn’t she just spit it out and tell Ty about their relationship?

  Even though she’d only come to find other relatives who might be willing to give her a kidney, maybe Rachel could also help this old man right the wrongs of his past. Maybe they could even be the family to each other that they’d both been longing for.

  “That’s sad to hear,” she said. “Ricky seems like a nice guy.”

  “He’s the best,” Ty said. “Which is why I make it my personal mission to make sure no one hurts him.”

  The warning in his voice told her exactly why she wasn’t going to tell Ty. He still obviously suspected her of being someone who wanted to hurt Ricky.

  Ty put his hat back on and entered the shed, turning on a light as he did so. The space was neat and orderly, and it was set up for people to check out various things to do on the lake in the summer.

  Katie pointed out a picture of a unicorn float. “I want to do that.”

  Ty turned to see what she was pointing at. “The lake is too cold to go swimming right now, but maybe in the summer you and your mom can come back.”

  He had no right making promises he couldn’t keep to her little girl.

  “Are you going to let us?” Rachel asked, knowing she sounded testy, but she also didn’t know if she’d be well enough to come back this summer.

  He shrugged. “If there’s room. I’m not turning away a paying guest. I recommend you bring Katie back to experience all the seasons. The snow has finally melted and it’s warming up, so you’re barely getting a taste of the spring season. It’s a great place for a child.”

  She didn’t need convincing. But there were so many variables right now, she couldn’t plan on next week, let alone next month or later in the year.

  “It seems like it,” Rachel said. “That would be a great angle to capitalize on for your ad campaign. It seems like the Double R is very family oriented, and even though the website mentions wanting to carry on the ranching tradition, it’s not the same level of encouragement for children that I’m getting from you today.”

  Ty opened a locker and pulled out some fishing poles. “It’s a hard balance. Kids these days want amusement parks, and we can’t provide that. There are places on the ranch you can’t even get a cell signal. Even though we do have satellite TV and Wi-Fi, it’s only available in certain buildings. So how do you sell them on something they don’t know they’ll love?”

  He didn’t know it yet, but she had him right where she wanted him. All along he’d been trying to disarm her, to find out her weakness so he’d have something to use against her. But here he was, giving her exactly what she needed to get him to see how useful she could be to the ranch.

  Which meant he’d trust her enough to spend some time alone with Ricky.

  Sneaky, but she did intend on getting this ad account. The extra money would be helpful with her medical expenses. And if Ricky could see what a competent, capable woman she was, one who wanted nothing more than to find a family connection, he’d know she intended him no harm.

  Rachel smiled at Ty. “And now you know exactly why you need someone to help with your advertising. To get the parents to understand why they need to take their kids to the ranch instead of another overpriced amusement park.”

  “I’m listening,” Ty said.

  * * *

  Even though Ty still had the feeling something wasn’t right with Rachel, he also couldn’t help liking her. She was clearly an attentive mother who took good care of Katie, and was raising a respectful, smart little girl.

  As Rachel explained about appealing to parents to give their children a connec
tion with nature instead of being constantly tethered to technology, he got out the fishing poles.

  He hadn’t known what Rachel would say to his suggestion of going fishing, but he was glad she’d so readily agreed. Not only had he promised Wanda something to fry up for dinner, but spending time with a pole in his hand also gave him the tools he needed to think through things. Maybe it would help him sort out why, when Rachel seemed like a nice-enough person, he had all these danger alarms going off in his head.

  Ty handed Rachel a fishing pole, then turned to Katie. “Which one do you want?”

  “Yellow, please,” Katie said, giving him the charming smile she’d obviously inherited from her mother.

  It was a shame Rachel didn’t smile more. She was lovely when she did so, but it seemed to be a rare indulgence, and her smiles were almost always replaced by a scowl.

  Why was she so afraid to enjoy herself and be happy?

  One more reason he wasn’t sure he could trust her.

  But her ideas about the ad campaign made sense. He’d told her they were doing just fine, and that was true. However, Ricky’s vision for the place was much bigger, and they were only doing a fraction of what he’d hoped for. A decent ad campaign would get them the attention they needed on the ranch, and maybe it would also get people to forget about the whole Cinco business.

  Yes, Ty would still look for Cinco’s kid; he owed Ricky that much. But he had private investigators on it, and even though they hadn’t had any success so far, surely they were close.

  He led them to the dock, where he gave them a quick tutorial on how to use the fishing poles. Rachel caught on quickly, leaving him to help Katie. The little girl’s questions and chattering were a good distraction from wondering more about Rachel and her agenda.

  “I think I have something,” Rachel said, bringing his attention back to her.

  The pole was bent at an angle that told him whatever was on the other end was a decent size.

  “Keep hold of yours,” he told Katie. “I’ll be back.”