She looked over her shoulder, back toward Ryan. A second teen had joined him and they seemed to be working in tandem. “Who’s that?”
Jackson paused to look back. “That’s Alan. He’s one of the ‘old-timers.’”
“Old?” she echoed, taking a closer look at the tall, thin, blond teen. “He looks like he might be all of eighteen.”
“Eighteen and a half,” Jackson corrected. “He first came to the ranch when he was fifteen. Like Ryan.”
“And he’s still here?” she questioned. Had Jackson’s method failed the boy, then? Was he trying to brace her for her brother’s failure down the line?
Jackson grinned. “It’s not what you think. Alan successfully graduated from the program in a couple of months. I couldn’t have asked for better results. But it seemed that his mother wasn’t a very patient woman. She took off with her boyfriend just before Alan was set to leave here, saying that it looked to her that Alan had found a good home and should stick with it.” Jackson shook his head as he thought back to the incident. “I guess I knew something was off when her check bounced.”
But the teenager was still here, Debi thought. “What did you do?”
“About the check? Wasn’t very much I could do. And if you’re asking about Alan, I had a choice. I could call the proper authorities and let him be absorbed by social services—and just possibly wind up in jail again—or I could take him in, have him live here on the ranch.” He shrugged, downplaying the fact that, in her opinion, he just might have saved the other teenager’s life. “I went with option number two.”
“So you’re what?” she asked, curious as to the relationship between Alan and him. “His foster parent?”
“I was until he turned eighteen. Kids automatically opt out of foster care and the system when they turn eighteen.”
She glanced back toward the stable. “But he’s still here.”
Jackson smiled. “He likes it here and I like having him here. It all works out,” he told her. “Alan’s kind of the living embodiment of how the program works successfully.”
Everything that Jackson was saying seemed so admirable to her. He came across as really caring about the boys who were sent here. She’d just assumed that he did it for both the money and, as Ryan had accused, for the free labor around the ranch. But after listening to Jackson, she had the feeling that this was a calling for him—and that he was aware of all the good he was accomplishing.
He was making a difference. That had to be nice.
“You know, I don’t have anything planned for today and I’m sort of at loose ends. If there’s anything you need doing, I’d love to pitch in.” She saw a glimmer of doubt in his eyes. “I can do more than just sew up a wound and put a Band-Aid over it.”
He had no doubt that she could do more, Jackson thought. A lot more.
He stopped himself. Taking that thought any further would be bringing him to a dangerous area that he had absolutely no business traversing.
But he didn’t exactly want to just send her back to the hotel, either. If nothing else, being out in the fresh air was good for her—and watching her breathe, well, that was good for him on so many levels he couldn’t even begin to admit to.
“Okay,” he told her. “We’ll put you to work. Consider yourself officially pitching in.”
She smiled up at him. “I’d like that.” And she didn’t have to pretend she meant it, because she did. Wholeheartedly.
Chapter Twelve
“So? How’s he doing?” Debi tried not to sound too anxious as she asked the question.
Ryan had been at The Healing Ranch for a little more than two weeks. To her regret, by the end of her days at the clinic, she was too tired to drive to the ranch and back in order to touch base with Jackson about her brother’s progress. Today was Saturday and she was determined to make up for missed time.
Arriving at the ranch early, she looked for Jackson and was directed to the ranch house. Specifically to the cubbyholelike room that Jackson had had to turn into his office in order to keep up with the way his ranch was evolving.
Jackson put down his pen.
“The kid’s coming along. We gave him his own horse to take care of. He’s still trying to put up a front, complaining about the extra work, but I can tell that he’s enjoying the fact that he’s like everyone else now.”
“His own horse?” She knew that was a badge of trust on the ranch. Debi was both happy and relieved at this turn of events. But despite what this meant, she could see that it came with its own set of problems. “That’s wonderful, but is he really ready for that? I mean, the only horses Ryan’s ever seen were in the movies. I don’t know what he might have said, but he doesn’t know how to ride one,” she warned.
“Don’t worry about that,” Jackson told her. “Riding—and any necessary riding lessons—comes in due time. Right now, he’s learning how to care for the animal, how to read signs.”
“Signs?” She wasn’t sure she understood what Jackson was referring to.
Jackson nodded as he leaned back in his chair. It had been Sam’s favorite chair in his last few years. The subtle creak whenever he moved reminded him of his uncle and he unconsciously smiled.
“The kind that the horse gives off,” he told her. “The bond between a horse and its master can be very strong if it’s nurtured correctly. Ryan learns to relate to horses, then people aren’t far behind.”
She remembered that he’d told her that when she and Ryan had first arrived. “Sounds good to me. And just between us, it can’t be happening fast enough for me.”
Why that bothered him was something else he wasn’t going to explore. Instead, he made the natural assumption. “Anxious to leave our tiny dot of a town?”
The question surprised her. She hadn’t realized that her statement could be taken that way. “Actually, no, I’m beginning to like it here.”
He looked at her quizzically. She had lost him. “Then why...?”
She was, for the most part, a private person. But she felt as if she knew this man who was working miracles in her life. And at this point, she could admit to herself that she needed to be able to share the parameters of her situation with someone. Jackson seemed like the natural choice.
“Things are getting a little tight,” she confessed. “I’m running low on funds even with the job you got me at the clinic.”
“I didn’t get you the job,” Jackson corrected. “I just brought you to the clinic. You got you the job.” He paused a moment, carefully thinking through what he was about to say next. “You know, not to take anything away from the town’s new hotel, but we’ve got a spare bedroom here at the ranch. You’re welcome to stay in it until your brother completes his course here.”
Not having to pay for the hotel room for another two to four weeks would be a huge help. But then again, she felt as if she was taking unfair advantage of Jackson’s generosity.
“I can’t impose on you like that,” she protested.
“Imposing is if you declared you were moving in without first being invited to do it,” Jackson pointed out even as a small voice in his head whispered that he was asking for trouble. He deliberately ignored it. “You’re not imposing.”
She still didn’t feel right about this. “But Garrett lives here, too, right? Won’t my staying at the ranch house bother him?”
Jackson laughed softly. “Garrett’s the easygoing one in the family. And it would be nice to hear a female voice once in a while, so you’d actually be doing us a favor by staying here.”
She readily admitted that there were areas she was still naive about, but this was taking it to an extreme. She did, however, appreciate what he was trying to do. “And if I believe that, there’s a bridge you want to sell me, right?”
“Fresh out of bridges,” he told her. “But I still hav
e that bedroom.”
Debi looked at him, debating, and sorely tempted to take the man up on his offer. It would solve her most immediate problem.
It took her less than two minutes to resolve her internal argument. She nodded, accepting his generous offer. This way, though she’d have to drive back and forth for the job at the clinic, she’d get a chance to be close by for Ryan, which was, after all, the entire reason she had remained in this town in the first place.
And maybe, just maybe, her proximity might even speed his progress along. She just needed to know one thing. “How much?”
“How much?” Jackson echoed quizzically.
“Yes. The bedroom,” she specified. “How much is it per week?” She imagined that would be the best way to go since she wasn’t sure how long it would take to bring Ryan completely around, back to the caring, sensitive and intelligent person he had once been.
“Well, I don’t really know,” Jackson replied, his expression entirely emotionless, “but when I figure out what bedrooms are going for, I’ll let you know.”
“Very funny. I meant how much rent would I be paying for the bedroom?”
He’d been like her once, suspicious and wary of any offer of kindness. In a way, there were a lot of similarities between Debi and the boys in terms of what they were all going through. And because he could remember and relate, that gave him the confidence that came with knowing that the situation could be reversed. Not easily, but definitely with effort.
“You wouldn’t be,” he answered. “I’m offering you the room for the duration of your stay in Forever free of charge.”
“Why?” He didn’t really know her. She’d been a stranger less than a month ago, before she’d gotten in contact with him about his program. Why would he take a stranger into his house?
“Because it might help Ryan to know that you’re somewhere on the premises. I think he feels that you have his back.”
“He certainly doesn’t act like it. The last time I talked to him, he sounded angry because I wasn’t springing him and taking him home.”
“Trust me. He’s glad you’re here and having you that much closer might just help him.”
“Well, I know it would help me,” she freely admitted to Jackson.
He didn’t need to hear any more. “Then it’s settled. I’ll have the room ready for you by the time you get back from the hotel with your things.”
This hunk of a cowboy was an answer to a prayer, she thought. Not only was Jackson making headway with Ryan when she couldn’t, but he’d just found a way to keep her from slipping into a Chapter 11 situation. Between paying a lawyer to handle her divorce and paying for Ryan’s stay here, her small life savings had been wiped out.
For that matter, she wasn’t even sure if the position at the hospital that she had taken a hiatus from would still be there waiting for her when she got back. They’d said they’d hold it for her, but times were tough and situations changed. To know that she would have a little something to tide her and Ryan over until she could find another job was at least comforting to some extent.
“You’re serious?” she asked, scrutinizing his face just to be sure.
To reassure Debi, he smiled as he said, “Completely.” It was impulse that had her all but chattering as she thanked him profusely. And impulse was also to blame for what she caught herself doing next.
She had no memory of thinking this through. On the contrary, all she remembered, after the fact, was that one second she felt a huge sense of relief and joy surging through her, the next, she found her arms around the back of Jackson’s neck and her lips directly on his.
It was supposed to be a spontaneous kiss between friends to say thank-you.
It was supposed to be just a quick, uncomplicated kiss with a life span of a second.
Maybe two.
It turned out to be, and say, a whole lot more than that.
First contact told her she was getting much more than she had bargained for.
He made her blood rush and her heart pound hard, the way it did when she poured it on for the last quarter mile of a run.
But a run had never made her head spin.
Jackson did.
The man’s kiss packed a punch she wasn’t prepared for. Until just now, she considered herself well-versed in the world of male/female relations. But now she realized that she was just a novice. Nothing she had ever experienced with John held a candle to what had just happened here with Jackson.
Certainly she’d never felt this kind of fire erupting within her.
He knew he should stop.
Knew he shouldn’t have even allowed it to happen in the first place. But she had managed to catch him by surprise. In more ways than one. The second she’d thrown her arms around his neck, he’d known what was coming.
Or thought he did.
For a little thing, she could really bring him down to his knees. As it was, the aforementioned knees felt rather unstable for a moment or two, like they could collapse at any second.
This was a compromising situation, one he didn’t want any of the teens on the ranch to be aware of. Luckily, when he’d checked recently, they were all in the corral. To the best of his knowledge, no one had witnessed what had just transpired. But he still didn’t believe in taking chances.
And he was going to put a stop to this...any second now.
The truth of it was, he found himself enjoying this intimate contact far more than he thought he would.
Far more than he should.
And yet, there was no denying that it—and she—were having one hell of a dynamic effect on him.
Debi stepped back first.
“I wanted to thank you,” she told him with feeling.
“I think you just did,” Jackson responded. Pulling himself together, he made a suggestion, not realizing that he’d already said the same thing until the words were out of his mouth. That kiss had temporarily scrambled his brain. “Why don’t you go back to the hotel, check out and come back with your things? After that, if you’re still bent on helping with the chores—”
“I am,” she told him eagerly. “Now more than ever.” If he wasn’t going to take money for the room, then she had to do something around the ranch that could be seen as payment.
“—I’ll make up a list for you, if you insist,” he said. “But just so you know, while the boys all have to pull their own weight around here, that doesn’t apply to you. You’ve already got a full-time job. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a guest here, which means that you don’t have to do anything.”
“I’ve never known how to do nothing,” she confided.
“Well, you certainly can’t be accused of doing nothing, not when you’re working at the clinic. The way I see it, every hour there is equal to at least two hours in the real world. I’d think that it would leave you pretty exhausted.”
“It did, but I’ve had a full night’s sleep to recharge,” she told him. “I feel pretty energetic, so your wish is my command.”
His eyes drew together as he tried to remember something. “That’s from a fairy tale, right?”
“Even fairy tales are based on a grain of truth,” she reminded him.
Looking at her now, standing on the other side of his desk, he really felt as if he was in a fairy tale. The troubled kid he had once been could have never foreseen his life evolving this way.
I owe you, Sam. Big time, Jackson thought.
“Want me to drive you to the hotel?” he offered out loud.
“No, that’s okay. I definitely know the way back. I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “You go do your ranching things,” Debi said, her words deliberately vague since she really didn’t know what needed doing on this sort of a ranch. “I’ll try to be back as fast as I can,” she promised.
“You don’t have to hurry,” he told her, moving back behind his desk and sitting down again. “The room’s not going to go anywhere.”
He was making her feel safe, she realized. There was a danger in that. She’d let her guard down at some point and then that would leave her wide-open and vulnerable. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
And yet, there was something almost seductive about not having to worry, about feeling protected and safe.
She was just deluding herself, Debi silently insisted. Squaring her shoulders, she replied, “You never know. Someone might make you a better offer than getting nothing for your trouble.”
“Not everything comes down to a matter of dollars and cents,” he told her. Picking up his pen again, he said, “See you later,” and got back to work.
* * *
HE WASN’T AWARE of Garrett immediately.
Debi had hurried off and he forced himself to return to the part of running The Healing Ranch that he hated: filling out reports, keeping logs. He managed to cope with it because he knew that there was no way around the requirement. The sooner he got to the monthly endeavor, the sooner he would be done with it and free.
He’d made his peace with the fact that the reports were a necessary evil.
Somewhere into this storm of papers and recently released hormones running rampant through his system his brother walked into the office.
Jackson had no idea how long Garrett had stood there, in the rear doorway, observing him. All he knew was that he’d started to sense his brother’s presence. Looking up, he saw that Garrett had on that strange, bemused expression that he sometimes sported.
He was also grinning.
From ear to ear.
“What?” he asked when he and Garrett made eye contact.
Garrett merely shrugged, dismissing the question. “Nothing.” The grin, however, remained. If possible, it grew even wider.
The Cowboy and the Lady Page 13
