The Promise of Forgiveness (11 page)

“A family for how long?”

No one knew the answer to that question.

“Losing Mia's love hurts more than not ever having had Hank's.”

“Then fix what's broken between you and your daughter.” He chugged the rest of his beer.

“Joe?” Ruby's hand covered his fist, and his fingers unfurled one at a time. He rolled his wrist sideways until their palms touched. “What?” he whispered.

“Thanks for caring.”

He threaded his fingers through hers. He was beginning to believe Ruby was the kind of woman he could fall apart in front of and still walk away with his pride intact. “You ready to go home now?”

She pulled her hand free. “The Devil's Wind isn't
my
home
.” She slid off the stool, and he followed her to the door.

“Hey, Ruby!” Stony's voice carried over the noise in the crowded bar. “You gonna pay for those shots?”

She flashed her middle finger. “Put it on my tab.”

Once they stepped outside, Joe took her arm and led her across the street.

“I can drive.” She stumbled. “Oops.”

He helped her into his pickup, then slid behind the wheel.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For coming after me.”

“No big deal.” But it was. For the first time since Joe had split with Melanie, he found himself concerned about another woman.

“T
hanks for giving Hank a lift into town to get his truck this morning.” Ruby had taken three aspirin before she'd put on her sunglasses and screwed up the courage to face Joe.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like the worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle.”

He grinned.

She pointed her finger at him.

“What?”

“I had no idea your teeth were so bright and straight.” His pearly whites transformed his average looks into a face a woman wanted to stare at. “You should smile more often.”

He frowned.

“The sheriff's deputy is on his way.” Feeling light-headed, Ruby sat on the flatbed.

Joe loaded the last bale, then joined her on the trailer. “I'm surprised Randall's working on a Sunday.”

It was tough to make eye contact with Joe after she'd bellyached in the bar. “He'll want to speak with you, too.”

“I'll watch for his patrol car.”

There was no denying that the charges Ruby's daughter had leveled against her were serious. And there was no going back and undoing what was done—Sean was history and so was Mia's virginity. She didn't need a therapist to explain that she had trust issues with men. Ruby had convinced herself that she'd sent Sean packing because she believed it was only a matter of time before he lost interest in her. But if she was brutally honest, she'd admit that she
looked
for a reason to send her boyfriends packing because she was afraid to put her heart at risk.

Then Hank had come into the picture, and years of guarding her heart made it difficult for her to give him a chance. But right now he was the only man Mia trusted and felt safe with. If Ruby didn't want to lose her daughter, she had to find a way to stop blaming Hank for things that had happened in the past.

“I'm here if you need to talk.” Joe's voice drifted into her ear.

Ruby appreciated the offer. Back in Pineville she'd had a few meet-up-for-a-drink-once-in-a-while girlfriends but no one she talked with on the phone each day. After she'd given birth to Mia, she'd drifted apart from her high school friends. Her boss at the Booneslick Lodge had been the only person who'd given Ruby a send-off—a cake and a gift card to Walmart.

“Be careful. I might take you up on your offer.” She hopped off the trailer, then went to the front porch to wait for the deputy. As soon as she sat in the chair, the door opened and Mia walked outside. If she'd had trouble looking Joe in the eye, it was magnified ten times with her daughter.

Mia plopped down on the steps. They needed to talk. No, Ruby needed to talk. She owed Mia an explanation for why she'd sent Sean packing, but she worried her daughter would hate her even more when she learned her mother was a coward.

As Mia picked at her green nail polish, an idea came to Ruby. “How would you like to spend tomorrow in Guymon? We could get a mani-pedi and eat lunch out.” She made a stab at humor. “I don't know about you, but I'm tired of Hank's sandwiches.”

“I have to help with the horses.”

Always the horses. “We don't have to be gone all day.”

“I'd rather stay here.” Mia wasn't making this easy.

“We could shop for school clothes.” Classes in Elkhart began the Tuesday after Labor Day. She doubted Mia cared that they had only a month and a half to find a place to live and get settled. After Ruby had accepted the job at the Red Roof Inn, the manager had mailed her a packet of school and housing information for Elkhart and the surrounding area. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from in their price range, but she'd been looking forward to apartment hunting with Mia.

“Can Hank come with us?” Mia asked.

At first Ruby thought Mia was asking if her grandfather could move to Kansas with them, but then she realized Mia wanted Hank to go to Guymon—probably to act as a buffer. “I don't think he's a shopper.” Any further discussion about tomorrow's plans would have to wait. “The deputy's coming.”

The porch door opened and Hank appeared. Had he been watching for the lawman, or was he eavesdropping on her and Mia? Ruby doubted he had the nerve to kill anyone, but she wouldn't put it past him to fire off a warning.

The deputy got out of his car. “Howdy, folks.”

“Deputy.” Ruby left her chair and stood with Hank. Joe came around the corner of the house and nodded to the officer.

“You remember Mia.” Ruby waved at her daughter.

Randall removed his mirrored sunglasses. “What's this I hear about you getting lost after going for a horseback ride?”

“I didn't get lost.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Someone shot at me.”

“Are you positive you heard a gunshot?”

Ruby jumped to Mia's defense. “She's not making this up. The sound of a gunshot excited the horse and she was thrown.”

Mia scowled at Ruby. “I thought I was supposed to tell him everything?”

“I hope you weren't hurt,” the deputy said.

“No.”

“Where were you when you heard the shot?” the deputy asked.

“Out by Fury's Ridge.”

Randall's gaze shifted to Hank. “You didn't warn your granddaughter to stay away from there?”

“Why do I have to stay away?” Mia asked.

“The ridge is a sacred Indian burial ground, and some people believe it's haunted,” Joe said.

“You think a ghost shot at me?”

The deputy scowled. “Could you tell which direction the sound of the gunshot came from?”

“Behind me.” Mia waved at the lawman. “How come you're not writing this down? The police in TV shows write down what the witness says.”

Randall removed a notepad and a pen from his shirt pocket, then scribbled a few words to appease Mia. “Did you see anything suspicious out by the ridge? A pickup? Maybe an ATV or another horse?”

“Nope.”

“What's your theory on what happened?” Joe asked.

“Probably a trespasser.” He directed his words to Ruby. “Mia could have interrupted a Native American paying their respects to the dead and they fired off a warning to keep her away.”

“What if the person wasn't trying to scare my daughter?”

“This isn't the Shady Acres Mobile Home Park, Ruby. People don't discharge their weapons for fun.”

The only way the deputy could know where she and Mia had lived in Missouri was if he'd checked into their background. “Then you must disagree with the sheriff, who believes a group of inebriated ranch hands were blowing off steam when they shot up Hank's livestock tank.”

“We questioned the Bar T hands, and they had nothing to do with damaging the stock tank.”

“Maybe Roy Sandoval hopped the fence and took a stroll across Hank's property,” Ruby said.

Randall shook his head. “The Sandovals have been ranching and drilling for oil in the Panhandle since the early 1900s. They're upstanding citizens.” He flipped the page in his notebook. “After you fell off the horse, Mia, what happened?”

“I started walking home.”

Like fingernails on a chalkboard, the word
home
grated on Ruby's nerves. The sooner Mia accepted that the Devil's Wind wasn't home, the sooner she'd embrace the idea of moving to Elkhart.

“Pretty Boy caught up with me, but he was limping.”

“Pretty Boy?”

“My granddaughter named the horses.”

“Is that so?” The deputy hid his smile behind a cough.

“I can drive you out to the area where I found Mia,” Joe said.

“By now the blowing dust has concealed any footprints or tracks.” Randall slid his sunglasses on. “No more horseback riding alone, young lady.”

Hank set his hand on Mia's shoulder. “I'll make sure of that.”

“What happens next?” Ruby asked.

“I file a report.”

Ruby had her doubts about that.

“I'll be in touch.” Randall got into the patrol car and drove off at a turtle's pace.

“A lot of good that did.” Ruby's gaze tracked Joe back to the barn. Hank disappeared into the house, leaving her alone with Mia. The deputy's visit did nothing to reassure her that Mia or any of them weren't in harm's way. First the stock tank, then the flat tire on Hank's pickup, and now someone shooting at Mia. It all added up to get-the-hell-out-of-here. Boarding the Greyhound bus on Tuesday wouldn't just spare Ruby from having to reconcile with Hank, but it would protect Mia.

“I know you don't want to hear this, but it isn't safe for us to live at the ranch.”

“We can't leave Hank alone,” Mia said.

Guilt pricked Ruby. Okay, so the idea of deserting the geezer with trouble brewing on the horizon didn't sit well with her, either. But if they remained, she'd be forced to sort through her feelings for Hank. She hadn't expected to share a special moment with him after Mia had lashed out at her yesterday, yet he'd sensed that she'd needed comfort. And Ruby hadn't known how badly she'd yearned for his hug until he'd put his arm around her.

Mia shook her head. “The bad guys could hurt the horses, and we can't leave Friend behind.” The mangy mutt must have heard his name, because he trotted into the front yard. When he saw Mia, he wagged his tail.

“I'm more worried about your safety than the animals.”

“I never get a say,” Mia whined. “You always decide everything.”

That wasn't true.

You decided to kick Sean out
. You
decided to pull up stakes and move
. And you
decided to stop in Unforgiven
. Mia was right—Ruby hadn't asked for her input on any of those plans.

“What if I promise to stay close to the house?”

Maybe Mia would give Ruby credit for meeting her halfway. “If we hang out here a while longer, you're going to have to follow some rules,” Ruby said.

“Like what?”

“Like never going for a horseback ride alone.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it. I get that you're angry with me right now, but you care about Hank and you understand how fragile his health is.”

“I know.”

“So you agree not to take off anywhere without telling me, Hank, or Joe?”

Mia nodded.

“All right, then. I'll call my boss at the Red Roof Inn and inform her that we won't arrive until after Labor Day.”

Mia's expression brightened. “C'mon, Friend, let's go tell Hank that I'm here for the rest of the summer.” She raced into the house, and Ruby heard her yell, “Hank, we're not gonna leave for Kansas until September!” A moment later Mia ran to the barn, and Joe met her in the doorway. After Mia spoke to him, he looked Ruby's way and smiled. He approved.

Why that mattered so much, she had no idea.

“M
ia, let's go!” Ruby doubted her daughter would hear her through the closed bathroom door. She leaned against the stair banister and caressed the gemstone dangling from her neck. Although she was grateful Mia had agreed to spend the day with her in Guymon, Ruby assumed Hank had been the one to persuade her to leave the horses behind for a few hours.

Yesterday after supper Ruby had tackled cleaning the sticky kitchen cabinets. While scrubbing the grease and grime, she'd glanced into the yard and had caught Hank and Mia in an animated conversation. Actually, Mia had been the lively one—arms swatting the air as if a swarm of gnats were attacking her. Five minutes later Mia had entered the house and announced that she would tag along with Ruby to Guymon.

After Mia had returned to the corral to help Joe clean the horse trough, Ruby had phoned the hiring manager at the Red Roof Inn. Martha Kendall had been more understanding than Ruby had expected. Although she couldn't keep the assistant manager position open for her until September, Martha had guaranteed Ruby a front desk job if she arrived on or before Labor Day weekend. Relieved that she'd have a source of income when they finally landed in Kansas, Ruby could now focus on Mia.

And Hank.

Not until Mia had dug in her heels had Ruby understood the real connection her daughter had with the ranch. Mia felt secure at the Devil's Wind. The ranch was old. Hank was old. The horses and Friend were old—too old to go anywhere.

The bathroom door creaked open and Mia appeared at the top of the stairs. No wonder it had taken her forever to get ready—her hair hung in soft ringlets down her back, and she wore eye makeup. She looked seventeen, not fourteen. Ruby hadn't given her daughter much in life, but she had passed on her looks. Mia was as beautiful and fresh-faced as Ruby had once been—before bad decisions had etched lines into her smooth skin.

In the grand scheme of things, all Ruby really wanted was to protect Mia and prevent her from making the same stupid mistakes she'd made. “Your hair looks pretty.”

“Thanks.”

“You still up for a manicure?”

Mia nodded to Ruby's fingers. “Your nails are too short.”

Ruby let the necklace fall against her neck. “I don't mind waiting while you have yours done.”

“That's okay. I'll just ruin them when I groom the horses.”

The drive to Guymon was made in silence after Mia claimed she was tired and closed her eyes most of the way—like grandfather, like granddaughter. She didn't sit up straight until Ruby stopped in a strip mall an hour later. “Are you hungry? Hank suggested we try the Happy Days Pizza Parlor.”

Mia checked the time on her iPhone. “It's too early to eat.”

“I passed a Walmart on the way into town. Is there anything you need there?”

“Not really.”

Ruby left the center. She drove several blocks, calling out store names, but Mia declined all offers to stop and shop. When Ruby saw a sign for Thompson Park, she turned down the road. Two miles later they arrived at the recreational area.

“What are we gonna do here?” Mia asked.

“Enjoy nature.” Ruby parked near a pavilion, crowded with picnicking families. She and Mia entered the trail, which led through a wildflower exhibit that ended in front of a large pond. A concrete path circled the water and a handful of fishermen stood on the banks, casting their lines.

“Let's walk.” Ruby waited for a couple to jog past, and then she and Mia stepped onto the path. “I spoke to my future boss at the Red Roof Inn and she's willing to hold a desk job for me until we arrive in September.”

Mia's gaze followed a paddleboat on the water. “What happens if we don't make it by September?”

“I know you love the ranch, but it isn't practical to live there. I have to work and—”

“You could get a job in Guymon.”

The hope shining in Mia's eyes almost blinded Ruby. Of course she could find a job in Guymon—that wasn't the reason she was eager to leave Oklahoma to its dust and move on. “I don't know if I want to live that close to Hank.”

“Why don't you like him?”

“It's not that I don't like him. It's just . . .”

“You're never going to forgive him, are you?”

“I'm working on it.” Ruby tugged one of Mia's curls, but Mia yanked her head to the side and Ruby released her hair.

“If you can't forgive Hank, then you probably won't forgive me for what I did.”

“That's different. You're my daughter. I love you.”

“You're Hank's biological daughter.”

“Yes, but it's not like I've been aware of his existence my whole life.”

“Hank says I should forgive you for breaking up with Sean.”

Ruby was finding it harder and harder to keep pushing Hank away when he was trying to push Mia back to her.

“You could talk to Sean and see if he'll meet us in Elkhart,” Mia said.

As much as she wanted to please her daughter, asking Sean for another chance was a waste of time. Any relationship she entered was doomed from the get-go until she figured out how to handle her fear of commitment. “Honey, it's over between us.”

“Sean was like a dad to me.”

“I didn't realize you'd grown so close to him.”

“Because you only care about yourself
.
”

Was Mia right? Ruby thought back to when she'd been Mia's age—half little girl, half grown woman. One day she wanted to be a kid, the next she wanted to be treated like an adult. And through all the angst and turmoil, Glen Baxter had been there for her—until their falling-out. He'd been a calm, constant presence in her life when she'd had trouble with friends at school or arguments with her mother over wearing too much makeup.

And you ripped that security right out from under Mia when you split with Sean
.

“It doesn't matter.” Mia wound a ringlet around her finger, twisting the curl until her finger turned blue.

“What doesn't matter?”

“I don't care how many boyfriends you have or if they stick around. I've got Hank now. He'll never leave me.”

Mia was wise beyond her years. No matter how Ruby felt about Hank, he'd always be her biological father and Mia's grandfather. She couldn't kick
him
out.

“I know we talked a little bit about what happened between you and Kevin, but if you ever have any questions—”

Mia stopped walking and faced Ruby. “Did it hurt when you had sex with my dad the first time?”

“A little.”

“Did you cry?”

Ruby shook her head. “No, but I remember saying the F word in my head.” They moved aside so a pair of joggers could pass.

“It was kind of gross,” Mia said.

“It's better to wait”—Ruby had been about to say until you fall in love, but that would be hypocritical of her when she'd had sex with guys she hadn't been in love with—“until you're older.”

“Mom?”

“What?”

“I really don't want to move to Elkhart. I like it at the ranch.”

“The ranch is isolated. A girl your age should have friends.”

“I'll make friends at the school in Guymon.”

Ruby racked her brain for a way to make Mia see how difficult it would be for her mother to live on the ranch with Hank.

“Never mind,” Mia said. “You move to Elkhart. I'll stay with Hank.”

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but only air escaped.

“Hank said a school bus passes by the ranch every morning.”

Mia had no qualms about living apart from her mother, which told Ruby how far she still had to go to make things right with her daughter. “Hank can't handle”—
you
—“raising a teenager.”

“Well, I can't handle going back to the way things were.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'm tired of all the boyfriends. It wouldn't be so bad if you just picked one, but you don't. Every time you let a new guy move in, I have to learn what he likes and what he doesn't like. When I have to be quiet and when I don't. I hate it.”

Shame swelled inside Ruby until her chest threatened to crack open. She'd wanted things to work out with the boyfriends she'd invited to share their trailer, but until Sean, she'd never admitted to herself that she hadn't given any of them an honest chance. How could she when she'd always been on the lookout for a reason to break up with them?

She didn't want her daughter to grow up to be like her—making one bad decision after another because she was afraid to trust men. But until she overcame her fear of being left behind, Ruby would never experience a lasting relationship.

“Hank cares about me, and I'm not gonna let you keep me from being with him.”

Ruby was on notice. From here on out Mia would decide who came and went in her life. That Mia had picked Hank over her own mother burned like hell.

“Mia, I—”

“You don't know what's best for me. You don't even know what I like.”

Desperate to take back lost ground, Ruby joked, “You like purple Skittles and you like milk chocolate better than dark chocolate.”

“That's not what I mean.”

“Then make me understand.”

“You think I'm stupid for spending so much time with Pretty Boy and the other horses.”

“I never said you were stupid, Mia.”
Argh!
“Tell me why you like spending time with the horses.”

“When I'm around Pretty Boy, I'm not thinking about stuff in the future. I can relax.”

“What's stressing you out?”

“School. I'm worried that someone will find out I slept with a boy and call me names.”

Ruby shared her daughter's worries. “As long as you don't tell anyone, no one will guess.”

“And what am I gonna do after I graduate?”

“You've got a few years to think about that,” Ruby said.

“I'm not saying this to be mean, Mom, but I don't want to be like you. I don't want to work hard just to live in a dumpy trailer.”

Ruby willed her eyes to remain dry. “You'll do better, honey. If you work hard in school, maybe you can go to college.” Why hadn't Ruby enrolled in a few classes over the years and tried to better herself rather than rely on boyfriends to help pay the bills? Jeez, she'd been a sucky role model.

“I want to make enough money someday so I can have my own horses.”

Mia couldn't be any clearer about her desire to remain at the Devil's Wind. Maybe if Ruby respected Mia's need to be with Hank and the horses, her daughter would return the favor and allow Ruby to work things out with Hank the way she saw fit. “I'll think about it.”

“Me staying. Or you leaving?”

Ruby wasn't going anywhere without Mia. “
Us
staying at the ranch.”

When they'd walked halfway around the lake, Ruby sat at a picnic table and Mia joined her. “I'll start looking for a job.”

“What about the motel we passed on the way into Guymon?”

As Ruby suspected, Mia hadn't been sleeping during the drive. “That's a possibility.” Not a good one. The Blowout Motel with its fake oil derrick out front looked as if it should have been condemned years ago.

“Are you gonna be nicer to Hank?”

“Yes.” Didn't her concern for the Devil's Wind prove that she cared about him? Ruby was the one badgering the sheriff and his deputy to investigate the vandalism at the ranch.

“You're gonna do more stuff with him, right?”

Ruby nodded. She'd better get used to the idea that her daughter would hold Hank over her head until the day he died
.
“Are you ready to grab a bite to eat?”

“I'm not really hungry.”

Ruby guessed her daughter's train of thought. “Me either. Let's head back to the ranch.”

Mia gifted her with a wide smile. Ruby had never worked so hard to gain a smile from her daughter, and she intended to bask in her hard-won victory all thirty miles back to the ranch.