Chapter Eleven

A s the mares, Rosie and Grace, were being unloaded and led to the stalls Blake had ready for them, he looked up just in time to see Malorie standing beside Nathan, who had stopped his wheelchair where he could see the action. Blake glanced over his shoulder. As promised, the kids were well out of the way.

After the girls were settled with grain and fresh water—Duke was nickering hello, the big flirt—Blake went to talk to Nathan to make sure his brother was okay with the addition of the mares. The new mares had similar white blankets of spots across their hindquarters that Duke and his other mares had.

“They’re sweet-looking, don’t you think?” And every bit as gentle as Jonas promised.

Nathan’s only answer was a brief nod. “Where’s our brother?” At least he wasn’t frowning. That was progress.

“He had to take care of business in town. He said he won’t be back until late.” Blake took the packets of papers one of the delivery boys held out. “Do you want to see Rosie’s and Grace’s papers?”

Nathan carefully swiveled his chair and gave the wheels a push toward the house. “No. The horses belong to Jonas. Give them to him.”

“Uncle Nathan!” Timmy walked fast to catch up with his uncle, who had stopped as soon as Timmy had called out for him. “Aren’t they pretty?”

“They sure are, kid,” Nathan agreed, a rare smile etching across his face.

When he awkwardly patted Timmy’s arm, it surprised Blake at how quickly his brother’s defenses dropped.

Timmy didn’t pull away, which was his usual way of dealing with anyone but Blake who got into his personal space. “Do you want to come see them?”

“Maybe tomorrow.” Nathan resumed his slow trek back to the house, with Malorie following. She cast a quick look in Blake’s direction.

Timmy’s shoulders slumped. “He didn’t want to pet the horses.” Timmy rarely took to anyone so quickly. His best friend, Franklin, in Sedona, and now his cranky uncle, and the twins, but not many others.

“That’s okay, kiddo. Uncle Nathan probably isn’t feeling well today.”

That was a good enough reason for Timmy because he went back to Andee and Reece, his sadness at Nathan’s dismissal forgotten. All three peered over the stall doors at the new mares like they were looking into the window of the candy shop in Strawberry Ridge.

As the horse trailer disappeared down the long drive, Blake put the packets aside and joined the kids. Nathan’s cold shoulder only made him more hell-bent than ever to break his old ways and win over his injured brother. Fixing the truck was his primary plan, but bringing the ranch back to life would be an equally good peace offering.

The addition of Rosie and Grace, giving the Triple L Duke and four mares, was just the beginning. Bella was already expecting, according to the vet Jonas had hired to come and check on the stallion and his two-mare herd. Five horses were enough to start trail riding classes with Malorie and the kids as his first students.

“So what do you think, guys?” he asked, keeping an eye out for Malorie in case she came back.

Andee sighed. “They’re beautiful. When can we ride them?”

“Not yet. But soon. We want Rosie and Grace to get comfortable in their new home, and I’d like to be sure the three of you are not skittish around the horses. We can do a lot of that work in the arena.” He was probably being too cautious, but as a parent, that was his job. “Maybe next week.”

“Sweet!” Reece scratched Rosie’s face.

“I said ‘maybe.’ I have to check with your mom first,” Blake warned, then cheated. “Do you think she’d like to ride Rosie?”

Andee grinned at him, her eyes sparkling. “I think she would.”

Uh-huh. Using the kids as an excuse to spend more time with the lady wasn’t his best move, but—

Before he could rescind his question, Timmy pulled on Blake’s sleeve. He leaned over so the kid could whisper in his ear. “Dad, I like living here.”

“So do I,” he whispered back. And that easily, he almost had the title for his next Timmy book. Was Timmy, the Superhero Comes Home the story he wanted to tell? Or was it Timmy, the Superhero Helps Save the Ranch?

Blake shook his head, thinking about the notes he’d made so far, as he straightened to watch Timmy go back to leaning on the front of Grace’s stall. Malorie came into the barn just as he’d been hoping she would. “Break time?”

“Nathan is taking a nap. That was his first trip this far. It wore him out.”

“He’s okay?”

Malorie nodded in that competent way she had when she was reporting about his brother’s condition. “He’s fine. He’s just a little too eager to spread his wings. It takes energy he’s still getting back.”

“You’re sure?” Blake believed her, but still—Nathan wasn’t an easy patient. He wasn’t even an easy brother. And he wouldn’t be happy to find out his prodigal brother worried about him.

“Positive.” Malorie put a hand on his arm, making all thought skid to a stop. “You have a funny look on your face. What’s going on?”

Oh, man. If she could read him that easily, he was in big trouble. Because she didn’t let go of his arm, he told her, “I have a deadline looming in three months for the next Timmy book and I’m still having trouble deciding which story to tell.”

“What are your choices?” Mischief twinkled in her cinnamon-colored eyes, making him curious to find out which story she would find more interesting.

“ Timmy, the Superhero Comes Home . Or Timmy, the Superhero Helps Save the Ranch .”

Timmy glanced over his shoulder at them. “I like Timmy, the Superhero Comes Home .”

Blake laughed. He should have asked the kid sooner and saved himself hours of angst. “I do too.”

“I think either one would be a good story,” Malorie said with a shrug as she smiled and let his arm go.

Now he knew which direction to go for the next book and one that felt like it would bring in enough money for Timmy’s future and even have some for the ranch—

Speaking of the ranch—“The kids want to ride, so tomorrow I thought they could work the horses in the arena. Maybe you’d like to work with the horses too. I want to check out Grace and Rosie to see how they do on leads.”

“What if I just watch? I’ll have a break, but I’m not sure Nathan should try coming to the barn again so soon.” She reached out to scratch Grace’s neck. “Hi, pretty girl.”

If Nathan decided he wanted to make the trek, Blake didn’t think Malorie would be able to talk his brother out of it. But he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that.

“Would you mind if Timmy had dinner with you tonight?” he asked instead. It was time to have a talk with Nathan about some other new ideas he had for the ranch.

Without Jonas there to buffer Nathan’s anger, it was a good time to see if they could move beyond their bad history and maybe come to some kind of compromise. Nathan could air his complaints, and he would try to get his brother to see that keeping things as they were when their parents were alive had little chance of saving the ranch.

For one thing, without a herd that grew from foals born every summer, they could never replicate what their parents had accomplished with their breeding program. It’d taken years for Adam and Zelda to build the ranch into a working concern. And probably just as many for the ranch to go downhill.

“We would love to have you come for dinner.” Malorie smiled at Timmy. “If you’d like, we could watch a movie after.”

Timmy stepped away from the stall. “Do you have Guardians of the Galaxy ?”

“We do. How do you feel about homemade pizza?” She held out her hand with the obvious intention of soothing Timmy’s anxiety.

This was why he was fighting feelings that just kept growing for the woman. She stepped forward with her whole heart on full display. Blake couldn’t help but—he wouldn’t use the word love, exactly—care for her more and more because of it.

It took Timmy a long moment to decide to trust her. When he put his hand in hers, she folded her fingers around his smaller ones. “I like it.”

Blake was amazed at her patience.

“Good. I’ll see you kids later, then.”

After making sure Andee, Reece, and Timmy were cleaned up from the rest of the afternoon spent brushing down the horses and settling them in with food and water for the night, Blake left them in the guesthouse, putting together a puzzle.

“Your mom should be here any minute.” Not Timmy’s mom, of course. That was a slip of the tongue, but Timmy didn’t seem to notice. “Stay out of trouble, okay?”

“Okay,” all three said together.

Blake walked out into the summer evening with its cooling temperatures, surprised at how good it would feel to be a father of three, even though Andee and Reece weren’t technically his. Suddenly, curious about Malorie’s past with her ex, he wondered why the man had left. He hadn’t heard the kids talk about their dad. They deserved more than an absentee father. It wasn’t right.

If Malorie were his wife—

Don’t go there, buddy.

He passed the woman he suddenly wanted to get to know better on the path to the main house. He almost stopped to ask about her ex and why the guy wasn’t in the twins’ lives. She slowed but turning on her heel and walking backward a few steps, said, “I left coffee in the coffeemaker. Nathan said he wasn’t hungry. Get him to eat something, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, biting his tongue at the questions he wanted to ask.

When she spun around and continued on, just for a moment, he wished he was spending the evening with her and the kids rather than his miserable brother. Would she talk about her past if he asked?

Another night, perhaps.

Grappling with how much he was beginning to envision a future with Malorie, he shook his head. She was here now, but when Nathan was better and didn’t need a nurse’s care anymore, she would be on to her next assignment. He and Timmy would be better off if they didn’t get attached. He’d be better off, now that he knew which direction he was going, using his spare time outlining the new Timmy book so he could send it off to his editor and lock in the much-needed advance for his and Timmy’s bank account.

When he peeked into Nathan’s cubicle, his brother was flipping through the channels on the small television Jonas had hung on the wall before disappearing into town. “Hungry?”

Nathan shrugged.

“I’m making hamburgers if you want one.” They used to eat homemade hamburgers all the time when they were kids.

“I’ll have one.” Nathan shut off the TV and tossed the remote on the over-bed table. “Where’s Timmy?”

“He’s spending the evening with Malorie and the twins.” Heading for the kitchen to get started on their burgers, Blake had only gone a step or two when Nathan grabbed his crutches and carefully maneuvered himself out of bed.

He’d noticed Malorie had been leaving the bed rails down the last day or two. At least during the day. Nathan, true to form, didn’t like being escorted to the bathroom and then back to bed. Blake was pretty sure he wouldn’t like that, either, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep an eye on his brother while he was trying to balance on his crutches.

By the time Nathan sat cautiously at the table, Blake had plated the burgers and poured them both a glass of orange juice.

“We need to talk—”

Without looking in his direction, Nathan picked up his sandwich. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Oh, but there is, brother,” Blake said with quiet insistence. That got Nathan’s attention. “The financials don’t lie.” When Nathan put his burger down, a storm brewing in the stare he leveled, Blake held up his hand to ward off his argument. At least for the time it would take to lay his cards on the table.

Blake pushed his plate aside. One heavy discussion at a time. He’d wait to mention the discrepancy until Jonas could be part of the conversation. “I haven’t gone all the way through the ledgers, and I’m not blaming any of us for the ranch’s financial troubles. What’s done is done. More important is what we’re going to do about it. We have to come up with a solution that we can all live with and that will put the Triple L back in the black. Adding two mares to the herd was a good move on Jonas’s part.”

Pressing his lips together, Nathan leaned back in his chair. If he wasn’t going to talk, Blake had enough to say for both of them. “Let’s pick two or three things we can do that will bring in an income without a huge outlay of funds.”

Nathan crossed his arms, but didn’t object, so Blake continued. “We could rent out the pastures. And we have at least a dozen empty stalls. We can board horses.”

If he sounded desperate for his brother to see another future for the ranch than the one that was taking the Triple L down, it was because he was.

“I’m tired.” Nathan stood and slowly made his way back to bed.

Malorie would come later and get him ready for his meds and sleep. Defeated, Blake let him be. For now, he promised. They would have this conversation again.

Once Nathan was in bed, Blake put his dinner and the orange juice he’d pushed to the side on the table by his bed. Nathan didn’t look at him. He only continued his previous channel surfing.

It was what his brother did. He ignored a problem to make it go away, but the decline of the ranch wouldn’t go away.

What Nathan didn’t know was that the more he dug in his heels, the more Blake was determined to find a solution to the ranch’s problems. Not for his brothers, but for his parents’ dream of building a sanctuary for their family.

Sitting at the table, he gave up—for now—and while he ate dinner, he started the outline for Timmy, the Superhero Comes Home . He was still sitting there, fleshing out the plot and secondary characters, when Malorie came in. Timmy was right behind her.

Gathering up his notebook, his gaze locked with hers as he gestured toward Nathan. For just a moment, his pulse leaped. “I couldn’t get him to eat, but he’s, um, been asleep about forty-five minutes.”

“Okay, thanks,” she whispered and finally broke their connection when she went to do her final checks for the night.

He watched her disappear behind the makeshift cubicle wall and wished the feeling that he wasn’t alone anymore would stop growing. Timmy liked Malorie. And Tina would approve. He shook his head at the sudden notion.

Nudging Timmy out the door, he pointed them toward the apartment over the barn. “I need your help, kiddo.”

“With the truck? I’m already helping with that.” Timmy said matter-of-factly, then yawned.

Just because Nathan was being uncooperative with him didn’t mean his brother was completely unmovable. He hoped.

Blake patted Timmy on the shoulder. “No. It’s something else.” But first, “Are you sure you’re ready to leave our house in Sedona? More than anything, you want to move here to the ranch?”

He didn’t want either one of them to have any regrets.

“It would be awesome to move here,” Timmy said emphatically, his eyes lighting up.

“Okay, then, we’ll talk about it more tomorrow.” They climbed the stairs to the apartment and went inside. “Off to bed with you.”

The grin that spread across Timmy’s face was all the encouragement Blake needed to find a way to change Nathan’s mind, then pack up everything they owned and move to the Triple L.

He put the notebook on the table. His brothers liked Timmy. And Reece and Andee did too. Timmy liked them. With a little coaching, maybe the kids could help convince his brother to break down his blockade and become a partner in improving the ranch’s chances of survival.

Okay, he couldn’t do that and hang on to his hard-won integrity. Using the kids to influence his brother’s decision was worse than crashing his dad’s truck. There would be another way.

Unfortunately, if he couldn’t change Nathan’s mind, come September, instead of reversing the ranch’s downward spiral, they would be putting up a For Sale sign.

*

The next day, after taking care of the horses and letting them out to graze in the pasture closest to the house, Blake had all three kids in the shed with him, working on the truck. Restoring classic vehicles was one of the many jobs he’d tried after getting kicked off the ranch. At the time, he’d planned to go back to the Triple L and prove to his brothers he was not that punk kid who was always in trouble.

But the years passed. He met Tina. And well—He was here now, sixteen years later.

“Say, guys,” Blake said, an idea forming in his mind. Raising the hood to further assess the damage to the engine, he asked, “If you could do anything while you’re here on the ranch, what would it be?” Better. No manipulation. “Andee, what would you like to do?”

She wiped her hands on her pants. Blake handed her a rag. Malorie would approve of this approach. “I love the horses, but I like my mountain bike better. Mom got it for me for Christmas. Riding it on trails around the pastures would be awesome.”

There was an idea he hadn’t considered. Mountain biking. On the Triple L. Except for trail upkeep, that wouldn’t cost a dime.

“How about you, Reece?” Blake knew what Timmy’s answer would be. Horses, horses, and more horses.

Andee handed her brother the rag. “I want to go camping by the lake. Take a tent and everything.”

“I would like that too.” Blake smiled. This was way better than arguing with Nathan.

The door to the shed opened. Speak of the devil. Nathan stood in the doorway, leaning heavily on his crutches. Malorie hovered behind him.

“What’s going on here?” Nathan demanded.

Blake stepped between his brother and the kids. “Hold on, Nathan. There’s no need to get excited.” He took a deep breath, glad to see Nathan followed his example. “Since I broke it, I’m fixing Dad’s truck. The kids are helping.”

“No one said you could do that,” Nathan said through gritted teeth. “I want you to stop.”

For a minute, Blake thought his brother was going to have a stroke in addition to a fractured pelvis.

“Let me help you, Nathan.” Malorie slipped her arm around his waist. She edged him toward a chair against the wall. “Here, have a seat.”

Nathan let her lead. At least the dude wasn’t shouting or demanding he get the hell off the property, like he did that night sixteen years ago.

Blake frowned. Was Malorie hugging his brother?

“Whatever you’re doing, stop it,” Nathan repeated, then held out his hand. “Give me the keys.”

Blake opened his mouth to tell his brother he didn’t have a say in the matter. He had amends to make, whether Nathan liked it or not.

“Hi, guys. What’s up?” Jonas asked innocently, capturing all their attention from the doorway. “I thought I heard loud voices.”

From the sharp assessment in Jonas’s gaze, he wasn’t an accidental, innocent bystander in their escalating encounter.

Nathan had no trouble filling their brother in. “He’s messing with Dad’s truck. I told him to stop.” He barely took a breath. “I want him to leave.”

“I see.” With a speculating look, Jonas turned to Blake. The anger that was boiling over in Nathan was missing. Blake, not for the first time since his return, wondered what their big brother was up to. “Are you going to back away from the truck and leave?”

In other words, do as he was told?

Blake straightened his shoulders. “No. I’m going to fix it.”

Jonas turned to Timmy. “Do you have a deck of cards, little man?” Timmy nodded. “Go get it for me, okay?”

Stepping aside, Jonas let Timmy slip past as he hurried out the door. “Do you two remember how Dad used to settle arguments between us?”

“Sure,” Blake said and had a feeling he knew where Jonas, who was the most like their dad, was going.

Nathan scowled.

Timmy came back and handed Jonas the deck. “Now kids,” he said to Timmy and Reece and Andee, who’d gathered close. “When you can’t agree on something important, our dad always said the way to settle things was—high card wins.”

Blake glanced at Malorie. She stood next to Nathan, no longer hugging him. Of course, she was too professional to get involved with her patient, but it was disturbing to realize that the thought had nearly taken him out.

“You first. Age over beauty,” Jonas said and spread the deck in front of Nathan.

Pressing his lips together after an exasperated sigh, Nathan pulled a card, but didn’t turn it over.

“Now you, Blake.” He picked a card.

The laughter lines fanning out from Jonas’s eyes deepened. “Okay, turn them over.”

Blake had the five of clubs. Disappointment pushed at his chest as Nathan grinned in triumph. Until he showed his card. A two of diamonds.

“Well,” Jonas collected their cards. “That settles the problem. Blake, keep the keys. It looks like you’ll be staying and fixing Dad’s truck to get it back on the road.”

Blake didn’t dare look at Malorie to see what she thought of their dad’s solution to settling his boys’ problems. He couldn’t help but wonder what she would say if he and his brothers drew cards—high card got the lady. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best idea. But, asking her out on a date was a good one. The only question was, would she think so too?