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

by Elana Johnson

  “What’s company?” Connor asked back, and Ginger’s face broke into a smile.

  “It’s who you spend your time with,” Nate said. “So she wants to spend lunch with us, but only if she likes us.”

  “She likes me,” Connor said. “Does she like you, Uncle Nate?”

  Ginger looked at Nate then, and he looked at her. “Yeah,” he said with a wide grin. “I think she does.”

  “Then we’ll be good,” Connor said, satisfied now.

  “And I’m buying lunch,” Nate said.

  Ginger shook her head, but she wasn’t going to argue with him. If he wanted to buy her lunch, that was fine. Perhaps she could use the topic of who paid to find out if they were dating, casually walking in the mornings and kissing each other, or what kind of labels he might use if he introduced her to say, his mother.

  Or how she might introduce him to her sisters, both of whom were coming that night. Her heartbeat picked itself up and threw itself down, causing a slight echo in her pulse.

  She and Connor waited in the car while Nate ran inside the bank for a few minutes. This was definitely his shortest trip to the institution, and he came out a few minutes later with an envelope he tucked into his backpack.

  At the Chinese restaurant, he insisted on sitting beside her instead of across from her, and as Connor colored all over the animals that comprised the Chinese New Year, Nate slipped his hand into Ginger’s and leaned real close to her. “Happy birthday,” he said. “What would you wish for?”

  She liked the intimacy between them, and how dim the inside of the restaurant was even in the middle of the summer. “That’s a hard question.”

  “Is it?”

  “What would you wish for?”

  “Oh, let’s see. Cooler summers, for one.” He grinned at her, and Ginger couldn’t contradict his wish. “The ability to sleep in every day. And world peace.”

  Ginger giggled and nudged him with her shoulder. “That’s a good list.”

  Nate chuckled and lifted his water glass to his mouth with his free hand. “Oh, that’s not good. That tastes like flowers.” He made a face and looked at her. “You like this place?”

  “The lo mein is incredible,” she said. “And the shrimp fried rice. That’s what I’m getting.”

  He looked down at the menu. “What do you want, bud?” he asked Connor.

  “Sweet and sour chicken,” the little boy said as if he’d frequented many Chinese restaurants.

  Surprise crossed Nate’s face, but he said, “All right,” and ordered the child what he wanted when the waiter came. Ginger loaded up on carbs, because it was her birthday and she could. Nate got teriyaki beef and pork fried rice, and she watched as he took his first bite.

  “Good, right?” she said as his face lit up.

  “Really good.”

  “Now you know why I come here on my birthday every year.” She happily dug into her shrimp fried rice, more joy coursing through her than she’d felt in many long years.

  “Do you always come with ‘good company’?” he asked.

  “I usually come alone,” she said. “At least since….” She trailed off, not sure how to bring up Hyrum. But she felt like it was time. Nate had been at the ranch for over two months now. Ten weeks, maybe. They’d been kissing for a while.

  He didn’t press her to finish her sentence, and she twirled her chopsticks through her noodles, focusing on the bean sprouts and green onions as she said, “I used to be with a guy named Hyrum. We came together once.”

  “Was he the last guy you’ve been out with?” Nate asked.

  Ginger nodded and scooped up her noodles. “What about you? Pen pal girlfriend from prison?”

  Nate chuckled and shook his head. “Nope. Not much of a love life before prison either. I was pretty focused on my career.”

  “Oh, come on,” she said. “You expect me to believe that? A handsome guy like you didn’t have a girlfriend?”

  “It’s true,” he said. “Though, I mean…yeah, I can tell you.” He put his fork down and glanced at Connor. “The last woman I dated—her name was Brittany. She’s the one who introduced me to the guys who got us all entwined in the fraud. So…yeah, I’m not really that lucky in the girlfriend department.”

  Ginger nodded, trying to sort through which question to ask. The fraud? The girlfriend? “So…what are we?” she asked, going with girlfriend. “If you saw someone you knew, for example, right outside those doors.” She pointed with her chopsticks. “How would you introduce me?”

  Nate reached for his fork again, his head bent. “Well, I guess I’d say you were my boss.”

  “Oh, that’s the wrong answer,” Ginger said as his words dove deep into her heart and gouged out a hole. But by making her tone flirty and adding a plastic smile to her face, maybe she wouldn’t spiral into self-loathing.

  “In that case,” he said. “I’d say you were my girlfriend.”

  “Yeah, because it’s kind of icky to be kissing your boss, right?” she asked.

  “Is it icky to kiss your boss?” he asked, throwing her a flirty smile too. “Oops. Done that.”

  A beat of silence passed, and Ginger burst out laughing. “See?” she asked when she’d sobered up enough to talk. “You have had other girlfriends.”

  “No.” He shook his head, still chuckling. “No, I haven’t. The boss was Brittany. Same woman. She’s still in prison too. Got ten years.”

  “Oh, wow.” Ginger quieted all the way, and Nate seemed to disappear inside himself for a minute.

  He drew in a breath, and she imagined him to be throwing off the cobwebs in his mind, because when he looked at her again, those bright, striking blue eyes danced. “I’m going to run next door for a minute. Will you be okay here with Connor?” He tossed his napkin on the table, already starting to stand.

  She shouldn’t let him go off on his own, but how could she say no? “I don’t need any gifts,” she said. “Really, I don’t. Lunch is what I wanted, and you’re buying that.”

  “Give me fifteen minutes to find something,” he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. He tossed a card on the table that actually made a thud like it was made of metal. “Use that to pay. If I can’t find anything in fifteen minutes, you’ll get lunch and that’s it.” He grinned and acted like he was getting ready to run a race. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” Ginger said with a laugh.

  Nate took off for the exit, taking his backpack with him. He didn’t look back, and Ginger couldn’t help giggling as he left. She looked at Connor, who had bright orange sauce around his mouth. She tapped his napkin. “Wipe your lips, bud.”

  He did, and then he said, “Nate is gonna be my dad.”

  “Yeah,” Ginger said. “I heard that. Are you excited about that?”

  “Yeah,” Connor said, and that was all. She wondered what it was like inside a four-year-old’s head, but she couldn’t remember when she was four.

  So she asked him why he liked sweet and sour chicken, and he said, “My dad used to get it all the time,” he said, launching into other foods his dad used to make or feed him.

  Ginger handed the credit card to the waiter when he came by, and it was indeed made of metal. She’d never seen such a fancy, metal card before, and she was once again reminded that Nate Mulbury was not like other inmates.

  Fifteen minutes came and went. So did twenty. When she and Connor had been sitting there alone for thirty minutes, Ginger reached for him. “Come on, bud,” she said. “Let’s go find Nate.”

  Worry ate at her insides, and she couldn’t believe she’d let him go to the mall by himself. He could be anywhere by now. Literally anywhere.

  Ginger stepped out of the dark restaurant and into the bright sunshine, blinking as if she’d never stepped foot into downtown Sweet Water Falls. The truck still sat in the parking lot only a few yards away, so he hadn’t stolen that.

  Just the fact that she’d assumed he might’ve stolen from her made her frown. But why ha
dn’t he come back?

  “Hey,” he said a moment later, rushing toward them. “Sorry. I’m sorry. Did you get my texts?”

  Ginger could only blink. There he was. He hadn’t left. He hadn’t hitched a ride to the bus station and gotten on the first Greyhound to come by. He’d never given her a reason not to trust him, and guilt gutted her.

  “No,” she said. “Sorry, I didn’t look.” She pulled her phone out of her purse, and sure enough, Nate had texted several times. “Long lines, huh?”

  “They were having a big sale,” he said, still trying to catch his breath. He thrust a fancy, gold-foil lined bag toward her. “I think you’ll like this.”

  A brand name was embossed on the bag, and Ginger wondered how in the world he knew she loved Arbortia lotions. A smile filled her from top to bottom as she pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and found not only the hand cream she adored, but a fancy, sparkling bottle of perfume.

  “Nate,” she breathed, lifting it out. She’d seen this perfume before, and she knew it was very, very expensive. “Thank you.”

  Their eyes met, and Ginger suddenly didn’t care who was watching. Not the general public. Not Connor. She stepped into his arms, still clutching the gorgeous bottle of perfume, and kissed her boyfriend.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Nate emerged from his bedroom, leaving Connor to sleep. He got up before the sun now, because the chores on the ranch still needed to be done, but the heart of the summer brought such extreme temperatures that Ginger had ordered everyone to be back inside by noon.

  She’d made a rotation for who had to go out and do the evening chores, and no one ever went alone so someone didn’t get overheated and not have help nearby.

  Spencer stood in the kitchen with Jack, another cowboy that lived in the basement of the Annex. Two dozen blueberry muffins steamed on the counter, and Spencer put a plate of butter next to them while Jack chopped pineapple.

  The amount of food that went through the Annex still impressed Nate. The food in prison wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t delicious either. There was never enough, Nate knew that. Here, though, he always had enough to eat—and more.

  Jack put the bowl of pineapple on the counter too, and then turned to get the pan of breakfast sausage that had scented the air with salty maple goodness.

  “Morning,” Nate said. “What’s with the spread?”

  “Samantha broke up with Nick,” Jack said, and Nate sure did like how these men took care of each other.

  “That’s rough,” Nate said. “They seemed to get along great.” He’d met the woman several weeks back when Nick had brought her back to the Annex after one of their dates. He’d seemed absolutely smitten with the blonde, and Nate supposed she was beautiful.

  Not Ginger-level gorgeous, but Nate knew everyone had their own chemistry and attraction. In his opinion, Ginger should’ve been snapped up a long time ago, and he wondered if somehow, she’d just been reserved for him.

  No matter what, he liked being her boyfriend, and with half of his reentry period over, Nate thought he had a very good chance of leaving this ranch with so much more than he’d arrived with.

  Of course, the knowledge and skills he’d acquired over the past three months would be invaluable too. As would the friendships. He opened the fridge and got out the flavored creams Jack, Spencer, and Nick liked. He enjoyed them too, especially the caramel one.

  “Bill’s on the evening shift with me?” Nate asked.

  “That’s right. So he’s sleeping in, and he’ll make sure Connor’s looked after,” Spencer said.

  “Great.” Nate tried to vocalize his appreciation every chance he got, because everyone at this ranch had helped with Connor. There were no other kids here, besides the ones that came out to the ranch for riding lessons, and everybody seemed to love Connor.

  Nate sure did, and he couldn’t wait to be the boy’s legal father. He hadn’t heard anything about it in a while, and he wondered if he should make a call to his lawyer.

  His phone buzzed in his back pocket, but he ignored it. Whoever was texting him at four-ten in the morning could wait, at least until after breakfast.

  “Here he comes,” Spencer hissed. “Places, guys.”

  Nate got out of the way, joining Jack and Spencer on the other side of the island, though he hadn’t gotten the memo about where his place was. He heard Nick’s boots against the tile, and then he entered the kitchen. He stopped and took in the counter full of food, his eyes then moving to the three of them waiting for him.

  “You guys,” he said.

  “Sorry about Samantha,” Spencer said.

  Misery streamed across Nick’s face, and Nate’s heart went out to him. “Yeah, well.”

  That was all. Nate had been in similar situations. Maybe not with women, but plenty of things that the only response could be, “Yeah, well.” There simply wasn’t anything else to say.

  Nick picked up a plate and started putting muffins on it. The others joined in, and between the four of them, they barely managed to save enough for Bill and Connor for when they got up later.

  Nate left the house stuffed full, with Nick right behind him. “At least we get to go to the beach this weekend,” Nick said.

  “Yeah,” Nate said, remembering his phone. “I’m looking forward to that.” He pulled his device out of his pocket and looked at it, his stomach clenching around the huge meal he’d just eaten. Oscar.

  Last drop. This weekend. Then we’re done.

  Anticipation and excitement combined with his raw anxiety, and he quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket. He didn’t want Nick to see it, as he wouldn’t be able to explain much about it. He’d need to delete this text as soon as possible, after confirming with Oscar.

  Now that he could call the bank and have them get his money ready before he showed up, it shouldn’t be too hard to do this last drop. He’d been lucky last time when it had been Ginger’s birthday. That had allowed him to sneak away without having to come up with an excuse.

  He worked through his animal chores, loaded his tools into a bin on the ATV he’d use later, and prepped the boxed lunches for the birdwatchers. They arrived, and Nate greeted them with smiles and the tablet, checking them in and assigning them a bird blind.

  They waited off to the side until everyone was checked in, and then he swung his leg over the ATV to lead the group out to their assigned blinds. They’d spend three days and two nights here at Hope Eternal Ranch, and if Nate rode out to the wetlands on the ranch tonight, he’d find their domed tents behind the blinds he’d spent a month improving and even building.

  Other cowboys drove big side-by-sides with the people who’d paid to come find the birds they’d never seen before, and they followed him in order of when they’d drop people off. Once there, Nate went over the rules with them and made sure each blind didn’t need any last-minute repairs or trash removal.

  After the last drop-off, he drove back to the ranch with the last side-by-side behind him, and he and Ken parked in the equipment shed and marked all the paperwork so whoever looked at it would know who was where and for how long.

  “Done,” Ken said, sighing. “I’m over in the stables. Where you goin’?”

  “I have to run back to the Annex,” Nate said. Connor should be up by now, as it was almost nine o’clock, and Nate liked to check in with him early in the day to make sure he was okay and knew Nate would be back by lunchtime. “I’ll walk with you over to the stables.”

  Once there, Nate bent to get a cold bottle of water out of the cooler at the end of the row, and when he straightened, he found Ginger coming toward him. “Hey,” he said, grinning at her. They hadn’t really had a conversation about taking their relationship out of the shadows, but after her birthday lunch and shopping afternoon, it had just happened.

  “Hey.” She kissed him quickly, and added, “Are you headed back to see Connor?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’ll walk with you.”

  He wasn’t going
to argue with a woman who wanted to be with him, so they set off for the homestead.

  “Are you excited to go to the beach this weekend?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Nate said. “I haven’t been in years.” Sometimes, he tried to see the Gulf of Mexico from the ranch, but even if he thought he could, he knew he couldn’t. Any water he could see wasn’t the whole, huge Gulf. A couple of islands existed between this part of the coastal bend of Texas, and he wanted to stand on the edge of the continent, dig his toes in the sand, and look out over the vast water.

  He glanced at Ginger. “And I see what you mean about getting off the ranch sometimes.”

  “It’s big, but it can feel really small at times,” Ginger said. “But you’re doing okay?”

  “Just fine,” he said.

  “Your meetings with Martin are going good?”

  “Just fine,” Nate said, not wanting to talk about his parole officer. He didn’t like being reminded that he was still technically in the Bureau of Prisons, and he couldn’t wait to be a free man.

  “Good,” Ginger said, seeming to get the hint that Nate wasn’t interested in expounding on these topics. “I’m not excited at the early wake-up call for a day on the beach.” She added a quick smile to her sentence. “But one day we’ll be able to sleep in.”

  Nate’s pulse slammed against his ribcage, because he didn’t know the details of their weekend beach excursion. He didn’t have to know. He just did whatever Ginger told him. “What time are we leaving?”

  “Seven, probably,” she said. “The beach is about a half-hour away, and it’s the best until about ten or eleven.”

  “Mm,” he said, his brain whirring around how he could spend the morning on the beach when he needed to make the last drop for Oscar. He had to get Oscar off his back and out of his life. He’d never negotiated the date or time of the cash drop-off, so maybe he could try to postpone it until next weekend.

  “Then, my parents will bring lunch and all these tables so we don’t have to eat on the sand. My sisters and brother will be there.” She cast him a look, completely unaware of the panic building and building in his chest. “You ready to meet all of us?”