Second-Chance Cowboy

“Yeah. I know. It’s just...well...your last check bounced.”

“I told you why. Sepp didn’t pay me on time. That’s hardly my fault and I need this sink to finish the renovations on my kitchen.” It had taken her a few late nights on Pinterest and home reno sites to figure out exactly which sink would fit in her kitchen. All she needed now was to order it, but Tony was being troublesome and she couldn’t charm him out of it.

“I know.” Tony tugged on the bill of his cap again. “Trouble is, the owner found out about the check and told my boss, Mrs. Fisher, that any more orders from you need to be prepaid.”

“How did George find out?”

“He was going over the books with Mrs. Fisher and saw it. That’s when he told her and she told me.”

And there it was again. The ever-present Walsh influence pushing, once again, at the Rennie fecklessness.

I’m not my father, she reminded herself, stifling a far-too-familiar flush of shame. And I’m trying desperately to fix what he broke.

She knew it would take more than the sale of the land and the house to make up for the thousands of dollars her father had stolen from people. But it was all she could do at this moment. And she was determined to do it right.

But if she didn’t get the sink ordered, she couldn’t finish her kitchen, which meant she couldn’t sell the house.

Despair threatened to wash over her, and she struggled to push it back. One step at a time. And the way things were going, she wasn’t sure when she could get more money. Sepp kept cutting back her hours because he claimed Adana needed them more.

She wanted to yell at him but she had no other options. Dr. Waters had made it very clear that now that Morgan was working at the clinic, the possibility of full-time work was gone.

No one seemed to need her.

“Well, I guess when you own the store, you can do what you want,” Tabitha said with forced humor.

Tony shrugged.

“I’d still like to put in the order for the sink, and when I get enough together to pay for it, I’d like you to put it through,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“You don’t have to pay it all,” Tony said. “Just half.”

Which she didn’t have either.

“Just give me the total amount so I know how much I’ll need.” Brave talk, she thought as she gave him a cautious smile, then left. She knew exactly how much the sink, tiles and countertop would cost and how many shifts it would take her to earn that.

Too many. And now that Sepp had cut her hours back, she wasn’t sure how she was going to ever catch up. Her wages at the Brand and Grill and the vet clinic covered her daily expenses. She depended heavily on her tips for the extras.

As she walked down the street to her truck, she fought down her anger at Sepp’s unreasoning dislike of her, and at a father who had let her and her sister down so badly.

She checked the time and hurried her steps. She made quick work of getting to the clinic and slipping inside.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” she called out to Jenny as she pulled on her lab coat.

“Nope. Pretty quiet. Morgan went out. He got a call from the school about Nathan acting up,” Jenny said as Tabitha joined her in the front office. “Asked me not to tell Dr. Waters, so I’m hoping he stays away on his call long enough for Morgan to come back.” She tut-tutted her disapproval. “Dr. Waters has already made a lot of concessions for him. Only the second day on the job and already—”

She stopped talking as the front door opened and Morgan stepped inside, looking harried.

“Everything okay?” Tabitha asked.

His eyes looked at her, then looked away. “Yeah. Fine.”

The curt tone in his voice told her that, clearly, everything was not fine. So did the frown on his face.

Don’t engage, she told herself. He clearly doesn’t want my help.

“You don’t look fine,” Jenny pressed. “Everything go okay with Nathan?”

Morgan shook his head, the look of concern on his face making Tabitha feel bad for him. “He’s been having a hard time at school,” he said. “I knew it would be a difficult transition for him, but he seemed excited about it at the time. He’s just having trouble settling in.”

“Moving to a new school is tough,” Tabitha added. “I feel sorry for the little guy.”

“I’m sure you would know what he’s dealing with,” Morgan said.

His admission and the faint smile accompanying it startled her. It was the first hint of softness she’d received from him. For a moment she longed to explain to him what had happened all those years ago, but she quashed that. It was so long ago it hardly mattered anymore. Besides, even if she did tell him, that didn’t change the fact of what her father had done to his father. That couldn’t be explained away. She could only fix things by staying on the course she had set for herself.

Then his cell phone rang and Morgan looked at the call display. “Sorry, gotta take this.” He answered the phone as he walked away.

Jenny watched him go, then sighed. “That poor man. He’s got a lot to deal with. Must be rough being a single parent. Too bad there’s not some single girl for him.” She looked over at Tabitha. “Actually, I heard a rumor the other day that you two used to date.”

Date was hardly the word for the deep and abiding feelings she had felt for Morgan, she thought with a touch of melancholy.

They had made plans to get married. Move away from Cedar Ridge. Start a new life away from the expectations of his mother and the reputation of her father.

“That was a long time ago,” Tabitha said. “It was just a high school fling.”

No sooner had she spoken the words than Morgan stepped into the room. From his expression, she guessed he had heard her.

Then the door flew open and a woman rushed in. “My cat got attacked by a dog.” Tabitha recognized Selena Rodriguez, an older woman who owned the Shop Easy. She looked around, eyes wide, her long graying hair damp but pulled up in a clip.

Morgan hurried over, pulling a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket, and did a cursory exam of the cat. “I’ll take him,” he said and glanced over at Tabitha. Cass, the other vet assistant, had left on a job with Dr. Waters, so it was on her to help.

She knew it would happen sooner or later that she would have to work closely with Morgan, and she thought she was prepared for it.

But when she stood across from him at the exam table, their faces covered with masks with only their eyes visible, she felt a momentary discomfort. She was close enough to see the fan of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. Smell his aftershave. He smelled different, took up space in a different way. His shoulders were broader, his hair longer.

Regret washed through her. What if she hadn’t listened to his mother all those years ago? What if she’d had enough confidence in her feelings for Morgan?

But she hadn’t and she didn’t, and she couldn’t spend her life living with regret over might-have-beens.

Then her training took over and she pushed her own emotions aside. He’s not for you. There’s too much between you, she told herself.

Then together they started an IV to anesthetize the cat, then intubated him. As they fell into a routine, and she began prepping the sites, she looked at him as just another vet stitching up some cuts on a cat.

* * *

“Looks like we got done on time.” Cord dropped his hammer into the hook on his pouch as a dually pickup pulling a stock trailer roared onto the yard. “Here comes your horse.”

It was Tuesday evening, and Morgan and his brother had just finished fixing up a makeshift corral to hold Gillian’s horse, Stormy, until Morgan could figure out what to do with it. Cord had offered to board it at the ranch, but Nathan had protested loudly. He wanted Stormy on the yard.