Second Chance Rancher

by Brenda Minton

  Dane put the menu back in its spot between the napkin holder and the sugar dish.

  “Dane, what’ll you have?” Essie held her pen to the pad in her hand. Her lips were in a firm line as she waited.

  “I think I’m going with the safe choice.”

  Essie arched one brow. “Which is...”

  “I’m going to let you choose and save myself a lecture.”

  Essie pointed a finger at him. “I choose for you to remain silent.”

  Lucy tiptoed into the fray. “Essie, is everything okay?”

  “Of course it is. Why?”

  “You seem grouchier than normal,” Chet replied from the other table, proving he didn’t have any sense.

  “Just for that, you get split pea soup. I know it’s your favorite, old man.” She tapped her pen on the order pad.

  “Oh, come on, Essie, you know I was only joking.” Chet made a sweet face that probably wouldn’t do him a bit of good. “Why don’t you tell us what’s wrong? Maybe we can help.”

  “All right, fine. My cat died last night.” She avoided eye contact with Lucy as she gave the explanation. “I’ve had that cat for fifteen years.”

  “Oh, now, Essie, don’t you go and start acting all human on me. You’ll make me cry. I’m always a sympathetic crier.” Chet reached over and patted her back with a large, calloused hand. “If it’ll make you smile, I’ll get you a kitten.”

  “I don’t want a kitten, you cantankerous old man.” Essie reached for a napkin and wiped her eyes. “Okay, lunch is on me. Because I’m sorry for being such a grouch.”

  “Don’t even think about it, Essie. I’ll pay,” Dane offered. “My condolences. I am sorry about your cat. If it makes you feel better, I’ll take a chef salad, also. And pecan pie.”

  As Essie wrote down Dane’s order, Lucy studied her aunt closely. She knew what the others obviously didn’t. Essie didn’t have a cat. She was allergic.

  Suddenly a foot hit hers. She glanced at Dane and he winked. To avoid getting drawn in, she picked up the menu and pretended to study it. She didn’t want to feel connected to him. But sometimes it felt like there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  Dane Scott was starting to be irresistible.

  * * *

  “Essie has never owned a cat in her life,” Lucy revealed to Dane after they’d left Essie’s.

  “I didn’t think she was a cat owner. So why the story?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess I’ll ask her later. I need to get home and get some work done. Alex is buying cattle. It seems he’s had some decent winnings this year.”

  Dane wondered why a man on a winning streak would walk away from a sport that he loved right when he seemed to be making decent money.

  As they passed the feed store, a few of the men called out to them, waving. They were known as the “liars club.” Local men who met at the feed store for free coffee and gossip. Mandy Williams owned the feed store with her husband. She didn’t mind donating the coffee, but if the gossip crossed the line or the language got too salty she made them put a dollar in the coffee donation box.

  “Hey, Lucy. Come up here for a sec.”

  Lucy waved at Tommy Murray, a neighbor to the west of the Palermos. But she didn’t look like she planned on stopping to talk.

  “Might as well see what he wants.”

  She sighed, but then headed back toward the feed store and the men sitting on the concrete loading dock.

  “Hey, Tommy, don’t you have work to do on your place.” Dane reached to shake hands with Tommy and the others.

  Tommy Murray, comfortable on the bench, a cup of coffee in his hands, nodded as he looked at Lucy. “Remember that little mare of mine that you used to sneak over and ride?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t know you knew about that.”

  “Oh, you weren’t as sneaky as you thought. I saw you a time or two back in the trees. I wouldn’t have said anything to get you in trouble.”

  “She was a nice mare,” Lucy responded.

  “She was. And she threw some nice foals. I have a little mare, about five years old, out of that mare. Her sire was a gray Arabian.”

  “I see.”

  “I thought since you’re home, you might like to buy her.”

  “I don’t know about buying a horse, but thank you.”

  “Well, isn’t Alex home and buying livestock?” Tommy quizzed, raising his glasses to give her a hard stare. “I just assumed you were home for good.”

  “I haven’t really made a plan.” She looked at Dane, then her gaze darted away and he wondered. He wondered why she wouldn’t look at him and he wondered why it should matter to him so much.

  She didn’t owe him an explanation. Neither of them were responsible to the other. He had his place up for sale. She had made it clear she was just here for Maria. When it came to being unequally yoked, the two of them were poster children.

  “Well, keep her in mind,” Tommy was saying. He was a horse trader and he rarely backed down. “I’m going to put her on my website but I thought if you wanted her, I’d give you the first shot at her. She’s a pretty grullo, like her mama.”

  Temptation with hooves. Dane knew Lucy well enough to know she wanted that horse the way some women wanted diamonds. “I might come by and look at her,” she admitted.

  “That’d be fine.”

  They said their goodbyes and walked away. Dane maintained a safe distance between them. She wanted that mare, he could tell.

  “Another horse feels like a commitment to stay, huh?” he asked as they got closer to her truck.

  “Yes, something like that.”

  He understood. She didn’t want to be tied down to Bluebonnet. And he’d known that since the very beginning. Since the first day when she’d stood at the side of the road looking down at her sister’s truck lodged in his fence.

  At least she was honest. He wasn’t quite ready for all that honesty, though. Not even with himself.

  She touched his arm, just a brief touch. “I’ll meet you at the church. I’m going to say hello to a couple of the ladies.”

  “I’ll see you there.”

  He watched her walk away and halfway to her car she glanced back at him, frowning when she saw that he was still standing there. He waved and she shook her head. Taking the hint he climbed behind the wheel of his truck and headed the few blocks to the church.

  Before he got there he saw the flashing blue lights. Patrol cars were pulling in to the driveway of the church. A few of the women were outside. Dane parked and got out. Lucy was almost immediately at his side.

  Pastor Matthews came out the front door of the building and the deputies joined him. When he saw Dane and Lucy, he waved them over.

  “What happened?” Lucy asked as they approached.

  “Willa came back yesterday. About thirty minutes ago her husband caught her in the yard playing with their little boy.”

  “Is the suspect still on the premises?” one of the deputies asked, his hand going to his sidearm.

  “No, he left,” Pastor Matthews answered, his expression troubled. “He went east.”

  “Do you have a description of the car?” The deputy listened to the response and called in the BOLO on the car and the suspect. He excused himself to talk to the women who had witnessed the attack.

  “Can I see Willa?” Lucy asked.

  Pastor Matthews looked to the deputy, who nodded. “She’s inside with the city officer.”

  “She’s pretty beat up, Lucy.” Pastor Matthews pointed toward the door. “My wife has been with her.”

  “Is she going to need medical care?” Lucy asked.

  “She said no, but I think she might have a cracked rib and probably a broken nose.”

  “What about her little boy,
Seth?” Lucy asked as they entered the church.

  “He’s okay. She had him run inside when she saw her husband pull up.” Pastor Matthews responded as he walked next to her.

  Dane had followed. Lucy knew how to take care of herself. She didn’t need him to protect her, but he wanted to be with her. Things appeared calm but he worried that Willa’s husband might come back and if he did, Dane didn’t want Lucy to be alone.

  He thought she’d probably been alone too often in life.

  Chapter Eleven

  The police officer met them at the door to the shelter. He unlocked it and told them he would be there if they needed him. Lucy thanked him as she stepped inside, Dane at her back. They walked down the dimly lit hall, Pastor Matthews leading the way.

  She stopped walking and reached for Dane’s arm. He glanced down, questions in his eyes as she stood there, trying to find words to explain this situation.

  “You should wait in the fellowship hall,” she told him. “The women are going to be nervous and your presence won’t help. I’m sorry.”

  Kindness lit his blue eyes. “I understand. There’s no need to be sorry. But I’m here if you need me, not that I expect that to happen.”

  The comment changed everything. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime. But if you ever do need me to ride to the rescue, just say the word.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, then felt silly. She didn’t do silly or weak.

  She didn’t need a man to rescue her. She’d been rescuing herself for a long time. She’d survived her father. She’d survived an IED in Afghanistan. The man standing in front of her would not be her knight in shining armor.

  But she’d just said okay, as if she meant for him to rescue her right then. And the soft glimmer of understanding in his eyes nearly undid her.

  His hand touched hers. Barely. The touch so soft, so gentle, she hardly knew if it had happened.

  “Go,” she told him.

  He saluted her and walked down the hall. Lucy watched him go, then she forced herself to move. Pastor Matthews had left the two of them alone but she could hear his steady, calming voice coming from a room down the hall.

  There were three women in the room that Lucy entered a few seconds later. Willa was seated on a chair. One of the women from the shelter stood nearby holding a first aid kit. The other woman lived in Bluebonnet. Her name was Elaine and she’d worked at the grocery store for as long as Lucy could remember.

  “Hey, Willa.” Lucy approached the three, a gentle smile for Willa.

  “Lucy,” Willa sobbed, tears running down her bruised and battered cheeks. “I cooked the wrong kind of beans. I knew it, but it was all we had.”

  “Willa, don’t make excuses for him,” Lucy said gently but inside she felt like screaming. Why did abusers always make their victims feel as if the blame was on them? “Where’s Seth?”

  “He’s in the nursery. Johnny smacked him pretty hard. But I think he’s okay.”

  “Oh, Willa.” Lucy squatted in front of the broken woman. “I’d like to take you to the doctor. We want to make sure nothing is broken.”

  Elaine situated an ice pack on Willa’s busted nose. “She said it hurts to move and taking a deep breath is painful.”

  “He kicked me,” Willa said. “I was moving away from him and I grabbed a stick so he couldn’t hit me again. So he kicked me.”

  She said it half-proud but sobbed as she finished the tale.

  “Willa, your little boy needs you healthy. I’ll take you to the doctor here in town. We’ll get you and Seth checked out. My neighbor is going with us, just so nothing else can happen to you.”

  Willa closed her eyes, then she nodded once. “Okay.”

  Lucy took the first aid kit from the woman standing at Willa’s side. She opened a bandage and applied salve.

  “I’m going to put this on your face, because there’s a cut on your cheek. Okay?”

  Willa nodded and silent tears dripped down her cheeks again. She flinched when the bandage touched the gash. The moment brought back a memory of her mother doing the same for her. That day, when her father had beat her with a riding crop, had changed everything for Lucy. She remembered it so vividly, even though she’d been only fourteen at the time. She’d told her mom that someday she’d leave and she wouldn’t come back. She’d promised her mom that she would never get married because no man would ever control her. Her mom had told her to hush and don’t start more trouble.

  As if she had started the trouble. She’d looked at her dad the wrong way and for that she’d had to write Scripture, and then she’d accidentally misquoted a verse. For Jesse Palermo it hadn’t been about the Bible or God. It had been about control and power.

  “I don’t know what I’ll do without him.” Willa spoke as Lucy finished cleaning her face.

  “One day at a time,” Lucy told her. “Each day you’ll get stronger. Each day you’ll feel better. Each day you’ll feel safer.”

  The words were the greatest truth she’d ever spoken. Each day after leaving her home and her family, Lucy had grown stronger. She’d felt more in control of her own life, her own future.

  She wouldn’t give that control to anyone else.

  Willa drew in a deep breath, tears filling her eyes. “I do need a doctor.”

  “Yes, you do. I’ll take you to our local doctor.”

  “Thank you, Lucy,” Willa whispered in a small voice as she pushed to her feet.

  They found Dane in the fellowship hall. He was leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in his hands. Lucy faltered a bit as she approached him. Her pledge to always be strong seemed to hit a brick wall because he made her feel weak.

  She glanced away from him, because she’d been staring and felt as if she didn’t know herself at that moment. She remembered back, telling her mother she’d never let a man control her. She’d meant the way her father controlled people. But now she knew that there were other ways men controlled. Ways she hadn’t expected, ways that didn’t necessarily feel dangerous. At least not dangerous in the way she’d always feared.

  Pastor Matthews stepped forward, holding a cup of coffee out to Willa. Seth, Willa’s two-year-old son, came flying into the room, his face dirty and bruises already coloring his fair cheeks. Lucy grabbed him up before he could plow into his mom.

  “Hey, Seth, remember me?” she asked as she held on to him. He stopped trying to escape. “We’re going to take you and your mom for a drive. But first I’m going to see if there are any cookies around here. Want a cookie?”

  The little boy nodded. Lucy headed for the kitchen but Dane had heard and he was already there, rummaging through the cabinets. By the time they reached him he’d found a chocolate chip cookie and a cream-filled cookie. He handed them both Seth.

  “How about two cookies?” Dane asked.

  Seth took the cookies, and then he reached for Dane. Lucy let go, because she knew that Dane had experience with kids. She had never seen herself as soft and comforting.

  “We pulled the truck up to the back of the church.” Dane held Seth in one arm. “I’ll drive if you want to get Willa.”

  “Sounds good,” she said. She walked back to the fellowship hall.

  Pastor Matthews took Willa gingerly by the arm. “Let’s take it slow and easy as we walk out there.”

  “What if Johnny comes back here?” Willa asked as they walked to the truck. She looked around nervously, her gaze anxiously seeking him out.

  Lucy remained close to Willa’s side but she glanced back at Dane and Seth. She didn’t want the little guy to be worried, thinking his daddy might return. Dane was keeping him busy talking to him. Lucy opened the truck door for Willa.

  “The deputy is going to follow us, Willa.” Lucy helped the other woman get settled. “But you have to press charges.
The safest thing for you is to put Johnny behind bars.”

  Willa shook her head at the suggestion. “I don’t think I can press charges against my husband.”

  Lucy had expected that. “I know you think that. But you can. And you should.”

  Willa eased herself into the truck, her face tight with pain. “Where will I be when Johnny gets here?”

  “I have an apartment in Austin. It’s sitting empty and the rent is paid. I’ll take you there this weekend. If you’ll go.”

  Willa studied the sky as if she’d never before seen that shade of blue. Lucy didn’t press her for an answer. She’d either take the help or she wouldn’t.

  Doc Parker had an office in a convenience store that had closed down. He lived in the back, drove an old Jeep and said he was saving money for retirement. But he was seventy if he was a day and Lucy guessed he would never retire. When he saw Willa, he shook his head and pointed to the exam table.

  “Looks as if you’ve had a rough day.” He touched the cut on her head, and then moved on to her nose. “I’m going to have you lay back on the exam table. Now don’t you worry. Lucy won’t leave and I’ll be gentle. Dane is in the waiting room with your little boy. I think they’re playing one of them silly games on the smartphone. Technology. It sure has changed since I was your age. We used to hunt for dimes to use the pay phone.”

  He kept talking, his voice low and soothing, as he did his exam. Willa cried the entire time.

  “Nothing broken.” He paused, his expression growing gentle. “When did you lose the baby?”

  Willa started to sob. Lucy held her hand tight and blinked back tears because Willa didn’t need her sympathy. She needed someone strong, holding her hand and telling her it would be okay.

  “He kicked me and knocked me down.” Her voice trembled.

  “In the past week or two?”

  Willa nodded. “I couldn’t stop it from happening.”

  “No, I reckon you couldn’t. Now, you listen to me. Your body needs to heal. But you’ve got other healing to do, too. Your emotions. Your mind and the way you see yourself. Those things need to heal. When you leave here, I want you to think about getting some help for the emotional hurts so those can heal.”