A Cowboy's Heart

“No, Dad, I’m not in love with Willow Michaels. She needs help, and I need a job.”

“I need to take a nap, and you need to find out why Jenna didn’t come home on the bus. She hasn’t even fed the chickens.”

“Okay, Dad, I’ll go check on her.” Clint stood, towering over his dad’s frail body. Before he left, he leaned and hugged the old man who had hurt them all so much.

Forgiving had been taken care of. Forgetting was getting easier.

Now he had to go home, to the foreman’s house and get it ready for the boys. He tried not to think about that house not being his, or about the home he’d grown up in not being a fit place for two boys.

As he climbed into his truck, he tried, but couldn’t quite block the thoughts returning, thoughts of Jenna leaving the boys. He tried not to think about her being gone for a year, and what could happen in that time. And he tried not to think about living a dirt trail away from Willow Michaels—who was way out of his league.

Six in the morning, Willow was barely awake, and as she glanced out the kitchen window she saw two little boys run across the lawn, heading toward the barn. Two days ago Clint had asked her if she would be okay with the twins living on the farm, and now they were here. She hadn’t thought about them being here so soon.

The bigger problem now was that the boys were running for the pen that held her big old bull, Dolly. She set her glass of water down on the counter and hurried for the front door. Janie, sitting in the living room, looked up from her Bible, brows raised over the top of her reading glasses.

“Is there a fire?”

“No, but there are two little boys heading for Dolly’s pen.”

Dolly was her first bull. At bull-riding events they called him Skewer, because it was easier on a cowboy’s ego to get thrown from a “Skewer” than a “Dolly.” Gentle or not, she didn’t want the two little boys in that pen.

As she ran across the lawn, she glanced toward the foreman’s house. A small sedan was parked out front, the same one she’d seen easing down the driveway yesterday. No one was outside. The boys, silvery-blond hair glinting in the sun, weren’t slowing down. They obviously had a plan they wanted to carry out before the adults realized they’d escaped.

Willow hurried after them, rocks biting into her bare feet. If she didn’t catch them in time…She shook off that thought, that image. She would get to them in time.

“Don’t go in there,” she shouted, cupping her mouth with her hands, hoping the words would carry and not get swept away on the early morning breeze.

The boys stopped, turning sun-browned faces in her direction, sweet faces with matching Kool-Aid mustaches. They were armed with paper airplanes and toy soldiers.

Willow’s heart ka-thumped against her ribs. Fear and remnants of loss got tangled inside her. She had to stop, take a deep breath, and move forward. The way she’d been moving forward for the last five years, one step at a time. Rebuilding her life.

The boys were watching her, waiting.

She reached them and they stared up at her. Their eyes were wide and gray, familiar because up close they looked a lot like Clint Cameron.

Their gazes shot past her. She turned as Clint and a young woman walked out of the foreman’s house. The two, brother and sister, paused on the front porch and then headed in her direction.

“Uh-oh,” one of the boys mumbled and his thumb went to his mouth.

“Don’t suck your thumb,” the other shoved him with his elbow, pushing him hard enough to knock the slighter-built of the two off-balance.

“You two do know that it isn’t safe to go in the barn or around the bulls, right?” Willow knelt in front of them, her heart catching.

They nodded. The smaller boy tried to hide the thumb in his mouth by covering it with his other hand. Their twin gazes slid from her face to something behind her. Clint?

She stood and turned, ready to greet him and his sister. The little boys scurried to the side of their mother, their hands reaching for hers.

“Clint.” Willow didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t know that she wanted to say more.

“Willow, these two rowdy guys are my nephews. This is my sister, Jenna.”

Jenna, brown hair streaked with blond highlights and petite frame clothed in shorts and a T-shirt, held out her hand. “Nice to meet you. And I’m really thankful to you for giving Clint a place to keep the boys.”

“You’re welcome, Jenna. We’re glad we can do it.”

Willow squatted to put herself at eye level with the two little boys, matching bookends with identical looks of sadness and fear. Their mother was leaving. Willow fought the urge to pull them close, to promise that everything would be okay.

She thought about her own fears, her own longings. It all paled in comparison to what this family was going through.

“My name is Willow. What are your names?”

“Timmy,” the bigger of the two pushed at his brother again, “and this is Davie.”

“David,” the boy mumbled, looking down at the ground.

Insecure? She understood insecure, and how it felt to not know where she was supposed to be, or what she should do.

Janie had joined them, and she was hugging Clint’s sister, holding her tight for a long minute while the boys held tight to their mother. When Janie turned back around, tears shimmered on the surface of her eyes.

“Jenna doesn’t have a thing to worry about, does she, Willow? We’ll be here to help Clint with the boys until she can make it home.”

Willow smiled at the boys again. Just little boys, and they were going to have to say goodbye to their mother. She’d been ten when her parents sent her away, forcing her to leave their home in Europe and attend a special school in the States.

She knew how hard it was to let go of what was familiar. She also knew that Jenna’s heart had to be breaking, because nothing hurt a mother worse than letting go of a child.

“Of course we’ll help.” Willow ignored Clint, because she couldn’t look into his eyes. She couldn’t acknowledge, not even to herself, how hard this was going to be.

Janie smiled, her brown eyes soft. Janie knew.

Time to escape. Willow ruffled the blond hair of the smaller boy, and he looked up at her, gray eyes seeking something, probably answers. She didn’t have any. She could pray, but a child didn’t want to hear that, because he wouldn’t understand what God could do. At his age, the little guy just wanted his mom to stay with him.

“I need to get my shoes and get some work done.” Willow smiled at Jenna, who seemed unsure and probably needed reassurance. “Don’t worry about the boys, or Clint. We have plenty of room here.”

“Thank you.” And then Jenna hugged her.

“I’m sure we’ll see you before you go.” Willow pulled away, from Jenna and the situation. “Boys, remember, stay out of the pens.”

Clint started to follow her, but she stopped him. “I can handle this. You spend time with your sister.”

“You’re sure?”

Positive. What she needed was time alone, to think about how her life had just changed. What she didn’t need was Clint Cameron invading space she had carved out for herself. And what she couldn’t do was look into his gray eyes, eyes like those of his nephews, but seeing so much more.

A few hours later Jenna drove down the road, and Clint could only pray that God would keep her safe. Janie had the boys, feeding them cookies and drying their tears. He was going in search of Willow to see if she needed help with anything, and knowing she would probably say that she didn’t. She had a way of handling things.

Country music blared from the office at the end of the barn. Clint peeked around the corner of the office door. She wasn’t there. An empty soda can sat on her desk, along with the wrapper from a chocolate bar, more than one. He smiled, thinking of her sitting there with music blaring, eating chocolate. What did that do for women?

So much for the calm, cool facade that she’d fooled them with in the bull-riding world. He now knew her weakness. Ms. Calm-Cool-and-Collected ate chocolate and didn’t like to share her personal space.