A Ranch to Call Home

Joel wrapped his arm around his sister and hugged her. “It’s a surprise, but a happy one.” He fell silent. The truth wasn’t pretty. “Obviously, you’ve met Caleb.”

“He introduced himself. He knew me, but I—”

“She wondered who I was,” Caleb explained, “and where you and your grandfather were. She wasn’t too thrilled finding a stranger here who knew her name. For a minute there, I thought she might take me down.”

Joel’s lips twisted into a smile. “I don’t know how much Caleb said about himself, but we were friends when I was on the circuit. He comes here occasionally and visits.”

“So that fancy horse trailer I saw outside isn’t yours, but Caleb’s?”

“It is.”

Kaye turned to Caleb. “So what’s your specialty in rodeo?”

Caleb’s expression closed down. “I’ll grab my things and clear out of Kaye’s room.”

He didn’t wait to hear their response but strode into Kaye’s room and gathered the two shirts and jeans hanging in the closet. Snagging his duffel bag, he slung it over his shoulder. He looked around the room. Obviously, her family hadn’t touched anything in here since Kaye left. An old, faded poster from a Petra concert hung on the wall, along with posters for a world-championship rodeo. Dried mums from her high school homecoming and pom-poms hung over the dresser mirror. Yearbooks sat on the nightstand with a stuffed bear perched on top of them. When Caleb had first stayed in this room, he felt odd. But as time passed, it was like coming back and talking to a friend.

When he turned to go, Kaye stood in the door, her duffel bag and backpack slung over her shoulders, staring at him. Joel stood behind her. He felt four times an idiot to be caught mooning after his abrupt retreat from the kitchen. She must wonder at his actions, but she’d blindsided him with her question.

“I think I’ve got everything,” he said, looking around, giving himself time to take a deep breath. When he turned back, he realized there was no way that he could go through the doorway with his things and not press up against Kaye. He backed up, allowing Kaye and Joel into the room.

She put her duffel bag on the bed and brushed back one of the short brown curls that fell on her forehead. “It always stays the same, doesn’t it?” She pointed to the mums. “I guess I need to do some updating.”

Joel put down another duffel bag. “Yeah, I don’t know why you saved Kenny James’s mums.”

“Spoken like a brother. Kenny was fun and he asked me to homecoming my senior year.”

Joel rolled his eyes and looked at Caleb.

“It’s something a girl does.” Caleb remembered the corsage his mother had kept from her wedding before a judge.

“What’s Kenny doing now?” Kaye slipped off her backpack and put it on the bed beside the duffel bag.

Joel shrugged. “His sister claims he’s some bigwig back East. I don’t know if that’s the truth, but he sure was a bust in rodeo.” Joel grinned at Caleb. “The guy flew off the horse the instant the gate opened. He missed his calf in the calf roping, and when he saw the bull he’d pulled to ride, he withdrew.”

“Some guys aren’t cut out to rodeo.” Kaye waved her brother away.

Her words struck a chord in Caleb’s heart, making his doubts roar back to life. He took a deep breath.

“Now, get out of here and let me unpack. I think I’d like to take a shower.”

As Caleb walked out of the room, he heard brother and sister teasing each other. The banter made him smile, reminding him of the exchanges he had with his younger brother, Sawyer. Now that Sawyer had his degree and no longer needed Caleb’s help, there was no reason for Caleb to continue working in the rodeo.

Lately, he’d been dreaming of his own ranch and wondered if that distraction caused the disaster or at least contributed to the accident.

Opening the side door to the horse trailer, Caleb hung his clothes and put his duffel bag on the bunk. He walked out to the corral behind the barn. His horse, Razor, trotted up to him, looking for a treat.

“Sorry, big guy. I don’t have anything.”

The horse nudged him. Razor could always be depended on to bring him out of his funk. “Did you see her? Kaye is home. I’d only seen pictures of her, but meeting her in person—wow.” Absently, he rubbed Razor’s nose as he thought of those blue eyes, which could bore through a man. You weren’t going to hide anything from her.

Too bad he hadn’t met her before Albuquerque.

Razor lifted his head and galloped around the fence. It brought a smile to Caleb’s face.

“I see your horse is in high spirits.” Joel stopped beside Caleb.

Caleb rested his booted foot on the bottom rail of the fence. “How’s your grandfather, really?”

“Doc says he should be fine. They want him to keep his arm in a sling for the next few days, but nothing was broken. Badly bruised, but not broken. How that tractor didn’t do more damage than it did, I don’t know. God was looking out for Gramps.” Joel kept his gaze on Razor.

“That’s for sure. I’m glad I rode out to that pasture.” Caleb still remembered the numbing fear that had raced through him when he’d seen the overturned tractor.

“I’m thankful, too.”

They both kept their cell phones in their back pockets, and it had proved to be a blessing. Caleb had called and Joel had come within ten minutes.

A deep sigh escaped Joel’s mouth. “It’s been a day of surprises.”

An understatement. “Did you know your sister was coming?”

“Not a clue. I talked with her last week, and she mentioned she was feeling stronger but didn’t say anything about coming home. The equine therapy has helped. First time I saw her in the hospital in San Antonio after she’d been wounded, it shook me, and that was weeks after the explosion. It gets to a guy’s gut to see his little sister so broken.” He looked down at his clasped hands and took a deep breath. “Seeing her now, it’s mind-blowing.”

“And she’s home.”

Joel laughed. “Yeah. I often wondered what she was going to do after the army, if she would come home.”

“You have part of the question answered.” Which was more than Caleb knew about his own life. “Are you glad she’s here?”

“Of course, but I’m not sure if she sees it that way. She was good at what she did. The career she loved is over thanks to a suicide bomber, and she comes home to find—” he swept his arm in a wide arc “—this mess with Gramps and the drought. Not to mention she doesn’t even know yet about the charity rodeo that I somehow got appointed the head honcho.” He blew out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “How that happened, I still don’t know. This is just one more thing to add confusion to her world. And my world.”

They watched Razor.

An idea popped into his brain. “I think I know something that can keep your sister busy and might help her decide what she wants to do.” Caleb wanted to laugh out loud at his great idea.

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Put her in charge of the charity rodeo. Let her organize it. You’ve been complaining constantly about all the things you have to do since you drafted me into this shindig. I thought you were going to drop like a sack of feed when you saw Nan White on the organizing committee.”

Joel shuddered. “Who would’ve thought?”

Anyone with eyes, but Caleb decided not to mention it. “I think with all the different things you and I need to do, giving it to Kaye would keep her busy and she could think of the future.”

Joel’s distressed expression turned into a grin. “I like how you think, friend.”

“Do you think she’ll accept?”

Joel shrugged. “Don’t know. But I’m going to give it a shot, because heaven knows I don’t want to ramrod it.”