A Rancher for Their Mom (Rodeo Heroes) (2 page)

The tall cowboy smiled slowly. “I’m better.”

She swallowed hard.
Oh, my.

Joel took the carrots and walked to the corral gate.

“What are you goin’ to do?” Todd asked, following Joel. “Are you going to rope Helo and Sadie?”

“I’m going to make friends with a couple of nervous horses.” He held out his hand and took the ropes from Wes and Todd, hanging them over the gatepost. He opened the gate and walked inside but made no move toward the horses. Helo and Sadie nervously moved to the other side of the corral.

The boys crowded around the gate, hanging on to the horizontal brace. April moved behind them.

“Sometimes you just have to let a horse get to know you.” He placed one carrot in his back pocket and held out the other one. “Let them feel you, catch your scent.”

“Is that why you’re just standing there doing nothin’?” Wes asked. “I thought you’d charge in there and rope the horses.”

“I could, but if I came into your house and started demanding things from you, you wouldn’t like it, would you?”

Todd’s face screwed up as he thought. “No.”

“Horses are the same.”

“Oh.”

The horses stilled as Joel waited, but curiosity won out and the black horse moved closer to him. Joel held up the carrot, waving it around. Slowly the black horse drifted toward him. Joel held the carrot still, and the horse accepted it.

“Sadie’s eating it,” Todd whispered.

Joel rubbed the horse’s forehead, then ran his hand down her neck. She accepted his touch. As he worked to win the horse’s trust, he felt the gazes of the boys and their mother on him. Their interest and admiration warmed him in a way that surprised him.

It took less than ten minutes for Joel to win Sadie’s trust, and she allowed him to slip the rope over her head.

“Wow,” the boys whispered.

Joel slowly led Sadie out of the corral to his trailer. He paused at the tailgate. The boys peered at him, their little bodies tense. Sadie only paused a moment before she walked into the trailer.

“How’d you do that?” Todd demanded.

“When you do something that isn’t familiar to you, you’re nervous, right? It’s the same for horses.” Joel glanced at April and found admiration on her face, too. It was common sense, but his heart soaked up her reaction.

It took less time for him to coax Helo to his side, and he slipped the rope over his head. When he had both horses secured in the trailer, he turned to the two boys.

“Are y’all comin’ to the rodeo next weekend?”

The kids turned to their mother with pleading expressions. They were good, Joel admitted to himself. They could put the hurt on anyone.

“Can we?”

Joel saw the answer in April’s bleak face. That was why she was selling her horses early.

“We’ll see.”

“But, Mom,” Todd whined.

The woman tilted her head and her eyes narrowed.

Nothing else was said.

Joel pulled his truck around and headed out.

As he drove back to the rodeo, Joel’s heart ached. He understood the woman’s pride that she could take care of her own. He only wished there was something he could do to help.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Joel drove into the parking lot of the Caprock Feed & Seed store to pick up extra feed for the rodeo. On his way back from this feed run, he might stop by the Dairy Queen he’d spotted and have a chicken-fried steak burger.

Entering the store, Joel saw April talking to the clerk. He didn’t spot either of the boys, but Cora stood by her mother, holding April’s leg.

“So, Sully, what do you recommend I plant in the other fields, beside the hay for my own animals?”

He hadn’t noticed earlier how musical her voice sounded. Now he knew he’d be haunted by it when he laid his head down tonight.

“I know you don’t want to plant cotton like the majority of the farms around here, but you could try a field of wheat, soybeans or sorghum. Manufacturers want sweet sorghum for syrup,” the clerk said.

“Or you could try planting sunflowers.” The words popped out of Joel’s mouth before he thought.

April jerked and turned toward him. “Sunflowers?”

“Mr. Joel,” Todd yelled in excitement, darting out from behind a tall pile of sacks of feed.

Wes followed and hurried to Joel’s side. Cora made a beeline to him.

He picked her up and she patted him on the chest.

“Mr. Joel.”

Joel’s heart melted at the munchkin’s twinkling eyes. When he looked up, a frown wrinkled April’s brow. Was her expression from him holding Cora or the advice he’d given?

“Sunflowers are a good cash crop. Several of the farms and ranches around my family’s ranch started growing them. The crop requires little work and when harvested, there are multiple places to sell them.”

The clerk’s stare bored into Joel.

“I’m Joel Kaye.” He stuck out his hand.

“He’s with the rodeo, Mr. Sully,” Todd helpfully announced. “He knows how to throw a lariat and has a birthday in March and is a cowboy.”

Sully shook Joel’s hand.

“Jack sent me here for the feed he ordered.”

The man’s attitude changed. “It’s ready, but let me finish with Mrs. Landers first.”

“That’s okay, Sully. I need to think about your suggestions on what to plant.”

Sully nodded. “Drive around back and we’ll load the order.” He disappeared into the back.

“I didn’t mean to butt in.” Joel stepped closer to the counter. April’s hair fell around her face, tempting him to reach out and touch the shiny rich brown strands.

“No, I appreciate it. I’ve been wondering what to do with the fields my father-in-law normally cultivated. Sunflowers. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I wouldn’t have, either, but as I told you several of my neighbors planted them as a cash crop and they liked the results.”

Sully appeared again. “It’s ready.”

Joel didn’t know whether to laugh or scowl at Sully’s impatience. When Joel tried to put Cora down, she protested. April took her daughter from his arms and hushed the girl. Joel nodded and walked outside to his truck.

He drove around the building and backed his truck up to the loading dock. Sully helped Joel transfer the bags of feed from the wooden pallet into the truck. Halfway through, the boys appeared on the dock.

Sully looked at the pair. “Y’all here to help?”

“We’re too small,” Todd answered. They carefully watched and whispered to each other.

Once they finished loading, Sully drove the small forklift back into the warehouse.

Joel opened the truck door.

“Mr. Joel,” Wes began.

Joel stopped and turned toward the boys.

After a couple of intense whispers, Wes walked forward. “After you left this morning, Mr. Moore, the man who helps Mom with the ranch, got hurt. She called the ambulance for him. He can’t work for a while. We heard Mom crying after the ambulance left.”

“And praying,” Todd added.

Wes’s solemn gaze locked with Joel’s. “Mom’s real worried about the ranch.”

Todd’s head nodded in agreement.

Like a shot to his gut, the boys’ words hit Joel hard. The worry in their eyes would’ve touched the hardest of hearts.

Wes took a deep breath. “We want to hire you to help Mom plant her fields.”

Todd’s head bobbed. “Yeah, we want to hire you.”

Joel hadn’t seen that one coming. “I’m still with the rodeo, boys.”

Todd’s shoulders straightened. “But are you working this week? You’re having spring break like we are. Don’t the animals have spring break, too? Won’t you have time?”

Spring break? Joel’s eyes widened. Well, he’d just complained to Hank about all the downtime he had on his hands this week with nothing to do.

They waited.

Todd reached into his pocket and pulled out some change. Wes followed by taking out of his front pocket a crumpled dollar and three pennies. “We have a dollar and thirty-seven cents between Todd and me that we can pay you.”

“Is that enough?” Todd’s face filled with longing and uncertainty.

Talk about being caught off guard. But how could he ignore such an honest plea? Joel swallowed hard. “I still would have to help feed the animals at the rodeo in the morning—”

The boys nodded.

“—but if that’s okay with you, I’d be proud to work for two such upstanding cowboys.”

“And our mom.”

“Most certainly.”

They beamed and Todd started to jump up and down.

“Okay. Let me take the feed back to the rodeo, then I’ll drive out to your place and talk with your mom to make sure it’s all right with her.”

“Okay.”

The boys stepped forward and dumped their money into Joel’s hand. Looking at the crumpled bill and coins, he felt the most unusual emotions—hope and satisfaction. When he glanced up, he saw two excited faces.

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

Driving away, Joel shook his head and chuckled. Who would’ve thought those two young boys would come up with such an ingenious plan? He hadn’t. But what mattered most was how their mother felt. And oddly enough, he wasn’t sure April would accept his help. He wondered if those boys could work their charm on their mother as well as him. That he wanted to see.

Chapter Two

A
pril kicked the front tire of the cantankerous tractor. What was wrong with this miserable piece of equipment? How could she plow the west field for hay or the north field for sunflowers if the tractor wouldn’t start?

“Is there a problem?”

April jerked around, coming face-to-face with Joel. He grinned, making her knees weak.
Stop it.
Ignoring her crazy feelings, she said, “I’ve got an uncooperative piece of machinery. I’ve watched my father-in-law coax this ancient thing into starting several times. Of course, Vernon did most of the plowing.” But at this point, she didn’t have an option. A noise at the barn doors drew her attention. The boys stood there, watching.

“Do you mind if I try?”

Stepping to the side, she motioned for Joel to go ahead. “No. It might cooperate with you better than me.”

The boys snickered, and Joel laughed. The wonderful, rich sound eased her heart.

“I don’t know, but I’ve worked with some mighty grumpy equipment, and you have to know just how to coax them to life.”

“You mean a wrench up the side of this thing won’t work?” She ran her fingers through her hair, dislodging the clip holding it back.

“My gramps used that technique, and it worked, but let me look at the motor and see if I can find the problem. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll try your plan B, which is a wrench up the side of this thing.” His eyes twinkled, and she heard the boys snicker.

Joel’s humor found her funny bone and she joined in with everyone’s light spirit, surprising herself. From the boys’ wide-eyed and openmouthed expressions, they were as surprised as she. Finally they laughed.

“You needed that,” Joel softly said.

Was she that much of a grouch?

Joel didn’t wait for her to respond, but looked into the engine. “The ignition coil has come loose. Let me plug it in.” He did so, then hopped onto the seat and turned on the ignition. The tractor roared to life. He winked at her. “Let me pull this out of the barn before turning off the engine.”

She nodded and shooed the boys out of the way. When she glanced at the porch where she’d put Cora down for her nap, April saw the little girl sit up and rub her eyes. When Joel drove out of the barn, Cora stood and started down the steps.

What was it about this cowboy that had all her children following him like a pied piper?

April scooped her daughter up before she could run in front of the tractor.

Joel parked beside the barn, where the plow’s disc blades sat, and turned off the engine. He hopped out of the cab and waved at the boys.

Cora squirmed in her mother’s arms.

“I’m impressed, but the real question is, will it start again?”

“Well, if it doesn’t, we’ve got the wrench option.”

“Thanks for getting it to work, but what are you doing out here?” She cringed at her abrupt words.
What a crab.

“If you have a cup of coffee, I’d like to explain.”

She studied him, but his gaze remained true, not shying away from her probing. Ross often wouldn’t meet her gaze when he had a plan he knew she wouldn’t approve of. “Okay.”

Lots of questions flew through her mind as they walked inside. After a moment, it occurred to April how silent the boys were, which caused the hair at the back of her neck to stand up. April poured coffee for the adults and milk for the children, then joined the others at the table.

Surprisingly, Cora sat between her brothers on the bench seat on the other side of the table. The boys were wide-eyed and seemed to vibrate, waiting for—

April took a sip of coffee. That hair on the back of her neck felt as if it was dancing.

Wes looked at Joel, then his shoulders straightened and he seemed to grow up before her eyes, as if her son had given Joel permission. That didn’t make sense.

Setting his mug on the table, Joel cleared his throat. “I’ve been hired by your sons to help you plant your fields this week.”

That was not what she’d expected this rodeo cowboy to say. She turned to her sons.

“Todd and me wanted to get you some help after Mr. Moore’s accident today, so when we saw Mr. Joel at the feed store, we talked it over and hired him to work this week,” Wes explained.

“And we paid him, too. We gave him a dollar and thirty-seven cents.” Todd’s chest puffed out. “It’s legal.”

April groped with what she’d just heard. It had seemed to come out of nowhere. Staring at her mug, April considered her options, which were limited at best. The nightmare of Mr. Moore being knocked out this morning, landing on his right arm and dislocating it, sat in the forefront of her mind. Whom would she hire to replace him? Everybody else had their own ranches to care for, their own fields to plant. “You’re not tied up this week at the rodeo?”

“I explained to the boys that I have morning chores that I need to do first, but I can be here before seven. That was fine with them.”

She wanted to tell him no. She didn’t need her boys getting any more involved with a traveling cowboy, but one look at her sons’ precious faces and she knew she couldn’t throw away their effort to help.

Todd worried his bottom lip and Wes reminded her of a cat waiting to catch a mouse. The thought of the boys going out and hiring Joel to help with the planting made her heart swell with pride. She knew she couldn’t refuse.

“Then I guess you have a job.”

The boys jumped with excitement. Cora didn’t know what was happening, but she joined the celebration.

The grin on Joel’s face made her fingers tingle, which scared her. Maybe she should back out now, before disaster struck. But as soon as the idea formed, she glanced at her sons. Could she crush their enthusiasm?

“Now, you’ll need to tell me what you want done,” Joel said, breaking into her internal debate.

“Don’t worry,” Wes piped in. “Mom’s good at telling people what to do.” He said it so casually he didn’t notice the smile on Joel’s face or the wide-eyed look on his mother’s.

* * *

“So these are the horses you picked up from the Landers ranch.” Jack Murphy walked up to the corral housing the new stock.

When Joel returned earlier with Sadie and Helo, Jack had been in Amarillo. “Yup, these are the horses.”

Jack rested his boot on the bottom rail. “They’re a little young.”

“True, but I think the lady needed the money.”

Jack’s brow wrinkled. “She say that?”

“Not exactly, but looking around, I could see things needed repair.”

Jack rubbed his chin. “I worried about that when Vernon died. He talked to me when he was sick, asking me to keep buying from the Circle L Ranch. I agreed with him, wondering how his daughter-in-law could run that ranch by herself, having three little kids.”

A perfect opening. “I guess that’s why April’s sons hired me to help this week.”

“What?” Jack sounded as if he’d swallowed a frog.

“When I went to get the feed earlier, I saw the family. The boys slipped around the back while I was loading and hired me for the week. Apparently, their hired hand had an accident between the time I was there in the morning and when I saw them at the feed store in the afternoon.”

“They hired you?” Jack asked.

“They did. I told them I’d have to finish chores here before I could go out to their place, but they were okay with the setup.” Joel faced his boss straight on. “You okay with that?”

“Works for me. At least you’ll have something to do with yourself instead of hanging around here, complaining you’re bored.”

“What? Was I that much of a problem?” Joel asked.

“Hank was afraid he was going to have to babysit you this week and didn’t know what he was going to do. He’s a cook, not a babysitter, and planned on telling you you needed to take up knitting.”

“I couldn’t have complained that much.”

Jack’s brow arched.

“Knitting?”

Both men grinned.

“How well did you know April’s father-in-law?”

“April?” Jack’s smile widened.

“Hey, a little background would help me understand what’s going on and the situation there.”

“Okay. We went back several years. Vernon loved the rodeo but loved his ranch more.” Jack shook his head. “Kinda funny how his daughter-in-law took to ranching like a duck to water, but his son—

“Vernon said he never saw someone love ranching like April. She was a natural. There was nothing around the ranch she wouldn’t do, or try to do, which surprised him.

“Too bad his son wanted nothing to do with the place. But Vernon and Grace never regretted Ross marrying April. They got the daughter they wanted and the grandbabies they’d hoped for.”

Joel wanted to ask more, but he saw the gleam in Jack’s eyes. “I asked if they were coming to the rodeo, but April—”

“April?” Jack again poked him, enjoying himself way too much.

“Mrs. Landers said no. Well, what she really said was ‘we’ll see,’ which the boys knew was no. So I thought you could throw in tickets for both days of the rodeo. April’s got a couple of budding cowboys there that need encouragement. If that’s a problem, I’ll pay for the tickets.”

Jack’s smile widened. “No, it’s not a problem.”

There was way too much satisfaction in Jack’s answer.

“Yo, Jack, I need to talk to you,” Graham “Shortie” McGraw shouted across the arena. “Now.”

“Coming.” Jack turned back to Joel. “See you later.”

As Jack strode across the arena, Joel wondered at his boss’s reaction. What amusement did he find in Joel calling Mrs. Landers
April
? It was her name. Now, if he called her
sweetie
or
punkin
like his grandmother had called his grandfather, then Joel could’ve understood Jack’s reaction. And why did giving away the tickets to the rodeo feel as though he’d made some deep commitment? They were tickets. That was all. So what had made Jack smile?

* * *

“He was way cool, Mom,” Todd said, his spaghetti spilling out of his mouth. Sauce dotted his chin.

“Todd, keep your mouth closed while you’re eating. It’s polite.”

Todd’s fingers pushed the spaghetti back into his mouth. Wes snickered. She’d made the boys’ favorite meal, hoping to take their minds off Joel Kaye.

After swallowing, Todd continued, “Did you see how Mr. Joel handled Helo and Sadie? He was so good, making friends with them first.” He looked at his brother. “And Mr. Joel’s birthday is in March and he’s a real good cowboy.”

Todd wasn’t going to let go of his brother’s false claims anytime soon.

Wes shrugged off the comment. “He was good with the lasso. I want to learn how to do that, too, ’cause you have to do that to be a cowboy. Opa was good. He started to show me how to throw, but—” Wes fell silent.

“Maybe Mr. Joel could show us,” Todd suggested, his eyes going wide.

Wes perked up. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. He threw as good as Opa.”

Cora clapped her hands together, squishing a strand of spaghetti between them. “Yeah, cowboy.”

The boys hadn’t stopped talking about Joel since he’d left this afternoon. Of course, maybe that was a good sign, since the incident with Mr. Moore stepping on the pitchfork and knocking himself out had given them all a scare. Both boys had gone white, but Todd had seemed particularly shaken.

“I don’t know if Mr. Joel will have the time to teach you. He’ll be here to plant crops and do other chores that Mr. Moore would’ve done.”

The boys fell silent, then traded calculating looks.

“Okay.”

Why did Wes’s
okay
worry her more than a protest?

April needed to stop any shenanigans before they got out of hand. “Maybe Mr. Waters could show you how to whirl a lariat after church sometime. He used to compete in the rodeo.”

Todd rolled his eyes. “He’s ancient, Mom. He must be fifty.”

“No, eighty,” Wes added.

Todd’s brow crinkled. “Yeah, and I don’t know if he would remember how to throw.”

April choked on her spaghetti and quickly took a sip of tea. Andrew Waters was only thirty-eight.

“I don’t know, boys. I don’t want you to bother Mr. Joel while he’s working.”

The boys’ faces fell.

“Aw, Mom.” Wes put his fork down and frowned. He made it sound as if she’d just stomped on his dream.

Todd stared down at his plate, too, his posture only emphasizing how much the boys wanted Joel Kaye to teach them how to throw a lariat.

“I promise I’ll check with Mr. Waters to see if he’ll teach you how to throw.” Her words went over like lead weights on a rubber raft.

“May I be excused?” Wes asked.

“Me, too,” Todd added.

She felt lower than a snake’s belly, stomping their hopes. She nodded and the boys slipped away from the table. Cora frowned, reaching for her brothers. April pulled Cora from her booster seat, wiped her hands and mouth, then set her on her feet. She hurried after her brothers.

“Good job, April,” she murmured to herself. “No one’s happy.” And that included her.

* * *

April poured herself a large iced tea and wandered out onto the back porch. An hour and a half ago, she’d put three subdued children to bed, and those sad little faces had nearly brought her to her knees.

Scanning the bare fields behind the house, April felt a ray of hope and a huge helping of pride.

When Joel had told her the boys hired him, it’d taken her a moment to understand what he was saying. That her boys understood she needed help and wanted to provide it made her chest puff out with pride. It also disheartened her that they knew the ranch was in trouble.

With the death of her husband and in-laws over the past three years, she was now the only adult left on this ranch. Her neighbors had helped for a couple of months after Vernon’s death, but they had their own ranches to care for. Lately, several of the ranchers at church had offered to rent her fields to plant their own cash crops.

She’d toyed with the idea, but it felt as though she’d be giving up on the ranch, on her dreams. She loved this place and had never thought that she’d be in this position.

Her father’s job as a rig manager for a major oil company had kept them on the move throughout her life. She’d lived on several continents and in some exotic places, but none had felt like home until they moved to this place in the Texas Panhandle. When her father had been transferred to Lubbock her junior year in high school, she’d found her heart’s desire on the Llano Estacado and the Caprock.