A Texas Ranger's Family

by Mae Nunn

  “We’re gonna see if there’s any gingerbread and ice cream left.” At seventeen, Tina Sue was the oldest and bossiest of the bunch. “But we don’t wanna disturb Grandma Verne. Do you know if she’s gone to bed yet?”

  “The coast is clear,” he assured them. “Just keep your voices down and don’t forget to rinse your dishes when you’re finished.”

  Dana brought up the rear as the line of girls crept toward the door, muffling their approach by keeping the heels of their boots from touching the wooden planks. Daniel grinned, remembering the same effort he and Jake had made on countless occasions. His mama was probably sitting in her bedroom right now, smiling along with him just as she had back then.

  “Butter bean,” he called before she took her turn through the screen door. “Everybody has an early start in the morning so don’t stay up too late.”

  “Yes, sir,” she dutifully replied. “And Daddy?”

  “What is it, baby girl?”

  “You can sit back down with Erin now. We won’t be outside again for at least thirty minutes.”

  The closing door muffled the pleasant sound of her laughter.

  Erin knew firsthand that what was said about the marines was true; they accomplished more by 9:00 a.m. than most folks did all day. But during her first week on the Double-S, she discovered the same condition exists for ranching families. Especially those motivated to raise funds for a Christian boys’ home.

  Daniel and Dana were on horseback fifteen minutes after daybreak and Erin had a hundred digital images to prove it. Seeing the two of them sit tall in the saddle was another emotional moment that took her by surprise. She’d been on the brink of tears or laughter since the day she’d been installed on the sun porch in Houston. Things had only intensified since their arrival in Fort Stockton.

  In the quiet of Daniel’s boyhood room, God revealed a surprising truth to Erin; the same sense of belonging she’d begun to feel in Houston had followed her out west. The blackness of the night that had always been her hiding place was now a silent time to listen for the snoring of LaVerne, identify the stirring of Dana, take comfort in the solid presence of Daniel. Where could she go in the world and replicate this peace? What had never even been a concern was now Erin’s growing worry.

  She would miss them terribly when she left.

  “Will you ride with us today?” Dana called.

  Erin was seated comfortably in a thick futon chair just inside the livestock barn. Jake had hauled the bulky seat down from the bunkhouse so she’d have a breezy spot to put her feet up on the five-gallon bucket that served as her ottoman. He was as thoughtful of others as he was critical of his only sibling. Any minute now Erin expected Daniel to tell his brother to shove it. But Daniel shrugged off Jake’s jibes like a horse’s tail swiped away an ornery fly. Everyone else seemed to go along, as if the insults were funny or somehow deserved.

  Erin bit her tongue till it was bloody. Years of exposure to hard-shelled marines had taught her to speak her mind if what she had to say could make a positive impact. Something had to give, and soon.

  Dana reined an aging paint mare to the edge of the corral. “Did you hear me, Erin?”

  “I did, I was thinking about my answer. I’m not sure I’m ready.”

  “Don’t be afraid. I’ll even let you ride Domino.” Dana patted the neck of her mount. “She’s the oldest horse on the ranch and she wouldn’t break into a trot if there was a fifty-pound sack of sugar cubes at the end of the road.”

  Erin recalled a harrowing ride over Arabian dunes on the back of a thoroughbred dromedary. What was intended to be a harmless photo op escalated into a bone-jarring race with another camel ridden by a professional jockey.

  “Honey, I know a little something about being bounced around on the back of an animal. And even though Domino seems perfectly calm to you, with my sore pelvis, I’m afraid she’d feel like a bucking bronco.”

  “I gotcha. My backside and thighs hurt something awful the last few days but today, not so much. I’m going to try to help Daddy bring in a couple of strays this afternoon.”

  “That’s what I hear.”

  “It’s our last chance since I have to start helping with the arrivals tomorrow.”

  “Your Aunt Becky said she’d drive me out in the truck to meet y’all so I could shoot you in action. We’ll put together an album to show your friends back home that you’re not just a pretty face.”

  Erin gave a thumbs-up, something she would never do in the Middle East where it represents the supreme insult. Dana returned the affirming gesture as she responded to a shrill whistle from Daniel signaling she should join him.

  On the other side of the ring, he worked with her on the proper twirl and toss of the stiff lasso. Erin gathered her camera and moved to the edge of the wooden fence to record their practice. Dana picked up the skill easily, the lasso flying in a smooth arc toward a target fashioned from a sawhorse and the sun-bleached horns of a bull. Erin caught every nuance of motion through her lens. A broad smile interfered with the squint of her eye as she endeavored to photograph the father and daughter work team.

  It was such a pleasant scene that she let the camera hang around her neck so she could train both fully healed eyes on the action.

  “Don’t you get bored always bein’ an observer, Erin?” Jake came to a stop beside her. He hooked one boot heel over the lowest board of the fence and rested his arms on the highest. “Wouldn’t you like to engage once in a while?”

  She chuckled at his rude but fairly accurate commentary on her life and angled her head toward the sling that supported her right arm.

  “If this isn’t ‘engaged’ enough for you, I don’t know what is.”

  In apology, he dipped his head and touched the brim of his dusty work hat. “Sorry, that came out all wrong.”

  “On the contrary, I think you said exactly what you intended. Just like you do every time you insult Daniel.”

  “I beg your pardon,” he took umbrage.

  “Come on, Jake. You just strolled over here and dropped the hammer on me. Too late to pull punches now, don’t you think?”

  He nodded, ruddy streaks beginning to crawl above the collar of his denim shirt.

  She continued. “I’ll admit it, you’re right about me. I’ve spent most of my adult years documenting the lives of other people instead of living in the moment myself. But at least I’m not afraid of physical peril.”

  “Neither is a rodeo clown and he gets the credit he deserves, too. But he’ll never know what it is to sit on the top of a Brahman for eight seconds unless he crawls out of his barrel and climbs into the pen with that bull.”

  “Ouch!” She exaggerated a flinch from the sting of his words. He’d hit her sore spot, again. “That was the most insightful punch anybody’s ever landed on me.”

  “You said not to pull any,” he drawled. His face was fully engaged in a warm flush. Though the morning was still cool, a droplet slid from beneath his hat to his jaw line.

  “If I’m the one on the hot seat, why are you sweating, Jake?”

  He slanted a look at her from beneath the wide brim. “It’s an old gut response. I break out in nervous heat anytime I expect I have a switchin’ coming.”

  She shook her head to allay his concern.

  “Let me repeat, you’re right. My side of the camera is the safest place for me. I figured that out a long time ago and though I’m not likely to change, it never hurts to reweigh the odds once in a while.”

  “As long as you keep it under consideration. Even a blind hog finds an acorn in the woods now and again.”

  She grinned at the mental picture his words had painted. “Is that your way of saying that if I keep an open mind, I might eventually stumble onto something?”

  “Good lookin’ and smart. I expect being around you keeps my kid brother on his toes.”

  “Speaking of your brother, why do you always have a zinger queued up when Daniel’s around?”

  “I wouldn’t
say always.”

  “Only every time you speak to him. In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve heard you twist the blade on Daniel’s career, where he lives, where he went to school, how he sits a horse, how he shoots a gun. You name it and you’ve criticized it, Jake.”

  “That’s just how brothers carry on. It’s pokin’ fun, is all, and he knows it.”

  “I don’t hear him laughing, do you? And Daniel doesn’t dish it back, either. If you think about it for five minutes, you’ll figure out it’s not right to treat your only brother that way.”

  “I will?” Jake asked.

  “Yep, ’cause even a blind hog finds an acorn in the woods now and again.”

  He snaked a long arm around Erin’s shoulders and gave her side a light squeeze.

  “I hope you come to your senses and decide to stick around, girl. It might not be a fancy family, but it’s our family and you’d be a prize-perfect addition.”

  With her eyes downcast, she studied the pair of well-loved women’s boots Tina Sue had been happy to loan. Erin had just experienced her first altercation with a family member in over twenty years. And it hadn’t erupted into violence or ended in name-calling.

  Maybe the Stablers were on to something.

  And maybe Erin needed to take the first step toward finding the sister and brother she’d been separated from all those years ago. It had been on her mind constantly since she’d first looked into Dana’s eyes. Alison would be thirty-seven now.

  Would she still blame Erin for their mother’s death?

  Chapter Twelve

  “I appreciate you dropping everything to drive me way out here.”

  Erin was grateful for the smoothness of the ride. The heavy-duty wheels absorbed all the dips and bumps as the old work truck cut straight across the expanse of pasture.

  “Don’t mention it.” As always LaVerne selflessly shrugged off gratitude. “Becky was tied up with the camping assignments for the contestants. Heaven forbid we park the motor home of last year’s third-runner-up for pork ribs right beside the beef brisket winner. Cook-off champs are a clannish bunch and they like to keep company with their own kind.”

  It sounded like a joke, but since LaVerne didn’t crack a smile, Erin kept her amusement to herself. Maybe the staging of grills and smokers was the barbecue world’s way of jockeying for position.

  “Besides,” LaVerne continued, “I knew I could drive to the spot in less time than it would take to give directions. Our herd has been hidin’ their calves in the same ravine for forty years.”

  “Why do they do it?”

  “Natural instinct to protect their young ’uns, I suppose. The crazy part is the heifers are safer in our branding pens than they are out here with the coyotes. But cows are too dumb to figure that out, so rounding ’em back up has become my boys’ bailiwick.”

  “How about the girls? They seem capable.”

  “Oh, yes.” There was a grandmother’s delight in her voice. “They can ride and rope as well as their daddies could at that age. They’ve been a lot of help on the ranch. Even Dana does a pretty fair job these days. I’m proud of all my girls.”

  “I’m sure they appreciate hearing compliments like that, especially from you.”

  LaVerne studied the terrain, downshifting to steer around jutting rocks. Erin kept an eye on the older woman who seemed to be considering the conversation as well as the ground ahead.

  “You have told them exactly what you just said to me, haven’t you?”

  “Now that you put me on the spot, I’m not so sure.”

  “LaVerne! Why would you share your feelings about your beautiful granddaughters with me, but not with them?”

  She swiped a hand in Erin’s direction. “Oh, they know. I don’t need to say the words out loud.”

  “May I ask you a personal question?” Erin had a hunch about something and wanted to be certain.

  “Why sure.”

  “Were you the only girl in your family?”

  “That’s a fact. I was the oldest of three kids.”

  “Were you close to your mother?”

  LaVerne shook her head. “Mama favored my brothers. Neither of us minded much when I moved away, though it aggravated her to lose her kitchen help.” She chuckled at the memory.

  “So, you’re probably not much like your mother.”

  “Right again. I’ve tried to treat all my kids the same.”

  “So they don’t feel shortchanged?” Erin asked.

  “Exactly.”

  LaVerne pulled the truck to the edge of what Erin judged to be a shallow canyon. On the far ridge she spotted two figures on horseback. Dana stood in the stirrups, with a lasso in her hand. Thirty feet away, a wayward Angus calf was under the watchful eye of a border collie.

  Erin slid the camera strap over her head and prepared to descend from the cab of the truck. She thought of her conversation with Jake only hours earlier. He was right. These were moments she was meant to seize, to engage and not merely observe. Before she pulled the door handle, she turned back to LaVerne.

  “Thank you for helping me share this experience with Dana. I’ve lost a lot of time with—” Erin stopped, considering how to finish the sentence. “I’ve lost a lot of time with my daughter. I wasn’t there to encourage her when she walked, or applaud when she rode a bike or grimace when she got her eyebrow pierced. But I’m here today to tell her how much this means to me. I won’t assume she knows I’m proud of her without hearing me speak the words.”

  “Bandit, stay.” Daniel’s command stilled the collie from its work circling the calf. The huge quarter horse beneath Daniel shuddered with anticipation, ready to sprint if the calf took off. “Quiet, you two. Let Dana and Domino get this one.”

  With her boots braced against the stirrups, Dana stretched tall, swung the lasso in two full circles above her head and tossed the lariat exactly as they’d practiced. The loop wobbled as it arced but settled over the calf’s head. It bawled, dipped and pulled against the lasso, successfully tightening the rope secured to Dana’s saddle horn.

  “Well done, butter bean!”

  “Nothin’ but air!” She returned his excited grin.

  “Okay, keep the rope tight and finish the drill.”

  Bandit sprang to life yipping at something that caught his attention on the top edge of the ravine. Daniel squinted against the sun. His heart thumped hard at the sight of Erin in jeans and cowboy boots. The camera blocked her face as she gracefully shifted side to side recording Dana’s victory.

  As a thought registered in his mind, it crossed his lips.

  “I love you,” he whispered aloud. The wind caught the inaudible words and swept them toward the open range along with the relief Daniel felt at having spoken his feelings if only to himself.

  Erin’s head snapped up. She took two steps backward and froze. Daniel’s gut lurched at the thought of what might have distracted her. Snakes were plentiful and this rugged territory was their home. Rattlers didn’t go looking for trouble but jumping one could produce a lightning-fast, deadly attack.

  She didn’t back away or turn and run. She let her camera rest on the strap around her neck, folded her arms across her chest and the way she tilted her head to one side, he’d swear she was smiling at him.

  Daniel hadn’t been caught red-handed at anything since he was a boy. But in a brief moment of chagrin, he realized he’d just been busted at the cookie jar. Through her telephoto lens, Erin had undoubtedly witnessed the words that trespassed his lips. Though it was impossible for her to hear his I love you, she must have seen it. He could feign ignorance or he could pretend the declaration was meant for Dana. But now the words and the truth were out. At least for him, for all the good it would do.

  He’d never completely given up on his family. Always hoping there might come a day when they’d be reunited. And now he’d fallen in love with his wife all over again. While he couldn’t exactly shout it from the rooftops, he wouldn’t be ashamed of it, either.
/>
  Lord, Your Word says a man and woman become one when they marry. You desire for families to stay together in whatever form that may take. Please guide us back into Your perfect will.

  “Daddy, look! It’s Grandma Verne and Mama.”

  There was no mistaking the pride in Dana’s voice as she made the unconscious leap, referring to Erin as her mama. Full as his heart was for Dana, a stab of trepidation took his breath. Both of their lives and now their hearts were invested in Erin. Daniel prayed it was not a bankrupt situation.

  LaVerne waved and called from a distance too great to make out her words. She motioned in the direction of home and turned back toward the truck.

  “Pull your hat tight for the ride back,” he cautioned Dana as they began the climb out of the ravine. “I got that old Resistol twenty-five years ago but it’s still in pretty good shape. I don’t want to have to chase it across three counties when the wind whips it off your head.”

  “How do I look, Daddy?” She fanned an open hand at the view of herself on horseback, a submissive calf to show for her efforts.

  He winked at the second love of his life. “Like a pro. And your mama caught it all on film, so let’s go take a look.”

  As the days went by, Daniel couldn’t help but notice things were different. The fund-raiser tended to bring out the best in the family, but there was definitely a change this time around.

  Like always, Jake was busier than a one-armed paper hanger. But no amount of work had ever before kept him from any opportunity to land a punch in Daniel’s ribs. In recent days the low blows had become surprisingly few and far between.

  LaVerne was up to her eyeballs cooking eighteen hours a day for the twenty-some-odd people who were in and out of her kitchen for every meal. Even so, she could juggle food prep, keep the sink clean, the pantry stocked and still find the energy to feed and lecture the Third Infantry if they marched up to her back door. But she’d become comfortably quiet, seemed content to hold her tongue and let Becky be the bad cop of the house.