The Rancher's Texas Match

He shook his head, but he stepped a little closer.

“I love you,” she whispered close to his ear. She brushed a kiss across his head, and he didn’t move away.

“I love you, Aunt Macy.” With those words her heart grabbed hold of hope.

“Did you sneak away from the cabin?”

He nodded and again swiped at tears that threatened to fall.

“Did someone upset you or hurt you?” Stupid question. Of course he was upset and hurt. But was this a new hurt or lingering pain?

It was like trying to put together a puzzle, but without all of the pieces. How she wanted all of the pieces! She wanted him whole. Sometimes she saw glimpses of the Colby she’d known before the accident. But the glimpses were fleeting.

He sat down on the floor in front of her, and she took that as an invitation and sat next to him.

What would a mom do? She desperately wanted to think like a mom, be a mom. She scooted close, but she didn’t put her arms around him. She waited, knowing he needed time.

“Diego called me a big baby.”

Diego, not much older than Colby. But with a different story and different baggage to work through.

“He’s wrong,” she told her nephew. “You’re tough. Really tough.”

“Ben took up for me. He told Diego to be nice, but Diego said that I’m not nice to you.”

“You are nice to me.” She covered his hand with hers. “We’re going to make it through this.”

“Because we’re family now. That’s what Eleanor says.”

Eleanor Mack was counselor and house mother of Cabin One. Macy smiled and told herself to thank the other woman.

“Yes, we’re family.” She wanted to hold him. He smelled of the outdoors, of hay and livestock. He had red cheeks from playing in the sun. He was everything to her.

“I have to go.” He stood, looking down at her with such a serious expression. For a moment she saw his father in him. Grant’s seriousness. Her heart ached at the thought. “I’ll walk you back.”

He reached for her hand. It might as well have been her heart.

“Eleanor says I can have a pass to go to church on Sunday.”

“I like that idea.” Macy glanced down at the little man leading her through the house.

“Me, too. Do you think you can tell me another story?”

“I’m sure I can.”

“Ben says you’re going to read stories to us. He said he’d come with me.”

She surprised herself by smiling. “That’s fine.”

“He’s not too old for stories?” Colby asked as they walked out the front door. It was warm for the first week of October, but a light breeze blew, bringing country scents of cut grass, livestock and drying leaves.

“No. We’re never too old for stories.”

“That’s good.” They walked along the path to Cabin One, Colby swinging his hand that held hers. “Ben said we’re going to move to another ranch. I don’t know if any of us want to move. We like it here.”

“But moving can sometimes be good. There will be more room for more boys at the new ranch.”

Colby stopped walking and looked up at her, his green eyes narrowed against the glare of the sun. “But if they come here, it means there’s something wrong in their homes.”

“That might be true, Colby. But it’s good that there’s a place for them to go.”

He continued walking, his hand still holding tight to hers. “But it would be better if moms and dads...”

“If they never went away?” she asked quietly.

He nodded, but he didn’t answer.

“You’re right, that would be better.” She kept walking, trying hard not to give in to the tears burning her eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He didn’t answer.

She left Colby with Eleanor. That moment, walking away from him, was as painful as the first day she’d left him at the ranch. The difference was that this time he hugged her goodbye. That first day he’d walked away without a word, without even looking back.

That parting hug gave her hope.

When she got back to the main house, Katie Ellis was waiting to give her a ride to the meeting where they would hopefully find that it would be no trouble to track down a few men who hadn’t been seen or heard from in decades.