A Rancher for Their Mom (Rodeo Heroes) (9 page)

“There’s lots of work to get ready for the rodeo. I won’t be out here this week, but if you have a problem, just call.” He walked to his horse trailer, retrieved his rope and peppermints.

“Spice,” he called.

The horse raised her head and trotted to where he stood. Unwrapping the candy, he offered it to the mare while he slipped the halter over her head, snapped on the lead rope and led her out of the paddock to the trailer. This time, the horse didn’t hesitate. After securing the doors on the trailer, he climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’ll look forward to seeing y’all on Friday.” With a final nod he drove away.

As she watched him disappear down the drive, she told herself it was just the fallout with the kids that unsettled her. That was all it could be. Nothing personal.

Somehow she couldn’t swallow that explanation.

* * *

Once back at the auditorium, Joel went on autopilot, unloading Spice and putting her in the corral with the other horses. He pitched in and helped with evening chores.

“So you decided to show up,” Shortie McGraw teased. “We were thinking that you might not want to come back to the rodeo after spending time on that ranch.”

“I was working. I went to church this morning. Did you?”

Shortie blushed. “Well, Charlie Newman wasn’t here. So what gopher hole did you step in to make you so cranky?”

Joel couldn’t fault the man. But keeping Shortie diverted benefited Joel. He didn’t want to talk about his time with April and the kids. Joel hauled back on his emotions. Shortie didn’t mean anything. The men around them all stopped and looked at them.

“Sorry, Shortie. I didn’t mean to snap.”

“No problem.”

But it was. Joel hadn’t realized it would hurt so much to leave the family. The look in the boys’ eyes had cut straight across his heart, making it nearly impossible to walk out of their bedroom and out of the house, and after next weekend, out of their lives.

When he’d gone back outside and seen April with her soft smile and sparkling eyes, he’d known he’d skated too close to an edge that neither he nor April were ready to fall over. Helping this week was the deal he’d made with the boys. That was all. Nothing more.

Other cowboys showed up from their time away from the rodeo and unloaded their horses. As they joined in, the talk turned away from Joel’s week to the jobs that needed to be done. The facilities manager and his employees would work with Jack and some of the cowboys to help with the setup.

After all the animals were fed, several of the cowboys drifted over to the concession area for coffee and anything sweet that Hank had on hand.

Joel didn’t feel like shooting the breeze.

“Hey, Kaye, you coming with us?” Shortie asked.

“Naw, it’s been a long day, and I think I did all my socializing with the church crowd this morning.” Joel didn’t have enough energy left in him to keep a running volley with the other guys.

“I understand.”

Joel walked back to his trailer and hooked it up to the electricity outlet. He opened the door to the front compartment, where there was a bed, a tiny closet and a dresser. This had become his home. He could easily touch each side of the compartment. How Caleb had lived in this space for more than ten years Joel would never know. If he wanted running water for a shower or bathroom facilities he had to find a truck stop. At least here, the coliseum provided nice facilities for their contestants.

Hanging his cowboy hat on the hook on the door, he used the bootjack by the bed and took off his boots. He lay back on the bed ready to unwind when his phone rang. The first thought that popped into his head was something was wrong at the ranch.

“Hello.”

“Hey, bro, how are you doing?” Brenda asked.

“Sis.” It took a moment for him to realize there wasn’t an emergency he’d have to deal with at April’s ranch. “How’s it going? Everything okay?” His heart sped up, worried something was wrong. “Gramps—”

“Everything’s fine. How are things on the circuit?”

“Great.”

“You sure? You sounded like you’re ready to charge somewhere.”

That bad? Joel needed to rein in his reactions if he didn’t want every cowboy on the circuit making fun of his—

His what?

“I thought you might have been someone else.”

Brenda didn’t say anything for several moments. “Must be someone important.”

“Just the rancher I helped out this week.”

“I thought you were doing rodeo.”

Sometimes his sister could drive him crazy. “You called just to hassle me? Isn’t your husband target enough?”

“Ah, that’s the brother I know and love.”

Her cheerful teasing made him smile. “What did you call about, brat?”

“And to think I pulled your bacon out of the fire by organizing that charity rodeo.”

She’d come through by taking over the charity rodeo their church and other churches had given to help the financially strapped ranchers in their hometown and surrounding counties. That rodeo had put his sister on the right road for a career after she left the army, and she’d collected a husband to boot. “I owe you, sis.”

She went silent. “I called with news.”

“Oh, and what is that?”

“You’re going to be an uncle.”

Joel sat up. “Really?”

“That’s what Caleb’s reaction was, too. Do you think I go around pulling jokes about being pregnant? None of the men under my command thought I had a sense of humor.”

“It’s just such good news.” He felt himself grinning. “So how’s your husband?”

“He’s gone weird. You’d think I couldn’t walk across the room without his help.”

“Not true,” he heard Caleb yell.

“It is, but I find it charming.”

Joel snorted. He asked about the due date and other important information about the newest member of the family. “How’s Gramps taking it?”

“He’s loving it. Another generation of Kayes—well, sort of. He’s wondering when you’re going to get with the program.”

“I didn’t say that,” he heard Gramps complain.

“I’d hoped you would’ve come home while there was a break in the rodeo schedule, but that didn’t happen.”

“Well, there was a rancher around here who hired me to help with planting.”

“A rancher?”

The way his sister said
rancher
made him squirm. “Yes, a rancher.”

“You could’ve come home and helped Caleb with our fields.”

“The circumstances were unusual and I was needed here.”

The line remained quiet. Finally she said, “I’m glad you’re keeping your hand in ranching. Someday I’d like to meet this rancher.”

He didn’t doubt it for a minute. “Someday you might.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

He needed to steer this conversation in a different direction. “So are you going to continue on with your counseling certification?”

“I am. I’m only pregnant, not crippled.”

Caleb and he needed to walk a fine line between being concerned and letting her do her thing. Brenda had achieved the rank of captain in the army and was used to ordering folks around. At least with him being out on the rodeo circuit he wouldn’t have to worry too much about dealing with her on a daily basis. “Thanks for calling, sis.”

After he hung up, Joel’s mind raced over the conversation again. Brenda had sounded joyful and excited. Full of life, literally and figuratively. He didn’t begrudge her that happiness. It had been a long, hard road for her, but she’d made it.

Taking a deep breath, he listened to the muted sounds of the cowboys talking. He could open the door and join the others in seeing who could spin the largest story, but he’d still feel alone, and when he came back to the trailer, he’d still be alone.

The time with April and her children had touched him in a way he hadn’t expected. He’d had eager young minds looking to him and a baby girl who sought shelter in his arms every time she was near him. Just remembering warmed him, making him feel ten feet tall. He now understood why his father would stand out on the porch in the evening, surveying the land as far as he could see, and smile, saying life couldn’t be sweeter.

But it was the strong woman whose smile made his heart ache and want more that haunted him the most. He didn’t want to confess to his sister that the rancher was a woman. He wasn’t ready to talk about his week before he could wrestle it down.

If he kept on the pace he was on now, winning in the summer and throughout the fall, adding points to his total, he’d be in the finals in Las Vegas again. When he went back out on the circuit, it had just been a dream, and now it was looking mighty good for a win.

But with his sister’s announcement she was pregnant, he suddenly had an ache for babies of his own.

He slipped under the covers and tried to go to sleep. He might as well have tried to wrestle down every bull the rodeo had—it wasn’t happening.

When he closed his eyes, he saw April smiling at him, as she had earlier in the evening. The look in her eyes had said
stay
. But he knew that stay came with a price—no more rodeo.

That couldn’t be. He’d lost this dream once before, and although he didn’t resent going home to help care for the ranch and be with his sister her senior year in high school, it left some unfinished business hanging over his head, which he’d like to finish this time.

Chapter Nine

“C
’mon, boys, the bus should be out on the road in a few minutes.”

The boys dragged out of their bedroom. The first day after vacation was always hard, but today seemed particularly bad especially after the whirlwind week they’d had. Their faces were so long, April was surprised the boys didn’t fall over them. She gave each boy his backpack and lunch pack.

“Thanks, Mom,” Todd replied.

Wes simply grunted.

She opened the back door and shooed them outside. Scooping up Cora, April followed the boys down the drive to her mailbox. Before they got to the end of the drive, the bus stopped.

“Hurry, boys,” she encouraged.

The bus driver opened the door and waved at April. “Did you have a good vacation?” the driver called out.

“We did. You?”

“Went to Galveston.”

“We got tickets to the rodeo,” Wes told the bus driver as he passed her. “And it was so exciting to have Mr. Joel here.”

“Mr. Joel?” The driver threw April a puzzled look.

As if a switch had been thrown, her two draggy sons found their voices going from sluggish and depressed to excited and bragging, which startled her.

“No, let me tell her,” Todd said as he stepped on the bus. “He’s with the rodeo but helped us all vacation.”

The driver’s eyes widened. “Our drive to school will be interesting. See you this afternoon.” She closed the door and drove off.

April realized that by the time the boys got home, everyone in the school and probably for twenty miles around would know about Joel Kaye. She’d better be ready to talk.

It didn’t take until the kids came home. By eleven-thirty, she’d gotten five calls. When the school secretary called, April knew the boys had been working overtime.

“Are you getting married?” Sandra Grayson asked.

April nearly dropped the phone. “No. Why would you ask?”

“Well, the way Todd and Wes were talking, I expected to attend your wedding this weekend.”

Scrambling to come up with an answer, April took a deep breath. “We’re going to the rodeo this weekend. That’s all.”

“Really?”

“I promise, Sandra.”

“So there’s no Mr. Joel you’re marrying?”

There it was. “Uh, there is a Joel Kaye who works for the rodeo. He picked up some horses last week, but there’s no marriage in sight.”

“The boys talked about how they hired him to help at your place. So that’s not true?”

“Well, that’s true. After Mr. Moore got hurt last week, the boys came up with the idea of hiring Joel to help out with the planting and chores.”

“And you’re not getting married?”

Oddly enough, April wanted to cry. “I assure you, Sandra, Joel only helped me plant my hay and sunflowers. My sons have a promising career in writing fiction if they don’t want to continue to ranch.”

Sandra laughed. “I understand. My daughter told all the neighbors that her parents were getting divorced. We were discussing my cousin’s problems. I had to field a lot of calls from my family. I’ll put the kibosh on the rumors here at school.”

“Thanks, Sandra.”

After April hung up, she called Kelly. “I’m going to need your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, apparently my sons are talking about Joel being here last week, and somehow it’s morphed into me getting married to Joel this weekend.”

“That’s a good idea.”

April blinked, wondering when she’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

“You there?”

April didn’t know how long she’d been silent. “Yes.” She sounded as though she’d swallowed a frog.

“I was only teasing.”

The sounds of Cora playing with her horse and dolls in her room drifted into the kitchen. “Am I so pathetic that you think I need to get married?”

“Oh, sweetie, I didn’t mean to upset you. You’ve held up under what would’ve crushed most of us. It’s not about whether or not you can do it all, but it’s about you having someone to help and support you.”

“The Lord provides.”

“And you can count on Him, but sometimes He sends us help in the form of people—or in this case a cowboy. Joel could fit that bill.”

Kelly’s words robbed April of breath. “I might be wrong, Kelly, but I don’t need another man who has an itch to move from town to town. I had enough of that growing up with my dad. Then I managed to marry a man just like my father.”

“Maybe Joel isn’t the one, but don’t close your heart, April. You might be missing what God sends your way.”

Deep inside, April knew that Kelly had a point. “Okay, I’ll relax, but I’m not expecting too much.”

“That, my friend, is your problem.”

Hanging up the phone, April walked down to her daughter’s room and stood out in the hall, listening to her play with her horsey. She made whinnying sounds, then her voice lowered. “Sugar, come here.”

From her daughter’s conversation, a cowboy called his horse. April didn’t doubt Cora’s conversation imitated Joel’s with his horse.

Leaning her head back on the wall, April closed her eyes. Tears slid down both cheeks. The time Joel had been here had been a joy.

She wondered what she would’ve done if Joel had tried to kiss her when he’d come out to talk to her last night. Thankfully, her boys had interrupted the moment. She had no business kissing Joel. It would only bring trouble.

Trouble she didn’t need.

* * *

“Why don’t we take a break, Joel? You’re going to give me a heart attack,” Jack complained as they finished the chutes for the bulls. “We don’t need to finish everything this morning. I could use a cup of coffee.”

Yesterday, the guys had just shot the breeze as they started to set up things for the rodeo. There was no hurry or rush to get things done, since the setup didn’t need to be finished until Wednesday. The cowboys planned to teach a one-day workshop for high-school students, evaluating them and helping with the events they participated in.

This morning, Joel was determined to work until he dropped so he wouldn’t have to think. But from the look in Jack’s eyes, Joel knew the older man needed a break.

“Sounds good.”

Joel followed his friend to the concession area.

“Hank, we need a couple cups of coffee,” Jack called out.

They sat down at a picnic table.

“Had I known sending you out to work on a ranch would’ve produced such a firestorm, I would’ve sent you sooner. Maybe I need the other guys to work on the ranches around the cities where we stop.”

“I’d like to see that, Jack.”

Hank showed up with the cups of coffee and placed them in front of each man.

“I just thought I’d get the setup done after the time off,” Joel continued. “Yesterday not too much got done, so I thought we needed to get in gear today for that workshop tomorrow.”

Both Hank and Jack studied him.

“I admire an industrious cowboy, but you seemed a bit more motivated this morning.” Jack took a sip of his coffee.

Joel hadn’t slept much over the past two nights, wrestling with the memories of April and her children. His sister’s news hadn’t helped the situation. He cheered for her and Caleb, but their good news only pointed out how alone he was. It put an ache in his heart for— He stopped the thought cold. “Well, I thought we wanted the facility done before those elementary schoolers came by to see the rodeo.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack asked.

Grasping on to any excuse he could, Joel explained, “I heard a couple of ladies in the front office this morning after breakfast talking about the elementary kids coming out here today on some sort of field trip. Is that true?”

“That’s right. I forgot.” Jack took a deep draw of his coffee. “The school district, auditorium managers and our boss came up with a plan, then notified me Monday morning. I wish they’d notified me last week. I’m going to check in with the front office.” He finished off his coffee and left.

“So we’ll have little ones running around here until the rodeo,” Hank commented.

“Appears so.”

“Since I didn’t see you for several days, I assume you were fed.”

“There are others who are willing to feed a cowboy.”

“And those others wouldn’t be a nice-looking widow woman?”

“It was.”

“She’s got some cute kids.”

“True.”

“Am I going to have to pull teeth?”

Hank knew how to make a cowboy smile. “She’s got great kids. I’m glad I was able to help her.”

“That’s a good thing.”

Hank started away, much to Joel’s surprise.

“You’re not going to give me a hard time about April?”

“Naw, you’re going to get enough from everyone else. I’ll spare you.”

Hank’s answer puzzled him.

Jack appeared. “It seems we’ve got several tours later today and a couple of tours tomorrow besides the high-school students we expected. Let’s finish setting up.”

* * *

April and Kelly ended up being the parent volunteers who accompanied the children on the field trip from the elementary school to the rodeo. Or, rather, Kelly called April the night before to inform her she’d volunteered April to help her chaperone. Kelly had also arranged for her mother-in-law to take care of Cora’s and Kelly’s younger kids.

Both Todd and Wes beamed with pride after telling their classmates they’d already been to the rodeo, walked around and met some of the cowboys. And they knew a special cowboy.

The head teacher who organized the field trip directed the kids to the front office.

Jack Murphy met the group, introducing himself. “It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. Landers.”

“Please call me April.
Mrs. Landers
makes me feel like my mother-in-law.”

The tour began with Jack explaining to the kids how they set up the rodeo in each city visited.

When they moved to where the horses were corralled, Wes and Todd pointed out Sadie and Helo.

“Those are the horses my grandpa raised,” Wes said to his classmates.

The kids oohed and aahed, gathering around the boys.

“It appears you have stars,” Kelly whispered to April.

“Who knew?” Seeing her boys bask in their classmates’ admiration made April smile.

“Mr. Joel,” Todd called out. He waved at Joel, who was walking toward the tour group.

April looked in the direction of Todd’s greeting.

Joel.

Her heart sped up despite her promise to herself to remain cool.

“He’s a mighty fine-looking man, in case you didn’t notice that before,” Kelly whispered.

April glared at her friend. Kelly grinned unrepentantly.

“Well, Todd,” Joel’s voice rang out, “what are you doing here?”

“We’re on a tour of the rodeo.” Todd introduced Joel to all his classmates and teacher. The girls giggled, the boys shook Joel’s hand and the teacher blushed. “He knows how to lasso horses and cows. And he helped us at the ranch last week.”

Todd’s classmates looked in awe from Todd to Joel.

Joel greeted the adults. “Mrs. Landers, Mrs. Baker.”

“Joel, I thought we were on a first-name basis,” Kelly replied.

April had thought so, too.

“My mama taught me to wait for permission before calling a person by their first name.” He shrugged.

The teacher turned to the first and third graders. “Do you see the proper way to address people? This cowboy has it right.”

The children nodded in amazement. Joel won the respect of every child there.

They proceeded with Jack explaining what the cowboys did and how they cared for the animals.

April tried to ignore Joel walking beside her, but his presence blotted out any clear thinking.

They paused at the concession stand, where Hank served cartons of milk and cookies.

Joel started to leave, but Wes caught him. “Would you sit with us and have cookies and milk?”

April held her breath.

“Sure.”

The tension drained out of her. April purposely sat at a different table from Joel.

“What are you doing?” Kelly demanded.

“I’m sitting with the kids, supervising them.”

“Why aren’t you sitting with your son?”

“Because his teacher is at that table.”

Kelly growled under her breath. “You need to say hello to Joel before we leave.”

“This isn’t a date for me. I’m the chaperone.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you know how to have fun.”

“I do.”

“Then show it,” Kelly hissed, then walked to the table where Joel sat.

After Kelly chatted with Joel, he looked at April and smiled. She tried to keep control of her heart, but that organ didn’t pay any attention to her head.

“Okay, children, it’s time to go back to school. We need to thank all the people from the rodeo who have shown us what they do.”

A chorus of thank-yous rang out in the auditorium.

April stood and ushered all her charges back to the front door. Looking ahead, she saw Wes and Todd hurry toward Joel and exchange words.

“It’s neat to meet a real rodeo cowboy.” Ashley Summer, a girl in Wes’s class, sighed.

“Your dad’s a cowboy,” April replied.

Ashley did a double take. “My father’s old, and he’s my father.” She paused. “He’s okay, but—” She shook her head.

April bit her lip. “I guess you’re right.”

Shaking her head, Ashley whispered to her friend.

They filed outside. Jack and Joel helped the kids back onto the bus. As the line shrank, April found herself slowly approaching Joel. He helped the girls up the steps, which brought giggles and blushes.

The boys gave Joel a nod or shook his hand. When she and the teacher were the last ones left to board, Joel offered April his hand.

“Where’s Cora?”

“She’s with Kelly’s mother-in-law with her two younger children.” She wanted to smile at him like the schoolgirls before her, but felt silly.

The teacher behind her cleared her throat, causing April to step up onto the first step. Joel wrapped his hand around her forearm to steady her and had his hand on her back for extra support. April pulled herself up the last step and found a seat in the first row. Joel repeated his action with the teacher, helping her on the bus.

The teacher, a single woman in her late twenties, flashed him an inviting smile.

Joel’s actions were simply that of a polite cowboy helping two women onto the bus, she told herself. He didn’t step back but continued to look at April. Her son’s teacher gave her a strange look.