Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

F inn Ackerman walked into the farmhouse through the back door, tossing his gloves on the table beside it before he did. He expected Edith to be in from her she-shed by now. She didn’t write very often during the day, but she was on a deadline with her editor and needed to get this book done in the next couple of weeks.

Finn’s half-sister, Libby, had been dating a man named Rusty Jackson for the past several months, and she finally decided that he was worthy enough for her to bring home and introduce to the family. However, she didn’t want to overwhelm him with the enormity of people at Three Rivers Ranch, something Finn really understood.

There were a lot of cowboys working his family ranch. Heck, just his mama could be overbearing by herself, though he loved her dearly.

So Libby brought Rusty to the ranch on Saturday and introduced him to Momma and Daddy, Grams and her new husband, and Uncle Pete and Chelsea. On Sunday, they had lunch together.

She wanted to do something a little less formal, with fewer people and off Three Rivers Ranch, so she’d asked Finn if she could bring Rusty to meet him and Edith for lunch today. Since Henry was in town, she’d invited him and Angel too, but Finn wasn’t actually sure if they were going to come.

“Hey,” Finn called. “Anyone here?”

No one answered, which meant Edith was still out in her writing shed. It didn’t matter. She’d gotten a recipe from Momma and put something in the crockpot last night so that it could slow-and-low cook all night and this morning. All they had to do was shred some lettuce, chop up some tomatoes, get out the tortillas and cheese, and they’d have burritos.

Finn washed up in the sink, going all the way to his elbows because he’d been fixing fences and moving chickens that morning. A minute later, he had just gotten the tomatoes out of the basket when Edith walked in.

“Oh, hey, baby,” she said. “You’re here.”

She carried Theo on her hip, and Finn grinned at the little boy and took him from her.

“Hey, baby,” he cooed at his son. “What are you doing with Mama out there?” Theo had red cheeks, no smile, and a little blank look in his eyes.

Finn guessed that he had just woken up. “Did you just get up from your nap?” he asked. “Were you being good for Mama so she could write?”

Theo once again just stared at him as if he’d never heard Finn’s voice before, never learned English. Finn leaned down and kissed his son on the cheek. “You’re the best boy. Let’s put you with your toys for a minute so Daddy can help Mama get lunch ready.”

He started to move into the living room just as the front door opened, and Libby walked in.

“Hey,” she said brightly. “We’re here.”

“Come on in.” Finn detoured away from the playseat where they put Theo when they couldn’t hold him. He could sit up on the floor just fine by himself, but he tended to crawl around and get into things Edith didn’t want him to get into.

Finn moved over to Libby and gave her a side hug. She was the oldest child of Momma and Daddy, their first biological child, born when Finn was eight years old. She was headstrong and confident, responsible and hardworking, smart and beautiful, and Finn loved her with his whole heart.

“Hey, Libby,” he said, hugging her tightly with Theo semi-mashed between them. “How are you? How was the drive over?”

“It was great,” she said. “It really is faster on horseback. It’s incredible.”

A man crowded into the doorway behind her, and Finn backed up so that they could come into the house properly.

“This is Rusty,” Libby said, reaching for him and taking his hand in hers. She smiled at him with all the glory of the sun and stars, and Finn saw that she was in love with him. He prayed desperately that Rusty would be just as in love with Libby as she was with him because she hadn’t had the best luck with men.

Libby looked over to Finn, something bright and hopeful in her expression. “This is my brother, Finn.”

Finn stuck out the hand that wasn’t holding his son. “Hey, Rusty,” he said. “Welcome to Legacy Ranch. It’s great to meet you.”

“It’s great to be here,” Rusty said. “This part of Texas is so beautiful.”

Finn didn’t hear that too often, though it was true, and he grinned at the man. “It is beautiful here right now,” he said. “It’s starting to green up a little bit. You’re here at a great time before everything gets a little bit too brown.”

“It’s great,” Libby said.

“It is,” Finn said. “That’s why I bought a place here.”

Rusty looked at Finn, then at Libby, a smile on his face, in his eyes, and emanating from his very soul.

Oh boy , Finn thought. He’s in love with her too. That settled his heartbeat back to its normal rhythm. He hadn’t talked to his parents about Libby at all, and he wondered if Momma or Daddy would say anything. He wondered about their impressions of the man.

Rusty was taller than her by quite a few inches. He had dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, and a cowboy hat on top of all that. He looked like Libby’s cowboy hero, the one that she’d been dreaming about for years, and trying to find, and making witty quips about. Finn really hoped that he was The One.

“Come in, come in,” Edith said. “Why are y’all standing in the doorway?”

“Yeah, come in,” Finn said. “I was just putting Theo down to play.”

“I’ll take him,” Libby said, and she eased the little boy out of Finn’s arms easily.

“We’re having burritos today,” Edith called. “Or you can make a shredded pork salad with chips. We have all the toppings. Come on in.”

She had guacamole out, sour cream on the counter, shredded cheese. She’d chopped up the tomato that Finn had gotten out, and she had a knife slicing through the lettuce as he entered the kitchen to help her.

He got out the bag of tortillas and set them on the counter, got down a stack of plates, and brought the chips over from where they sat waiting next to the fridge. He’d never really envisioned himself as an entertainer, but he hosted his friends for game nights, and he had the ranchers for lunch twice a year. He enjoyed going to the other lunches that were held at Shiloh Ridge Ranch, the Rhinehart Ranch, or over at his brother-in-law’s place, Coyote Pass.

Questions about Alex and Nikki weighed on Finn’s mind. They were supposed to be coming home today, but neither Finn nor Edith had heard anything about their appointments in Amarillo.

They’d met with an adoption counselor on Friday, and Finn knew they’d had an appointment with a fertility doctor at a clinic in Amarillo this morning. His heart worried over them, because Nikki was eight or nine years older than Alex and already in her mid-thirties. She desperately wanted children, and it felt like the clock was really ticking against her.

“I love a good burrito,” Rusty said.

“It’s one of his favorite foods,” Libby said.

Finn looked up, a hint of surprise moving through him. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Did we really nail it?”

Rusty grinned. “You really nailed it. I love burritos.”

“That’s great news,” Edith said. “We’re lucky when we get things just right.”

“Must have been a prompting from God,” Rusty said, and that jerked Finn’s attention to him too. He looked at Libby, and they had a whole conversation without saying anything. She ducked her eyes and looked at Theo as he reached for her hair.

“No, no, no, baby,” she said as she pulled her hair out of his grip.

“He just woke up,” Edith said. “He’s coming into consciousness still.”

Theo made a shrieking noise then, and threw one of his fists into the air. Libby laughed and dodged away from him so she didn’t get punched.

“You can put him in his play seat,” Edith said, and Libby turned to go do that.

“He’s going to be walking soon,” Libby said.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Edith said. “Then we’ll have to put a leash on him to take him out on the farm.”

“I grew up at a place like this,” Rusty said. “My mama and daddy worked it with just two other cowboys. And us kids.”

“Oh yeah?” Finn asked. “How many kids in your family?”

“There’s three of us,” Rusty said. “I’m the oldest. And I got two sisters who are still living at home, helping Mama with our egg business and the jams and jellies that she sells.”

“Oh, she sells jams and jellies?” Edith asked. “You guys are in southern Oklahoma, right?”

Rusty nodded. “Yep, that’s right, just across the Red River. We could probably stand on one side of it, spit, and hit Texas.”

Finn laughed because that was true; Oklahoma wasn’t that far away. He wondered if Libby had told Rusty that she was set to take over the ranch here, and he wondered when she was going to do it. He thought it would be last year, but she’d stayed in Oklahoma, and nothing had been said so far this year. But it was only the end of February.

“Is Henry coming?” Libby asked.

“I don’t know,” Finn said. “I haven’t heard from him.”

“Is he dating Angel?” Libby asked.

Finn shook his head. “He staunchly says he’s not.”

“No, he’s not,” Edith said. “He needed a plus one for game night. And apparently, she needed a night off the ranch.”

Finn moved the big bowl of lettuce so it sat in the row with the other toppings. “Right. She needed some time away from Lone Star. That’s a big boarding stable that she owns and runs, and so they came for game night. They’re going home later tonight. At least, that’s what I thought.”

Libby nodded as she sat down at the bar. “I saw Paul this morning. He said meeting Brielle’s parents went real well.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Finn said. “I haven’t talked to him yet either.” He didn’t really have a reason to call up his cousins and chat, other than they were family.

“Yeah, he came over for a little bit so he could meet Rusty.” Libby leaned into him as he put his arm around her and stood behind her on the side. Finn thought they were so cute, but he ducked his head to hide his smile.

“All right,” he said. “What’s the news from Oklahoma?”

Libby sighed and folded her arms on the counter in front of her. “I started talking to Tyson last week.”

“Oh yeah?” Finn asked, his heart now booming like a big bass drum in his chest. “About what?”

“About leaving Sunlit,” she said.

Finn pulled open the bag of corn chips. “Finally going to do it, Libby?”

He couldn’t see Libby as he turned to put the cutting board in the sink, but when he faced her, she wore a determined look on her face as she nodded.

“I’m going to do it. I’m staying through harvest at Sunlit, and then I’m going to make the transition to Three Rivers.”

“So, like October?” Finn asked.

“My last day is going to be Halloween,” Libby said. “Then I’ll come back to Three Rivers. Daddy’s going to start teaching me all the things I need to do around here. Probably take a year or more, and then he’s going to move into semi-retirement.”

Finn knew all of this, of course. He’d talked to his father about it, talked about having a place on Three Rivers Ranch, but Finn had wanted his own ranch. “That’s great, Libby,” he said, genuinely meaning it. “You belong there. You’re going to do amazing things with that ranch.”

She looked up to Rusty and said, “I hope so. It feels like a really big responsibility.”

“Well, that’s because it is,” Finn said. “It’s hundreds and hundreds of acres with over a thousand cattle. You’ve got three operations there, and you employ two dozen people. It is a big deal.”

“Thanks,” Libby said. “That makes me feel so much better.”

Finn grinned at her. “But you’ve been running a big-deal ranch for years, Libs. How many acres is Sunlit Plains?”

“Seven hundred and forty,” she said.

“Yeah, seven hundred and forty,” he echoed back to her. That was a huge ranch, not something to be trifled with.

“But we don’t do cattle.”

“It’s about the same,” he said. “And you’re not going to be doing it alone. Daddy’s still going to be there, and he’s a full-time vet. And Beau is an amazing foreman, and they’ve got fantastic cowboys. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Libby smiled too, though the edges of it trembled with anxiety.

“Let’s eat.” Edith folded her arms and looked at Finn, always giving him the ability to call on somebody to pray. Since it was just the two of them right now, it was either him or her. So, not much of a choice. But now he could look at Libby or Rusty.

Before he could say anything, the door opened and Henry said, “Knock, knock. Are we too late for lunch?” He entered and stepped back out of the way and let Angel enter first.

She was a beautiful, blonde woman with hair that went down past her shoulders and bright blue eyes. Today she wore a pair of cut-off shorts that seemed a little bit too baggy around her knees and a tank top the color of violets.

Finn had known Henry his whole life, and while he was older than the other man, he’d heard plenty of stories while he was serving in the military of Henry’s dates in high school and the type of women that he liked. And oh, Angel was right up his alley. All blonde, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, bright smile, and strong-willed.

Finn hoped he could rope her in somehow and make her his. He wasn’t sure if Henry could, though, because Henry had never been the type to want to settle down.

Maybe for the right woman , Finn thought, and he went to tell his cousin that of course he wasn’t too late for lunch.