Betting on Hope (25 page)

“Boy, you don’t play fair.”

She met his gaze and her smile wavered. Was that sadness he saw?

“What’s on the agenda today?” she asked, moving past his teasing and straight to business.

“Practicing with the flags. If you keep improving, we’ll work with real calves soon.”

“The sooner the better. Did y’all finally get all your turkeys cooked on Saturday?”

He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He might not have anything to offer her, but that didn’t stop him from thinking about her.

He was finding that he couldn’t.

Bo’s truck suddenly skidded on the gravel at the entrance to the stable. Tru knew something was wrong from the reckless way his brother was driving. Tru swung out of the saddle as Bo slammed out of his truck and came stalking toward them waving a folded up newspaper.

“Did you see this?”

“The paper?” Tru said. “Can’t say that I have. What’s got you riled up?”

“Your girlfriend—”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, well then, Maggie. She’s gone and done it now.
Read this
.”

He slapped the paper to the workbench and pointed at Maggie’s column. “Read it and you’ll see exactly what I mean.” He started pacing.

Tru looked at Maggie, who looked shocked. Her eyes were wide. He glanced down at the headlines and his own eyes nearly jumped out of his head
.
Wishing Springs: The Place a Girl’s Wishes Really Can Come True. Driven by his curiosity, he read on quickly. He pulled the paper closer with both hands. “No, way,” he said. His head shot up and he met Maggie’s alarmed gaze. “Are you serious?”

“Ah,
yea-ah
, it says
exactly
what you think it says, big brother,” Bo drawled as he paused to glare at Maggie again. “She’s telling women to come to Wishing Springs to find a really great small town life,
then
pointing out the
hunky firemen and cowboys
.” He scowled, more upset than Tru had seen him in a very long time. “But wait, there’s more. Oh, yes. She’s promoting the idea that there’s a bunch of needy single men here. It sounds suspiciously like that crazy newspaper column that had all those women converging on that other poor ol’ Texas town. You know, the one on the other side of Hill Country.”

“Mule Hollow,” Tru supplied, looking from Bo to a suddenly silent Maggie.

Bo snapped his fingers. “That one. Didn’t you have a buddy who got hitched over there last month down in Corpus?”

Tru hadn’t thought much about his friend Steven, but yeah, he’d been his groomsman a month ago in a Corpus Christi destination beach wedding. This was crazy. What had Maggie been thinking? His mind flew over all the facts. Maggie stood there, about as shocked by the turn of events as Bo was.

“Why’d you do this?” Bo asked, accusation in his words. “You’re selling us out for your column.” There was no doubt that she hadn’t expected this kind of reaction.

“I’m not selling you out. I’m helping you out.”

“Helping? Lady, I’m not exactly thrilled to be a hook for your readership.”

“Hey, Bo, back up. You’re way out of line.”

“Me?” he tapped his fingers on the page Tru was still scanning. “Read that.”

“She’s not saying outright come and marry the cowboys like that other reporter did. At least this is promoting the town and the people.”

“
And
the cowboy-firemen-heroes,” Bo added, not differentiating the two. “She is tossing the firemen under the wagon too.”

“I am not,” Maggie protested.

Tru had to admit that Bo had a point. This was off the deep end. But then, Maggie was right—his sponsors were going to eat this up with happiness.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Bo demanded. “I don’t want my love life fiddled with like this.”

“You’re making a bigger deal out of this than it is,” Maggie said.

“She’s right, Bo.” Tru shot him a skewered look. “You’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, right, ‘said the farmer to the turkey.’ ” Bo drew a finger across his throat.

Tru choked out a laugh. “Right. So go careful little brother.” Tru couldn’t get as riled up as Bo. Heck, nobody could.

Bo glowered at Maggie. “Oh, believe me, I will.”

Tru started laughing, he couldn’t help it. Bo acted like he was going to be forced to marry someone just because of Maggie’s stunt. Oddly, he understood what she was doing. Or at least he thought he did. “Look, Bo, man, dial it down, okay? No one can force you to do anything in your love life that you don’t want to do. It’s not like some woman is going to come to town and you’re going to
have
to marry her because it’s your turn.”

“Well, I know that. That’s a ridiculous thing in the first place. I just don’t understand this whole concept. I mean, Wishing Springs is fine the way it is. Sure, some new faces would be good, but I’m just not liking the whole expectation thing. This wishes-come-true stuff is getting on my nerves.”

Again, Tru told his brother to relax.

Pops walked into the barn, causing them all to refocus. Tru was thankful for the distraction. Bo needed it badly. And poor Maggie had paled. From her happy enthusiasm this morning, she obviously hadn’t been expecting backlash like Bo’s for the column.

“Hey, Pops,” Bo said, waving him over. Then he asked Tru in a lowered voice, “Is he having a good day?”

“Yeah, it’s a clear day,” Tru said and instantly Bo brightened. They would take every good day they were granted with Pops. He glanced at Maggie and gave her a small, hopefully reassuring smile. She looked a little like she’d been blindsided by a linebacker.

She responded with a softening of her eyes, then turned to say hello to Pops. Tru and Bo were going to have to have a little man-to-man when they were alone. And his little brother was going to give Maggie an apology . . . he just didn’t know it yet.

“I came to see my horses,” Pops told them, pausing at one of the stalls to pet the horse before coming to stand beside them.

Tru gave him a pat on the shoulder and his heart tugged. “They’re doing good, Pops. Check them all out and let me know what you think.”

“I’ll do that.” He looked around, surveying everything like he’d been coming down every day and riding, just like the good old days. He walked to each stall and held out his hand. Looked over each horse and they talked about what was good and bad about each one. He had trouble finding his words sometimes, but Tru or Bo took turns filling in the spaces for him. They’d become pros at pretending like there was nothing amiss. Today Pops was in his element.

Raking a hand through his still-thick hair, Pops took a deep breath, then nodded toward the saddle. “I have a cuttin’ to go to in the morning. Championship.” He raised a brow and looked cockily at his grandsons just like he had so many times when they were growing up. “I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be a good day. I’m feeling lucky.”

Tru’s throat clogged with emotion as Pops spoke the words they’d all grown up with him saying before he headed off to compete. Most of the time his feeling would be right and he’d come home a winner.

“Sounds good, Pops. You go show them how it’s done,” Tru said, hating everything about the disease that had stolen the man his grandfather used to be.

“My ranch looks good,” he added, looking at Bo. “You’re doing a good job,” he said, then turned and headed toward the house.

Bo sighed and looked at Tru, the strain etched on his expression. It was hard on all of them, but Bo took it harder than any of them. It ate at him. As the youngest, he hadn’t gotten as much time with his granddad as a vibrant man like Tru and Jarrod had experienced. Tru understood completely, because he cherished every moment spent with his Pops and every grain of wisdom that Pops had shared with him. Bo was only a year younger than he was, but even a year was precious.

“I’ll go back with him,” Bo said, all the wind gone out of him. “It’s my turn to cook his supper tonight too.”

Tru nodded. “Hey, Bo, the good news is he knew you were responsible for the ranch. He got that right.”

Bo looked down then swallowed hard when he raised his head. “Yeah, today.”

“We take what we can get. I’ll be up later. And don’t worry, Bo, Wishing Springs will survive this marketing stunt. That’s all it is.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” He shot Maggie a glance then went to catch up to Pops.

Tru called after him. “Is Jarrod coming to dinner?”

“I’m supposed to call him. I’ll tell him it’s a good night to come.”

“Yeah, do that. He’ll want to know.”

Tru watched Bo and Pops walk together up the lane, his heart heavy, then he glanced at Maggie. “You okay?”

Just looking at her lifted his spirits . . . a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by him.

“I’m fine.” Maggie was still reeling from Bo’s reaction as she met Tru’s searching look. “I never anticipated such a strong negative response to my idea. Bo was really, really mad. Will others feel the same way?”

“He’ll get over it. He was probably just in shock is all.”

“Maybe, but still, I’m worried about everyone else’s reaction now.”

She’d been so happy and relieved that she’d come up with the right hook that she hadn’t thought everything through. Now, she would just have to wait and see what happened. It wasn’t as if she could take it back.

Helen had loved it, just as she’d expected her to. She’d thought it was brilliant.
Brilliant—
not really, but Maggie had to acknowledge that she personally liked the idea.

She couldn’t explain how good she felt about the piece. Saturday at the festival she’d felt connected to the small town in a way that she’d never felt connected to any place. She’d looked around and it had felt like . . . like home. Even now, thinking about it gave her an odd, wonderful tremor inside. The people were nosy and funny and caring. And she absolutely loved it.

And then there was watching how they embraced Jenna and the other gals who were at the unwed home. Lana and Peg had placed the home in the perfect place.

Anyway, she was feeling suddenly enthusiastic about the challenge before her. The horse riding and her warm and cold relationship with Tru remained confusing, but the column was truly taking shape for her. She’d had the column to think about over the weekend and had tried to keep her mind from how easy it had been for him to let his attention be seized by his admirers on Saturday.

“Okay,” Tru said. “Enough with the excitement. We have a lesson to get to this morning. I’ve got you signed up to compete in less than two weeks.”

Ready
—she wasn’t ready. Two weeks.
“That soon? There is so much for me to learn. I-I’m barely hanging on.”

“You’ll be ready. We’re going to bump up practice and I want you here riding even when I’m working my other horses. You’re going to show all those readers and television viewers what you’re made of.”

Butterflies winged their way through her at his words. Tru believed in her.

And that could very well be her downfall. Because he’d taken up for her with Bo and now he was standing by her. And she’d never, ever had that before—not from a man.

They were just riding out into the arena when Tru’s phone rang.

“Jarrod needs me in the field. One of the calves has had an accident.”

“Oh,” she gasped. “Can I help?” She had no idea how she could help, but she would do what she could.

“Sure.” He grabbed a tackle box off the shelf near the exit as they headed to his truck. “Medical supplies,” he said.

They climbed in and he headed out of the yard and down the dirt road into the interior of the ranch at a fast speed for pasture terrain.

Jarrod watched them drive up, as tough and handsome a cowboy as she’d ever seen in any movie or on a book cover—grim expression, chaps, spurs, the whole bit. He was on his knees holding down a calf. Suddenly it hit Maggie that she might not want to see what he was looking so grim about.

She could hear a calf bawling and her stomach felt a little ill.

“Doc’s tied up on the other side of the county and can’t get here,” Jarrod called.

They got out of the truck and Tru grabbed the tackle box. Maggie followed him to the fence, dreading what she was going to see up close.

Oh.
A poor little black calf was tangled in the broken barbed wire from the fence.

Jarrod held the calf down, keeping it as still as possible, because it was bleeding and every time it moved it got worse. Wire cutters lay on the ground beside him. Tru bent down and picked them up. “Maggie, could you help Jarrod hold him down?”

Maggie swallowed any need to toss her cookies and dropped to her knees beside them. She put her hands on the poor baby’s neck and felt it trembling beneath her touch.

Tru started clipping the wire from around the calf. It looked weak.

It was tedious work. The poor calf struggled despite the pain it was in as she and Jarrod held it down. It stared up at her with one terror-filled eye and Maggie willed Tru to hurry setting it free.

“How did it get like this?” she asked.

“Something spooked it,” Jarrod offered since Tru was concentrating hard on what he was doing. “And I was planning on bringing some of my ranch hands out here to repair the fence this week so something like this wouldn’t happen. Thanks for coming to help.” He gave her a Monahan grin. Maggie decided if she could bottle the grin these brothers sported, she’d be a millionaire—and they’d have to hide from all the women.

“I’m glad I can help.”

Tru finished up about that time and let out a breath as he rocked back on his heels. “You’ve been a big help too. That was intense there for a few minutes. Let’s get him cleaned up.”

Maggie was completely startled when Tru pulled out a needle and thread from that tackle box and began to stitch cuts on his side of the animal. She was fascinated. And when he’d finished, he held the calf while Jarrod stitched the wounds on his side of the calf.

“I can’t believe y’all are doing that,” she said at last. “And it looks good.”

Tru shrugged it off. “You have to be prepared for anything.”

“Doc’s not always sitting around his office drinking coffee and playing with Clover while yacking with Doobie and Doonie,” Jarrod said, as he continued to work.