Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

“ H ey, kiddo. Do you like your room?” Ames wasn’t quite sure if he should sit or stand.

Sophie sat on the couch in the family room up at the big ranch house, playing a game on one of the Nintendo Switches the bosses kept for the foster kids.

“Yeah…are you sure no one minds? I just showed up…” She wouldn’t quite look at him.

“Hey.” He sat at the other end of the couch, facing her. “No one minds. I’m so glad you came. I’m sorry about your momma.”

“Yeah. She—She was awful mad at me when she drove off, but I promise to God I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen.”

“Oh, honey.” Damn. Had they had a fight? “It’s not your fault.”

“I feel like it was. I—I don’t want to be that person, you know? The one that started shit.” Her cheeks were red as fire, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “She caught me making out with a girl a few months ago, and it’s been hard. I’m not sorry for doing it, but it sucked anyway.”

His ears went hot. “I know how that feels, kiddo. That’s one reason I left home.”

“Did you get caught?”

“With a guy? No. There was no one brave enough to take a chance. But with a stash of magazines, yes.”

“Oh.” Her face worked. “I only wish we didn’t fight right before?—”

“I know.” He scooted over to grab her in a hug. “I know. That has to feel awful. But you didn’t do anything wrong.”

She held onto him, crying hard, the sweet baby sobbing. He didn’t try to stop her. She was hurting bad, and she needed a friend. She needed to let it out, too.

That pent-up stuff would kill you if you let it, and he knew it.

And hell, his mom and dad were still alive.

He didn’t think he’d ever forgive them for not taking this little girl in, dammit. She’d needed them, and while it was hard to be queer in such a closed-off town, she could have at least graduated with her friends in a year and then struck out on her own.

She didn’t need to feel alone in the world, even for a short time.

“I got you. Tomorrow you can come see your room at my house. After the paperwork is all fixed, you’ll stay with me most of the time, but I’m about to go out for the gather, so you’ll have the room here while I do.”

She nodded. “Miz Alba said that there are other teenagers here, and that it’s really open, so I can have this room for now too. They’re scary nice. They’re not like…in a cult or anything, right?”

“Nope.” He laughed. “I mean, they’re cowboy folks, but they’re lesbians, their grandson is married to a man, they have a genderqueer great-grandchild who is in a long-term relationship with a lesbian, and this whole outfit is queer-friendly.” And if they weren’t, they moved on fast.

“Wow. You—you found the big gay ranch.”

That tickled the hell out of him.

“I did.” He chuckled, squeezing her before he sat back. “So can I play too?”

“There’s another Switch. Have you played the food-making games?”

He raised an eyebrow. “No.”

“They’re cool. I’m super good at focusing.”

“Yeah? Good for you. I’m willing to learn, fair enough?”

“Sure. It’s cooperative, not competitive.”

“Cool.”

“The pizza one is the best. Go grab the other console so we can go to online gaming.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he teased.

She winked at him. “I know. I just… Everything feels weird. Like, what about my stuff? Do I get it?”

“As much of it as we can get.” He feared the worst there. “You know my momma…”

Sophie wrinkled her nose. “Mean as a stepped-on rattlesnake.”

“Yeah, but we have a lawyer. We’re going to get your things. No matter what.” If he had to go down there and fistfight someone to do it.

“Okay. I mean, I don’t want her to toss it or burn it or anything.”

“Well, ideally, the lawyers will stop her from doing anything with your mom’s house. Aunt Reba owned it, and I’m sure it’s meant to go to you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I want to sell it, but the stuff in my room is mine, plus some things that were my daddy’s…”

“Of course.” Her dad had been good to her. When he’d died in a bull riding accident, poor Sophie had been devastated. So young to have lost both her parents.

She queued up the game, and sure enough, it was about assembling food. Put down a pizza crust. Put sauce on it. Then cheese and toppings.

It was kind of soothing, actually.

“So Nathan is a famous chef, huh?”

“Yeah! Cool, huh? He had this crazy seasonal menu fusion thing going on—so like Japanese tacos or brisket and spaghetti.”

“Mmm.” He kept it noncommittal. He’d seen the brisket egg rolls. They’d seemed great, but he was still skeptical.

“I know it sounds weird, but everyone raved about it. He was charging like two hundred dollars a plate!”

“Wow.” So what had happened? How had Nathan ended up here? “Did he own his own place?”

“I don’t think anyone does, not really. It’s like an investor thing?”

“Ah.” Okay, so he could see that. So what had lost Nathan his investors. “Burning!”

“Oop!” She opened the fake oven, and they laughed loud, which brought dogs, as well as Dani and Nell, who were Ryder and Kase’s adopted daughters.

“Whatcha playin’?” Nell asked.

“Who are you? You missed the zoo. It was so much fun. I saw zebras and giraffes!” Dani’s eyes were lit up, and she waved at him. “Cowboy Ames.”

“I’m Sophie. I’m Ames’s cousin. I’m here to stay with him.”

“Oh. Cool. Daddy says you’re staying here too because Cowboy Ames is the trail boss. Do you know how to ride a horse? Do you go to school? Do you like to read? Do you know my best friend Naomi? She goes to school like ’Lijah.”

Sweet Dani. She seemed so much younger than she was.

Sophie glanced at him, and he nodded and grinned, handing off his controller to Dani, who piled up next to Sophie.

“I don’t know anyone here but my Uncle, I mean Cousin Ames. But I do know how to ride. My mom sold my pony when my dad died, though. Said she was dangerous.”

“Oh. Weird. We have lots of horses and dogs and everything. You’ll be fine. We’re pretty nice.”

Nell smiled at her. “You have pretty hairs.”

“Oh, thanks.” She blushed dark and ducked her head. She rubbed one of the dogs’ ears, and that puppy laid his head on Sophie’s knee.

“We have good dogs,” Dani said.

“You do.” Sophie sniffed. “Sorry.”

Nell’s chin wobbled. No one cried alone around here. “Do you miss your momma? We miss ours. She had cancer.”

“Mine was in a car accident. She died last week.”

Nell threw herself in Sophie’s arms. “Oh, poor girl! I’ll be your friend forever!”

“Okay.” Sophie sniffled harder, and they were crying together then while Dani frowned and tried to keep the pizza from burning on-screen.

So Ames took over the other controller and helped her.

Dani rolled her eyes, but she didn’t say anything to the girls. She simply said, “Open the oven! The oven!”

“On it.” He found the button for the oven, and they played until Nanette came to offer all the girls a snack. It was good timing, too. Brunch had been several hours ago.

“You okay, Ames?” Sophie asked.

“Uh-huh. I have to meet with the first wave of guys going out on the gather this evening, but otherwise I’m all yours until day after tomorrow. Want to play cards later?” Would she like cards? Their family had always played, but she’d been so young when he left.

“Okay. I know Uno and Skip-Bo. What else do you know?” Sophie tried to smooth her makeup. “Do I look okay?”

“You’re fine.”

She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Do we go to the kitchen?”

“Uh-huh.” Nell grabbed her hand. “Come on.”

“I’ll be right there.” He took the Switch from Dani and put them both up to charge. Elijah was in the kitchen when he got there, spreading peanut butter on graham crackers and studying Sophie out of the corner of his eyes.

“You the new girl?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m Ryder and Kase’s son. You’re Ames’s niece?”

Sophie shook her head. “Cousin. But I call him Uncle.”

“Wow.” Elijah glanced at him. “I thought you were way old, Ames.”

“Thanks, buddy. I’m thirty. She’s sixteen. My mom was the older sister and had me at nineteen. Her mom was the younger and had her at twenty-eight.”

“Huh.” Elijah shrugged. “Want peanut butter crackers?”

“Sure. Soph?”

“Why not?” She shrugged, trying to smile. “This house is huge. How many people live here?”

“The grans, the dads, me and my sisters, you, and we have two fosters right now, but we can take ten at a time.” Elijah didn’t even blink.

“Whoa.”

“Yeah. Apparently, the grans always hoped Dad’s parents would have like, eighty kids.”

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that old adobes like this one seemed to grow, all of their own accord. Families in this part of the country tended to live with several generations in one house still.

“Are they nice?” Sophia asked.

“Who, the grans? Oh my God. Granny Chiara can be stern, but she’s really a softy, and Granny Alba is like, something out of the best movie.” He chuckled, shook his head. “Gram can make anything—clothes, food, blankets—and Nanette is like a kitchen witch. She runs the house here.”

“This is a big place…” Sophie sounded more than a little scared.

“It is, but you get used to it. And Bea and Jamie are in the same bedroom wing you’re in.”

“They’re at the school still. Softball practice. Are you a homeschool or a public-school person?”

“There’s a choice?”

“Well, you got to go to school…” ’Lijah teased, “but yeah.”

“Oh. Well, I went to public school.” Sophie made a face. “It was hard.”

“Wat isn’t a breeze. Dani has to work as hard as I do.”

“No, I mean people didn’t like me. I did pretty good with classes.”

“Ah. Well, screw them. We have assholes, but they tend to be few and far between.” He handed out the crackers.

“Cool.”

Ames poured himself a cup of coffee from the late afternoon pot and sat, waiting them out. It was good to let Elijah carry the conversation.

He didn’t know what to say to a teenager who had just lost her mom. Who had lost her home.

She was reeling. Hurting. And he was about to leave for almost two weeks. But then he would make it up to her.

God, he felt like a bad man, a terrible uncle, a shitty human being.

Then Sophie gave him a slight smile while brushing peanut butter off her upper lip, and he felt better. She had a place thanks to him. She was safe. She’d put herself out there and found him. And he was proud of her.

She’d done so well.

She was a good kid.

She needed a place to lick her wounds and breathe, and he was going to give it to her. Or at least he was going to do the very best he could.