Love Inspired January 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Her Unexpected CowboyHis Ideal MatchThe Rancher's Secret Son

by Debra Clopton

  Katie looked away, and Stacy smirked as if confident she knew Emma couldn’t force her to tell. “Well, let’s see. Two plus two equals four, and the capital of Louisiana is—”

  Caley snorted beside her, and covered it with a cough.

  It would have been funny to Emma, too, though still disrespectful—but Caley didn’t know the whole story about Tonya, and there was nothing funny right now about the fact the girl wasn’t in her room, and her roommates were sharing secrets. Secrets Emma needed to know.

  “To the barn. Now. Caley will walk you.” Let the firefighter introduce herself on the way. She caught the blonde’s eye, and Caley immediately nodded and ushered the girls out the door. “Max has told me a lot about you” were her trailing words as the door closed behind them.

  Well at least she got to say it to someone.

  Emma paced the small walkway between the beds, wishing the quilts could talk. She needed to alert Max in case Tonya had run away, but first, she wanted to figure out what was going on. Why had the other girls landed on Tonya’s bed to share secrets if she wasn’t here? Probably implied Tonya had been there recently. Maybe she and Caley had missed her on their way from the barn. Maybe Tonya hadn’t run away, just gotten upset and walked out first instead of coming over for chores together. Had the girls upset her?

  She didn’t want to overreact, but she really didn’t want to under-react, either.

  She stopped in front of the bathroom door, noticing the light on and the toilet running. Might be leaky, unless someone had just used it before she came in. She looked inside, unsure what she was searching for.

  Her gaze caught on the trash can tucked between the toilet and the counter, and she sucked in her breath.

  Remington and the bed quilts might not be giving Tonya’s secrets up—but the wastebasket sure did.

  * * *

  Max stood back, surveying the rows of folding chairs spread across the sun-dried grass, splotches of red and blue paint evident on several patches where the tarps had failed. Trust exercises. He still wasn’t sure about this, but Emma seemed to know what she was talking about, and he wanted to incorporate her ideas. Wanted her to feel as though she was a part of this.

  He knew how terrible it felt to be involved in something up to your eyebrows and still have zero control. For him, it’d been a drug addiction. For Emma, it was watching her son spiral beneath her grasp.

  With God’s help, he’d beaten his. Hopefully he’d get to see Emma and Cody share a similar victory.

  The kids’ voices rose on the brisk November wind as the gang filed toward him, led by Chaplain Tim, past the makeshift obstacle course he’d thrown together and wearing dubious expressions he probably mirrored. He quickly schooled his features to hopefully resemble confidence. This would go well. How could it not?

  “Another obstacle course? The other one looked harder.” Cody’s voice carried on the breeze and held two parts bravado, one part trepidation. He’d struggled on the rope swing of the first obstacle course, which had set him and Jarvis at each other—no wonder he’d be wary about this one, even if by all appearances it seemed a huge step down on the difficulty factor.

  But the teens didn’t know yet they’d be doing this one blindfolded.

  “It was only hard for you.” Jarvis snorted under his breath as he drew near, and Max shot him a warning look that wilted his arrogant expression. No way was that getting started today. In fact...Max grinned as he glanced at the red bandanas waiting on one of the folding chairs.

  He knew who Cody’s partner would be.

  Emma brought up the rear of the group with the girls, who Caley had brought to him in the barn earlier that morning. Stacy and Katie had acted a little odd, but he figured it was just for getting busted for lingering in the dorm after breakfast instead of coming out to do chores. Tonya had gone right to work, even volunteering to soap saddles, the one chore the girls especially hated because of getting the polish under their nails. Despite her eagerness, he’d still have to handle the girls’ disobedience eventually, once he decided which punishment fit the crime. Maybe he’d ask Emma for her suggestions.

  But in spite of his attempts to catch her eye, she remained fixated on the girls, as though afraid they’d disappear if she didn’t stare directly at them. He frowned. Weird. Something was definitely going on, and judging by Emma’s pale expression, he might have more discipline coming up than he’d thought.

  Time for that later. Right now he had a horde of teens to blindfold and attempt to teach about trust.

  “Line up.” He motioned for the guys to take one line and the girls another, then realized the girls were unevenly numbered. Who would sit out? Unless Emma took a spot.

  He made a quick decision. “Stacy and Katie, you’re partners. Grab a blindfold. Emma and Tonya, you two will pair up.” He raised his eyebrows at Emma, and after a quick wince, she nodded. He hated to put her through the paces with the teens, but the girls couldn’t miss it and he had no reason to keep one of them out. They needed the experience.

  “David and Ashton.” He motioned for them to take their blindfolds. “Jarvis and Cody.”

  He heard Emma’s gasp before her gaze landed on him, probably in an attempt to shoot some sort of fire. Well, maybe he deserved it, because it did seem mean on the surface. But he’d been doing this a long time, and Emma had to trust him.

  Too bad she couldn’t just fall off a chair, let him catch her and be done with it.

  Jarvis’s and Cody’s protests mingled, but he waved them off and continued assigning partners. Grumbles permeated the group. Good, that must mean he was on the right track. What was the point in learning to trust someone you were already buddy-buddy with?

  He let Stacy and Katie go first through the obstacle course, Stacy blindfolded, which she clearly hated, and Katie leading her, which she clearly loved. They managed to get through the maze of cones, chairs and low-slung ropes with only one or two banged knees. The guys went next, teasing each other and not taking it as seriously as Max hoped.

  Until it was time to reverse, and the tormenter became the tormented.

  “The golden rule exists for a reason, guys,” Max hollered as snickers rose from revenge being played. Ashton crashed into a chair as David snorted in amusement. “Do unto others, and all that. Not so fun on the other side, is it?”

  The lesson finally sank in as the boys began taking the course seriously, leading each other through unscathed. Finally. “Chairs are next.”

  More groans, along with quibbles over who would go first and on which team. “That’ll be Tim’s decision.” Max shut down that argument quick. “Emma? A second?”

  She joined him on the fringes of the group as Tim began lining up the teams in front of the row of chairs. “You okay with this? I know I put you on the spot.”

  “It’s fine.” Her eyes darted to Tonya, then back to his face, something guarded and downright strange in her gaze. “It’s just...I found out...” Her voice trailed, and he wished they were alone so he could cup her chin and make her look at him.

  “Found out what? Her secret?”

  “It’s not what you think.” Emma glanced back at the girls before meeting his eyes briefly. “I can’t tell you here.” She pulled in her lower lip, looking nearly like a teen herself.

  Not what he thought? Then what else was there—and why was it bothering Emma so deeply? He grazed her arm with his fingers, forgetting about their audience. “Are you all right?”

  She jerked at his touch but didn’t pull away. “We’ll talk later. Let’s do this.”

  She was more willing to fall backward off a chair than talk about Tonya, so it had to be bad. Or maybe it really was that private.

  He led them back to the group, where Tim had gotten the first set of teams on the chairs and ready. This time, one person would fall while three caught th
em. They couldn’t do their original teams of one on one, since there were several teams where one person significantly outweighed the other. He didn’t want to send a whole crew to the E.R.

  “Hands crossed across your chest, cupping each of your shoulders.” Max pointed to Cody, who stood on the chair, for once looking vulnerable. Jarvis, David and Ashton gathered beneath him, arms outstretched. “When you’re ready, trust—and fall backward.”

  Cody snorted in disbelief, and Tonya, who stood on the chair beside him in front of Emma, Stacy and Katie, looked as if she might faint again.

  “When you’re ready.” Max waited. So did Cody and Tonya, not budging. The seconds on his watch ticked away, and the groups of teens with outstretched arms grew restless, shifting their weight and sighing.

  “Okay, forget that. On three.” He cleared his throat, a wariness of his own suddenly creeping into his stomach. Must be picking up the kids’ nervousness. “One.”

  Cody coughed. The kids below him stretched their arms farther, gathered in tighter.

  “Two.”

  Tonya sucked in her breath. Katie and Stacy squeezed in, Emma’s eyes darting back and forth from Tonya to Cody as if she weren’t sure who she’d rather catch.

  “Three.”

  Tonya fell into the arms of her friends.

  And Cody landed flat on his back in the dust.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What a day.” Max leaned against the wooden fence railing, propping one booted foot on the rail behind him. He yanked off his hat and rubbed his hair, the gesture familiar and comforting yet at the same time, unnerving. Moonlight against his profile highlighted his rugged features, which looked as weary as she felt.

  “You can say that again.” Emma tried not to let him see her watching, tried not to let him see her hanging by a rapidly fraying thread. Was that even possible to hide anymore? Voices from the past rose up in a suffocating mist. She squeezed her eyes closed as memories assaulted, some from a decade ago, some from that very afternoon, sounds and images mixing and twirling in a cyclone she couldn’t escape. The comfort of snuggling in Max’s embrace on her parents’ swing. The hardness in his eyes the day he accepted that last delivery of drugs. The beeping of the monitors while she was in labor with Cody. The slamming doors of his rebellion. The thud as Cody landed flat on his back in the dirt.

  Max’s voice softened. “He’s okay, Emma. I promise.”

  He’d probably uttered those same words thirty-seven times in the past three hours, even after she’d seen for herself Cody was fine and moved on to the next activity as planned. But the assurances refused to soak into Emma’s heart. Maybe physically he was okay from his fall. But she wasn’t okay. And neither was Cody. Not really. Not where it mattered. How could he be?

  “It’s my fault.” All of it. No, most of it. There was a good bit that was still Max’s fault.

  But the fall was her fault.

  She gripped the fence rail with both hands, aware of possibly gaining a splinter but unable to care. “I’m the one who had the bright idea to make the teens fall off chairs.” Stupid, stupid, stupid. Exercises like that at church youth camps were one thing—but among a group of potentially reforming delinquents? What had she been thinking?

  “It’s not your fault.” Max leaned in and parroted back everything she needed to hear, everything she would tell someone else if the roles were reversed, but she knew better. Deep down, she knew better. She should have seen this coming.

  “We saw the way those guys acted on the blindfold course.” She spun around, not realizing he’d edged as close as he had. The stars provided a canopy of light across the darkness above his head, enveloping them in the still quiet that could only come from a ranch after hours. The kind of quiet she wanted to embrace and tuck into her soul and keep once she was back in the hectic bustle of Dallas.

  Assuming she and Cody ever made it back in one piece.

  “We had no idea they’d team up against him like that and let him fall.” Max’s brow tightened, probably remembering the same thing she had. After making sure Tonya was safely on the ground, Emma had run to Cody, only to find Max had beaten her there. He’d single-handedly shoved the teens back, helped Cody catch the breath that had been knocked out of him, and doled out punishment to the boys at fault.

  While Emma stood back. Helpless.

  Guilty.

  Her stomach roiled. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

  “You’re here because you’re needed.” Max’s answer came swiftly, as if he’d kept it ready for just such a declaration. “You can’t control everything, Emma.”

  No kidding.

  She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Tonya’s pregnant.”

  “Pregnant.” He said the word as if it tasted bad, as if he wished he could spit it back out. She knew the feeling; she’d felt the same the first time she stared at two pink lines crawling up a tiny display window. He let out a huff of surprise. “Never thought I’d wish for an eating disorder instead.”

  “She confided in me after I caught her.” Emma hitched herself up on the fence, tired of standing and carrying her own weight. She perched on the top rail, now face-to-face with Max. “I found the test in the bathroom.”

  Surprise flickered. “She didn’t even try to hide it?”

  “I think she knew it was a matter of time at that point.” She’d held Tonya’s braids back as the girl dry heaved in the bathroom later that evening after the trust exercises and promised her they’d figure it out. She was in for a long road.

  Max sighed as if releasing the burdens of the entire world. “I’ll have to call her parents in the morning. She can’t stay here in that condition.”

  “I figured.” She hated to let Tonya go, but this required a different level of care than Camp Hope could handle. Tonya needed counseling and support and a health plan. “I’m going to keep in touch with her.”

  “Of course.” Max nodded as if he’d never expected less.

  “Why do you believe in me so much?” The words left her lips in a whisper, and she half hoped he didn’t hear.

  He took her hand from the fence railing and brought it to his lips for a quick kiss. “Because I know your heart.”

  She pulled her hand free. “No, you don’t.” If he did, if he really knew what lay beneath the surface, he’d run. Just like she’d run thirteen years ago. He’d hold against her everything she deserved for him to, and it would hurt. Worse maybe than it did a decade prior.

  She wasn’t strong enough to make it through that kind of pain a second time.

  “Just because we haven’t kept in contact over the years doesn’t mean you’ve changed so much I don’t know you.” He tucked her hand between both of his, craning his head up slightly to speak into her eyes. “I’ve seen your heart for the girls. I’ve seen your heart for Cody. I’ve seen your heart for his freedom.” His voice caught, and he looked away before taking her gaze hostage once again. “It’s beautiful. You’re making a difference.”

  “Some difference.” She couldn’t pull her hand away if she tried, but she didn’t really want to. After her emotionally draining day, the human contact warmed a piece of her she wasn’t sure she should thaw. “I didn’t even realize Tonya was pregnant. It’s so obvious now....”

  “Hindsight is always clearer. You were great with her, and she trusted you. She showed us that over and over.” Max rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “You didn’t have to confront her about the test. She came to you. That’s huge.”

  True. And the trust exercise was a large part of what had prompted the confession. Maybe she hadn’t completely lost her skill, but what did that say about Cody? Was it really that different just because she was his mom? Max had gotten through to him in ways she couldn’t, and he was Cody’s father.

  But he didn’t know.<
br />
  Her chest tightened. Maybe that was the difference. If she confessed before the graduation, she could literally mess up Cody’s entire progress. Before, it’d just been a fear and a gut instinct prompting her toward that decision. But now, it seemed more like proof. The odds were already stacked so high against Cody, and the fact that the kids were continually picking on him as the runt of the litter didn’t help at all. It only urged him to prove himself harder and faster—with more rule breaking and chest thumping.

  She really missed the days of superhero sheets and cracker crumbs and stepping on building blocks. They were alone, but they had each other, and life was so much easier. Back when only Emma knew what they were missing, and she could make it up to Cody in the form of ice cream cones and tent sleepovers.

  Now she had nothing. Nothing to offer but a court ordered camp and a desperate arsenal of prayers.

  Would it be enough?

  “I want to start over.” Max’s confession blasted like a shotgun in the silence of the star-studded night. “I want another chance.”

  She stared at him, mouth slightly open, all too aware of the responding pound of her heart.

  Then before she could decide what to say, he broke the silence for her.

  His mouth against hers was familiar in a bittersweet way, but the gentleness in his fingers threading through her hair was brand-new. So was the caution he exhibited as he kissed her, carefully, as though she was a treasure that might break. Gone was the selfishness from the touch she remembered years before. And in its place lingered something she wanted to hold on to forever.

  She kissed him back with more than a decade’s worth of longing, then turned away, her lips trailing across the stubble along his jaw. He let out a ragged breath in her ear, his hands gripping her waist firmly even as he pushed away, putting distance between them while keeping her balanced on the fence.

  “I know you have your own life in Dallas.” Max rested his forehead on hers, snuck another kiss, then backed away completely as if realizing he just couldn’t get that close.