Hometown Hope: A Small Town Romance Anthology

by Zoe York

  She braced her elbows on her knees with her hands wrapped around her head and let out a muffled growl that came out more like a whimper.

  Old hinges screeched, reminding her that they needed to be oiled or replaced.

  Cody squeezed through the narrowly open front door, his eyes round with worry. He crawled into her lap and snuggled into her with his skinny arms clamped around her neck. She hugged him tightly, at once comforted by the warm weight of him and more deeply aware that she was failing him.

  “Are you okay, Mommy?” he asked in barely more than a whisper.

  “I’m fine,” she lied.

  He met her gaze with those big blue eyes. She hadn’t fooled him. For one so young, he had a remarkable ability to sense lies and when someone was hurting.

  Movement near the door drew her attention, and she saw that Gabe had followed Cody outside. He moved as silently as a shadow; she hadn’t heard him. So much for sneaking out.

  “Annemarie?”

  His quiet, deep voice was full of concern, and at the sound of it, tears burned her eyes. She wasn’t ready to face him, but an overwhelming desire to be tucked in his embrace nearly pushed her from her seat. She barely resisted by tightening her arms around her son.

  “Would you go inside and grab me a water from the fridge, pumpkin?” she murmured to Cody.

  With a somber nod, he scooted off her lap and slipped inside.

  Annemarie lifted her gaze to meet Gabe’s and saw the same strain in his eyes that had been in his voice. She took a shuddering breath and shifted her gaze southwest toward the Grant and Sage Flats ranches, clenching her teeth to keep her chin from trembling. The promise of reassurance was so close, but she couldn’t give in. She had to be strong.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabe pressed gently.

  She wished he’d asked if everything was all right. The closed, less familiar inquiry requiring only a yes or no answer would’ve made it easier to lie.

  Instead, she told him about Johnny’s accident, Jim cancelling because he now had to drive cattle for the Grants in Johnny’s place, and her fear that she was on the verge of losing everything. The words came faster and faster, running together as fear spilled down her cheeks in streaming tears. When Gabe offered his hand to help her stand, she had no strength left to resist. She let him fold her into his arms, burying her face against his chest as icy failure consumed her.

  He didn’t say another word, only held her as she cried quietly, and the warmth of his arms and the gratitude for his steady support gradually soothed away the cold inside and out.

  It wasn’t until almost a minute after her tears stopped that he leaned back and brushed them from her cheeks with his thumbs. The heat of his fingers against her neck and face warmed her in a very different way as well, and she nearly jerked back in shock, but it was too enjoyable and it had been too long since she’d felt anything like it. She couldn’t help it. She leaned into him again.

  “It’s too short notice for me to rearrange my schedule or make time off,” he murmured, the rumble of his voice as comforting as his arms, “but give it a few weeks, and I can drive your cattle for you. Torrington has an auction every week, and you’re likely to get better prices there than here, anyhow.”

  Finally, she found the willpower to step out of his embrace. “I can’t let you do that, Gabe. I already owe you more than I can ever repay.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted in amusement, but his brows dipped slightly. “How many times are we going to have this conversation before you figure out I’m not offering because I want something in return? Everyone needs help sometimes, Annemarie, and the beautiful thing about life is that it also gives us opportunities to pay that help forward, which I’m certain you will when you have those opportunities.”

  Cody returned then, cutting off whatever she might’ve said to try to talk Gabe out of giving up more of his time for her. The truth, though, was that the surge of hope at his offer had already killed what argument she could’ve made. She needed to get those cows and bulls sold. She took the water Cody held out for her, then picked him up.

  “Are you okay now?” he asked.

  “I’m better now. Thanks to Gabe.”

  The little boy beamed over his shoulder at the electrician, and Gabe reached out to ruffle his hair with a tender smile.

  “You have an amazing little boy right here, Annemarie,” he said.

  “Yes, I do,” she agreed, kissing Cody’s cheek.

  “I have an invitation for you, since I won’t be out the weekend after next.”

  “How come you can’t come out that weekend?” Cody asked.

  “I have to help my family brand calves. And I thought you and your mom might like to come out to my family’s ranch with me. It might be a nice getaway for you. I might’ve mentioned to my mother that one of my clients has a sweet little boy, and it sounds like my nieces and nephews would be delighted to meet you, Cody.” Gabe gave Annemarie a wink.

  “Oh, Mom, can we?”

  “That sounds like a wonderful time. Cody could use some kid time, and I’d love to see your ranch in operation, maybe pick up some tips, if you’re sure it’s not an imposition.”

  “Believe me. With the whole family there, you two will hardly be noticed.”

  She met Gabe’s gaze over her son’s head and held it, hoping he would see every facet of her appreciation. “Thank you.”

  His head dipped once, subtly, as he turned away to head inside. He got the message.

  Chapter 4

  Gabe drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel while he waited for the sea of black Angus to cross the road from the winter pastures near the Grant Ranch compound to the greening spring pastures closer to the river. Was Jim among the ranch hands driving the cattle? Probably.

  After a week, the memory of Annemarie crying in his arms was still fresh. In the short time he’d known her—just shy of three weeks now—Jim had dropped the ball twice. Why didn’t she just fire him? Maybe he worked for cheap and she didn’t think she could find anyone else to work for as little. Whatever the reason, he hoped she wasn’t paying the man for work he wasn’t around to do, but he suspected she was smarter than that. And too broke. His heart ached for her, even though he had no idea, really, what had brought her out here. What the hell was a girl with a college degree and a promising career in accounting doing trying to operate a run-down ranch?

  He’d tried not to dig into her life too much, but the inkling of curiosity that had spurred him into keeping his first appointment despite the late hour had blossomed into a driving force.

  A tap at his window drew his attention, and a middle-aged woman with silver-streaked blonde hair smiled at him from the back of a pretty bay gelding. He’d never met her before, but he knew who she was—Sandy Grant, wife of Tom Grant, who had recently taken over operations of the Grant Ranch from his father, Thomas Sr. He rolled the window down and returned her smile. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” she replied brightly. “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

  He could see that with his own eyes, but he thanked her anyhow.

  She extended her hand. “Sandy Grant.”

  He shook it. “Gabriel Collins.”

  “You’re headed out to the Garrett place again?” She glanced over his truck, and he suspected she recognized it. She’d probably spotted him driving out to or back from Annemarie’s a few times.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m rewiring the cabin for Ms. Garrett.”

  “On the weekend?”

  Something about the way she said it—one brow lifted and the hint of a sneer replacing her smile—struck him wrong, but again, he nodded. “It needs to be done, but I have a full schedule, so this is the only time I have to do it.”

  “How very noble of you.”

  She could’ve come right out and said she didn’t like Annemarie, and it wouldn’t have been as clear a message as the disdain dripping from her words. Gabe lifted his brows.

  “Are you married?” she
asked.

  What the hell kind of question was that? He shouldn’t answer, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. “No, ma’am, I’m not.”

  “Good. I’d hate to see another wife lose her husband to that home-wrecking whore.”

  The remark was so unexpected and so absurd that his mouth fell open. There were a lot of pieces to the puzzle of Annemarie in that single statement, but right now he couldn’t fit them together. Right now all he could do was stare at Mrs. Grant and sputter, “Excuse me?”

  Surprise opened the woman’s expression. “Oh, so she hasn’t told you?”

  “I’m her electrician, ma’am. That hardly makes me someone she’d confide in.” Not exactly true, he thought, remembering again the way she’d felt in his arms, her slim body quaking like an aspen leaf in a breeze.

  “She’s already got her hooks in you just like she got them in Tom.” She snorted, then glanced over him and then over his truck with its utility toolboxes and rack. “She’s smart—I’ll give her credit for that. Electricians make good money. Watch yourself, Mr. Collins. She’s figured out she’s not going to get my husband’s ranch, so now she’s set her sights on you.”

  Gabe ground his teeth as fury exploded. Sandy wasn’t the first woman to limit his worth to the size of his paycheck, and reminding him of Leigh while insulting the woman he had held as she fell apart in a moment of hopelessness obliterated any sympathy he might’ve scraped together for Tom’s betrayed wife.

  Home-wrecking whore. A gift of five hundred acres, a few dozen head of cattle, and four horses. Annemarie’s determination to make it all work for her son.

  As all the pieces came together, Gabe swore. “I beg your pardon, but your husband is the one who broke his vows.”

  “Men are weak.”

  The generalized comment broke his hold on his temper, unleashing it to burn away the shock and revulsion. He gripped his steering wheel tightly enough to turn his knuckles white and ground his teeth.

  Ahead, the herd was thinning as the last of the cows made their way across the road. He couldn’t sit here and listen any longer, so he turned his gaze back to her and said sharply, “Not all men. Good day, ma’am.”

  He hit the gas, maneuvering through the lollygaggers with the confidence and ease of a lifetime spent on a ranch, and didn’t look back as he reached open road. He slammed the gas pedal to the floor, spraying a few of the cattle on the fringe with gravel, startling them. It was rude, but no less rude than discussing private affairs and making blanket assumptions about an entire gender with a complete stranger. After that, he didn’t give a damn about being polite.

  There was far too much empty gravel road between him and Garrett Ranch, and he drove faster than was probably safe just to reduce the time he had to think about the revelations that had him reeling. If he’d connected all the dots correctly…

  Cody was Tom Grant’s bastard son.

  Why hadn’t he figured that out already? Tom Grant was a known womanizer, and Gabe knew of at least three occasions on which he’d been unfaithful to his wife.

  The implications of that piece of information swirled around him, and he couldn’t figure out why it mattered so much to him. He had no claim whatsoever on either Annemarie or her sweet little boy, and while their situation tugged at his heart, he could barely call himself their friend.

  The anger boiling in his blood at Mrs. Grant’s remarks told him that he needed to forget what he’d heard and maintain a strict business-only relationship with Annemarie Garrett. None of this was his business. He had a simple and uncomplicated life, and he liked it that way.

  But it’s lonely.

  He didn’t believe for a fraction of a second that he’d be able to walk away when his job here was done.

  She’s already got her hooks in you….

  Maybe that was true. And just maybe he didn’t give any more of a damn about that than he did about being considerate of an embittered wife.

  The more he thought about it, the hotter his anger burned. Sandy’s comments and insinuations about Annemarie’s character—that she was a manipulative, husband-stealing gold-digger—didn’t fit his impression of the pretty young mother. His gut hadn’t warned him about Leigh until it was too late, but that was one slip, and he still trusted his own instincts over those with reason to be biased.

  A black Chevy pickup with the Grant Ranch’s brand emblazoned on its doors in gleaming gold was parked in front of Annemarie’s cabin when Gabe pulled up, and he growled. A man in his mid sixties sat in the old rocking chair on the porch. Thomas Sr., no doubt.

  Seething, Gabe skidded to a stop and jumped out of his truck, which lurched forward half a foot when he let out the clutch before the engine had fully shut off.

  He stopped short when Cody burst out of the house with a broad grin on his face and his favorite toy horse in hand. Thomas Sr.’s expression softened when he took the horse from the little boy, nodding at whatever Cody said. His smile was gentle, fond even. But of course it would be, since all clues pointed to Cody being his grandson.

  “Gabe!” Cody cheered when he spotted his new friend. He held out his arms expectantly, and Gabe leaned down to hoist him off the ground when the kid wrapped his arms around his neck. Twisting in Gabe’s arms, the little boy said to his grandfather, “Gramps, this is Gabe. He’s fixin’ the wiring for us. Gonna make it so the lights stop turning off when they’re not s’posed to.”

  Gabe set Cody on his feet. It didn’t seem fair to ruin the moment for either Cody or his grandfather, so when Thomas Sr. started to stand, Gabe motioned for him to remain seated and held out his hand in greeting.

  “Mr. Grant,” he said. “I’m—”

  “Gabriel Collins. I know. Call me Thomas, Mr. Collins.”

  With a nod, Gabe replied, “Gabe’ll do, sir.”

  “Go fetch your mother, Cody,” Thomas murmured to the boy. Then, after the door closed behind his grandson, he said, “You have the look of a man spoiling for a fight, Gabe.”

  “I guess I probably do.” Suddenly, his entire conversation with Sandy snapped back into focus, igniting his temper all over again. With one hand clenched into a fist at his side and the other pointing warningly back toward the Grant Ranch, he said in a low, measured voice, “The next time your daughter-in-law calls Annie a home-wrecking whore in my presence, I will not be so polite.”

  “Annie,” Thomas remarked thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t have called her that, but coming from you, it fits.”

  At Thomas’s words, Gabe realized he’d slipped in his anger and shortened Annemarie’s name.

  “I would apologize for whatever Sandy said to you,” Thomas continued, “but she’s a spoiled bitch, and I’m not in the habit of defending her or making up for her.”

  For the second time in less than ten minutes, Gabe’s jaw dropped.

  “You’re an intelligent man, so I’m sure you’ve figured a few things.”

  Nodding, Gabe said, “Cody is your grandson, and that’s why you gave Annie this ranch.”

  “Tom gave it to her.”

  “Bullshit. Oh, I’ll bet the paperwork says he had a hand in it, but I’m damned sure he didn’t do it by choice. I’ve spent enough time out here now to have a feel for the dynamics.”

  Thomas only smiled.

  “Why?” Gabe asked.

  “Aside from the fact that Cody is my own flesh and blood, your Annie is something special. She reminds me of my Ginny. Strong but kind.”

  “I agree, but she’s not ‘my’ Annie. I’m just her electrician. And maybe her friend, if she wants me.”

  The door screeched open, and Cody returned with his mother right behind. Thomas smiled up at her, and she returned it briefly before turning her attention to Gabe. Her whole face brightened, and his heart leapt.

  Thomas chuckled. “We’ll see about that.”

  “See about what?” Annemarie asked, glancing between Gabe and the rancher.

  “How smart Gabe here is.” Without givin
g anyone a chance to react, Thomas pushed to his feet and picked Cody up in a bear hug. He then embraced Annemarie before turning to Gabe to grip his hand while his eyes locked on Gabe’s. “My bet is he’s got a much better head on his shoulders than my idiot son. And a heart that’s a damned sight more loyal.”

  With that, the rancher strode out to his truck and climbed in. Gabe caught sight of a smug, knowing gleam in the older man’s eyes. After everything he’d learned this morning, Thomas’s bold insinuation should have had his jaw even closer to the ground, but instead, Gabe chuckled. Thomas Grant, Sr. had a reputation for being gruff and sometimes surly, but he was also said to be fair. Gabe decided he liked the old man.

  “What was that all about?” Annemarie asked, turning to Gabe.

  “I don’t know if that’s a conversation you want to have with me, and even so, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to have it in front of your son. And anyhow, I have work to get to.”

  “Cody, can you go inside for a few minutes? I’ll let you pester Gabe to your heart’s content after I talk to him.”

  Gabe watched Cody disappear inside, then turned to his mother, who watched him with a frown. Yeah, I didn’t think you’d let me off so easy.

  “Gabe. What was that all about?”

  Sighing, he said, “I had an uncomfortable and rather inappropriate conversation with Sandy Grant just now while I was waiting for cows to move.”

  Annemarie’s expression darkened. There was anger in her eyes, and rightly so, but there was something else entwined with it that he didn’t like seeing.

  Defeat.

  “What did she say?”

  “More than enough for me to figure a few things out. Like the fact that Cody is Tom’s son. And I’m guessing since the Grants gave you the land, you’re sure beyond a doubt. Positive paternity test?”