McKettricks of Texas: Garrett

“You’re staying in the main house,” Paige pressed. “What’s it like?”

“You’ve been in the ranch house, Paige. At least as far as Austin’s bedroom, not to put too fine a point on things.”

“Ha,” Paige said. “So funny. It was dark, we were young, and I wasn’t exactly thinking about architectural detail.”

“I don’t suppose you were,” Julie drawled back. “Gotta get back to work now. Thanks for listening.”

“Keep me in the loop,” Paige chimed in reply.

Goodbyes were said, and the call ended.

Julie dropped her phone into her tote bag and wove her way through a river of teenagers flowing along the hallway.

Their energy exhilarated Julie, made her smile. Parents and administrators could wear her down, but the kids themselves always energized her. Many nights, after a theater group rehearsal or a performance, she was high for hours, too excited to sleep.

The afternoon sped by.

The meeting with Arthur Dulles and two school board members went exactly as Julie had expected it to—the showcase was out, unless she wanted to stage the three one-act plays in addition to the musical.

That would be impossible, of course.

Which was exactly why she was going to do it.

CHAPTER FIVE

CALVIN.

On a midnight-black horse.

As Julie drove into the yard at Tate and Libby’s place late that afternoon, the sight of her child made her heart catch. Calvin looked not just happy, but transported, perched in that saddle with Garrett McKettrick behind him.

The reins rested easily in Garrett’s leather-gloved hand, and his hat threw his face into shadow, but Julie felt his eyes on her as she stopped the Cadillac, shut off the motor and got out.

Man, boy and horse.

The image, Julie thought, with a sort of exhilarated terror, would remain in her mind forever, etched in sunlight, with the creek dancing behind and the sky a shade of lavender-blue that scalded her eyes.

“Look, Mom, I’m riding a horse!” Calvin crowed.

Her boy, her baby, was safe within the steely circle of Garrett’s arms, she could see that plainly. And yet Julie’s heart scrambled up into the back of her throat and flailed there as she thought of all the terrible things that could have happened.

A snake might have spooked the horse, causing him to be thrown. Badly hurt, or even killed.

Or something—some dirt mote or bit of pollen—could have brought on one of Calvin’s rare but horrifying asthma attacks.

Did he have his inhaler handy, or was it still stashed in the bottom of his backpack, as usual?

She looked around, saw Tate on another horse nearby, Audrey riding in front of him, Ava holding on from behind. Libby smiled from over by the clothesline, where she was unpegging white sheets and dropping them into a basket.

Julie stared at her sister, amazed, angry, admiring. Libby’s happy grin seemed to dim a little around the edges as she left the basket behind in the grass, billowing with what looked like captured clouds, and came toward her.

“Mom!” Calvin yelled again, evidently thinking Julie hadn’t noticed him. “Look! I’m riding a horse!”

Julie’s smile felt brittle on her face, and slippery, barely holding on to her mouth. Be reasonable, she told herself. No need to panic.

“Isn’t that—wonderful,” she said.

Libby was at her side by then. “He’s all right,” she said, very quietly, and with big-sister firmness. “Garrett wouldn’t let anything happen to Calvin, and Tate and I were right here all the time.”

Julie swallowed, watched as Garrett took off his hat, plunked it down on Calvin’s head. The little boy’s face disappeared inside the crown, and his muffled laugh of delight was sweet anguish to Julie.

Her Calvin.

It hurt to love so much.

“I guess this ride’s over, pardner,” Garrett told Calvin, reclaiming the hat and settling it back on his own head. All the while, the man’s eyes never left Julie’s face, and even caught up in a tangle of conflicting emotions, she would have given a lot to know what Garrett McKettrick was thinking just then.

Keeping one arm around Calvin’s middle, Garrett swung his right leg over the horse’s neck and jumped easily to the ground. Set Calvin on his feet.

Giggling, the little boy staggered slightly and whooped, “Whoa!”

Garrett was still watching Julie.

She marched toward him, gave another rigid smile and reached down to grab Calvin’s hand.

“We have dinner plans,” she said, and while she was looking back at Garrett, she was actually speaking to Calvin.

Wasn’t she?

Calvin looked up at her. The sun lit his hair, and he shielded his eyes with one grubby little hand. “But Tate’s going to barbecue,” he protested. “Hot dogs and hamburgers and everything.”

“Another time,” Julie said.

Calvin jerked his hand free of hers, and she felt stung, somewhere down deep. “But I want to stay here!”

Garrett took off his hat again, held it in one hand as he crouched next to Calvin. “A cowboy always speaks respectfully to a lady,” he told the boy, “especially when that lady is his mama.”

Calvin’s lower lip jutted out. “She’s just mad because I got on a horse without permission,” he said. He turned to Julie again, his round little face and baby-blue eyes full of rebellion. “Aunt Libby said I could ride with Garrett! And she’s the boss of me when you’re not here!”

Inwardly, Julie sighed. Outwardly, she kept her cool.

“We can talk about this in the car, Calvin,” she said evenly. “Get your backpack, please. Right now.”

Furious, Calvin pounded off toward the house to retrieve his belongings.

Garrett rose back to his full height. For a moment, it seemed he was about to say something, but in the end he just turned, stuck a foot in the stirrup and mounted again. He rode up alongside Tate, and one of the twins—Audrey, Julie thought—leaped from her dad’s horse to her uncle’s, whooping like a Comanche on the warpath.

Garrett and Tate turned their horses and rode down the gently sloping creek-bank to let the animals drink.