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

by Elana Johnson

  “Look, Uncle Nate,” Connor said. “Look at all those horses.”

  Nate looked up from the dust puffing up from his boots to the sight of dozens of horses. The majesty of them took his breath away, and his steps slowed. Several people, both men and women, seemed to be scurrying around, getting the horses in line and putting equipment nearby.

  Nate had no idea how to saddle a horse, and his pulse started picking up speed. And when Ginger stepped around a particularly beautiful brown and white horse, Nate thought someone had turned up the intensity of the sun.

  Jill stepped in front of him, and Nate blinked until he focused on her. She had light features, with minty eyes and blonde hair. She spent so much time in the sun that her tan skin didn’t quite go with her fairer features.

  “Hey,” she said. “The kids are gathering on the other side of the stables. You could take Connor over there and keep an eye on them, if you want.”

  “Okay.” Nate wasn’t sure where the other side of the stables was, and he had no idea what to do with kids. He led Connor away from Ginger, though he desperately wanted to talk to her, and they moved around the horses.

  The stables spread before them, a sprawling, single-story red wood building that looked like something from a classic Texas farm. Several aisles led through the building, and he took Connor down the closest one to get out of the heat.

  The sound of chattering and children laughing told Nate that he was headed in the right direction. Thankfully, a couple of other adults stood above the heads of the children. And even better, they were Spencer and Nick, the two cowboys Nate had already met.

  “Hey.” Spencer grinned at him and turned back to the boy he’d been talking to. The kids that had swarmed into the corral all seemed to be about ten or twelve years old, not that Nate could really judge the age of children. They were a lot taller than Connor, though, and they had really big front teeth.

  Connor let go of Nate’s hand, and panic reared through him. “Stay here,” Nate told him. The noise reminded him of the inmates jeering when someone would get in a fight. It happened rarely in the low-security facility, but it happened. Sometimes just an argument would break out about someone talking too loud while others wanted to sleep, and the Unit Officers would have to come tell everyone to be quiet and go to sleep.

  Nate backed up a step and looked at Spencer. “This is a lot of kids.”

  “Right?” He grinned out at all the little people. “The eleven-year-old introductory lesson is our most popular one.”

  So all these boys and girls were eleven. They’d all gotten a memo about what to wear, and they had on long pants, boots, and hats.

  “Ready?” Spencer asked, looking at Nick.

  “Let’s go.”

  “All right,” Spencer said, holding up both hands. The children began to quiet. “I need y’all to settle down.” He paused for a moment as more children stopped talking. “Quiet on down now.”

  They did, and Spencer stepped up onto the bottom rung of the fence, so he was even taller than the children. “I’ve just gotten word that the horses are almost ready.” A twitter of excitement ran through the crowd. “We’re going to go over a few rules before we go back, and there’s a lot of us, so we expect everyone to follow the rules. If you don’t, you’ll be right back here, waitin’ for your mom to pick you up.”

  He sounded like he meant it too, and Nate watched the children’s faces. They believed him too.

  “First, horses don’t like the noise. So we need to use a quiet voice when we leave here. You’ll stand where we tell you to stand. You’ll hold the reins how we show you. There will be someone for every four of you, and you’ll need to remember that person’s name and ask any questions you have. Each cowboy or cowgirl will give you specific things to do once you get back there.”

  He grinned out at them. “So who’s ready to ride a horse?”

  The children cheered, and Nate caught some of their excitement as it filled the air. He didn’t think the instructions were adequate for eleven-year-olds to know how to ride a horse, but he wasn’t in charge of this group. He didn’t even know how to be in charge of a group like this.

  “All right,” Spencer called out. “Three lines, boys and girls. Three lines. Make three lines. One will follow me. One will follow Nick here.” Nick stepped forward and raised his cowboy hat. “And one will follow Nate.”

  Nate swung his attention from a cute red-headed girl to Spencer, who looked at him expectantly. He quickly swept the hat off his head too and lifted it into the air. The children began to make the lines Spencer requested of them, and Nate took Connor’s hand again and stepped to the front of a line.

  Thankfully, Spencer took his line of boys and girls first, and surprisingly, Nate didn’t have to wait that long to follow him. Spencer split them up and assigned them out to the dozen cowboys and cowgirls waiting with the horses, and Nate became quickly overwhelmed with how many animals stood ready for a ride.

  He hung back, because he had no idea where he fit in. He kept Connor at his side so the boy wouldn’t get hurt, and he simply gaped at the sheer number of people and horses.

  “It’s a bit overwhelming, isn’t it?”

  He turned toward the female voice to find a brunette standing there. The same one who’d fed him last night. She nodded toward all the people now talking to groups of four. They demonstrated and instructed, and then the saddles started going on the backs of horses. “It’s completely overwhelming,” Emma said. “And I’ve been around for the first day of eleven-year-old lessons many times.”

  “There’s a lot of them,” he admitted. He watched Ginger weave around one horse and then a group of people. She caught Emma’s eye and then looked at Nate—and stumbled.

  He wanted to leave, but he’d told Jill he’d come observe today. “Is this what I’ll do?” he asked. “Ginger said I’d do the riding lessons, as well as some fence fixing and something with bird blinds?”

  “She’ll want you to watch this class for a week, and then she’ll want you to be Spencer there.” Emma nodded to the other cowboy. “He entertains them while they wait for the lesson to start. He gives them a little speech, lines them up, and brings them back. He organizes everything. Then, the riders take them out, and he’s done for a bit. When the horses and kids come back, he takes care of the horses while the parents pick up their kids.”

  “How long are lessons?” Nate asked.

  “An hour,” she said. “We do them four days a week. So you’ll get to hear Spencer’s speech four times this week, and you’ll be ready by Monday.” She gave him a warm smile and refocused on the chaos in front of them.

  “I’m going to need a riding lesson,” Nate said. “And some instructions on how to take care of a horse after it’s been ridden.”

  “Spencer and Nick will get you ready,” she said easily. “You’ll go out with them in the morning and stick to them like a shadow for the next several days.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. The first child swung up onto a nearby horse, and very soon after that, the rest of them did too. They wore the biggest, brightest smiles Nate had ever seen, and he let their joy lift his spirits.

  Ginger caught his eye, and some of that happiness leaked out. She nodded toward the stable, and Nate understood her non-verbal communication. He bent down and looked at Connor. “Can you stay with Emma for a minute?” He passed the boy’s hand to Emma and straightened to meet her eye. “I’ll be back in a second.”

  As he went toward the stable, he could only pray that he could handle whatever Ginger said to him.

  Chapter Eight

  Ginger paced in the stables, sure Nate had seen her indicate he should meet her there. She turned and stalled when she saw him framed in the doorway. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, and the way he radiated contriteness from his very being made Ginger’s perfectly prepared speech dry right up.

  “Look,” she said. “I’ve kind of had…a rough time
in the whole going-to-dinner thing, and I just got a little flustered.”

  “Perfectly understandable.” He made no attempt to come closer to her. With the sun haloing him from behind, and with that sexy cowboy hat perched on his head, it was difficult to see his face.

  Ginger nodded. “So, do you think you can do the riding lessons?”

  “Oh, there’s no way I can do this,” he said, and while he spoke with a tease in his voice, she suspected he believed his words.

  “You’ll learn it,” she said.

  “You sound so confident,” he said. “I wish I had some of that.”

  “Did you grow up in White Lake?”

  “Yes.”

  “Never rode a horse?”

  “I mean, I did,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I can teach others how to do it. Especially kids.”

  “The kids are the easiest group, trust me,” Ginger said.

  “Did you grow up in Sweet Water Falls?”

  “Right down the road,” she said. “My grandparents lived in the house where I live now, and my father added the East Annex when he moved there. I was fifteen, and he taught me how to shingle a roof and texture a wall before painting it.” She put a smile on her face, because she’d enjoyed learning things from her father.

  “And I suppose you’ve been riding since you could walk.”

  “Of course not,” she said. “We don’t start riding until we’re three or four, and that’s years after we first learn to walk.”

  Nate let a beat of silence go by, and then he laughed. It was a wonderful, deep sound that set Ginger’s heartbeat racing. She joined in, glad for this single moment in time and hoping they’d have more.

  She took a few steps toward him, wanting to reach out and take his hand in hers. She wasn’t quite brave enough for that. “So, you know, I eat dinner every night, and if you really wanted to eat with me, I think that could be arranged.”

  “I don’t want to break the rules,” he said.

  “There are no rules about who can eat dinner with who.”

  “I don’t want to make your life harder.”

  “Nate, I brought you here to make my life easier.”

  “Then I will do my best to do that,” he said, and he was just so wonderful. In that moment, Ginger realized just how different he was than Hyrum too, and she allowed herself to believe that perhaps they could have something that went beyond friendship.

  The days passed, and Ginger saw plenty of Nate. She had to, because she had to complete a daily check-in with him. She also kept in constant contact with Spencer and Nick, who were helping him learn the ropes, literally. They both said he was agreeable, and a quick study, and very, very good with horses.

  Ginger finally went out to the stables on Sunday morning to see for herself. Sure enough, Nate worked with the horses as if he’d been born to do it. Even one of their newer, wilder horses settled right down the moment Nate took the reins from another cowboy. He talked to the equine in a quiet voice, and everything about Nate was a very strong version of quiet.

  He put the horse in its stable and turned, catching her standing there, watching him. “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing out here?” He took off his gloves and clapped them together as he came toward her.

  “I’ve been getting good reports about you,” she said. “So I came to see for myself.” She smiled at him as he neared. “How are you feeling? Ready to start the riding lessons tomorrow?”

  “You know what?” he asked. “I think I am.”

  Ginger nodded, glad he’d settled in so quickly. “Good.” She’d run out of things to say already, and she couldn’t imagine eating dinner with him. He’d not asked again, and Ginger couldn’t get herself to bring it up either. “All right, well, I have work in the fields to do. I’ll see you later?”

  “Maybe for dinner,” he said, touching a couple of fingers to the brim of his hat, turning, and walking away.

  Ginger simply stared at him as he retreated, her pulse pounding through her whole body. He’d gotten a new cell phone when they’d gone to town on Monday, and she had the number. In fact, she could take him to town. They could make up any excuse—not that anyone would truly ask.

  Ginger couldn’t believe these crazy thoughts as they wound through her head. The guy had gone to prison for almost five years. Could he really be a different man than the one who’d gone along with a scheme to defraud people out of their money?

  She’d never truly believed a person could change that much, but everything she’d seen from Nate was making her question that belief. He had worked in the Unit Manager’s office, and he’d been nothing but hard-working and just…good since she’d picked him up a week ago. She could hardly believe it had only been a week since his arrival at Hope Eternal Ranch, as it seemed simultaneously much longer than that but also the days had passed by in the blink of an eye.

  She got herself out of the stable and into the fields to test the soil and make sure the sprinkling system was working after the maintenance that had been done last week. Now that May was a couple of weeks old, the sun had really intensified, but Ginger didn’t mind the sweat running down her face. It testified of a good day’s work, and she needed to feel like she’d done something worthwhile every day.

  By the time she returned to the West Wing, her stomach roared for food. Emma had put something in the slow cooker that morning, because the house smelled like something slow-roasted and full of garlic.

  “French dip sandwiches,” Emma said as Ginger walked through the kitchen.

  “Gonna shower first,” she said.

  “Okay, but don’t take forever,” Emma said. “Spencer, Nick, and Nate will be here in fifteen minutes.”

  Ginger stumbled, throwing out her hand to balance herself against the doorjamb. “Really?”

  “Yeah,” Emma said, not even looking over to Ginger. “I caught Nate as he finished with our weekend riders, and I invited them.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Is that okay?”

  “You invited them? Or you invited him?”

  Emma put down the tongs and turned toward Ginger. “I invited them all,” she said. “He was alone, but I told him to pass on the invite, and he said the three of them would come. He’s a nice guy, Ginger.”

  “No, I know.” Ginger’s voice pitched up too much, and Emma would hear it. Her eyes narrowed as she took a couple of steps closer to Ginger.

  “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” Ginger said. “It means nothing.”

  But Emma could clearly see it meant something. They’d been friends since the moment Emma had first brought her students to the ranch, and she’d been living and working at Hope Eternal for ten years now. “Ginger.”

  “It’s nothing,” she said. “I need to shower.” She left quickly then, because Emma’s questions could be relentless. Ginger had no answers for them either. She’d been so sure about how things would go with the new inmate she’d agreed to.

  But Nate wasn’t anything like what she’d expected. He wasn’t anything like Hyrum, and Ginger didn’t know how to make the two of them line up.

  By the time she finished showering and left her bedroom, she could hear deeper voices in the kitchen. It’s not a date, she told herself. Emma would be there, as would Spencer and her cousin. And if there was anyone who could see through her easier than Emma, it was Nick.

  She squared her shoulders and shook her hair out. It was still damp from the shower, and a tremor of nervousness moved through her. She should’ve dried it and put on makeup. But if she did that, everyone would know why. And Ginger didn’t even know why.

  “Go on,” she muttered to herself as the people in the kitchen laughed. She went down the hall and entered the kitchen, where Jill and Jess had joined them.

  Her eyes went straight to Nate, and he wore a smile but he wasn’t laughing with the others. His gaze flicked to hers too, and the chemistry between them bubbled and boiled.

  “Ginger,” Connor said, and she looked
down at the boy.

  “Oh, hey.” She grinned as she dropped into a crouch. “Have you had a good week on the ranch?”

  “Yeah,” he said, extending an envelope toward her. “Uncle Nate and I made you a card.”

  “You did, huh?” She smiled at him, his blue-blue eyes too much for her to handle. “That’s so sweet of you.”

  “He made it himself,” Nate said, appearing at the child’s side. “I just found an envelope.”

  “It was too big,” Connor said.

  Ginger flipped over the envelope and slid her finger under the sealed flap. “It’s just perfect.” She grinned at him again and took out the card. Clearly, Connor had done this, and she couldn’t quite tell what the brown and black lines were meant to be. “Show me,” she said.

  “That’s Ursula,” he said. “See her purple collar?” He pointed to it, and pure happiness flowed through Ginger.

  “Oh, she’s beautiful,” she said. The dog came over and licked Ginger’s arm, and she showed her the card. “Look, Ursula. It’s you.”

  The dog didn’t much care about the card, but she did take a step toward Connor. He threw both arms around the dog’s head and hugged her.

  “Not too tight, bud,” Nate said, but Ursula didn’t seem to care. Ginger straightened, because her knees couldn’t take the crouching for much longer, and opened the card. She could make out a couple of the letters—a T, an A or two, and some O’s. A lot of O’s.

  “What does this say?” she whispered to Nate, tilting the card toward him.

  “He wanted to tell you thank you for letting us come live with Ursula.” He smiled, and Ginger’s heart grew and grew and grew. Emotion gathered in her throat, and she couldn’t believe it, but tears burned behind her eyes.

  She’d had no idea that having Nate and Connor at the ranch would affect her so much. She felt like someone had tied her to the end of a yo-yo, and she was being thrown down and then lifted back up, over and over again.