Hopeful Cowboy: A Mulbury Boys Novel (Hope Eternal Ranch Romance Book 1)

by Elana Johnson

  “Look, Uncle Nate.” Connor jumped on the bed a couple of times, far too smiley and energetic for the day they’d had.

  “I see,” he said to the boy. “Now don’t jump on the bed, Connor. It’s not ours.” He picked up his nephew and smiled at him. “Let’s find you some pajamas.” His eyes crossed Ginger as he located the dresser in the room—which was twice as big as the locker he’d used for almost five years.

  He’d seen the kitchen—huge, with lots of glinting silver appliances—and the living room with two comfortable couches. She hadn’t taken him downstairs, and Nate suspected he’d have plenty of time to get a feel for his new home.

  He found a pair of dinosaur pajamas in the top drawer, and he started helping Connor get changed. He had no idea how to put a shirt on a child, but Connor helped by lifting up his arms, and the shirt just went right on. Ginger hung back in the doorway, watching, and Nate really wanted to get away from all the eyes.

  Especially hers for some reason. Maybe because her observant gaze made him too hot, and he definitely couldn’t handle the heat.

  “All right,” he said to Connor. “Into bed you go.”

  Connor climbed up onto the bed, and Nate pulled the blanket down to tuck him in. He leaned over and kissed Connor’s forehead. “I’m right next door, okay? Right through the bathroom. Come get me if you need me.”

  “Uncle Nate?”

  “Yeah?”

  Connor just looked at him, though, and Nate had gotten good at seeing things inside the facility, but he couldn’t read minds.

  “Love you,” he said through a tight throat, and he turned to face Ginger. She wore a look on her face that suggested she’d have done something differently.

  Sure enough, when he approached, she whispered, “You’re not going to have him brush his teeth or use the bathroom before bed?”

  Foolishness filled Nate, and he stopped in his tracks. “Uh, yeah.” He turned back to Connor. “Come brush your teeth, Connor. And you should use the bathroom before bed.” He reached for the boy, still unable to think of him as his son, and Connor slid out from beneath the blanket.

  Nate supervised while Connor got the tasks done, but he didn’t go back into his bedroom. Nate finally crouched down in front of the wisp of a child and put his hands on Connor’s slight shoulders. “What is it, bud?”

  “I’m not going to see Daddy tomorrow, am I?”

  Nate’s lungs froze, cracking as they tried to exhale. “No, Connor,” he said. “I’m going to take care of you now.”

  Connor reached out and put his hand on the side of Nate’s face, the touch so innocent and so pure it made Nate’s chest ache. “Can I sleep with you, Uncle Nate?”

  Relief like Nate hadn’t known in a while ran through him. “Of course.” He picked up Connor and took him into the other bedroom, pulling down the comforter on the side closest to the bathroom. He got Connor tucked into bed, and he told Ginger he was going to change and come check with her.

  Once he’d dressed in a more comfortable pair of gym shorts and one of the T-shirts—which did pull weirdly along his shoulders—he went out into the living area to find Ginger chatting with two other men, both of whom wore cowboy hats.

  Once again, Nate froze. These men shouldn’t scare him, and scared wasn’t the right word. Everything in Nate’s life had been blended up, poured out, and reblended, and he just wanted to disappear into the bedroom.

  “Oh, here he is,” Ginger said with a warm smile. “Nate, come meet Spencer and Nick. They share the master suite.”

  Nate managed to get his feet moving, and he shook hands with a dark-haired man Ginger introduced as Spencer Rust, and then a blond man that couldn’t be older than twenty.

  “This is Nick Talbot,” she said. “He’s my cousin.”

  “And he works here?” Nate asked.

  “Yep,” Nick said, keeping the wide smile on his face. “Aunt Ginger is an awesome boss.” He beamed at her and walked around the island in the kitchen to get a chocolate chip cookie from the plate of them Ginger had brought from their dinner next door.

  Nate just looked at Ginger. “So tomorrow…”

  “Tomorrow is Sunday,” she said. “We run a skeleton operation on Sundays. You should take the day to enjoy the ranch and spend time with Connor. Explore.”

  Nate nodded, thinking about the fences and gates he still had in his life. But Hope Eternal Ranch was at least a thousand times better than where he’d slept just last night, so he wasn’t about to complain.

  “I serve breakfast at six-thirty,” Spencer said. “But you can eat whenever you get up. Nick here snores until at least nine on Sundays.” He jabbed the younger man in the ribs, the two of them laughing together.

  “And don’t let him fool you with ‘I serve breakfast at six-thirty,’” Nick said, dropping his voice to imitate Spencer on the last few words. “He puts out boxes of cereal with a few bowls and spoons.”

  “So if you have any requests, let me know,” Spencer said, grinning like he’d really said something funny.

  Nate liked both of them, as they seemed full of joy. He wondered what it would be like to be carefree, and he tried to turn over the feelings and examine them. Now that he was out, he could work on getting to where they were.

  He had money, so he didn’t have to worry about that. He had a job. He had somewhere to live that was so nice he almost didn’t dare touch anything. If he could figure out how to take care of Connor, and work through the grief eating at the bottom of his stomach, Nate thought he actually had a chance to start the life Greg had mentioned that he could.

  “Thank you,” he said to Spencer and Nick. “Well, I’m exhausted, so I’m going to turn in. I’m sure I’ll see you in the morning.”

  They both tipped their hats at him, and Nate found himself wanting to do the same. He caught Ginger’s eye, and she nodded once and smiled at him before he left the kitchen and went back down the hall that led alongside the stairs. Through an arched doorway sat the two bedrooms joined by the bathroom, and he cast a look at the front door only a few feet away before making the turn.

  Anyone could come through that and with just a few steps, be in his bedroom. He detoured to make sure it was locked—it wasn’t—and then he joined Connor in the bedroom. He locked that door too, a faint slip of relief accompanying the click of the lock.

  He closed the bathroom door, but it didn’t lock from this side. So he went through it again and locked the bedroom door into Connor’s room. Then the bathroom door that led into the same bedroom.

  Finally, he laid down on his side of the bed, barely able to comprehend the soft pillows and blankets and mattress beneath him. A sigh leaked out of his mouth, and he closed his eyes, sure sleep would claim him instantly.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t, and Nate lay awake, his mind moving a hundred miles an hour. He hadn’t spoken to Ted today, and that didn’t feel right. Phone calls in River Bay were coveted and expensive, but maybe Nate could put some money in Ted’s account now that he was out.

  He needed to get to the bank first thing on Monday morning and figure out his money situation. He had no debit or credit card, and no cash. He needed to get more clothes and boots to wear around the ranch. Connor needed clothes and shoes too. Probably some toys or a bike or something. Nate needed groceries too. Spencer and Nick seemed like nice guys, but he didn’t think they’d take kindly to him if he kept eating everything they bought.

  He needed more toiletries than the travel-sized ones Ginger had given him. He needed to get out on the ranch and see how far he could go. He needed to take a deep breath of the outdoor air as a free man.

  He needed to figure out how to get along in the world without Ward. He needed to untangle his complicated feelings for Ginger. Strange she’d already introduced herself into his life, and he’d spent only a day with her.

  He rolled over, frustrated he was still awake when everything from his brain to the bottom of his feet was so tired.

  It all started with maki
ng sure he could get to his money, so his first order of business on Monday morning would be to get to a bank. His thoughts morphed then, twisting and turning around the money in his account and whether or not he deserved it.

  An image of a face flashed through his mind, and Nate shivered as he brought the blanket all the way to his chin. He’d been safe from Oscar Dominguez while in River Bay. Now that he was out, how long before Oscar came looking for him—and his money?

  The next morning, Nate emerged from the bedroom with Connor a few minutes before seven. True to his word, Spencer had set a few boxes of cereal on the countertop, with a stack of bowls and a pile of spoons.

  “Lucky Charms?” He picked up the box and showed it to Connor. Once Nate had finally fallen asleep, he’d slept great. It was amazing the rest a man could get when he wasn’t being counted at midnight, and at three a.m, and again at five.

  The smile grew on Connor’s face as his eyes widened. Nate chuckled as he lifted the flaps on the box. “Your daddy doesn’t let you eat these, does he?”

  “No, sir,” Connor said, sobering. “Do you think he’ll be mad?”

  “Nope,” Nate said, pouring the sugary cereal into a bowl for Connor. “I think your dad probably wishes he’d eaten a few more bowls of Lucky Charms.” Nate was going to have the unhealthy cereal too, despite the label on the box claiming it was made with whole grain.

  Yeah, and a whole lot of sugar, Nate thought. Ward had been a bit of a health nut, and he could only imagine the types of cold cereal he’d allow Connor to consume. A bitterness entered Nate’s mind, because for all of Ward’s running and consumption of brown rice and quinoa, he’d still died very young.

  Forty-one was barely starting life, and everything inside Nate tightened again. He didn’t relax until his first bite of the sugar-filled puffs, and even then, his mood had worsened. His head hurt a little, which made no sense given the amount of sleep he’d gotten last night.

  The house sat in silence, and he wondered if the other cowboys were really asleep or if they had chores to attend to on the ranch. His money—if he were still a betting man—was on the latter, as animals needed to be cared for around the clock, a man’s sleep schedule notwithstanding.

  He finished eating and put his bowl in the sink before he started hunting through the many drawers and cupboards in the giant kitchen. Even the chow hall at River Bay hadn’t been this big, and sixty men ate in there at the same time. He found neatly labeled shelves with everything from granola and protein bars to Pop Tarts to boxes of gelatin on them.

  He counted seven other names, and his heart constricted and then tried to burst out of the tiny box it had folded itself into. He’d just opened a cabinet and spied the little white bottle that surely had painkiller in it when the back door opened.

  Nate glanced at Ginger as he picked up the bottle, and then he focused on pressing and turning the lid to get it off. “Morning,” he said.

  “What are you doing?” Ginger asked, taking three long strides and snatching the bottle from him.

  He blinked, trying to catch up to the situation. “I have a headache.”

  “These are sleeping pills.” She shook the bottle like he should know that, but he hadn’t even looked at it.

  “Okay,” he said, frowning. “I didn’t even have a chance to look at it.”

  Her eyebrows drew down, and her dark hazel eyes flashed with fire. “Did you sleep okay last night?”

  “Once I fell asleep,” he said. “Before then…it was so quiet.” And that had left his mind to churn over too many thoughts.

  “You should’ve been in the West Wing,” she said dryly, putting the bottle back on the shelf. She rummaged around for a few seconds and pulled out a much larger container. “These are your painkillers.”

  “Was it noisy over there?” he asked, taking the bottle from her.

  “Oh, Ursula must’ve been able to smell something. Foxes or coyotes or something. She barked all night.”

  Nate tapped a few pills into his palm. “So Ursula is a dog.”

  “She’s my German shepherd,” Ginger said as if he should’ve known.

  “I didn’t see a dog last night.”

  “She was out with Spencer,” she said. “She likes him almost as much as me, and he takes her for me when I have to leave the ranch overnight.”

  As if on cue, a dog barked somewhere beyond the back door, and Ginger turned just as the huge black and orangey-gold shepherd came into the house. Ursula’s tongue hung out of her mouth, and she had big, brown, keen eyes.

  “Oh, there she is,” Ginger said, pure joy in her tone. She bent down and scrubbed Ursula’s head and neck. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? Noisy last night, but such a good girl.”

  Nate didn’t know how to make the demanding version of Ginger who’d walked through the door a few minutes ago line up with the one talking like a baby to a dog who could easily knock her down and bite off her face. Not to mention the soft, kind woman who’d held his hand yesterday and bent to his every whim.

  A wicked thought ran through his mind—what else could he get her to do for him?—and he banished it quickly. Number one, all of his mental energy went to Ursula as she came over, her nails clicking against the hard floor, to sniff him.

  He wasn’t afraid of dogs, but he didn’t want one all up in his business either. He bent down and patted the German shepherd, because she was a magnificent creature. She seemed to like him well enough, and then she went over to Connor, who still sat on the barstool. The boy squealed and then laughed as he slipped off the stool to pet the dog. Ursula licked his face, and Connor giggled and giggled.

  When Nate looked at Ginger, she wore such a blissful expression on her face that made Nate want to be able to put that look there again and again. He had no idea what that meant, and he filed the thought to think about later.

  “I need to go to the bank tomorrow,” he said. “Do you drive me? Or should I ask someone else? Or…?” He let his question hang there, because he honestly didn’t know how to finish it.

  “I’ll take you,” she said. “You can’t go anywhere alone, Nate, except around to do your work on the ranch.”

  He nodded, suddenly needing a very strong cup of coffee. The brew behind bars was always too hot and too bitter, but Nate had grown accustomed to it. He glanced down the counter and didn’t even see a coffee machine. That would definitely have to change.

  “I’m thinking I’ll put you with the horses,” she said as Spencer entered the house.

  “Oh, Ursula made it back,” he said, grinning at the dog. “She barked at everything that moved today.”

  “And last night,” Ginger said with a sigh. “I need to get her into that agility program.”

  Nate’s interest piqued, because they’d had a couple of prison dogs, and he’d enjoyed working with them.

  “He’s doing horses?” Spencer asked, stepping over to the sink to wash his hands.

  “And I’m going to give him the beginning riding lessons.” Ginger looked at him, the questions right in her eyes. “And then the outlying work of fixing fences and bird blinds.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Spencer said.

  “What do you think?” Ginger asked Nate, who honestly had no idea how to do anything she’d just listed.

  He told himself he could learn, so he just said, “Sounds great,” and hoped he’d be left alone to figure things out without too much embarrassment.

  “Great,” Ginger echoed. “We’ll go to the bank and do any shopping you want to do tomorrow, and then I’ll get you started.”

  The idea of him getting to mess up and fix it before she found out disappeared, but at least he’d get to have Ginger at his side.

  He wasn’t sure if the thought was traitorous or exciting, but he knew for certain it was very confusing.

  “Oh, and my girls are coming this way in a few minutes,” she said. “To go over a babysitting schedule with you.” She glanced around the kitchen. “Now, why isn’t there any coffee
over here?”

  Amen, Nate thought, a smile coiling through him that he didn’t let touch his mouth.

  Chapter Six

  Ginger left Nate alone for the afternoon on Sunday, telling herself she couldn’t glue herself to his side just because she found him handsome. She’d seen a glint in his eye a couple of times, but she had no idea what it meant. In her experience, ex-cons could lie like it was breathing, and she had all the proof she needed of that in her past.

  So she’d made herself scarce while Emma and Jess went over the babysitting with him, while Spencer ordered pizza for the cowboys in the East Annex, and while Nate took Connor down the dirt path behind the huge homestead and out onto the ranch. She’d watched them for a few minutes, ducking down behind the counter when Nate turned and looked back toward the house, as if he could sense her eyes on his broad shoulders.

  Monday morning, she arrived at the East Annex at nine o’clock, already having put in three hours out on the ranch. Nate wore a pair of the jeans she’d bought with the money from the BOP, as well as one of the T-shirts, this one in a dark gray that made him seem stormy and sexy at the same time. She’d been right, and the shirt didn’t fit well around his shoulders. But she wasn’t going to embarrass herself again, and she said nothing.

  Jill arrived to take Connor for the morning, and the boy skipped happily with her across the back deck and down the steps to the yard, Ursula going with them. “I think she likes Connor more than Spencer,” Ginger said, still watching them.

  “That’s because Connor lets that beast lick his face,” Nate said, and Ginger burst out laughing.

  Nate chuckled with her, and their eyes met in that same magnetic power they had before. She wondered if he’d laughed a lot in prison, but she felt like she already knew the answer to that question, so she didn’t ask it.

  “Ready?” she asked instead, clearing her throat afterward.

  “Yes,” he said. “I found my personal ID, so I think I’m good.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his old driver’s license. He had nothing else, and Ginger had known he wouldn’t. She’d just forgotten she needed to schedule a few days of errands so her ex-cons could get their lives settled before they started on the ranch. She was simply desperate for the manpower, and she’d been hoping Nate could start that day.