“No need to meddle anymore now,” Ben replied. “I’d say we got the job done.”
“Oh, so you’re taking credit for this?” Tanner teased.
“Only some. Most, maybe.”
That sent the room into further laughter as Ben left the podium and Diego and Stephen took their place. In tandem, they recited:
“Miss Josie may be fond of calves,
“But Rangers take her heart.
“So we sent pie and baby things
“To give those two a start.”
Another frame, this one holding a “Heath + Josie” heart, rose from the smallest of boys.
“That was a pretty good pie,” Heath called out. “Surely, none of you made it.”
“Another bit of teamwork,” Lila from the café added with a wide smile. “Who could resist helping out a cause like that?”
“You could have at least spelled my name right on your note.” Heath pointed a finger at the boys.
“Nobody’s perfect, amigo.” Diego offered an exaggerated wink as he stepped away from the podium.
Avery gaped at Marlene as a trio of the younger boys took to the podium for another recitation.
“Miss Lana had to kiss some frogs
“Before she got her prince
“But little Logan’s Christmas wish
“Sure looked a lot like Flint’s!”
“That’s a terrible rhyme,” Flint moaned, his hand over his eyes as the now-expected framed heart appeared and was hung on the vines.
“Honestly, you did some terrible matchmaking, boys,” Lana added. She’d told Avery about the multiple notes pointing her in the direction of some truly unsuitable “matches.”
“Hey, someone had to make sure Mr. Flint looked good by comparison,” one of the boys said.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Flint commented with a mock sour look.
“It worked, didn’t it?” a second boy called back.
“So all the mystery matchmaking you told me about—it was the ranch boys the whole time?” Avery asked Marlene.
“And they’re three for three, those rascals,” Marlene said, giggling.
Avery thought about the note she’d received inviting her to pie at Lila’s and gulped. The boys had caught on to the attraction between her and Gabe, but they wouldn’t keep their “perfect score” today. How could she explain to those boys—and everyone listening—that in her and Gabe’s case it wasn’t enough?
It wasn’t enough, was it?
Corey and Aiden, two other of the ranch boys, stepped up to the podium, but Avery barely listened to their poem about false invitations to a dance as part of a rodeo fund-raiser. Her pulse was starting to roar over what would happen when those boys got to her and Gabe. They’d make some clever rhyme about how they belonged together, and she couldn’t bear to hear it.
Because such a huge part of her had come to believe that she and Gabe did belong together. She wanted to see a frame holding their names coupled. She wanted to belong here, with these people, far more than she wanted to go back to Tennessee.
But I can’t, can I?
As laughter and applause rang out for Nick and Darcy, Avery headed for the door. She couldn’t hear the next verse about the veterinarian, Wyatt, and his long-lost love, Carolina. Nor could she bear to see them leave off the last verse—or worse yet, speak up—about their unsuccessful attempts at matching her up with Gabe.
She fled out the back entrance to lean against the side of the barn and gulp down air. I can’t stay. I can’t bear to leave. Lord, why ever did You bring me here?
It would be complicated and messy to stay here. She’d have to deal with Cyrus’s legacy. She’d have to watch the whole town shoulder this unfair burden. She’d have to restart her business. She’d have to ask Danny for permission, and she chafed at the idea of asking him for anything, sure he’d say no just to spite her. None of those things seemed to matter in light of her heart.
For her heart had already chosen to stay here, whether she physically left or not. Her heart had fixed itself to the man about to tear out his own heart up on that stage surrounded by symbols of everyone else’s happiness.
She couldn’t leave him to do that alone. Not after all he’d done, after all he meant to the girls. To her. She’d go inside and stand witness to his pain. She owed him that much.
Chapter Seventeen
If a silence could roar in a man’s ears, it was roaring in Gabe’s. There was no doubt now who had slid the note under Avery’s windshield. He and Avery had been the final target of the boys ranch matchmakers.
The final, failing target. He’d pulled the frame from the little boy’s hand, silencing the final stanza of their little matchmaking skit, unable to bear whatever they planned to say.
What did it say if even teenagers picked up on the attraction between himself and Avery? Was the whole town watching them fight the pull between them? The idea made Gabe feel beyond vulnerable, made him want to disappear as totally as Theodore had done. The final empty spot on the stage vines—the spot where a frame bearing “Gabe + Avery” should have been—loomed like a black hole.
And here he thought today was already as awful a day as a man could stand.
It didn’t help that he’d barely slept. The pair of kisses he’d shared with Avery burned so bright in his memory that sleep had been impossible. She’d ended their second kiss as she had their first, with a sigh of his name that cut through him. Only that second sigh was one of regret, or lost possibility, or just plain “it can never be.” If God’s timing was supposed to be perfect, it wasn’t feeling one bit perfect at the moment. Everything felt the exact opposite of perfect.
Gabe had seen Avery leave the barn. Every bone in his body wanted to follow her, to escape this awful, gaping moment, but he couldn’t. He still had one final wound to endure.
Every eye in the room was still staring at him as he set the offending frame facedown on the podium. His stomach turned somersaults over the bad news that was his job to declare. It wouldn’t come as a surprise—everyone in town already knew Theodore Linley hadn’t been found. That was bad enough. But to have to say it out loud? To tell the boys they’d have to pack up and move back to the old location? There wasn’t a more loathsome task in the world right now.
Avery’s words to him that first night on the ranch rang in his ears: I hate him. I know I’m not supposed to, but I do. Right now, at this moment, he hated Culpepper for toying with those boys’ futures. For thinking any good whatsoever could come from the Triple C becoming a strip mall when it could be—had already become—the ranch’s new home.
He hated Culpepper for forcing him to hunt for his grandfather, only to come up empty at everyone’s expense.
How could Culpepper hang lives in a stupid balance like he had? His own pain was bad enough, but boys would now have to be turned away, for crying out loud.
I hate you. Gabe had always tried to steer clear of words like hate, but such moderation evaded him now. Hate, regret and disappointment boiled in his gut.
Gabe cleared his throat, words escaping him. He’d rehearsed this dreaded speech over and over last night, but nothing suited this tragedy. Because that’s what it was—a regrettable, preventable tragedy brought about by old men who cared nothing for the generation after them.
“Well,” he began, not able to look any of the boys or house parents in the eye, “y’all know the task...handed to us.” His heart wanted to yell and stomp and call it an underhanded scheme, but the only gift he could give this crowd right now was to avoid stooping to Cyrus’s level. “And I’m proud of how our little community pulled together to rise to the challenge. Bea found Samuel Teller, and we’re glad to have you here, Sam. Heath found his grandfather Edmund, and that’s a blessing. Carolina’s here standing in for her great
uncle Morton, who I’m sorry to say has passed. And we’d have never met—” he paused for a moment, trying to drag the words up from the place in his chest that clutched at him in despair “—Avery and Debbie and Dinah without Darcy’s help. And, you know, we almost pulled it off.”
He felt the boys’ falling expressions as if they physically pulled him down. Each frown was a lead weight pressing on his shoulders, each set of sad eyes a stab to his gut.
“As the new sign says, boys ranch has been here for seventy years, and it will go on for another seventy if I’ve anything to say about it.”
Half-hearted cheers of “Sure will!” and other such encouragements did nothing to make the next words any easier.
“But it won’t be here. Without Theodore Linley—my grandfather—the stipulations of Cyrus’s will go unmet, and we’ll have to move back to the old place and go on as we always have.”
There. He’d said it. He’d admitted that his grandfather’s continued disappearance was the failing link in this chain; he’d confessed that he hadn’t found him. So far, the ground hadn’t risen up and swallowed him whole, but he found himself wishing for it. Wishing he was anywhere but here, doing anything but this.
“You mean we really don’t get to stay?” Diego asked.
Just when he thought it couldn’t sting any worse. “No, son, we don’t.”
Desperation sent his eyes out over the gathering. He was beyond thankful when he saw that Avery had come back inside. Tears wet her cheeks. He locked his gaze onto her, needing to see her face while the world toppled around him. He’d remember last night’s kisses as the only good thing to come out of this whole mess, and try to be thankful for that. He’d spent the day in hiding, sure he couldn’t stomach the sight of her packing her things.
“I know that’s a hard pill to swallow,” he went on, working to keep his voice from wavering as Avery wiped fresh tears from her eyes. “But we’ll get by. This isn’t the first tough challenge you boys have had to face, and I know you’ll find a way through. And we’ll all help every single way we can.” Right now, looking at the sea of disappointed faces, Gabe would put all of Five Rocks up on the block and buy the Triple C himself if it could be done.
But, of course, it couldn’t. Mean ol’ Cyrus had seen to that. I hate you, old man. The moment the words repeated in his mind, Gabe realized he couldn’t rightly say if he was speaking to Cyrus or Theodore. God have mercy on your mean old souls, the both of you.
“I do have a bit of good news, though. The league has made it possible for all of you to go to the rodeo championships in Waco next weekend. All of you, up-front seats, as our gift to you.”
There were some smiles, and genuine attempts at “isn’t that nice?” from the adults, but it couldn’t hope to put a dent in the sadness that filled the room. It was a fool’s hope to think it ever would. How could one day—even one amazing day like they’d have at the championships—make up for losing the Triple C to a strip mall?
The room was excruciatingly quiet. Gabe had to fix this, to find some way out of this sad mess and save the evening. There had to be some words to let these kids know they were down but not out. Only he felt so down and out himself, everything he could think of felt hollow and pointless.
Gabe cleared his throat again, sending a silent “Help me!” plea to Heaven for something—anything—to redeem the moment.
“Can I say something?”
The whole room turned to Avery.
“I came here not sure I ever wanted anything to do with this place. I never knew much of Grandpa Cyrus, and what I’ve learned hasn’t given me a lot of affection for the guy. I’m...well, I’m just plain sorry for what he’s done to all of you. And if I had the power to change it, I’d do whatever it took. I just want you to know that.”
Marlene, who was standing next to Avery and the girls, wiped a tear from her own face and reached out a hand to Avery’s shoulder.
“But I want you to know something else, too,” Avery went on. “Something Grandpa Cyrus did do, and something he can’t take away from me no matter what scheme he pulls. And that’s all of you.”
She walked toward the stage as she continued talking. “I came here ready for everyone to be mean. To use me for whatever it was Grandpa Cyrus set me up to be. Only it didn’t turn out that way. You all have treated me as nice as you ever could be. My girls and I both. And Gabe is right—the way you all pulled together for today is something special. Something even going back to the Silver Star won’t take away from you.”
I love that woman. He’d known it all along—since way back showing her the toolboxes—and he’d felt it in every corner of his soul last night. But right now, it was declaring itself to him in shouts that pounded inside his chest.
“But Gabe is wrong about something. If you knew how this man is beating himself up for failing you, for not finding a way to do what no one else in this room could do, either, your heart would break. I’ve never seen a man so relentlessly try for something. Not because he wanted it, but because you needed it.”
She’d reached the stage now, and when Avery reached for his hand, Gabe could not stop himself from taking it for all the world.
“And that’s no failure,” she said, smiling at him even as tears fell across her cheeks. “That’s a man of honor, a man to be proud of.” She hesitated just a moment, her face turning the most extraordinary shade of pink. “That’s a man to love. Don’t you dare let this man feel a failure for how hard he’s tried on your behalf. Cyrus has taken a lot, but he doesn’t get to take this from me. He brought me here, to you,” she said, looking straight at Gabe, and he felt his heart gallop toward her. “And to all of you,” she said to the crowd. “I’ve made a decision. I’d like to stay in Haven. I hope I can make my home here, if I can work it out, if you’ll have me.” She directed those last words at Gabe.
He wasn’t a man for grand gestures. He wasn’t much for speeches or public declarations. But there was only one response to a speech like that, and it didn’t matter if there were one hundred or one thousand people watching. Gabe pulled Avery to him and kissed her for the true, extraordinary blessing she was. For taking the darkest moment of his life and filling it with light.
And love.
And tiny pinkness, for no sooner had he kissed her soundly than he felt the clamp of little-girl arms around his legs, squeezing him tight and yelling, “Hooray for Mr. Boots!”
* * *
She’d chosen Gabe, but then again, she hadn’t. Avery stood there, watching Gabe tear his heart open in front of all those people who loved and respected him, and it was as if some irresistible force drew her to say what she did, despite all the obstacles still in her way. She had to walk toward him with her hand out. With her heart out, in defense and admiration and—yes—love for him.
Because she loved him, and she had to believe that love still conquered all.
It had begun to dawn on her late last night, while she sat in her bed trying to catalog all the reasons why it was safest to go back to Tennessee and put Haven behind her. Nothing Cyrus could leave her now would change anything—be it ten cabins, ten dollars or a fortune. Cyrus’s manipulations were just an act taken by someone gone from her life. Standing outside just now, leaning against the barn, none of that mattered. Everything in the past didn’t matter.
What mattered were the people in her life now, the man and the love this crazy situation had dropped in her lap. That was the true inheritance, the blessing that made everything else possible. The truth was that nothing of real value was waiting for her back in Tennessee; it all was here in Haven. In this loving community and in the love of a man who cared so much for her welfare that he was ready to deny himself that love. If God had brought her this far, couldn’t she count on Him to tear down the obstacles that remained? Couldn’t God give her the words to ask and receive Danny’s consent to move to
this place that now held the key to her happiness?
Given all that, was it really any surprise that she found herself kissing Gabe Everett in front of God and everybody in Haven, Texas? When the girls came up and wrapped her and Gabe in the wonderful circle of their arms, the last nigglings of doubt had vanished. Whatever lay in front of them because of Cyrus’s crazy scheme, Haven would get through it. And she’d be there to help.
Avery didn’t even hear the applause at first. She was lost in the wonder of Gabe’s arms, in the exquisite perfectness of her love for him. They both realized the rather public nature of the display at the same time, pulling only a tiny bit from each other and laughing even as the girls giggled and jumped at their feet.
She could tell Gabe was grasping for what to say, but really, what was there to be said?
“I tried so hard not to fall for you,” he finally whispered. “But it couldn’t be helped.”
Not the most romantic words ever to declare love, but to Avery, they were perfect, because they came from Gabe.
“I want to stay for you,” she whispered back. “We all want to stay for you.”
Evidently, the girls hadn’t quite caught on to that until just now. “We can stay?” They began to chant, jumping up and down. “Mama says we’re staying!”
“I sure hope so, sweetheart. I want to stay with Mr. Boots, don’t you?”
Their smiles were all the answer she needed.
Suddenly, Jethro and Marlene were beside them, boasting mile-wide smiles themselves. Marlene grabbed the frame from the podium and handed it to Dinah, who rushed to hang it in its place on the stage vines. “We’ve been waiting for you two kids to figure this out,” Jethro said with a tender chuckle. “You sure waited until the very last moment.” He grinned at Avery. “Although I give ya points for drama. That was the sweetest speech I ever heard, young lady. Clearly, you don’t take after the likes of your grandfather.”
“I’m sorry about all that, really I am,” Avery said. “I meant what I said. If there was any way I could change it, I’d do it. It wouldn’t matter what it was, I’d do it.”
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