“Of course. I could use some help.”
A sigh of relief escaped her. Todd beamed and followed Joel to the trailer. As they were walking away, Joel paused and waved Wes toward them. “I could use your help, too. I have two halters, one for each horse.”
Wes’s face lit. “Okay.” He looked at his mother. “I’m going to help.”
April’s stance eased and she smiled. “I heard, and I know you can help, too.” Beaming with pride, Todd and Wes trailed behind Joel.
Thank you, she mouthed.
Joel nodded. Together they moved to the trailer. He opened the back door and walked into the divided interior. Two ropes sat on the floor. Joel handed each boy a rope and watched as they slipped them up their arms, holding the coiled ropes close.
Joel left the doors to the trailer open. “Okay, guys, let’s go get those horses.” The boys grinned at him and followed.
Hearing the boys walking behind him brought a smile to Joel’s lips. His gaze collided with April’s. Her expression, a curious mixture of caution and appreciation, caught him off guard. Did she think he’d be cruel to her boys? Ignore them? But then again, she didn’t know him from Adam. Joel found himself admiring the mama bear, determined to protect her cubs.
“How contrary are the horses?” Joel threw the question over his shoulder.
“They’re not broken, but both can be won over with a carrot.”
He stopped and turned to her. “Good idea. Do you have some?”
“Some?” Her brain short-circuited.
“Carrots.”
April’s cheeks heated and she felt dumber than dirt. “Yeah, I’ll get them.” She turned toward the kitchen with Cora still cradled in her arms. The toddler protested and held out her arms to the cowboy. April stared down at her daughter. “Sweetie, he doesn’t want to hold you.” She turned toward the house, but Cora put up a fuss.
April frowned at her daughter’s behavior. Lately, Cora wasn’t willing to let any stranger near her.
“I don’t mind holding her while you get the carrots.”
Joel’s words startled her. He didn’t look frightened or uncomfortable about holding the two-and-a-half-year-old.
Cora leaned toward the tall cowboy, still holding out her arms. He wrapped his hands around her daughter and settled her close to his chest.
Cora batted her lashes at him, instantly winning him over. April struggled to keep her mouth from falling open. Suddenly her picky daughter decided to be friendly.
“I think we’ve got everything under control here, except for the carrots.”
The stupor that held April in place evaporated. She turned and hurried into the kitchen. What was going on? Suddenly her children had latched on to this stranger while she acted like a teenager, with her heart fluttering in excitement. She wasn’t that green anymore.
Grabbing the carrots out of the refrigerator, April fought to regain her balance. She’d just prayed for some help, but surely he wasn’t it. God knew her hurts and past, and this cowboy fit none of her needs. Joel worked for the traveling rodeo, which was in a different city each week. He probably had that same wandering gene her father and husband had had. She’d had enough of that and wanted nothing to do with a man who couldn’t commit to one place.
Hurrying outside, she stopped short when she saw all three of her children surrounding Joel, talking to him. They looked so perfect together. Just looking at the group, one would never know the children weren’t his.
It stole her breath.
The sound of the screen door slamming brought everyone’s attention to her.
“Here are the carrots.” She held them up and hurried down the side steps, shaking off her fantasies. Obviously, she’d been alone too long and any help she got was bound to throw her off stride.
But I prayed.
Arriving beside Joel, April held out her arms for Cora. Her daughter didn’t budge.
“C’mon, sweetie.”
Cora didn’t respond.
April felt her cheeks grow hot. She smiled and plucked Cora out of Joel’s arms. “If you’re half as good with horses as you are with kids, Sadie and Helo shouldn’t be any problem for you.”
The tall cowboy smiled slowly. “I’m better.”
She swallowed hard. Oh, my.
Joel took the carrots and walked to the corral gate.
“What are you goin’ to do?” Todd asked, following Joel. “Are you going to rope Helo and Sadie?”
“I’m going to make friends with a couple of nervous horses.” He held out his hand and took the ropes from Wes and Todd, hanging them over the gatepost. He opened the gate and walked inside but made no move toward the horses. Helo and Sadie nervously moved to the other side of the corral.
The boys crowded around the gate, hanging on to the horizontal brace. April moved behind them.
“Sometimes you just have to let a horse get to know you.” He placed one carrot in his back pocket and held out the other one. “Let them feel you, catch your scent.”
“Is that why you’re just standing there doing nothin’?” Wes asked. “I thought you’d charge in there and rope the horses.”
“I could, but if I came into your house and started demanding things from you, you wouldn’t like it, would you?”
Todd’s face screwed up as he thought. “No.”
“Horses are the same.”
“Oh.”
The horses stilled as Joel waited, but curiosity won out and the black horse moved closer to him. Joel held up the carrot, waving it around. Slowly the black horse drifted toward him. Joel held the carrot still, and the horse accepted it.
“Sadie’s eating it,” Todd whispered.
Joel rubbed the horse’s forehead, then ran his hand down her neck. She accepted his touch. As he worked to win the horse’s trust, he felt the gazes of the boys and their mother on him. Their interest and admiration warmed him in a way that surprised him.
It took less than ten minutes for Joel to win Sadie’s trust, and she allowed him to slip the rope over her head.
“Wow,” the boys whispered.
Joel slowly led Sadie out of the corral to his trailer. He paused at the tailgate. The boys peered at him, their little bodies tense. Sadie only paused a moment before she walked into the trailer.
“How’d you do that?” Todd demanded.
“When you do something that isn’t familiar to you, you’re nervous, right? It’s the same for horses.” Joel glanced at April and found admiration on her face, too. It was common sense, but his heart soaked up her reaction.
It took less time for him to coax Helo to his side, and he slipped the rope over his head. When he had both horses secured in the trailer, he turned to the two boys.
“Are y’all comin’ to the rodeo next weekend?”
The kids turned to their mother with pleading expressions. They were good, Joel admitted to himself. They could put the hurt on anyone.
“Can we?”
Joel saw the answer in April’s bleak face. That was why she was selling her horses early.
“We’ll see.”
“But, Mom,” Todd whined.
The woman tilted her head and her eyes narrowed.
Nothing else was said.
Joel pulled his truck around and headed out.
As he drove back to the rodeo, Joel’s heart ached. He understood the woman’s pride that she could take care of her own. He only wished there was something he could do to help.
* * *
Later that afternoon, Joel drove into the parking lot of the Caprock Feed & Seed store to pick up extra feed for the rodeo. On his way back from this feed run, he might stop by the Dairy Queen he’d spotted and have a chicken-fried steak burger.
Entering the store, Joel saw April talking to the clerk. He didn’t spot either of the boys, but Cora stood by her mother, holding April’s leg.
“So, Sully, what do you recommend I plant in the other fields, beside the hay for my own animals?”
He hadn
’t noticed earlier how musical her voice sounded. Now he knew he’d be haunted by it when he laid his head down tonight.
“I know you don’t want to plant cotton like the majority of the farms around here, but you could try a field of wheat, soybeans or sorghum. Manufacturers want sweet sorghum for syrup,” the clerk said.
“Or you could try planting sunflowers.” The words popped out of Joel’s mouth before he thought.
April jerked and turned toward him. “Sunflowers?”
“Mr. Joel,” Todd yelled in excitement, darting out from behind a tall pile of sacks of feed.
Wes followed and hurried to Joel’s side. Cora made a beeline to him.
He picked her up and she patted him on the chest.
“Mr. Joel.”
Joel’s heart melted at the munchkin’s twinkling eyes. When he looked up, a frown wrinkled April’s brow. Was her expression from him holding Cora or the advice he’d given?
“Sunflowers are a good cash crop. Several of the farms and ranches around my family’s ranch started growing them. The crop requires little work and when harvested, there are multiple places to sell them.”
The clerk’s stare bored into Joel.
“I’m Joel Kaye.” He stuck out his hand.
“He’s with the rodeo, Mr. Sully,” Todd helpfully announced. “He knows how to throw a lariat and has a birthday in March and is a cowboy.”
Sully shook Joel’s hand.
“Jack sent me here for the feed he ordered.”
The man’s attitude changed. “It’s ready, but let me finish with Mrs. Landers first.”
“That’s okay, Sully. I need to think about your suggestions on what to plant.”
Sully nodded. “Drive around back and we’ll load the order.” He disappeared into the back.
“I didn’t mean to butt in.” Joel stepped closer to the counter. April’s hair fell around her face, tempting him to reach out and touch the shiny rich brown strands.
“No, I appreciate it. I’ve been wondering what to do with the fields my father-in-law normally cultivated. Sunflowers. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I wouldn’t have, either, but as I told you several of my neighbors planted them as a cash crop and they liked the results.”
Sully appeared again. “It’s ready.”
Joel didn’t know whether to laugh or scowl at Sully’s impatience. When Joel tried to put Cora down, she protested. April took her daughter from his arms and hushed the girl. Joel nodded and walked outside to his truck.
He drove around the building and backed his truck up to the loading dock. Sully helped Joel transfer the bags of feed from the wooden pallet into the truck. Halfway through, the boys appeared on the dock.
Sully looked at the pair. “Y’all here to help?”
“We’re too small,” Todd answered. They carefully watched and whispered to each other.
Once they finished loading, Sully drove the small forklift back into the warehouse.
Joel opened the truck door.
“Mr. Joel,” Wes began.
Joel stopped and turned toward the boys.
After a couple of intense whispers, Wes walked forward. “After you left this morning, Mr. Moore, the man who helps Mom with the ranch, got hurt. She called the ambulance for him. He can’t work for a while. We heard Mom crying after the ambulance left.”
“And praying,” Todd added.
Wes’s solemn gaze locked with Joel’s. “Mom’s real worried about the ranch.”
Todd’s head nodded in agreement.
Like a shot to his gut, the boys’ words hit Joel hard. The worry in their eyes would’ve touched the hardest of hearts.
Wes took a deep breath. “We want to hire you to help Mom plant her fields.”
Todd’s head bobbed. “Yeah, we want to hire you.”
Joel hadn’t seen that one coming. “I’m still with the rodeo, boys.”
Todd’s shoulders straightened. “But are you working this week? You’re having spring break like we are. Don’t the animals have spring break, too? Won’t you have time?”
Spring break? Joel’s eyes widened. Well, he’d just complained to Hank about all the downtime he had on his hands this week with nothing to do.
They waited.
Todd reached into his pocket and pulled out some change. Wes followed by taking out of his front pocket a crumpled dollar and three pennies. “We have a dollar and thirty-seven cents between Todd and me that we can pay you.”
“Is that enough?” Todd’s face filled with longing and uncertainty.
Talk about being caught off guard. But how could he ignore such an honest plea? Joel swallowed hard. “I still would have to help feed the animals at the rodeo in the morning—”
The boys nodded.
“—but if that’s okay with you, I’d be proud to work for two such upstanding cowboys.”
“And our mom.”
“Most certainly.”
They beamed and Todd started to jump up and down.
“Okay. Let me take the feed back to the rodeo, then I’ll drive out to your place and talk with your mom to make sure it’s all right with her.”
“Okay.”
The boys stepped forward and dumped their money into Joel’s hand. Looking at the crumpled bill and coins, he felt the most unusual emotions—hope and satisfaction. When he glanced up, he saw two excited faces.
“I’ll see you in a bit.”
Driving away, Joel shook his head and chuckled. Who would’ve thought those two young boys would come up with such an ingenious plan? He hadn’t. But what mattered most was how their mother felt. And oddly enough, he wasn’t sure April would accept his help. He wondered if those boys could work their charm on their mother as well as him. That he wanted to see.
Copyright © 2015 by Barbara M. Harrison
ISBN-13: 9781460383131
Safe in the Fireman’s Arms
Copyright © 2015 by Tina M. Radcliffe
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