The Rancher’s Second Chance Read online

  Nancy: He's got a game. See you then!

  Cole cursed and shoved his phone back in his pocket. She’d set him up. Straight up trapped him.

  And his family wondered why he’d joined the Army the second he could.

  * * *

  Cole pulled up to Nancy's house and threw his truck into park. He couldn't help but survey the scene the same way he would in the desert—taking note of sight lines and blind spots and tallying up possible ambush points. Mentally prepping himself for the battle before him. But instead of shifting sand and mud-brick buildings, he saw a small yard dominated by a rusted metal swing set, and a narrow driveway peppered with the detritus of kids. Bikes and trucks were scattered everywhere, and he caught sight of a deflated beach ball snagged in one of his sister's anemic rose bushes.

  Nancy was older than him by eight years, a remove that wasn't such a big deal now but had felt insurmountable when he was a child. She'd been more like an extra mother than a playmate, and her quiet exasperation with Cole's childhood antics had morphed into full-on contempt when he'd reached his wayward adolescence.

  But once Devon was born, she'd changed towards him. Parenthood was common ground, and she'd used it to attempt to reconnect with Cole, mainly through Trish.

  But Nancy's overtures never felt genuine, and Cole knew that she only made them when she knew her husband Richard wouldn't be around to ask her why she bothered.

  Sergeant Richard Kepler of the Crane County Police Department didn't like Cole. He hadn’t liked him when he was a “juvenile delinquent,” and he seemed to dislike him even more now.

  The feeling was mutual.

  The only reason he'd agreed to swing by was that Nancy had promised Richard—”Dick” as Cole never tired of calling him to his face—would be at one of those charity softball games between the police and fire departments. Cole eyed the thunderclouds hovering at the western horizon and warned them to stay there until the game was done.

  “Ready to see Aunt Nan?” he asked Devon as he unstrapped him from his car seat.

  Devon gave him a solemn nod.

  “Love the enthusiasm, bud. Me, too.” He hefted his son in one arm and the diaper bag in the other, then mounted the steps to the front door, which whipped open before he could even knock.

  His sister looked tired and as nervous as Cole remembered her being around exam time back in the day. He wondered what test she was trying to pass this morning.

  “Cole!” she trilled. “And look at you, Devvy! Oh no, what happened to your arm?”

  “Got a bonk,” Devon said, waving his arm about.

  Cole braced himself for his sister's interrogation, but she just laughed. “Yeah, that's boys for you. Hunter just got his arm out of a cast last month.” She laughed again. “I tell him, you're the oldest, you're supposed to set a good example, then I catch all three of them playing the 'step-on-each-other's-head' game. I swear, that's why sports teams are a godsend, because if you don't keep boys running from dawn until midnight, they start dreaming up new ways to kill themselves. Oh wait, what am I doing? Come in! Come in!”

  “Thanks.” Cole angled his body sideways to fit through the door. “Where are the little hell-raisers?”

  “Boys!” Nancy shouted, and Cole swore she briefly turned into their mother. “Get down here!”

  There was the sound of an avalanche, and then the three sandy-haired Kepler boys bounced into the kitchen. “Uncle Cole!” Hunter waved his good arm. “You're back!”

  “Is that baby Devvy?” the youngest, Jayden, wanted to know.

  “He's not a baby anymore. Duh!” Middle brother Mason gave his younger brother a shove and rolled his eyes. “God, don't your eyes work?”

  “All right, that's enough.” Nancy grabbed a dishtowel from the counter and flicked it at her sons. “Make yourselves scarce. Go outside or something.”

  “Ma, it's raining.” Mason's eyes rolled again.

  Nancy glanced at the window. “Where'd that come from? It wasn't raining a second ago.”

  “Can we go down to the basement?” Jayden hopped up and down.

  Nancy heaved a sigh. “Fine. You can play video games for one hour only. I'm setting a timer, too, so don't try to negotiate with me. I happen to know you have a book report due this week, Hunter. Jayden, do you have your spelling words memorized yet?”

  The three boys looked at each other, suddenly a united front. “I'll help him study,” Hunter offered.

  “Me, too,” added Mason with a sly look. “If we can have an hour and a half?”

  Nancy threw up her hands. “Go!”

  The three of them turned tail and hurtled down into the basement, whooping the whole way.

  Looking mildly shell-shocked, Nancy turned to Cole. “Okay then! Can I get you a drink?”

  “Is that what I have to look forward to?” He hefted Devon higher. His toddler was getting heavier by the second.

  “Pretty much.” Nancy sighed. She stepped forward and ruffled Devon's hair. “Or maybe not. Look at how calm this guy is.”

  Cole angled his head to look at Devon's face. “Uh oh. I know that look. Buddy, are you sleepy?”

  “Is it naptime?” Nancy asked. “You can put him down in the guest room, I just got everything off the bed in there, so it's perfect. Wait! Here!” She gave a manic little laugh. “I just found this when I was cleaning. Jayden's old baby monitor. I'll go plug it in, and you can keep the other one with you.”

  “Sure.” He followed Nancy and stepped around her as she plugged in the monitor on a wicker vanity. “Thanks,” he whispered once she'd set it up.

  She pressed her finger to her mouth and shut the door quietly behind her, leaving Cole and Devon alone.

  Cole let out a long sigh, thankful for the breather his son had given him. Though nothing bad had happened—yet—the tension between him and his sister was enough to make him wish he could lie down too.

  “Are you good, little dude?” he asked, once he'd tucked Devon in at the center of the full-sized bed. “Please don't go falling out of this, okay?”

  “Fish.”

  “No fish now. Sleep now.” He kissed Devon's forehead. “I'll be right outside.”

  Devon's eyes fluttered closed. Cole stood watching him for a minute.

  Then, with a sigh, he opened the door to rejoin his sister.

  Cole sat at the edge of her uncomfortable kitchen chairs as Nancy poured coffee for them both and rattled on about the boys' various extracurriculars. He tried to answer her questions about the ranch, but he could tell she wasn't really listening. With all the awkward pauses and forced laughter, Cole couldn't help but feel as if Nancy was sneaking around behind her husband's back. As if seeing her brother was the same as carrying on a shameful affair. The longer it went on, the more it set his teeth on edge.

  After a full hour of suffering through her aggressively impersonal small talk, Cole had enough. He stood up, ready to make excuses about having to get back to the ranch.

  Right as the front door swung open.

  “Oh, Richard!' Nancy's hands fluttered anxiously at her sides as she looked from Cole to her husband and back again. “I thought you had a game.”

  Dick stood in the doorway of his kitchen eyeing Cole for a long while before he finally answered his wife. “They called it. There was a lightning strike five miles from the field.” He glanced at Cole and took a long, purposeful drink from his water bottle. Cole got the feeling he was enjoying making them both squirm. “So, how long have you been over?”

  “What does it matter, Dick?” Cole grinned.

  Richard narrowed his eyes and looked at Cole's sister. “Has he been around the boys?”

  When Nancy shook her head, it was with just a bit too much vehemence. “No, they said hello but then went down into the gaming room as soon as the rain started.”

  “Why?” Cole added. “Do you think I'm contagious or something?”

  “Yeah. I'm afraid they might catch juvenile delinquency.” Richard's smile didn't so
ften his words at all.

  “Well, I was thinking of going down there and kicking their asses in Call of Duty later,” Cole couldn't help but needle his brother-in-law. “Quality time with Uncle Cole.”

  Richard flushed red and looked like he was about to kick him out of his house when Devon's voice bubbled up from the monitor. “I waked up! I waked up, Daddy!”

  “'Scuse me.” Cole beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen and went to the guest room. “Hey, little man,” he called softly.

  Devon's thumb was in his mouth, something he only did when he was nervous. The toddler looked around, eyes brimming with tears. “Hey, bud, did you forget where you were? We're at Aunt Nan's house, and you fell asleep. Everything is okay.”

  “Home?” Devon sniffled.

  Cole picked him up and smoothed his sweaty hair. “Not quite yet, buddy.”

  “Home!” Devon balled his good fist and looked ready to let loose with a stubborn wail.

  “Devon, not now,” Cole said immediately. “We'll go home when I'm ready. Let's get you a snack now, and you can show me how you can be a good boy. You want fish?”

  “Fish.”

  “How many fish?”

  “A million.”

  Cole chuckled. “Then let's get started with that.”

  He hefted Devon onto his hip and grabbed the diaper bag with the other hand, then headed back into the kitchen to see that Nancy and Richard were both staring right at him.

  “What?” he asked before catching sight of the baby monitor on the counter.

  “What a good boy,” Nancy cooed to Devon. She looked at Cole. “I thought you were going to have a meltdown on your hands, but you handled that like a champ.”

  Cole's ears flushed hot. “You heard all that, huh?” He swung Devon down into a chair and pulled his snack cup from the bag. “He just likes to know what's going on. Right, bud? Likes to know what's going on and likes Goldfish.” He opened the cup easily and shook it at Devon. “Count for me?”

  Devon pinched one cracker in a careful grip then popped it into his mouth. “One,” he mumbled, mouth full.

  Cole smiled. “Keep going.” He looked up and caught Richard's eye. His brother- in-law was watching him with a funny expression on his face. Cole narrowed his eyes.

  And to his surprise, Richard looked away first.

  “Ahem.” Richard cleared his throat and then coughed into the back of his hand. “Let me see if I can't start over again.” He wiped his hand and then extended it to Cole. “It's good to see you again.”

  Cole allowed his brother-in-law to pump his hand up and down once but then pulled it away. “Is it, Dick? Is it good to see me?”

  Richard coughed again. “Nancy tells me you're helping the Jensen girl with her ranch?”

  Still baffled, Cole nodded. “As best I can. We've got a lot of repairs to do and not a lot of time to do them.” He hesitated, wondering how much he should share with his brother-in-law, but the man seemed suddenly humble and interested. “Someone reported the ranch for all these violations before Sammie even moved back. So she had no idea what she was walking in to. She managed to swing an extension from the judge, but...” Cole shook his head. “Damn, it's like as soon as one thing is taken care of, another thing breaks on me. Like dominoes falling one right after another.”

  “Life's like that sometimes.”

  “I realize that. Better than most.” He put his hand on Devon's head to steady himself.

  “Sure you do.” Richard cleared his throat again. “Fatherhood seems to suit you, though.”

  Cole widened his eyes as Richard's sudden shift in attitude became clear to him. His brother-in-law's eyes had shone with a newfound respect the second he'd showed him he was a good father.

  “'Well, thanks.” He nodded. “That means something, coming from you.”

  Something passed between them then. Cole could feel it. Richard went from squaring off against him to moving into his corner.

  And Cole really liked having him there. “So, let me ask you something.”

  “Sure thing.” His brother-in-law looked pleased to offer his advice.

  “This is just one example, mind you. But there was a mold problem in the bunkhouse back before Sammie moved in. Pipe burst, water everywhere, you know the drill.”

  “And no one there to see it till the mold sets in.” Richard looked concerned.

  “Right. It was a big job. Clean-up was a nightmare.” Cole raked his hand down his face. Was it worth asking Richard this? What if he told him to sack up? To roll with it and be a man because that's life. He took a deep breath. “And I swear to you on this guy's head.” He touched Devon's downy one. “That the literal day after we finished, there was another leak.”

  “Same place?

  “Nuh uh. A brand new pipe, but it flooded the same location.”

  “That's odd,” Nancy piped up.

  “It is. And that's not the only part of it. I haven't told Sammie, but stuff keeps going missing. Always what I need for the day's repairs, too. At first I thought I was just being forgetful because I got a lot on my mind, but last week I misplaced a damn generator. Now how would a generator up and grow legs?”

  Richard tapped his finger to his lips. “Any problems with the animals?”

  “What?”

  “Unexplained sickness? Lethargy?”

  A jolt went down Cole's spine and he stiffened. “One of the mares started refusing food right after she gave birth. We had to bottle feed the foal and nearly lost the mama.”

  “Is she on the mend?”

  “It's taken a fortune in vet bills, but she's on the upswing.”

  Richard gave him a long look. “You made any enemies, Cole?”

  “Any new ones, you mean?” Cole laughed. “Not that I know of.” He paused. “Course there's always Sammie's cousin Pete, but I wouldn't call him a new enemy. We go back a long way.”

  “And he wants the ranch, doesn't he?”

  “He's not getting it though. Not as long as we get those repairs done by deadline.” His shoulders sagged a little. “Though at the rate we're going, that's getting more iffy by the day.”

  “If y'all are tied up making repairs, sinking all your money into replacing equipment that keeps breaking, that makes it real hard for you to be able to meet the county's deadline, doesn't it?” Richard's keen interest reminded Cole that his brother-in-law was a cop. “And if he's got you up against a hard wall here with that two-month deadline, my instincts are telling me you're going to keep having more repairs popping up.”

  “You think Peter Jensen is sabotaging us?” Cole couldn't help but laugh at the idea of fussy Peter Jensen in his shiny shoes creeping around a ranch. “That man is a lot of things, but he's not one for getting his hands dirty.”

  “Maybe he pays someone who is,” Nancy said softly. She gave Richard a beseeching look. “Isn't that something you could look into, Richard? For Cole and Devon's sake?”

  “Twenny-two, twenny-eight, one hundred!” Devon bellowed around a mouthful of Goldfish.

  Richard took another long sip of his water as he stared at Cole first, and then his wife. “Sure is,” he finally said. “I'm not a detective, but that doesn't mean I can't do some sleuthing.”

  Cole's mouth fell open in shock. He closed it quickly. “Well, Di-, er, Richard.” His brother-in-law raised his eyebrows at the correct name. “I'd really appreciate that, and I know Sammie would, too. Just do one thing for me?”

  Richard gave a sharp nod.

  “Let me know what you find first, will you? Before you, I don't know, do anything about it?”

  “You want to take justice into your own hands, Cole?”

  “I think I can handle it. Things are...different now.”

  Richard set down his water bottle. “I think they are, too,” he said, in a gentle voice Cole had never heard from him before. “And I think I like them this way.” He extended his hand to Cole.

  This time Cole took it gladly and met his brother -in- law's ey
es as they both solemnly shook hands. “I got your six, soldier,” Richard told him, snapping off a quick salute.

  “Richard, you're a goofball,” Nancy chuckled. “We're not in the Army. We're family!”

  Seventeen

  “Barefoot and in the kitchen? I've gotta say, this is both weird for me and also a gigantic turn-on.” Cole swept into the kitchen and clutched Sammie to his side before helping himself to a generous handful of her ass.

  Sammie swatted him and moved back to the stove. “Cole? Don't be mad.”

  “I could never be mad at you, darlin'.”

  Sammie grinned. “Well, I may have royally fucked up,” she stated with her tongue planted firmly in her cheek. “But my intentions were honorable.”

  Just like she hoped he would, Cole laughed to hear his own words echoed back at him. “Does your fuckup have anything to do with that flour on your cheek?”

  She absentmindedly swiped at it. “It has everything to do with it. I'm, uh, having some guests over this weekend.”

  Just saying it made her heart leap back into her throat. It had been lodged there ever since she—in an out-of-nowhere fit of friendliness—had rushed out into the drive at sunset to intercept the ranch hands before they headed for their trucks and had blurted out an invitation to her party.

  “My mother did this,” she rushed on. “I just remembered it when I talked with Cheryl. She'd throw a big dinner party for the hands, not a fancy sit down thing, but a casual buffet thing. Pots of chili, cornbread, burgers...you know.” She realized she was talking way too fast and forced herself to slow down. “I didn't realize why she did it till now.”

  “What'd you realize?” Cole wanted to know.

  Sammie took a deep breath. “How important it is to have people in your life. And keep them there.”

  Cole's expression shifted from amusement to thoughtfulness. “That sounds good,” he said softly. “Maybe I could invite some people, too?”

  “Who?”

  “My sister and her family?”