A Texas Ranger's Family (13 page)

“Good lookin'
and
smart. I expect being around you keeps my kid brother on his toes.”

“Speaking of your brother, why do you always have a zinger queued up when Daniel's around?”

“I wouldn't say
always
.”

“Only every time you speak to him. In the few days I've been here, I've heard you twist the blade on Daniel's career, where he lives, where he went to school, how he sits a horse, how he shoots a gun. You name it and you've criticized it, Jake.”

“That's just how brothers carry on. It's pokin' fun, is all, and he knows it.”

“I don't hear him laughing, do you? And Daniel doesn't dish it back, either. If you think about it for five
minutes, you'll figure out it's not right to treat your only brother that way.”

“I will?” Jake asked.

“Yep,
'cause even a blind hog finds an acorn in the woods now and again.”

He snaked a long arm around Erin's shoulders and gave her side a light squeeze.

“I hope you come to your senses and decide to stick around, girl. It might not be a fancy family, but it's our family and you'd be a prize-perfect addition.”

With her eyes downcast, she studied the pair of well-loved women's boots Tina Sue had been happy to loan. Erin had just experienced her first altercation with a family member in over twenty years. And it hadn't erupted into violence or ended in name-calling.

Maybe the Stablers were on to something.

And maybe Erin needed to take the first step toward finding the sister and brother she'd been separated from all those years ago. It had been on her mind constantly since she'd first looked into Dana's eyes. Alison would be thirty-seven now.

Would she still blame Erin for their mother's death?

“
I
appreciate you dropping everything to drive me way out here.”

Erin was grateful for the smoothness of the ride. The heavy-duty wheels absorbed all the dips and bumps as the old work truck cut straight across the expanse of pasture.

“Don't mention it.” As always LaVerne selflessly shrugged off gratitude. “Becky was tied up with the camping assignments for the contestants. Heaven forbid we park the motor home of last year's third-runner-up for pork ribs right beside the beef brisket winner. Cook-off champs are a clannish bunch and they like to keep company with their own kind.”

It sounded like a joke, but since LaVerne didn't crack a smile, Erin kept her amusement to herself. Maybe the staging of grills and smokers was the barbecue world's way of jockeying for position.

“Besides,” LaVerne continued, “I knew I could drive to the spot in less time than it would take to give directions. Our herd has been hidin' their calves in the same ravine for forty years.”

“Why do they do it?”

“Natural instinct to protect their young 'uns, I suppose. The crazy part is the heifers are safer in our branding pens than they are out here with the coyotes. But cows are too dumb to figure that out, so rounding 'em back up has become my boys' bailiwick.”

“How about the girls? They seem capable.”

“Oh, yes.” There was a grandmother's delight in her voice. “They can ride and rope as well as their daddies could at that age. They've been a lot of help on the ranch. Even Dana does a pretty fair job these days. I'm proud of all my girls.”

“I'm sure they appreciate hearing compliments like that, especially from you.”

LaVerne studied the terrain, downshifting to steer around jutting rocks. Erin kept an eye on the older woman who seemed to be considering the conversation as well as the ground ahead.

“You
have
told them exactly what you just said to me, haven't you?”

“Now that you put me on the spot, I'm not so sure.”

“LaVerne! Why would you share your feelings about your beautiful granddaughters with me, but not with them?”

She swiped a hand in Erin's direction. “Oh, they know. I don't need to say the words out loud.”

“May I ask you a personal question?” Erin had a hunch about something and wanted to be certain.

“Why sure.”

“Were you the only girl in your family?”

“That's a fact. I was the oldest of three kids.”

“Were you close to your mother?”

LaVerne shook her head. “Mama favored my brothers. Neither of us minded much when I moved away, though it aggravated her to lose her kitchen help.” She chuckled at the memory.

“So, you're probably not much like your mother.”

“Right again. I've tried to treat all my kids the same.”

“So they don't feel shortchanged?” Erin asked.

“Exactly.”

LaVerne pulled the truck to the edge of what Erin judged to be a shallow canyon. On the far ridge she spotted two figures on horseback. Dana stood in the stirrups, with a lasso in her hand. Thirty feet away, a wayward Angus calf was under the watchful eye of a border collie.

Erin slid the camera strap over her head and prepared to descend from the cab of the truck. She thought of her conversation with Jake only hours earlier. He was right. These were moments she was meant to seize, to engage and not merely observe. Before she pulled the door handle, she turned back to LaVerne.

“Thank you for helping me share this experience with Dana. I've lost a lot of time with—” Erin stopped, considering how to finish the sentence. “I've lost a lot of time with my daughter. I wasn't there to encourage her when she walked, or applaud when she rode a bike or grimace when she got her eyebrow pierced. But I'm here today to tell her how much this means to me. I won't assume she knows I'm proud of her without hearing me speak the words.”

 

“Bandit, stay.” Daniel's command stilled the collie from its work circling the calf. The huge quarter horse
beneath Daniel shuddered with anticipation, ready to sprint if the calf took off. “Quiet, you two. Let Dana and Domino get this one.”

With her boots braced against the stirrups, Dana stretched tall, swung the lasso in two full circles above her head and tossed the lariat exactly as they'd practiced. The loop wobbled as it arced but settled over the calf's head. It bawled, dipped and pulled against the lasso, successfully tightening the rope secured to Dana's saddle horn.

“Well done, butter bean!”

“Nothin' but air!” She returned his excited grin.

“Okay, keep the rope tight and finish the drill.”

Bandit sprang to life yipping at something that caught his attention on the top edge of the ravine. Daniel squinted against the sun. His heart thumped hard at the sight of Erin in jeans and cowboy boots. The camera blocked her face as she gracefully shifted side to side recording Dana's victory.

As a thought registered in his mind, it crossed his lips.

“I love you,” he whispered aloud. The wind caught the inaudible words and swept them toward the open range along with the relief Daniel felt at having spoken his feelings if only to himself.

Erin's head snapped up. She took two steps backward and froze. Daniel's gut lurched at the thought of what might have distracted her. Snakes were plentiful and this rugged territory was their home. Rattlers didn't go looking for trouble but jumping one could produce a lightning-fast, deadly attack.

She didn't back away or turn and run. She let her camera rest on the strap around her neck, folded her
arms across her chest and the way she tilted her head to one side, he'd swear she was smiling at him.

Daniel hadn't been caught red-handed at anything since he was a boy. But in a brief moment of chagrin, he realized he'd just been busted at the cookie jar. Through her telephoto lens, Erin had undoubtedly witnessed the words that trespassed his lips. Though it was impossible for her to hear his
I love you,
she must have seen it. He could feign ignorance or he could pretend the declaration was meant for Dana. But now the words and the truth were out. At least for him, for all the good it would do.

He'd never completely given up on his family. Always hoping there might come a day when they'd be reunited. And now he'd fallen in love with his wife all over again. While he couldn't exactly shout it from the rooftops, he wouldn't be ashamed of it, either.

Lord, Your Word says a man and woman become one when they marry. You desire for families to stay together in whatever form that may take. Please guide us back into Your perfect will.

“Daddy, look! It's Grandma Verne and Mama.”

There was no mistaking the pride in Dana's voice as she made the unconscious leap, referring to Erin as her
mama
. Full as his heart was for Dana, a stab of trepidation took his breath. Both of their lives and now their hearts were invested in Erin. Daniel prayed it was not a bankrupt situation.

LaVerne waved and called from a distance too great to make out her words. She motioned in the direction of home and turned back toward the truck.

“Pull your hat tight for the ride back,” he cautioned
Dana as they began the climb out of the ravine. “I got that old Resistol twenty-five years ago but it's still in pretty good shape. I don't want to have to chase it across three counties when the wind whips it off your head.”

“How do I look, Daddy?” She fanned an open hand at the view of herself on horseback, a submissive calf to show for her efforts.

He winked at the second love of his life. “Like a pro. And your mama caught it all on film, so let's go take a look.”

 

As the days went by, Daniel couldn't help but notice things were different. The fund-raiser tended to bring out the best in the family, but there was definitely a change this time around.

Like always, Jake was busier than a one-armed paper hanger. But no amount of work had ever before kept him from any opportunity to land a punch in Daniel's ribs. In recent days the low blows had become surprisingly few and far between.

LaVerne was up to her eyeballs cooking eighteen hours a day for the twenty-some-odd people who were in and out of her kitchen for every meal. Even so, she could juggle food prep, keep the sink clean, the pantry stocked and still find the energy to feed and lecture the Third Infantry if they marched up to her back door. But she'd become comfortably quiet, seemed content to hold her tongue and let Becky be the bad cop of the house.

Most different of all were the five girls. When they weren't about their chores, they were underfoot in the big kitchen abuzz with the drama of school, boys and pop culture. They chatted freely within earshot of their
grandma, only clamming up when Becky strode through the house in search of something Jake needed. It seemed to Daniel that anytime he went looking for Dana, he found her at the kitchen table in stocking feet, her boots dutifully parked beside the door. Fitting in with her country cousins and accepting LaVerne's rule seemed like less of a chore now that her grandmother had loosened the purse strings on praise.

“I don't understand it, but I sure am grateful for whatever caused it.” Daniel confided to Erin the night before the Barbecue Bonanza got under way. They enjoyed their new evening ritual of coffee under the stars while they swayed back and forth in the creaky old glider.

“Your presence has got this bunch on their best behavior.”

“You exaggerate.”

“No,” he insisted. “Under normal circumstances, there's generally some hollerin' and fussin' going on. Not violent or mean-spirited, mind you. But around here, we've each been known to raise our voice to get a point across. And with this many women under one roof, there's gonna be at least one hissy fit a day.

“A couple hundred campers will pull in here tomorrow and by the weekend, if the good Lord's willin', another thousand will show up to eat. My family should be strung tighter than a mile of new barbed wire instead of acting like Santa's on the way.”

“Daniel, stop analyzing and enjoy it. Focus on the peace of the present day. The Bible tells us tomorrow has enough trouble for itself, right?”

“So that's how you do it? You just deal with each day as it comes.”

She nodded. “It started out as a survival technique but I've learned to be at home anywhere, even in a war zone.”

Of course you have
, he thought.
What I wouldn't give to have you stick around long enough for me to erase the tragic reason for those lessons.

“Well, tomorrow this place won't resemble a war zone as much as a national sporting event. There will be motor coaches and trailers vying for position, folks tailgating, cookin' all-nighters and plenty of music. When you see how Jake transforms the covered stock pen into a judging arena, you'll think the home team is in the play-offs and he's the head coach.”

She raised the thick coffee mug to her lips and shifted closer. He dared to interpret the movement as a snuggle but kept his hands occupied with his own hot drink. Though they hadn't spoken of it, there was a softer dynamic to their relationship. Even so, he'd kept a respectful distance.

“I'm getting excited about having some unsuspecting subjects for my photographs,” she admitted, sounding like one of the teenagers. “Even the cows are starting to dodge me when the Nikon's around my neck.”

“I know that's right! You seem to be everywhere I turn, so you're bound to have enough pictures of my ugly mug.”

“Not even close,” she corrected sweetly. “Besides, all this activity has been better for me than three months of physical therapy with Christina.”

He motioned to the colorful sling Dana had fashioned for Erin from red bandanas.

“Even with that thing, nobody would suspect you're recovering from such a severe injury.”

“God's been good,” she offered up praise.

“He has, but you've done your part, too.”

“Thank you, Daniel.” The comfort of her small smile settled on his face. “Having goals always drives people toward success. I was sharing that with Dana just the other day when the older girls were talking about college. I hope you don't mind but I encouraged her to consider out-of-state schools if she settles on a music technology degree. There are some great production facilities in New York.”

The casual comment from Erin was a sucker punch to Daniel's gut. Though he'd made his feelings about Dana's future amply clear, Erin had interfered anyway, and in a manner that put the heat on him if he and Dana disagreed.

“There are perfectly good schools in Texas where she qualifies for in-state tuition. But when the time comes Dana and I will make those decisions together as a family.”

Erin's eyes widened as she suddenly realized she'd overstepped. “Of course, sure. But if she should choose out-of-state, I'll help with the cost. It's the least I can do.”