She held a hand out to Andy and the little boy took it, unsure, a little lost. They started forward, and she left it for Carson to follow or not.
“What are you doing?” Carson called out as she put distance between them.
She wished she had an answer to that question. It felt like stepping into quicksand. But for this moment, she could put aside the instinct to fight or flee and she could help Jack make peace with at least one of his children.
She glanced back at Carson. He hadn’t moved. He was still standing there with his daughter in his arms looking unsure. She thought it was not a familiar emotion for him. Uncertainty.
“I’m taking you to the stable to see your father. I might as well go along. Someone has to be there to referee.”
He laughed a little but didn’t deny it. And then he moved forward, catching up with them.
As they approached the barn, Jack West emerged from the door. He was as tall as Carson, a little broader through the shoulders, but his strength seemed to diminish a little more each day. He pulled off his cowboy hat and put a trembling hand through shaggy gray hair as he watched the four of them walking toward him.
“Carson?” His voice shook a bit. From emotion or Parkinson’s, Kylie couldn’t tell.
“In the flesh.” Carson stopped a good ten feet from his father.
“I guess this isn’t a social call?” Jack grinned as he said it, though sadness lingered in his eyes, as well. “You’re not here to accept my offer?”
“It isn’t a social call, Jack, and I’m definitely not here to accept your offer. I came to tell you that we did just fine without you. I graduated from medical school and I’m a trauma surgeon. I have two children. And in case you’ve wondered, Daisy and Colt survived, too.”
“I know they have.” Jack pointed to his office. “Let’s step in here and talk. We don’t need for everyone to be in our business.”
“We can say what has to be said right here, and then I’m leaving.”
“Don’t be so stubborn,” Jack shot back.
“I’m not stubborn. What I have to say won’t take two minutes. I’m not going to discuss this job you’re offering or any excuses you might have.”
“I don’t have excuses, I only have the truth.”
Kylie shook her head at Jack, trying to at least get him to back down. She could feel the trembling that was radiating from Andy’s thin little frame, his hand quivering while it was snug in hers. Jack sighed and nodded, his gaze settling on his grandson.
The little boy didn’t want to be involved in this argument any more than Kylie did. She wanted to walk away from Jack, Carson and the two children, because if she walked away she wouldn’t have to get involved. If she walked away she wouldn’t have to look at Carson’s children and have her heart ask the question what if?
There were no what-ifs in her life anymore; there was only cold, harsh reality.
“We have to talk,” Jack agreed. “But not right now. Not like this. Not standing here in a dusty barnyard. Not with your children watching.”
“You’re right.” Carson took a step back from his father and slowly looked from his daughter clinging to his neck to the little boy standing next to Kylie. His expression softened. “We’ll just say our goodbyes and if I’m ever in the area again, I’ll look you up.”
“You’ve already had a long day,” Jack said. “Might as well stay for supper. Give Maggie and Andy a chance to rest.”
Carson reached for his son’s hand. Kylie wondered if he noticed that his dad used his children’s names. If only Jack would tell him the truth. About everything. But that would mean opening himself up. Men were so stubborn.
She knew firsthand how stubborn a man could be. They didn’t open up. They didn’t ask for help. They kept everything inside until... She blinked back tears, unwilling to go down the path to her own painful past.
“I’m on a tight schedule. I have a job interview in Chicago in three days. We have a hotel reservation in Missouri for tonight.”
“Mercy Ranch is almost a hotel,” Jack said with humor.
“I’m not staying a single night on this ranch.” Carson said the words sharply, and the little girl in his arms leaned back, her eyes widening.
Carson closed his eyes and drew in a breath. He leaned in to his daughter and whispered that he was sorry. Andy and Maggie needed to be rescued from this situation, just until the men talked and worked out their differences. Not that she expected them to be able to do that in a five-minute conversation.
“I’m taking your children to the house.”
Carson looked shocked at her announcement. She was just as shocked. Getting involved in this was the last thing she wanted to do. What she wanted was to keep her world nice and safe without having it stirred up. She loved her life on this ranch. She had dealt with her past, both distant and recent. She’d come to terms with the things she couldn’t change. For the first time in her life she was truly happy.
And now Carson West was here shaking things up and threatening that happiness. But his children were innocent, and she couldn’t let them stay and witness their father and grandfather working out their differences.
She reached for Maggie and the little girl willingly shifted herself to Kylie’s arms. Carson held on for a moment, but then released his daughter. With Maggie situated on one hip, she held out her free hand to Andy. He took it, though he looked unsure.
She didn’t blame him. She was a little bit unsure herself. Actually, she wasn’t unsure at all. Carson back in Hope, back in her life, wasn’t what she’d expected or wanted. She’d known Jack’s plans for the new medical clinic in Hope. The doctor originally hired had worked for only a month, then decided he wanted something different.
For some reason she hadn’t thought about Carson for the job. She’d thought it would be another nice, safe stranger. Someone she didn’t remember for the sweetest first kiss, or promises he’d made to a girl who would have given anything to escape her life.
It could have been anyone other than Carson West.
Not the one man who could undo everything she’d built.
Chapter Two
Carson watched as Kylie walked away with his children. When he turned around, Jack had walked off. His hand trembled as he reached for a lead rope and unlatched a stall. Carson stepped aside as his father led a horse to the center aisle. The gelding sidestepped a bit and tried to pull back on the lead rope. Jack held him tight and crosstied him.
“What are you doing?” Carson asked.
“What I had planned on doing before you came stomping in here bent on retribution. I have a buyer coming to look at this gelding and I plan on having him ready to be looked at.”
“That horse is mean.” Carson eyed the animal as he stomped, trying to be free of the lines that held him steady while Jack brushed him out.
“Yeah, he is. But the fella buying him doesn’t care. He works cattle and he says he’ll ride it out of him.”
“I didn’t come here to talk about horses,” Carson reminded his father. “I came to tell you I’m not interested in your clinic. I’m not interested in whatever other way you want to make amends for what you did to me. To us. You had no interest in us for twenty years. Don’t start now.”
“I’m not starting now,” Jack said as he brushed the sleek red neck of the horse. “I thought you might like a change of pace so I sent you the offer. The least you could do is stay here and take a look at the clinic.”
Stay and be tied to Jack. The next thought took him by surprise. He couldn’t stay here and face Kylie each day either. And he had a feeling if he was on this ranch, she’d be here, too. All hazel eyes and sunshine smiles. He still pictured her as a kid of thirteen, laughing, riding bikes, swimming in the creek. She’d changed. But hadn’t they all?
The ranch had changed, too. Not just the obvious: new cabins, new
stable, new livestock and fancy fences. The name had changed, too. Mercy Ranch. Mercy. He did wonder about the name change. From the Rocking W to Mercy Ranch.
“Why Mercy Ranch?” he asked.
“Mercy,” Jack said as he stroked the back of the horse with a soft-bristled brush. “Mercy means to offer forgiveness when it is in one’s power to punish.”
“I know the definition of the word. Why did you rename your family ranch?”
Jack grinned at him. “Because of mercy. I didn’t deserve it, but I received it. And now I can pay that forward. All of the men and women you see on this ranch are wounded warriors. Military veterans. It’s a place for them to start over. Or a place to settle down. It’s about mercy. Even the mercy we show ourselves.”
“Kylie?”
“Her story is her business. I can only tell you my story.” Jack grimaced and dropped the brush he’d been using on the horse. “Well, this is bad timing.”
Carson stepped forward, saw the lines of pain in his father’s face and the perspiration beading across his brow. “Jack?”
Jack slid a bottle from his pocket and managed with shaking hands to get the lid off. Carson took the pill bottle from him and shook one into his hand. With a sigh Jack put the pill under his tongue and he didn’t object when Carson led him to the office where there were several chairs.
“You need to sit down. We don’t want you standing up as your blood pressure decreases. You’ll end up facedown on the floor.”
“Kylie will think you knocked me out.”
“Yeah, right. I’m prone to violence. I’m calling 911.” Carson pulled his phone out.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Jack growled. “I’m fine. Give me a minute. While we wait, you can finish that horse and put him back in the stall.”
Carson reached for Jack’s wrist and felt his pulse. Rapid but steady. “How often does this happen?”
“Often enough that I need pills. Go take care of the horse.” He took a deep breath. “Please.”
“I’ll put him in the stall.”
“Too citified now to do some chores?” Jack badgered as Carson left the office.
Carson gave the horse a quick brushing. He was untying him when another man came walking down the aisle. He appeared to be in his late twenties. He was tall, walked with an easy gait and when he got closer, Carson saw that he had silver-gray eyes. Those eyes pinned Carson with an angry stare.
Carson focused on the eyes rather than how much the younger man looked like him, looked like his brother Colt. He told himself it was coincidence. Plenty of people had gray eyes. That didn’t make them related. Right?
“Where’s Jack?” the younger man asked.
Carson led the horse to the stall. “He’s in his office.”
“Jack?” the other man called out, walking past Carson, shoulder checking him as he went.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Carson muttered as he followed him to the office. “He can’t walk back to the house. Is there a wheelchair around here? Or we can carry him.”
“I can walk,” Jack growled. “Isaac can help me.”
Isaac, the gray-eyed stranger had a name.
Carson motioned toward the door. “Be my guest. Isaac will pick you up when you fall on your face.”
“You wouldn’t make a good local doctor. You need a better bedside manner.”
Carson tamped down on a smile. “Right. I guess I’m a chip off the old block.”
They sat there for a minute staring each other down, then Jack sighed. “Isaac, I’m afraid he’s right. These old legs are too shaky for that walk back to the house.”
“I’ll get a wheelchair.” Isaac headed toward the door. “Say one thing to upset him and you’ll answer to me.”
Carson didn’t bother to respond. He waited until the other man—Isaac—was gone before he approached Jack again. “I assume you’ve been to a specialist?”
“Yeah, I have. It’s nothing major.”
“I would beg to differ, but what do I know. I’m only a doctor.”
“Without a bedside manner.” Jack closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” Jack said. “Stay here for a few days. We can talk.”
“I don’t think so.” Now, knowing Jack was sick, Carson didn’t have the heart for the confrontation. He’d come here expecting the same ranch, the same Jack West, and nothing was what he’d expected.
He pulled a chair close and a moment later Kylie appeared pushing a wheelchair. Carson looked behind her, then he looked to Isaac, looming just inside the door. “Where are my kids?”
Kylie pushed the chair close. “They’re with Eve. Don’t worry. She’s watching them. I just thought it would be easier to do this if they weren’t here. And less traumatic for them.”
He didn’t leave his children with strangers. For good reason. Kylie must have seen something in his expression, because she sighed.
“Carson, they’re safe. I promise.”
“Of course they are.” He glanced at his watch and opened the pill bottle again. “Time for a second dose.”
“You take a second dose,” Jack grumbled, but he took the second pill.
“Well, that’s a good sign,” Kylie said as she slid an arm behind Jack to help him up out of the chair. “Come on, Oscar.”
“I’m not a grouch.” Jack managed a half grin as he said it.
“Yes, you are.” Kylie smoothed Jack’s hair and gave him a thorough looking over. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good.”
“I’ll help him get up.” Isaac took over, lifting Jack to his feet and helping him into the wheelchair.
“Getting old stinks,” Jack said. His voice was weaker than it had been.
Carson reached for his wrist and felt for a pulse.
“Still have a heart?” Jack asked.
“You’re not funny,” Kylie whispered, with tears in her eyes.
Carson averted his attention and looked down at Jack. “You do still have a heart. But I think it would be good to get you to the house and get you in bed.”
It took ten minutes to get Jack back and settled in his recliner in the living room. He insisted he would be most comfortable in the big leather chair. Kylie brought him water and something for the headache, brought on by the nitroglycerin.
Carson was checking Jack’s blood pressure with a monitor Kylie had given him when Isaac appeared with Maggie and Andy. Maggie had her arms around Isaac’s neck and she jabbered, telling him a story that he probably couldn’t make much sense of. Andy followed, but he was expressionless as he tapped a steady rhythm on his leg, a sure sign he was distressed by the unfamiliar situation and place.
He had to get them somewhere and get them settled. Soon. Andy needed a stable place, his things around him, structure. The only way to provide that was to get where they were going as quickly as possible, and find a home where they could start over.
As he considered his next move, the puppy that had been with Kylie appeared. It immediately went to Andy, and Carson watched as his son dropped to the floor and put his arms around the animal. Andy’s features relaxed and he smiled as he pulled the puppy close and buried his face in its yellow fur.
Maggie gave the dog a few pats, then she toddled up to Carson. He lifted her and she leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Potty.”
“The bathroom is through the kitchen and next to the utility room,” Kylie offered. “I can show you.”
“Thank you. We’ll take care of that and then we need to get on the road. I want to be in a hotel before bedtime.”
“No.” Andy spoke quietly, his face pressed against the dog.
“Andy?” Carson reached for his son, but Andy pulled back, shaking his head.
“I don’t want to go.”
“But we have to.” Carson shifted, putting himself clearly in his son’s line of vision.
Andy looked up, suddenly focused. He shook his head and pulled the Labrador puppy close. “No. I want to stay.”
Carson paused at the unexpected outburst from his son. Because Andy was on the autism spectrum, even though it was mild, he rarely put more than a few words together.
The puppy seemed to be the key.
“I’m sorry, Andy, but we can’t stay.”
Andy shook his head again. Carson became aware of Kylie moving closer. Briefly her hand touched his arm. He looked up and she smiled, thoroughly undoing something inside him that he’d been holding together for thirty-two long months. Now wasn’t the most opportune time for him to remember that he had once loved holding a woman close. A teenager, he reminded himself. They’d been little more than kids when they’d known one another. They’d held hands, made up impossible dreams for the future, and then it had ended.
“Andy could take a walk with Skip before you go,” Kylie suggested. “It’ll give him a chance to unwind, get some fresh air. It might make it easier for him to get back in the car. I’ll take him down to see the new calves while you change Maggie.”
Kylie held a hand out to Andy and he watched his son slip his small hand in to hers. He’d just been taken by surprise again.
* * *
Kylie led Andy out the back door and down the steps. The little boy seemed to be keeping his focus on Skip, and the more he did, the less he tapped at his leg.
“Do you like to swing?” she asked as they crossed the lawn in the direction of the swing Jack had maintained with fresh ropes and the occasional new board. The swing, always a reminder that a long time ago there had been children on this ranch.
Now there were veterans, both men and women. They worked on the ranch with the cattle, with horses Jack raised, and even with the dogs. They were also learning new skills doing construction projects in town.
Kylie glanced down at the little boy holding her hand. He glanced in the direction of the swing and then his gaze briefly shifted to meet hers. He nodded in answer to her question.
Reunited with the Rancher Page 2
