Fortune's Second-Chance Cowboy

Chance was smiling.

She was confident that she knew the results before he said a word.

Chapter Four (#ulink_b8b7ad78-59b5-549a-8c00-3419ea67ce6a)

Chance’s smile was as broad as his shoulders as he crossed to her.

“Looks like you turned out to be my good-luck charm,” he told Chloe. “’Cause I got the job.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Graham told him, reaching up just a little to put his hand on his newest ranch hand’s shoulder. “The people you worked for all spoke very highly of you. As a matter of fact, Kyle McMasters said to tell you that if it doesn’t work out for you here, he’d be more than happy to have you come back to work for him at the Double M.”

Chance made no comment regarding his former boss’s remark. Instead, he looked at his new boss and asked, “When can I start?”

“Bright and early tomorrow morning’ll be fine.” As a rule, ranch hands were usually up around sunrise, if not before, so Graham made a suggestion. “How does seven o’clock suit you?”

The early hour didn’t faze him in the slightest. He was accustomed to being up earlier, even when he wasn’t working. It was just the way his inner clock worked. “I can be here earlier if you need me to be,” Chance told him.

“No, seven’ll do fine. You can bring your gear then and move in to the bunkhouse,” Graham told him. “We’ve got two on the premises. One just for the ranch hands and the other one’s where the boys stay.”

“Sounds good to me,” Chance replied. “All I really require is enough space to stretch out at the end of the day, nothing more.”

Graham nodded. “We’re going to get along just fine,” he predicted. “Just to let you know, I’ve got plans for you. You’re not just going to be a ranch hand. After you get the lay of the land around here, and things look like they’re going well, I want to make you the coordinator for Peter’s Place.”

Graham smiled. “I think your being ex-military might just come in handy. The boys who are here now need a firm hand and they need to be made to respect authority. That’s not to say I want you coming down hard on them. Just make sure they don’t take advantage of you or anyone else here,” Graham added. He looked deliberately at Chloe as he said the last part.

Chloe appreciated the thought, but she had been looking after herself for a long time now.

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Chloe told her half brother. “I might not be as tall as you two, but I’m not a pushover, either. And I can definitely take care of myself.”

Graham held up a hand. “I never meant to imply that I thought of you as a pushover. But knowing someone has your back certainly doesn’t hurt in this kind of a situation,” Graham assured her.

Then he launched into a rundown of the current residents staying at Peter’s Place. “Right now, we’ve got four boys staying here. They’re all decent kids, but for one reason or another, they’ve lost their way and all of them feel like they’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand.” He spared a glance at Chloe. “Sasha can do a better job filling you in,” he said to Chloe.

As if on cue, his wife came in from the kitchen. “Did I just hear my name being mentioned?” she asked, a bright smile on her face. Before Graham had an opportunity to respond to her question, Sasha told her husband, “You’ll be happy to know that breaking her wrist did not affect our daughter’s appetite. She’s eating up a storm in there. Uncle Roger’s whipping up his ‘famous’ corn dogs wrapped in bacon for her. I set the limit at two but I’ve got a feeling he’s not going to stick to that. Maybe you can make him understand the wisdom of not letting Maddie stuff herself to the gills.”

“I’m on it,” Graham said, beginning to leave the living room.

Sasha looked at Chance and Chloe. “So, I take it that they both said yes.”

“That they did,” Graham said, tossing the words over his shoulder.

“Well then, welcome to Peter’s Place,” Sasha told the duo warmly. “I hope you like it here,” she added. “We try to keep it homey. For some of these boys, this is the first actual ‘home’ they’ve had in quite a while.”

The sound of a baby crying was heard coming over the monitor that Chloe had positioned on the wide coffee table.

Sasha sighed wearily as she looked at the monitor. “Looks like I’m being summoned,” she told Chloe as she started to get up.

“Why don’t you stay here and get Chloe up to speed on the boys who are currently here?” Graham suggested. Sasha began to point out the obvious, but never got very far. “I’ll go see to Sydney,” Graham told her. “I’m sure Uncle Roger knows enough not to overfeed Maddie. If he doesn’t, Maddie’s got enough sense to stop.” Pausing for just a moment before he went up the stairs, he turned toward Chance. “And I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Count on it,” Chance told him. Putting his Stetson on, he tipped it ever so slightly to the right, unaware that he was creating a rakish image as he did so. Chance nodded first at Graham’s wife and then at Chloe. “Ladies, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised just before he headed for the door.

Chloe just stared at his retreating form. A very sexy form, she had to admit.

“He’s a tall one, don’t you agree?”

The comment snapped Chloe to attention. She hadn’t even realized she was still staring at the closed door. “What? Oh, you mean Chance. Yes, I guess he is at that,” she murmured.

When she looked at Sasha, she thought she saw a hint of a grin on her lips. She hoped that Sasha didn’t think that there was anything between her and Chance—or that there would be in the future. She’d come here strictly because she wanted work as a counselor and nothing more, she silently insisted.

“So tell me about the boys at Peter’s Place,” Chloe urged. She thought it best to change the subject immediately.

Sasha sat down beside her on the sofa, and then a sudden thought occurred to her. “Oh, where are my manners? Having your daughter break her wrist kind of knocks everything else out of your head,” she apologized, then asked, “Can I get you anything? Something to drink perhaps?”

Chloe shook her head. She didn’t want anything to distract her. Right now, all she wanted to do was focus on any information that Sasha could give her. She wanted to be as fully prepared as possible when she finally met the boys who had been sent here to atone for their misdeeds and to ultimately become better people.

“No, I’m fine. Really,” she stressed when Sasha looked at her somewhat skeptically. “Just tell me about the boys I’m going to be working with. I want to learn all I can about them.”

Sasha seemed to ponder her reply for a moment, no doubt wanting to cite the boys in the proper order.

Then she began. “The first teen we took in here at Peter’s Place is Jonah Wright. A basically good boy, Jonah kind of hit a rough patch when his father ran off, deserting the family. Consequently, to make ends meet, his mother had to hold down two jobs. Because she wasn’t home very much, she expected Jonah to look after his three younger siblings. I don’t have to tell you that that’s a lot of responsibility to heap on such young shoulders. Jonah loved playing baseball after school and he had to give that up in order to be there for his siblings.

“After a while, life felt as if it was crashing in on him and Jonah just kept getting angrier and angrier. He started ditching school, vandalizing property and getting into fights almost all the time. He started shoplifting and got away with it the first couple of times.

“And then he got arrested. They were going to send him to jail, then at the last minute, the authorities decided to send him here instead. It was kind of touch and go with Jonah for a while, but he turned things around and it looks like he’s on the road to getting his life back.” Sasha smiled, clearly pleased to be able to relate this to Chloe. “Things look pretty promising and he’s even going to be playing baseball soon, just like he always wanted to.”

Sasha stopped for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts.

“The second teen who was sent here was Ryan Maxwell. He was a lot less hostile than Jonah was when he came here, but he was also a great deal more depressed and withdrawn.”

“Do you know why he was depressed?” Chloe wanted to know.

Sasha nodded. “Both of his parents died and social services sent him to live with his uncle. Family isn’t always the best way to go,” Sasha told her. “In Ryan’s case, his uncle turned out to be a lowlife. He stole and spent all of the money that Ryan’s parents had set aside to pay for his college education. Personally, I suspect that Ryan got into trouble and vandalized private property just to get away from the man.”

“You’re probably right,” Chloe agree. “He probably felt he had nothing to lose and just maybe something to gain if he got away from his uncle.”

Sasha smiled. “Since he came here, he’s been doing a lot better. He’s now in both a math club and a science club in school. If he keeps things up this way, he’s on track to get a college scholarship,” Sasha told her proudly. “And if that happens, he can write his own ticket. His future is a great deal more promising than his past.”

“And the other boys?” Chloe asked, wondering if their stories would wind up ending this well.

“Well, the last two are newer and I’m afraid they haven’t really adjusted to living here—yet,” Sasha emphasized, obviously holding out a great deal of hope for the fates of both of these newer residents at Peter’s Place. “Brandon Baker lost his older brother in Afghanistan, and I get the distinct feeling that he’s just mad at the whole world right now.”

Chloe could certainly identify with the way Brandon felt. When Donnie had been killed, there was a point when she’d been convinced that her anger was going to suffocate her. It had been touch and go for a while.

“And the last boy?” Chloe prompted.

“That would be Will Sherman. His mother is a single parent, and she has her own share of problems. The woman is an alcoholic,” Sasha confided. “The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde kind who takes all of her frustrations out on Will. A social worker found him wandering the streets one night, so battered she didn’t know how he was able to even stand up, much less walk.” Tears shone in Sasha’s eyes as she told Chloe, “When the social worker questioned him, he denied that his mother had beaten him. It was heartbreaking how protective he was of that woman. But it was obvious to everyone who came in contact with this boy that he couldn’t be allowed to go back home. It was just as obvious that it would be just a matter of time before Will turned to less than acceptable ways, trying to support himself on the street.

“He’s been here for a while, and I think he still feels that life has abandoned him, just like his mother has. He needs to learn how to relate to people and how to trust again.”