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

by Elana Johnson

  “It’s fine,” he said to Hannah. “Thank you for bringing him. I’d have come if you’d called.”

  She stepped back and put her hands in her back pockets, her short blonde hair sticking out at odd angles. “I have to get back. I have an appointment in ten minutes.”

  “Go,” Nate said. “I’m fine.”

  The woman walked away, and once again, Nate felt nothing with her, though she was slim and pretty and educated. She spent the most time with Connor during the day, as she had an office in the house with a TV in it. Connor said he liked her, and that she had boxes of cookies in her bottom drawer that he could have whenever he wanted them.

  “Are you hurt, bud?” he asked Connor, trying to get him to let go of his neck. Connor finally did, and Nate looked at his face. “I don’t see any blood.”

  “My knees hurt,” Connor said with a whimper.

  Nate glanced down, though the boy still had his legs around Nate’s waist. “All right,” he said as calmly as he could. “Let’s have a look.” He took Connor into the stables and set him on the top of one of the doors that led to an empty stable. “Oh, yeah, look at that.” He looked at Connor and smiled. Anything to put on a brave face. “Skinned knees.”

  Connor’s bottom lip trembled, and Nate wanted to fold him into a hug and never let go. “I can fix these.”

  “Can you, Uncle Nate?” One big alligator tear fell down Connor’s cheek, and Nate’s heart turned to mush. This kid needed him, and Nate was as committed as ever to make sure he was there for his nephew. As much as possible, he was going to be there.

  Don’t go to the mall, ran through his mind, and Nate’s smile slipped. “Sure I can,” he said, wishing he had an older brother to call. Ward would know what to do with skinned knees on four-year-old boys—and what to do about the money drop this weekend.

  He stepped over to a first aid box attached to the wall and pulled it down. “It’ll be quick, and then you can help me with the horses for the riding lessons.”

  “Can I?” Connor’s voice held so much hope, and Nate didn’t want to tell him no.

  So he said, “Yep. You’ll have to stay right by my side.”

  “I can, Uncle Nate.”

  He smiled at Connor as he quickly cleaned his knees and then put two Band-Aids over the bloodiest parts. “All done.”

  Connor looked at him like Nate held the world in the palm of his hand, and the whole sky got brighter for just that one moment.

  “Hey, little man,” Nick said as he entered the stable. “You helpin’ with the horses today?”

  “Sure am,” Connor said, made of smiles now. Nate helped him down, and he ran over to Nick, who picked him up and swung him around, both of them laughing.

  Nate smiled too, because Connor was happy again. As he watched Nick set Connor down and take his hand, all the while talking about a horse named Willowwood, Nate wondered if maybe he could have the other cowboy make his drop for him this weekend…

  He’s Ginger’s cousin, Nate told himself. And then Ginger lodged herself in his mind, and Nate started working on the words he needed to apologize to her. A whole new kind of sigh moved through his body, but he needed Ginger on his side. So he’d swallow his pride and make sure he got back on the same page with the woman he wanted to spend more time with. Go to dinner with.

  Maybe even kiss…

  Chapter Ten

  Ginger hovered out of sight while Nate got the kids in line and took them around the stables. He really was great with them, and it seemed like every person he came in contact with fell under his charm.

  Herself included.

  She frowned and ducked deeper into the shadows, the scent of hay and hooves filling her nose. She loved the smell of the horses and the saddles, and she reached out and ran her fingertips down the stable doors.

  They used every available horse and saddle for their riding lessons, which left the stable empty enough to hold her thoughts.

  She didn’t think Nate was being disingenuous. He didn’t seem to know how to be anybody or anything but himself, and that only made him more endearing.

  Sighing, Ginger sank onto a chair outside a stall, her mind flowing back over the situation from that morning. She hadn’t meant to snap at him, though she definitely had. Martin Landy had been late, and that alone had annoyed Ginger. Then she hadn’t been able to get in touch with Nate, and he wasn’t in the stables, or the barn, or with the chickens.

  Martin’s eyebrows had gotten higher and higher and higher, and Ginger’s embarrassment had too. By the time she’d seen Nate standing out in the fields beyond the coops, she was ready to go nuclear.

  He hadn’t taken it well, but he had taken it.

  It’s a lot of work, and Ginger expects you to know it all already.

  Nate’s words filled her ears, and she wished she could shake them out. She’d been trying for hours, and yet, they still lingered, vibrating against her drums and consuming her mind. He’d said something after that, but it was all a blur. All she could hear was that he thought she was demanding.

  He’d said so right to her face.

  “Well, maybe you are,” she muttered, and she knew there was no maybe about it. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, outside an empty horse stall, but it was long enough for all the kids to mount their horses and leave the area.

  Long enough for Nate to come walking toward her, leading a horse with a simple rope around its neck. “Hey,” he said, his eyes glued to hers. “What’re you doing in here?”

  “Nothing.” Ginger sounded miserable about it too. She was miserable at the moment. She studied her hands while he opened a stall a couple down from her and across the aisle. “Look, I need to apologize for this morning.”

  “I do too,” Nate said, leading the horse inside her stall. He came back out and closed the bottom half of the door. “I shouldn’t have said you were demanding.”

  “No,” Ginger said. “I am demanding.”

  Nate kicked a grin in her direction. “Yeah, you kind of are.” He came toward her, but there was no other chair for him to sit down in. He crouched in front of her, his head down so she could only see the top of his cowboy hat. “But I get why you are. Really, I do, and I was just being cruel.” He looked up, and he was easily the best-looking man in the state with those striking blue eyes. “And I don’t like being cruel. So I’m sorry.”

  Ginger’s chest vibrated, and she felt one breath away from crying. She told herself not to do it, because then she’d be embarrassed—again. She nodded instead, drawing in a slow, deep breath. “I’m sorry too. Of course I trust you. I just couldn’t find you, and by the time I did, I was embarrassed and frustrated, and well, you took the brunt of that.” She looked back at her hands, because his gaze was simply too much for her to hold.

  She played with her fingers, letting them go round and round each other. Then, Nate put his hand over both of hers, stilling her fingers. Stilling her heart. Stilling everything.

  Someone had pressed pause on her life, because it all just came to a halt. She looked at him, and he looked at her, and things were…okay.

  He twisted and sat down on the ground beside her chair, a groan coming out of his mouth. His hand returned, taking hers this time and lining his fingers up so they fit right in between hers.

  A sigh moved through her whole soul, and while Ginger couldn’t believe she was currently sitting in the stable, holding hands with an ex-con, it felt like exactly the right thing to be doing.

  She slipped off the chair to the ground too, glad she demanded her cowboys keep the cement swept clean, and sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Nate. He said nothing, and Ginger simply leaned her head against his bicep, the moment sweet and tender between them.

  Ginger never slowed down like this during the day. Once she got back to the West Wing, sure. But not out in the stables. Not when there was so much work to be done. Somewhere on the ranch, a dog barked, but it wasn’t Ursula. Spencer had taken the German shepherd and Connor back to the house o
nce Nate had started the lessons.

  “Is Connor okay?” she asked. She’d seen Band-Aids on his knees.

  “Yeah, he just fell on his bike.” Nate’s deep voice tickled in her ears as he hardly spoke loud enough for her to hear. “He’ll be okay.”

  “Will we be okay?” Ginger asked, surprised at her own boldness.

  “Yeah,” Nate said, lifting her knuckles to his lips. “I think we’ll be okay too.”

  A smile slipped across Ginger’s face, and she closed her eyes for a moment. Or maybe a few minutes. It wasn’t until Nate said, “Ginger, I have to tell you something,” that she even realized she’d drifted off.

  “All right.” She yawned, suddenly knowing why she didn’t allow herself to slow down like this during the day. She’d fall asleep, and then it would be terribly difficult to get back to work.

  Several beats of silence passed before he said, “We’re almost out of cocoa crispies, so I need to go to town again this weekend.”

  “Didn’t you buy three boxes just last week?”

  “We like them,” he said. “What can I say?” He added a chuckle to his question, and it sounded a tad bit forced to Ginger.

  She shook her head and stood up. “All right. I’ll look at my schedule. We’re moving into harvest season.” She extended her hand toward him to help him up.

  “Already?” He put his hand in hers, and for one breathtaking moment, she thought he’d pull her onto his lap and kiss her. How much she wanted him to do just that surprised her and made her legs tremble.

  He stood too, still looking at her.

  “Yeah,” she said, though she barely remembered the question. “We’ve got peas and carrots already in the gardens. We’ll be setting up the beaver traps and we’ve got bird blinds to build. Our tour groups start this weekend, and summer is a very busy time on the ranch.”

  “You need a lot of help then,” he said.

  “Always,” she said. “Though you taking the riding program has helped Spencer be able to get more done with the agriculture.” She smiled at him, because she was glad he was there. He had to know that. “I can try to be less demanding.”

  He shook his head as they walked down the aisle toward the rectangle of sunlight. “It’s not necessary, Ginger.” He paused on the threshold between being in the stable and out of it. “You do a great job here.”

  “Thanks.” She watched him, sure there was more he wanted to say. But he didn’t say it.

  He tipped his hat and said, “Well, I have work to do. I’ll catch up with you later,” before he walked away.

  Ginger watched him go, though she had plenty of work to do too. Spencer came out from another aisle of the stable, and he and Nate started talking. They laughed and went inside together, and Ginger did like that the two of them got along so well. She was never quite sure what kind of man she was bringing back to the ranch when she got someone in the RRC program, but Nate seemed to be the cream of the crop.

  She liked him, even though she’d tried not to. Still, she coached herself to go slow, because she wanted to get to know him before anything serious happened. Really know him, not just think she knew him, the way she had with Hyrum.

  The alarm on her phone went off as she walked back toward the homestead, and she looked at it. Lumber flashed at her, and she glanced up, her pulse prancing through her now.

  “Shoot.” She broke into a jog, because if she didn’t meet the Anderton brothers and give them specific instructions for where to deliver the lumber she’d bought for the bird blinds, it would end up on the front lawn.

  She arrived at the same time the delivery truck pulled around the corner, and she waved her hand at them to get them to stop. Michael Anderton rolled down his window and stuck his elbow out. “Heya, Ginger.”

  “Hey, Mike. We’re taking this down the same road you did last time. All the way to the last bird blind.”

  “Jump in and show me.”

  Ginger wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t. “All right.” She circled the truck and climbed in on the other side, which caused George Anderton to slide into the middle of the bench seat. She didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t her.

  She’d been out with Michael a couple of times, and sometimes he forgot their relationship had never really gotten off the ground.

  “How’s your momma?” she asked George, proud of her Texas manners.

  “She’s convinced we’re all about to die,” he said with a chuckle. “She’s been hoarding toilet paper, and she won’t drink anything anyone gives her.”

  “Oh, wow,” Ginger said, something in her chest releasing.

  “Are you going out to the bay festival in a couple of weeks?” Michael asked.

  “Uh, maybe,” Ginger said. “Depends on how much we get done here.” She did enjoy the beachside music festival held every year in Sweet Water Falls, which was located near the water. Not the Gulf itself, but an inlet, where islands dotted the waters and created bays.

  Falling Oak Bay was the closest one to the ranch, and the site of the festival every year. Ginger hadn’t missed it in at least a decade, maybe longer. She always said she’d maybe make it to something when Michael asked, but this year, she could see herself dancing barefoot on the sand with one very serious cowboy who used to be in prison.

  Did Nate dance?

  For some reason, she couldn’t imagine him doing something like that, and a smile touched her lips at the very idea of him holding her while they swayed to a ballad.

  “Here?” Michael asked, pulling her from the beautiful daydream with his somewhat reedy voice.

  “No, keep going,” she said. He always tried to drop off the lumber in the most convenient location for him. He kept going though, and Ginger directed him all the way down the road to the last bird blind. “Here.”

  “We’re really far out here,” he said, peering through the windshield. “You sure this is still your land?” He grinned at her and got out of the truck before she could respond. It wasn’t a question that needed a response anyway.

  She got out too, her phone chiming as she did. It was Nick, and he’d said, Can I take Nate to town tonight for steak and seafood? He says he’s never been to Maddox. Can you imagine?

  Ginger shook her head at her cousin. He really was innocent about a lot of things. Just you and him?

  And Spencer and Connor. Maybe Bronco if he’ll stop texting Katie.

  “Oh, Katie,” Ginger said, making a face. Her brother really could pick out some of the worst women to date. And she’d thought his last girlfriend would definitely be the worst. Then he’d brought Katie Holbrook to the ranch, and the woman had obviously thought he was taking her to get a salad and that the ranch would be the dressing.

  Ginger had never seen such a look of disgust. She’d never been back to the ranch, and Bronco bent to her whims.

  So can we go? Nick asked. Nate said we had to ask you.

  Yes, she sent back. Go. Have fun.

  She wanted to go and have fun too, but she knew better than to invite herself. Number one, she’d never gone on their steak and seafood excursions before. Number two, maybe Nick could stop at the grocery store and get the cereal Nate wanted.

  See if you can get his cocoa crispies while you’re in town, she sent next, the deafening crash of wood on wood alerting her to the unloading process happening on the other side of the truck.

  Okay, Nick said. Thanks, Ginger.

  She stuck her phone in her pocket and rounded the truck to find a pile of lumber that would take her hours to sort through.

  “Just need your signature right here,” Michael said, sliding up to her with a clipboard and a pen—and that smile that told her she wasn’t going to like what he said next. As she signed, he asked, “What are you doin’ tonight? Wanna grab a drink or a bite to eat?”

  “Oh, I can’t,” she said, making her voice sugar-sweet. “I just made plans with my brother.”

  “Oh? What’s Bronco got himself into this time?”

  “Well
, he’s dating this woman who’s just all wrong for him. So I need to talk to him about her.” Not entirely a lie, and she had just made plans to talk to him about Katie. Just now. Just the moment Michael had asked about going out with him.

  “Good luck with that,” Michael said with a smile, but Ginger didn’t know what he meant.

  “Yeah,” she said anyway, handing the clipboard back. “And I have a meeting with my activities staff I need to be to in ten minutes. I can hitch a ride with you on the way back, right?”

  “Sure thing.” He looked over his shoulder to George. “George, you drive us back, all right?” He grinned at Ginger like he’d just won the lottery, but she groaned way down deep in her gut.

  She’d have to sit on her hands to make sure he didn’t hold one of them, and walking back to the ranch sounded like a better idea than getting a ride.

  But she’d already asked, and Anderton Lumber was the best in town. So she hitched her smile in place, turned to go back around the truck, and hunched her shoulders as she sent the emergency word to Emma.

  As she climbed into the truck and sat beside Michael, her phone rang. “Oh, I have to take this,” she said, swiping on the call. “Hey, Emma, what’s up?”

  “How long are we talking?”

  “Oh, I’ll be back in ten minutes or so.” Ginger used her left hand to hold the phone to her ear, creating a semi-barrier between her and Michael. She put her elbow on the armrest of the door on the right side and leaned even further from him. “The Anderton brothers delivered our lumber, and they’re giving me a ride back.”

  “Oh, that sneaky Michael Anderton. Did he ask you out again?”

  “Yes,” Ginger said. “It’s in the drawer in the bottom of my desk.”

  “I swear, I don’t know how he doesn’t know you’re not interested. Maybe I should just pull him aside and tell him.”