Fortune's Second-Chance Cowboy

by Marie Ferrarella

  Then, before she could answer him, he made a suggestion. “Feel free to look around the house, or to join Sasha, Maddie and Uncle Roger in the kitchen.”

  Chloe shook her head, declining both offers. Right now, she just wanted to sit exactly where she was and absorb what had just happened.

  And, in her opinion, what had just happened amounted to being given a job, a rather important job in her estimation, practically sight unseen.

  Well, she’d been seen, Chloe amended, but obviously a great deal had just been read into whatever Sasha Fortune Robinson thought she saw in her.

  “I’m good, thank you,” she told Graham, turning down his offer.

  In response, her half brother smiled at her and nodded. “I won’t be long,” he promised.

  Her half brother.

  It was still hard to think of him that way, Chloe thought as she watched him take Chance into what appeared to be a den that was directly off the living room.

  Hard to think of herself as being anyone’s half sister.

  Or a half sister to what amounted to practically a legion of other half siblings, she added silently. She’d grown up thinking she had no family at all beyond her mother and now she had more family than she could shake that proverbial stick at.

  And one of those half siblings had just given her a job.

  Not just any job but the kind of job she had set her heart on before she’d ever sent in her application to college. So far, she’d been stitching together a living taking anything she could get—even working at a local coffee shop on weekends to help pay her rent. She felt as if she’d finally crossed a threshold into her field.

  Talk about luck.

  Glancing around to make sure no one could see her, Chloe pinched herself. And then, just to make certain, she pinched herself again because she had to admit this all seemed like some sort of dream. A dream that she was going to wake up from at any minute now.

  Except for the part about Donnie, she thought grimly. If this was a dream, he’d be right here beside her.

  But he wasn’t.

  She was sitting in this big old living room all by herself, waiting for her half brother to come back in and tell her all the details she needed to know about this job she was going to be starting. She was convinced that she’d gotten this position strictly because she was “family” despite all of Graham’s talk about instincts and gut feelings.

  No matter, she was determined to prove to them that they hadn’t made a mistake in hiring her. She was going to work really, really hard and be the best counselor they could have possibly hoped for. She owed it to them.

  Most of all, she owed it to herself—and to the memory of her husband, who had always encouraged her and told her she could be absolutely anything she wanted to be once she set her mind to it.

  She glanced toward the door that Graham had closed behind him and Chance. She wondered how the interview was going.

  She really hoped that Chance was going to get the job. She’d gotten the impression that although Chance wasn’t down on his luck, landing this position at Peter’s Place was really important to him.

  Without realizing it, Chloe crossed her fingers for him, wishing that she was one of those people who actually believed in sending good vibes. Because if she was, she’d be sending them right now.

  She watched the door intently.

  And when it finally opened, only a few minutes later, she popped to her feet like a newly refurbished jack-in-the-box. Fingers still crossed, her eyes immediately went to the taller of the two men emerging from the room.

  Chance was smiling.

  She was confident that she knew the results before he said a word.

  Chapter Four

  Chance’s smile was as broad as his shoulders as he crossed to her.

  “Looks like you turned out to be my good-luck charm,” he told Chloe. “’Cause I got the job.”

  “Luck has nothing to do with it,” Graham told him, reaching up just a little to put his hand on his newest ranch hand’s shoulder. “The people you worked for all spoke very highly of you. As a matter of fact, Kyle McMasters said to tell you that if it doesn’t work out for you here, he’d be more than happy to have you come back to work for him at the Double M.”

  Chance made no comment regarding his former boss’s remark. Instead, he looked at his new boss and asked, “When can I start?”

  “Bright and early tomorrow morning’ll be fine.” As a rule, ranch hands were usually up around sunrise, if not before, so Graham made a suggestion. “How does seven o’clock suit you?”

  The early hour didn’t faze him in the slightest. He was accustomed to being up earlier, even when he wasn’t working. It was just the way his inner clock worked. “I can be here earlier if you need me to be,” Chance told him.

  “No, seven’ll do fine. You can bring your gear then and move in to the bunkhouse,” Graham told him. “We’ve got two on the premises. One just for the ranch hands and the other one’s where the boys stay.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Chance replied. “All I really require is enough space to stretch out at the end of the day, nothing more.”

  Graham nodded. “We’re going to get along just fine,” he predicted. “Just to let you know, I’ve got plans for you. You’re not just going to be a ranch hand. After you get the lay of the land around here, and things look like they’re going well, I want to make you the coordinator for Peter’s Place.”

  Graham smiled. “I think your being ex-military might just come in handy. The boys who are here now need a firm hand and they need to be made to respect authority. That’s not to say I want you coming down hard on them. Just make sure they don’t take advantage of you or anyone else here,” Graham added. He looked deliberately at Chloe as he said the last part.

  Chloe appreciated the thought, but she had been looking after herself for a long time now.

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” Chloe told her half brother. “I might not be as tall as you two, but I’m not a pushover, either. And I can definitely take care of myself.”

  Graham held up a hand. “I never meant to imply that I thought of you as a pushover. But knowing someone has your back certainly doesn’t hurt in this kind of a situation,” Graham assured her.

  Then he launched into a rundown of the current residents staying at Peter’s Place. “Right now, we’ve got four boys staying here. They’re all decent kids, but for one reason or another, they’ve lost their way and all of them feel like they’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand.” He spared a glance at Chloe. “Sasha can do a better job filling you in,” he said to Chloe.

  As if on cue, his wife came in from the kitchen. “Did I just hear my name being mentioned?” she asked, a bright smile on her face. Before Graham had an opportunity to respond to her question, Sasha told her husband, “You’ll be happy to know that breaking her wrist did not affect our daughter’s appetite. She’s eating up a storm in there. Uncle Roger’s whipping up his ‘famous’ corn dogs wrapped in bacon for her. I set the limit at two but I’ve got a feeling he’s not going to stick to that. Maybe you can make him understand the wisdom of not letting Maddie stuff herself to the gills.”

  “I’m on it,” Graham said, beginning to leave the living room.

  Sasha looked at Chance and Chloe. “So, I take it that they both said yes.”

  “That they did,” Graham said, tossing the words over his shoulder.

  “Well then, welcome to Peter’s Place,” Sasha told the duo warmly. “I hope you like it here,” she added. “We try to keep it homey. For some of these boys, this is the first actual ‘home’ they’ve had in quite a while.”

  The sound of a baby crying was heard coming over the monitor that Chloe had positioned on the wide coffee table.

  Sasha sighed wearily as she looked at the monit
or. “Looks like I’m being summoned,” she told Chloe as she started to get up.

  “Why don’t you stay here and get Chloe up to speed on the boys who are currently here?” Graham suggested. Sasha began to point out the obvious, but never got very far. “I’ll go see to Sydney,” Graham told her. “I’m sure Uncle Roger knows enough not to overfeed Maddie. If he doesn’t, Maddie’s got enough sense to stop.” Pausing for just a moment before he went up the stairs, he turned toward Chance. “And I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Count on it,” Chance told him. Putting his Stetson on, he tipped it ever so slightly to the right, unaware that he was creating a rakish image as he did so. Chance nodded first at Graham’s wife and then at Chloe. “Ladies, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised just before he headed for the door.

  Chloe just stared at his retreating form. A very sexy form, she had to admit.

  “He’s a tall one, don’t you agree?”

  The comment snapped Chloe to attention. She hadn’t even realized she was still staring at the closed door. “What? Oh, you mean Chance. Yes, I guess he is at that,” she murmured.

  When she looked at Sasha, she thought she saw a hint of a grin on her lips. She hoped that Sasha didn’t think that there was anything between her and Chance—or that there would be in the future. She’d come here strictly because she wanted work as a counselor and nothing more, she silently insisted.

  “So tell me about the boys at Peter’s Place,” Chloe urged. She thought it best to change the subject immediately.

  Sasha sat down beside her on the sofa, and then a sudden thought occurred to her. “Oh, where are my manners? Having your daughter break her wrist kind of knocks everything else out of your head,” she apologized, then asked, “Can I get you anything? Something to drink perhaps?”

  Chloe shook her head. She didn’t want anything to distract her. Right now, all she wanted to do was focus on any information that Sasha could give her. She wanted to be as fully prepared as possible when she finally met the boys who had been sent here to atone for their misdeeds and to ultimately become better people.

  “No, I’m fine. Really,” she stressed when Sasha looked at her somewhat skeptically. “Just tell me about the boys I’m going to be working with. I want to learn all I can about them.”

  Sasha seemed to ponder her reply for a moment, no doubt wanting to cite the boys in the proper order.

  Then she began. “The first teen we took in here at Peter’s Place is Jonah Wright. A basically good boy, Jonah kind of hit a rough patch when his father ran off, deserting the family. Consequently, to make ends meet, his mother had to hold down two jobs. Because she wasn’t home very much, she expected Jonah to look after his three younger siblings. I don’t have to tell you that that’s a lot of responsibility to heap on such young shoulders. Jonah loved playing baseball after school and he had to give that up in order to be there for his siblings.

  “After a while, life felt as if it was crashing in on him and Jonah just kept getting angrier and angrier. He started ditching school, vandalizing property and getting into fights almost all the time. He started shoplifting and got away with it the first couple of times.

  “And then he got arrested. They were going to send him to jail, then at the last minute, the authorities decided to send him here instead. It was kind of touch and go with Jonah for a while, but he turned things around and it looks like he’s on the road to getting his life back.” Sasha smiled, clearly pleased to be able to relate this to Chloe. “Things look pretty promising and he’s even going to be playing baseball soon, just like he always wanted to.”

  Sasha stopped for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts.

  “The second teen who was sent here was Ryan Maxwell. He was a lot less hostile than Jonah was when he came here, but he was also a great deal more depressed and withdrawn.”

  “Do you know why he was depressed?” Chloe wanted to know.

  Sasha nodded. “Both of his parents died and social services sent him to live with his uncle. Family isn’t always the best way to go,” Sasha told her. “In Ryan’s case, his uncle turned out to be a lowlife. He stole and spent all of the money that Ryan’s parents had set aside to pay for his college education. Personally, I suspect that Ryan got into trouble and vandalized private property just to get away from the man.”

  “You’re probably right,” Chloe agree. “He probably felt he had nothing to lose and just maybe something to gain if he got away from his uncle.”

  Sasha smiled. “Since he came here, he’s been doing a lot better. He’s now in both a math club and a science club in school. If he keeps things up this way, he’s on track to get a college scholarship,” Sasha told her proudly. “And if that happens, he can write his own ticket. His future is a great deal more promising than his past.”

  “And the other boys?” Chloe asked, wondering if their stories would wind up ending this well.

  “Well, the last two are newer and I’m afraid they haven’t really adjusted to living here—yet,” Sasha emphasized, obviously holding out a great deal of hope for the fates of both of these newer residents at Peter’s Place. “Brandon Baker lost his older brother in Afghanistan, and I get the distinct feeling that he’s just mad at the whole world right now.”

  Chloe could certainly identify with the way Brandon felt. When Donnie had been killed, there was a point when she’d been convinced that her anger was going to suffocate her. It had been touch and go for a while.

  “And the last boy?” Chloe prompted.

  “That would be Will Sherman. His mother is a single parent, and she has her own share of problems. The woman is an alcoholic,” Sasha confided. “The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde kind who takes all of her frustrations out on Will. A social worker found him wandering the streets one night, so battered she didn’t know how he was able to even stand up, much less walk.” Tears shone in Sasha’s eyes as she told Chloe, “When the social worker questioned him, he denied that his mother had beaten him. It was heartbreaking how protective he was of that woman. But it was obvious to everyone who came in contact with this boy that he couldn’t be allowed to go back home. It was just as obvious that it would be just a matter of time before Will turned to less than acceptable ways, trying to support himself on the street.

  “He’s been here for a while, and I think he still feels that life has abandoned him, just like his mother has. He needs to learn how to relate to people and how to trust again.”

  Finished with her brief summation, Sasha paused and looked at Chloe. “Well, have I managed to scare you off yet?”

  Chloe didn’t have to hunt for words in order to answer her. As far as she was concerned, what Sasha had just outlined was her mission in life. Helping boys like the ones she spoke of.

  “No, of course not. It’s obvious that all these boys need help, and that’s what I’m here for. What kind of a counselor would I be if I turned tail and ran at the first sign of a problem?”

  “Possibly one who slept better at night?” Sasha suggested, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

  “The exact opposite,” Chloe contradicted with feeling. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep, knowing I didn’t even try to help these boys. That I’d failed to reach out to them. Nobody deserves to have their dreams shattered the way these boys have, or to have their mothers beat them every time they descend into an alcoholic stupor.”

  Chloe knew the sort of first impression she made and the image that she projected when people first met her. She made people think of a sweet Girl Scout selling cookies door-to-door. But she wasn’t interested in selling cookies.

  “Believe me,” she said, “I know life isn’t all milk and cookies, but it shouldn’t be all pain and sorrow, either.”

  As she spoke, Chloe could feel that she was really getting into the spirit of this new job she was about to undertake. She also felt she had a lot t
o offer.

  “I know what it’s like to grow up without a father and be raised by a single mother. I know what it’s like to have to do without things other kids have, and I definitely know what it’s like to lose someone and how that can cut right into your very soul.” Her eyes met Sasha’s, determination shining in them. “I think I can really help these boys,” Chloe told her sister-in-law with fierce feeling.

  Sasha beamed at her as she took the woman’s hands in hers.

  “I think you can, too,” she said. “And I’m really glad Graham suggested that we hire you.” She let go of Chloe, then tilted her head as if in thought for a moment. Then she said, “You know, we have an extra bedroom right here in the house. It might be easier for all of us if you lived here, on the premises.”

  Chloe hesitated, which prompted Sasha to quickly make another suggestion.

  “We also have a small guest cottage on the property right behind the house. Now that I think of it, that might be more to your liking. You’d still be on the premises, but there wouldn’t be that feeling of having Graham and me breathing down your neck,” she added with an understanding smile.

  “Oh, no, I wouldn’t feel that,” Chloe protested.

  She didn’t want to insult either Sasha or her half brother. They had gone out of their way to reach out to her while the others hadn’t. That meant a great deal to her. She doubted that either one of them could begin to understand how much this new connection—being part of the family—meant to her. She was thrilled and excited about it and didn’t want to do anything that would make them regret bringing her into the fold.

  “Well, I’d feel that way in your place,” Sasha said quite honestly. Her eyes met and held Chloe’s. “Chloe, I have just one real hard-and-fast rule,” she told the younger woman. “Always tell me the truth. No matter how you think hearing it might affect me, always tell me the truth. This way I won’t have to wonder if you’re being honest with me, or if you’re just trying to spare my feelings.”