Ethan wrapped the towel around the foal’s front feet and tugged. He assisted Butterscotch until the foal’s head, shoulders and chest appeared. Then waited and pulled again to bring the foal’s hips through the birthing canal. And like that, a new life arrived at the Blackwell Ranch.
Like every birth, Ethan marveled at the new life. Awed and inspired to be given the chance to be a witness. Now we step back, son. We let mother and baby bond.
Ethan edged away from the pair and sat in the far corner of the stall. Again, he watched the time. This time to mark the foal’s progress. The foal stirred in less than five minutes, rising to its sternum and struggling to stand. Three collapses and the foal mastered its gangly legs. Butterscotch roused on cue with her baby and started cleaning.
A mother’s instincts run deep, son. Never doubt that the moms know what to do.
Ethan watched Butterscotch care for her newborn. Remembered his own mom making birthing areas for the barn cats, rabbits and dogs. One of the barn cats had delivered in an old box on the back porch. Ethan had acted as a bodyguard to keep Tyler and Chance from toppling into the box headfirst. They’d been five and more interested in climbing inside the box than watching the kittens’ arrival. Ethan and his mom had eventually relocated the cat and her litter inside the laundry room for safety reasons.
He heard again his mom scolding him for scaling a too-tall tree to peek into a hawk’s nest. Weeks later, she’d ordered him to climb back up and tell her if the fledglings had hatched. He’d caught fireflies with his mom, terrorized Chase and Tyler with snakeskins and followed his dad everywhere.
He’d lived every day outside and on the move. Then his world had stopped. But his grandfather had made sure the boys continued to live every day outside. Big E had made sure they lived. They’d learned to drive tractors, herd cattle and take and give a solid punch. He’d discovered a passion for horses and making out behind the barns. He’d broken curfew, broken bones and mended almost everything with his brothers’ laughter.
More memories from his childhood collided and toppled over Ethan like a headfirst tumble down the mountainside. He acknowledged the pain of losing his parents, but the vast amount of good memories dulled the edge. And at the heart of every memory was the love. The love of family. The love of home.
Ethan stayed where he was, watched over Butterscotch and her foal longer than necessary. And wished Grace was beside him. She would’ve helped. She would’ve soothed Butterscotch. Pulled if necessary. Adjusted the foal if it’d been breach. She would’ve been beside him like his mother had stood beside his father. Like Alice Gardner stood beside Frank.
And Ethan would’ve been better for it. He was better with Grace beside him.
But there was more. Sitting inside the foaling stall that had birthed generations of Blackwell thoroughbreds, Ethan realized he wanted to continue the tradition. He wanted his son or daughter to sleep in the barn if they chose. He wanted to teach them about the miracles of Mother Nature inside this barn. Inside this stall where he’d learned himself. Where generations of Blackwells had learned before him.
As he watched the foal with Butterscotch, he realized he wanted to bring new life to the Blackwell Ranch too. To introduce a new generation to his home. He wanted to carry on the traditions and the legacy. And he wanted to do all of that with Grace.
He tipped his head back and laughed. For the first time in years, he’d stopped running and discovered more than he’d imagined. Like Myrna had told him.
He’d tended the land like his grandfather preached and the land returned the favor tenfold.
Now he needed to heed Pops’s advice and figure out how to keep Grace with him forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SARAH ASHLEY CARRIED two cups of tea into Grace’s room and set them on the bedside table. She pulled two chocolate bars out of the back pocket of her flannel pajama pants. “I raided mom’s not-so-secret stash. Twice.”
“Did Dad see you?” Grace accepted the candy.
“He might’ve been with me and he might’ve taken a candy bar for himself.” Sarah Ashley sat on the side of the bed. “I’ll deny we had this conversation if Mom asks.”
“I wasn’t there. I know nothing.” Grace held up her hands and then pointed at the chocolate in her lap. “Is this an apology? Did something else break?”
“I haven’t been logged in to any Brewster computer system tonight.” Sarah Ashley opened her candy bar and snapped off a corner. “If there are problems at Brewster’s, it wasn’t me.”
Grace sighed and leaned back against her headboard, grateful there wasn’t an emergency to put out. She wasn’t sure she could handle another one tonight. It had taken her most of the afternoon to fix the technical glitch that had reversed payroll. The rest of the time had been occupied searching her office for Ken Ware’s tax payment paperwork that hadn’t been missing after all.
An hour ago, Ken Ware’s wife had called Grace on behalf of her embarrassed husband who’d misplaced the tax filings and payment from Grace in his mess that he called an office. Grace had promised to keep Ken on as a client and his wife had vowed to make him clean his office. Despite the good news, Grace had curled up in her bed after dinner, exhausted yet unable to stop questioning everything about her life. Doubting every decision she’d made recently.
Sarah Ashley finished half her chocolate bar and motioned at Grace. “I stole that for you. You could at least pretend to eat it.”
Grace unwrapped the chocolate and wondered how to unwind the last few days. “Do you ever want a do-over, Sarah Ashley?”
“I like to think I’m perfect the first time I do something.” Her sister’s smile hitched her eyebrows higher, letting her laughter bounce through her gaze.
Grace envied her sister’s confidence. Sarah Ashley might be laughing, but there was a hint of seriousness in her voice. Grace toyed with the edge of the wrapper. “So you don’t have any regrets?”
Sarah Ashley dropped a piece of candy bar on her lap. Alarm highlighted her words. “Not usually.”
Her sister relaxed. “Have you spoken to Ethan?”
“Not since he came to my office.” Not since he’d broken her heart. Not since he’d walked out and Grace failed to stop him. “There’s nothing more to say. I don’t want him to be with me just because of the baby. And his life is in Kentucky.”
“But what if he loved you?” Her sister had always been persistent.
Hadn’t Sarah Ashley ever listened to Grace before? Grace was the proverbial friend. Why couldn’t her sister see that? Ethan was no different than any other guy in her past, other than he was the father of her baby. “Ethan doesn’t love me.”
Grace had already asked him. He hadn’t replied.
“But I think he does love you.” Her sister’s voice was sincere. “He just can’t admit it.”
Only in a fairy tale did Ethan love Grace. “He loved you. The vivacious, vibrant Gardner sister. You don’t love someone like you and then fall for someone like me.”
“He never loved me.” Sarah Ashley sobered and edged into Grace’s space.
“Sure, he did.” Grace touched her forehead, feeling off-kilter. Her hair was a tangled mess and she needed her glasses to see. In an alternate world, she’d have twenty-twenty vision and perfect, shampoo-commercial hair and Ethan’s love. “You were the couple most likely to get married. It was written in the high school year book four years straight.”
“And also the couple most likely to get divorced.” Sarah Ashley finished the last bite of her chocolate bar and eyed Grace’s as if she survived on a chocolate-only diet. “He and I have always been better friends than a couple.”
“But you stayed together through high school.” Grace snapped off part of her candy bar and handed it to her sister.
“It was easy and expected.” Sarah Ashley shrugged. “You should know that Ethan went further
with you than we ever went.”
Grace was still in the present. In the now. In her world, not some alternate one. She set her glasses back on and studied her sister.
Sarah Ashley swallowed the candy Grace had given her and reached for the rest of Grace’s chocolate bar as if she hadn’t launched a truth grenade into the bedroom.
Grace steadied her breathing, trying to stop her racing heart and the jumble of emotions rolling through her. “You aren’t serious?”
“Quite.” Her sister crumpled up her candy wrapper and tossed it into the trash like she’d revealed nothing more than her shoe size. “And Ethan isn’t a one-night-stand kind of guy.”
Grace was suddenly happy she hadn’t added chocolate to whatever was churning inside her now. “How would you know?”
“I’ve met a few guys like that over the years.” Sarah Ashley tossed her hair over her shoulder and locked her gaze on Grace. “The truth is that you and Ethan are good together. There’s something that’s right when I see you with each other.”
“Good together like friends are good together. Or like coworkers.” Would her sister ever get the point?
“No, there’s more.” Sarah Ashley covered Grace’s hands with hers, pulling Grace’s attention to her. “He’s different around you. You make him better.”
He made Grace better too. She liked who she was with Ethan. She wanted him back.
“Don’t leave things between you like this.” Sarah Ashley smiled at Grace, her voice encouraging. “You have one more fight in you. I know it.”
“Don’t you get tired of fighting for what you want?” And being denied. Grace wasn’t sure she had it in her. Once again she didn’t share her sister’s confidence. “But then I suppose everyone always gives you what you want.”
“Everyone used to give me what I wanted. All the time.” Sarah Ashley bit into her lower lip. “Until Alec came along.”
“He loves you. I saw it at the wedding. I hear it in his voice when he calls.” Alec hadn’t hesitated at the wedding. At the altar. Alec hadn’t run from love or her sister. He’d run to Sarah Ashley instead. Unlike Ethan.
“I love him too.” Something seemed to glow from inside Sarah Ashley when she talked about Alec and her love for him. It was real and true. Undeniable. Her sister added, “I moved home because I loved him.”
“That’s backward, you know.” If Ethan loved Grace, she wouldn’t run from him. She’d be running to him. Every chance she got.
“I had some things I needed to do.” Sarah Ashley squeezed Grace’s hands. “The truth is that I came home to become you, little sister.”
“M-me?” Grace stuttered, unable to stop herself.
“I’ve always admired you.”
Grace stared at her sister, searching for the punch line, or the “but” or the “just kidding.” She saw only her sister’s soft smile and open gaze.
“It’s true.” Sarah Ashley laughed, most likely at Grace’s shocked expression. “You’re independent and strong. And I swear you can handle any situation with patience.” Her sister pointed at her and grinned. “We all know you’ve needed a lot of patience with me these past few weeks.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Grace hedged.
“There’s that inner kindness. It’s like second nature to you. I admire that too,” Sarah Ashley said. “And we both know you’re lying right now.”
Grace grinned, but refused to confirm or deny her sister’s claim. She preferred Sarah Ashley like this. More of a confidante than a challenger. More sister than princess. “I still don’t get why you wanted to be me.”
“I wanted to prove to myself and Alec that I could do things on my own. That I could be dependable.”
Her sister just admitted that everyone always gave her whatever she wanted. Why would she want to lose that? “Why?”
“Because I was tired and refused to let people think any less of me any longer.” Sarah Ashley raised her hands before Grace could respond. “And I wanted to prove to myself that I could.”
Grace wrapped her sister in a tight hug. “You’ve changed, Sarah Ashley. I’m proud of you.”
Sarah Ashley stood up, adjusted the comforter and looked at Grace. “Don’t give up on Ethan. Love is always worth fighting for.”
Grace hadn’t told her sister that she loved Ethan. But then, she didn’t have to. It seemed some things sisters just understood.
Sarah Ashley walked to the door, turned and blew Grace a kiss. “Gracie, I loved you yesterday.”
The memory of the sisters’ good-night saying from childhood filled Grace’s heart. She blew a kiss back to her sister and said the next line. “I loved you today.”
Together, they both repeated Nicole Marie’s line. “And I’ll love you even more tomorrow. Sisters forever.”
There wasn’t a night through grade school that the three sisters hadn’t repeated their saying, even if by text. Why had they stopped? When had they stopped?
Grace supposed it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was their bond was still there. Still strong, despite everything.
Grace opened up her laptop, logged on and entered Kentucky office rentals in her internet search bar. She’d always belong to the Gardner family. Always have her sisters no matter where she went.
But now she wanted a family of her own. And she wanted that family with Ethan Blackwell. Her home and her heart would always be wherever he was.
Her sister was right. Grace did have one last fight left in her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“GOOD MORNING, GRACE,” an all-too-familiar voice called out.
Grace stumbled on the first step leading to Brewster’s front porch. The papers she’d been holding scattered around her. Grace stood speechless and stared at Ethan. He was smiling, standing between her father and Pops.
Her grandfather stepped up to Ethan, squeezed his shoulder and said, “Welcome home, son.”
Her father wished him luck and then disappeared inside the store, leaving Grace and Ethan alone with the chess pieces and an awkward silence.
Grace cleared her throat, searched for her voice. “I thought you’d be in Kentucky by now.”
“I was headed that way, but I realized I’d left something behind.” Ethan bent down and gathered her paperwork. His gaze however fixed on her. “Something rather important.”
Grace’s heart slammed against her chest, knocking the breath out of her. “What was that?” she whispered.
“My family.” He moved down one step toward her. His hand gripped the railing. His words gripped her heart.
She could reach him if she stretched. If she leaned forward far enough. But his words had already knocked her too far off balance. “You told me that everything you ever wanted was in Kentucky.”
“But everything I ever needed is right here in Falcon Creek.” He stepped down again.
Grace moved up to the step just below him and searched his face, wanting to believe. Fear held her back. “What now?”
His gaze captured hers, steady and certain. “I want to give you the world, but my finances are going to be tight for quite a while.”
“I don’t need the world, Ethan.” Grace joined him and curved her arms around his neck, locking herself to him and him to her. “I only ever needed you in my life.”
He pulled her closer. His smile reassured her. An apology lingered in his voice. “You might be supporting us for a while.”
“I don’t mind.” Grace tugged him down and kissed him with all the love inside her. She pulled away and framed his face in her hands, made sure she had his attention. “Our family always takes care of each other.”
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered through the soft kiss he placed on her forehead. He lifted up the stack of papers he still held between them. “What is all this?”
“Rental spaces in Kentucky.” At hi
s surprised reaction, she shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I want to be with the man I love. Wherever that is. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not in the least.” Ethan wrapped her in a hug and held on as if he wouldn’t let her go. “If you really want to move to Kentucky, we can. But I have another idea about staying here in Falcon Creek and starting our own family, surrounded by family.”
“I think I like that idea.” Grace grabbed the stack of papers and tossed them over the railing. “I like that idea a lot.”
Sarah Ashley scurried across the porch and yelled Ethan’s name. “I hate to interrupt. And I promise I didn’t do it on purpose. I was just trying to consolidate and make room for the summer inventory.”
Grace grabbed her sister’s arm to get her to focus. “What happened?”
“I moved all the bunnies to the same pen.” Sarah Ashley looked at Ethan and lifted her hands as if to plead for his help. “Now I can’t tell the girls from the boys.”
Their mom peeked out the front door and pointed at them. “Get in here, all of you, before I have bunny babies. We’ve got to separate them now.”
Grace dropped her head on Ethan’s shoulder. “Maybe Kentucky isn’t such a bad idea.”
“And miss all of this. No way.” Ethan laughed, grabbed her hand and tugged her into the store. Once inside, he called out to her sister, “Sarah Ashley, it’s time for an anatomy lesson.”
* * *
ETHAN LEFT GRACE and Sarah Ashley sorting bunnies in Brewster’s and headed toward Back Street. He stepped onto the small leaning porch of a shotgun house, smiled at the crooked Open sign in the window and walked inside. Ethan used his boot to ram the door shut.
“Have you come to apologize for stealing my patients?” Dr. Norman Terry stepped out from the compact kitchen of his clinic, a napkin stuffed in the collar of his flannel shirt and a paper plate in his hand.
The Rancher's Rescue Page 23
