Her Man on Three Rivers Ranch

by Stella Bagwell

  Less than an hour ago, Blake had called to invite her and Nick to Three Rivers tomorrow. Other than a few brief text messages, it was the first time since the day they’d made love on her lunch break that she’d actually talked to him. Hearing his voice had filled her with sweet joy and the excitement of seeing him soon was humming through her like the music on the radio.

  “Mom, I haven’t heard you sing in a long time.” His task finished, he walked over to where his mother was standing at the gas range and peered impatiently at the cooking food. “You must be happy that we’re going to Three Rivers tomorrow and we’ll see Blake again.”

  Katherine could feel a broad smile stretching across her face. Making love to Blake had made her feel like a reborn woman. The heated kisses they’d shared on their first date had given her a hint of the explosive chemistry between them. Still, she’d not expected their lovemaking to be so scorching hot that just thinking about it put a blush on her cheeks.

  “I guess I am pretty happy.” She gave the top of his head a playful scruff. “And what about you, son? Are you looking forward to your first riding lesson?”

  “Boy, am I! I can hardly wait! When I talked to Hannah on the phone, she told me she already had a horse picked out for me. His name is Moondust. ’Cause he has a moon-shaped spot on his forehead and little white dots on his hips. Hannah says he’s the best horse for learning to ride, and she promises that if I fall off, Moondust won’t step on me. He’ll stand real still and wait until I get up and get back on.”

  Katherine managed to stifle a groan and keep her motherly fears to herself. Nick was ten years old going on eleven. Hannah had been riding since she was four. To treat Nick like a baby, especially in front of Hannah, wouldn’t just humiliate him, it would crush his self-confidence. And it was important to Katherine that her son grow up believing he could accomplish anything he put his mind to.

  “It’s good to hear that Moondust is so trustworthy. But I have a feeling you won’t fall off. Blake says Hannah is a great teacher. If you do everything she tells you, you’ll be a wrangler in no time.”

  “You really think so, Mom?”

  “Sure I do.”

  “You know, Mom, before I met Hannah, I thought spending time with a girl would be yucky.”

  She glanced down to see Nick’s face scrunched up like he’d just tasted something sour. “Why did you think that?”

  “’Cause the girls at school are all silly. They only talk about things like clothes and cheerleading and boy bands. Boring stuff. I thought Hannah would be like those girls. But she’s really cool. She knows how to do fun things that boys like. And she doesn’t act like a smarty-pants just ’cause I don’t know about ranching. She says not to worry, she’ll teach me all about it!”

  Katherine smiled while thinking about how much this past month with Blake and his little niece had changed Nick. He’d always been a fairly happy child. But now he seemed enthused about everything. He’d even quit complaining about cleaning his room, when before she’d had to plead and threaten to get him to pick up his dirty clothes and carry them to the hamper.

  “You really like Hannah, don’t you?”

  “Yeah! I like her a whole lot! You know what, Mom? We decided to call each other cousin.”

  His remark grabbed Katherine’s attention. “You did?” she asked, careful to keep her voice casual. “What made you two decide that you’re cousins?”

  Nick’s expression turned a bit sheepish. “Well, we think you and Blake are gonna get married soon. So that will make me and her cousins.”

  Married. Katherine wasn’t surprised her son had been thinking such things. Hardly a day went by that he wasn’t hinting at the possibility of Blake becoming his father. She’d tried to temper the boy’s hopeful dreams by explaining how marriage was a serious issue and that she and Blake might not ever want to be man and wife. But so far all her warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

  Tonight she wasn’t going to warn her son that his dreams might never come true. Instead, she simply asked, “What makes you two think Blake and I are going to get married?”

  “We can just tell. Hannah says she’s never seen her uncle Blake smile or laugh like he does with you. And you never liked any man until Blake came along.”

  A dark cloud of guilt settled onto Katherine’s shoulders. Nick had been too young to remember anything about his parents’ relationship and he’d never questioned her about her feelings for his father. Nick simply assumed that his parents had been a loving married couple and she’d never had the heart to tell him otherwise. In spite of their four-year marriage and a child together, she hadn’t felt the same strong bond with Cliff as she did with Blake. Never during the years of their marriage had she felt the hot, reckless passion she’d felt with Blake in the one short hour of time they’d been together. If that made her a bad person, she couldn’t help it.

  “Mom? You’re not saying anything.”

  She turned off the blaze beneath the macaroni and cheese, then turned to Nick. With a hand on his shoulder, she guided him over to the table and eased him into one of the chairs.

  When she took a seat across from him, he leaned forward, his whole face a look of eager anticipation. “Listen to me carefully, Nick. I understand that you and Hannah want to be cousins. And I’ve known for a long time that you want a father, but—”

  Before she could say another word, Nick blurted, “I don’t want just any ol’ guy to be my dad. I want Blake to be my father! And he wants me to be his son! I know he does!”

  Katherine studied Nick’s stubborn face and realized she was wasting her breath with cautions and warnings. The boy wasn’t going to allow his mother to pour water on his dreams. Besides, it was far too late to be worrying about the future. She’d trusted Blake enough to invite him into her bed. Now she had to go a step further and trust him with her heart. And Nick’s happiness.

  Smiling faintly, she ran a hand over his dark hair. “You love Blake, don’t you?”

  His head bobbed up and down. “He’s good to me. But not too good.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “What does that mean?”

  He tilted his head to one side as he contemplated his mother’s question. “You know what I mean, Mom. Blake gives me attention, but he isn’t going overboard to make me like him. He’s letting me decide about that. He mainly wants me to grow up strong and tough. And to be smart, too. That’s the way Lash is with Shawn. And that’s the way I want Blake to always be with me. That means he cares.”

  Her heart filled with pride, along with a pang of sad regret. If not for her, Nick’s dad might still be alive today. But whether he would’ve changed and turned into a real, caring father, she could only guess.

  “Yes. Blake does care about you. I think he always will.”

  A happy light was suddenly twinkling in Nick’s gray eyes. “Gosh, Mom, it’s gonna be great having a dad. Maybe he can come watch me play baseball. He might even teach me how to throw a curveball!”

  Seeing that nothing she could say was going to dampen Nick’s hopes, she decided to simply go along. After all, a boy did need dreams. And so did a woman.

  “I’m not sure Blake played baseball in high school or college. He might not know anything about curveballs and that sort of thing.”

  “Blake played baseball,” Nick promptly insisted. “He told me so. He said he wasn’t as good as his brother—the one who’s a vet—but he made the team. Gee, Mom, I know more about him than you do.”

  Smiling at that, Katherine left the chair to attend to the cooking food. “Give me time,” she said. “I’m learning.”

  She had switched off the burner beneath the sausage and was forking the meat onto a serving platter when Nick rushed up behind her and hugged his arms tightly around her waist. Displaying his affection was something he’d done quite often when he was much younger. Now that he was beginning to consider h
imself close to being a teenager, episodes such as this were becoming few and far between.

  “Oh my, what’s this all about?” Turning slightly, she tucked an arm around his shoulders and gathered him in a tight hug.

  “I just feel good. That’s all.” He leaned his head back and peered up at her. “Can I tell you something else?”

  She pressed her finger to the tip of his nose. “You can tell me anything.”

  “Well, I got a confession to make,” he said sheepishly.

  “Uh-oh. Sounds like you got in trouble at school. Where’s the note?”

  Nick’s head swung back and forth. “No way. I made a hundred on my geography test today! And Ms. Canfield let me clean all the blackboards for her.”

  “Oh, you must have been the star pupil, then.” She gave him a playful smile. “So what is this confession all about?”

  “It’s about you and Blake,” he said. “When you first told me you were going to go on a date with him, I was thinking he was going to be a jerk. I decided that when I met him, I’d be polite because I promised you I would be. But I sure wasn’t going to like him. How could I be so wrong, Mom? Now I feel bad for thinking such things.”

  She gave him another tight hug. “Oh, Nick. You’re the best son any mom could ever have.”

  Still unsure, he looked doubtfully up at her. “You’re not mad at me for being a dope?”

  Laughing, Katherine playfully scrubbed the top of his head. “No. I’m not mad. Ready to eat supper?”

  Nick hurried over to the table and took a seat at his usual chair. “Yeah! I’m starved. And I want to go to bed early tonight. That way when I wake up, it’ll be time to head to the ranch.”

  Yes, Katherine thought as she carried the food to the table. She was more than ready to see her man on Three Rivers Ranch again.

  * * *

  By the time Blake entered the ranch house later that night, it was past midnight. His shirt was covered with dirt and sweat and his boots were dragging as he made his way to the gas range and opened the warming drawer.

  Damn! It was empty and he’d not eaten since five o’clock this morning. Where the hell had Reeva put the leftovers?

  After washing his hands at the double sink, he opened the refrigerator and stared wearily at the crowded shelves, when a footfall alerted him that someone else in the house was still awake.

  “Blake! Where the hell have you been? And you’re still wearing your chaps. I thought you and Joe had gone out for a short ride. That was hours ago! Holt has gone to town and Chandler is on an emergency call. I was about to send the boys at the bunkhouse out to search for you two!”

  He turned to see his mother striding toward him. In spite of the late hour, she wasn’t dressed for bed. Instead, she was still wearing her jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows. The stressed look on her face told him she’d been deeply worried.

  “Sorry, Mom. After I put up my horse, I didn’t take time to take off my chaps. I’ll put them in the mudroom before I go upstairs.”

  “You think I’m worried about those damn chaps?” She took him by the arm and led him over to the kitchen table. “You sit. While I make you a sandwich, you can tell me why you’ve been out so late.”

  While she carried an armful of things from the refrigerator over to the cabinet, Blake swiped a weary hand through his hair.

  “We were about to head home several hours ago,” he told her. “But then Joe thought he spotted a trail of smoke in the direction of the number-nine well pump. I thought it looked like smoke, too, so we decided we’d better check it out. If that part of the range caught fire...well, I don’t have to tell you it would scorch everything for miles.”

  Slathering a slice of bread with mayonnaise, she paused and directed a sharp look at him. “Dear God, was something burning?”

  “We searched all around and couldn’t find anything burning or where any fire might have been. It was spooky.”

  “So you’ve been all these hours looking for a fire that wasn’t there?” She turned back to her sandwich making. “You should’ve come on home. But I know how Joe’s mind works, and yours, too. You were both thinking that area is close to where you believe your father was killed. You still think you might find some other kind of clue over there. Don’t you?”

  “We weren’t really thinking about clues, Mom! The fence that crosses the gorge had been cut. The cattle were out on the old road that goes up to the Fisher property.”

  Maureen slapped the sandwich onto a paper plate and carried it over to him. “Cut? Are you sure about that? If I remember right, the motley bull, the one Chandler calls Tiger, is over in that section. He’s been known to break a fence before.”

  “This wasn’t broken, Mom,” he said bluntly. “We could both see where wire cutters had been used.”

  Shaking her head, she went back to the refrigerator and pulled out a long-necked bottle of beer. After she placed it in front of Blake, she eased down in the chair next to his.

  “I don’t understand this, Blake. Why would anybody do something so malicious?”

  He shrugged while hoping he could smooth his mother’s fears instead of sounding an alarm. She already had more than enough on her mind. She didn’t need to be worrying that Three Rivers might possibly have an enemy out there.

  “Joe and I figure it was probably hunters.”

  Maureen was more than doubtful. “Blake, hunting season doesn’t start for months.”

  “I should’ve said poachers. It’s not enough that they hunt during illegal months, they want to trespass to do it.”

  She scowled. “Maybe we ought to send a couple of men over there on a regular basis to ride fence line. Say, three times a week. At least, for a while.”

  “I agree. I’ll talk to Matthew about it and see who he can spare.”

  “What about the cattle?” she asked. “Did you get them rounded up?”

  “There’s hardly ever any cell signal over there. Tonight it was nil. My phone was useless and so was Joe’s. So we couldn’t call the hands for help.” Shutting his eyes, he used his thumb and forefinger to rub at the stinging grit. “For a few hours, we had hell. But we finally managed to get the cows and the bull back onto Three Rivers land. After that, we patched up the fence well enough to hold them until some of the guys can get over there in the morning to make permanent repairs.”

  His mother studied him for a long moment, then shook her head and slumped back in the chair. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Blake. Of all my sons, you’re the last one to deserve a scolding. I’ve just been so worried. I kept trying your phone and Joe’s. Then about two hours ago, Tessa finally called me, wondering why Joe hadn’t made it home. I tried to calm her by telling her I thought you two might have gone to look at a horse for sale up at Yarnell.”

  “Lord, I didn’t know you could make up such whoppers, Mom. Why didn’t you just tell her the truth? That you didn’t know what we were doing.”

  “Blake, in case you’ve forgotten, your sister-in-law is five months pregnant! The last thing she needs is to be working herself into a worried frenzy.”

  “Looks like you’ve worked yourself up into a worried frenzy, too.” He took three bites of the sandwich, then washed it down with a third of the beer.

  From the corner of his eye Blake could see his mother reaching up and massaging both temples. In that moment, he forgot his own weariness and frustration. It wasn’t often that Maureen Hollister ever showed a crack in her strong armor. Seeing her a bit rattled reminded Blake that she was more than a worried mother. She was a woman who’d lost her husband, a man she’d loved with all her heart. Only God knew the real depth of her grief.

  “Don’t tell your brothers,” she said. “They’ll think I’m losing it.”

  Blake gave her a lopsided grin before turning his focus back on the sandwich. After he’d eaten a f
ew more bites, he looked over to see the tense lines on her face had eased somewhat.

  “Mom, may I ask you something personal?”

  “I’m your mother. You may ask me anything. That doesn’t mean I’ll always answer, though.”

  His smile weary, he said, “I’ve been wondering. Do you think you could ever love a man the way you loved Dad?”

  A look of faint surprise crossed her face and then she shook her head. The negative response left him feeling even more exhausted.

  “I could never love any man the way I loved Joel. He’s the father of my babies. We were partners in everything. But—” She paused and gave him a pointed smile. “If the right man happened to come along, I could love him. It would just be a different kind of love in a different kind of way.”

  “I see. I guess that answers my question.”

  Maureen grimaced. “After the night you’ve just put in rounding up cattle and fixing fence, why would you be asking me such a thing?”

  Leave it to his mother to make him blush, Blake thought wryly. “Well, because Katherine is a widow, too. She doesn’t much like to talk about her late husband or the accident that took his life. I don’t know whether that’s because it’s still too painful for her, or if it’s just her way of putting him and their marriage behind her. But sometimes I wonder if—”

  Unsure of how to go on without making himself sound like a silly sap, he reached for the beer and downed several swallows.

  Next to him, Maureen said softly, “You wonder if she could ever love you. Right?”

  He nodded, then let out a cynical grunt. “It’s stupid of me to be wondering about such a thing now.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning I think I’ve already fallen in love with her. And if she doesn’t love me back, then I’m—” he settled a hopeless look on his mother “—in the same fix I was with Lenore.”

  She frowned. “You’re making a big mistake, son, in comparing Kat to that woman. Lenore could only love one person and that was Lenore. You could’ve given her your devoted attention for twenty hours a day and she still wouldn’t have been satisfied.”