Texas Hope: Sweetgrass Springs Stories (Texas Heroes Book 16) (4 page)

“You could use the help, couldn’t you? Your organic beef operation is growing.”

“Yeah. He could free me up some to work with the horses.” He parked the truck beside Ruby’s Cafe and shut it off, then stepped out and rounded the cab. “Wonder who that rig belongs to?”

A puppy leaped up and yipped happily from the back seat of the unfamiliar dual cab truck. The day was cool, but still the windows were down just enough for the puppy to try to stick his nose through.

“Oh, isn’t he precious?” She blew the dog a kiss. Beside him, an older dog watched them warily.

“Blue will be jealous.” His Australian shepherd normally went everywhere with Ian, but he was with Ian’s dad this afternoon.

“Blue knows he’s my guy.”

“I thought I was your guy.” Ian lifted her from the cab and set her on her feet.

“I’m not helpless, you know.” She placed one small hand on the center of his chest, and just like always, his heart did a slow roll. “And you’re my man. That’s different.”

He smiled and covered her hand with his as he bent to kiss her. “You get so damn much done with these tiny hands.”

She rose to her toes and kissed him back. “We’re making chicken-fried steak tonight. In case you’re interested.”

“Always. I’ll bring Dad.” He sighed. “I’m not ready to let you go.”

“Yeah, I might vanish in the couple of hours before I see you again.” Her blue eyes sparkled. “But ditto. I love you so much.”

He bent his head again, but just then Ruby poked her head out the side door. “Ian, could you come in here, please?”

“Sure.” He completed the kiss and escorted the love of his life to the side door of the cafe. “I’m bringing back your sidekick.”

Ruby smiled, but it wasn’t with her usual ease.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Ruby took his hand. “Just got someone for you to meet.”

“Who?” He nodded his head toward the truck out front. “Whose truck is that?”

Ruby cast Scarlett an odd glance, then tugged at his hand. “Come on, you two.”

Just then, a tall man arose from his seat, his gaze intense.

Ian hesitated. The moment seemed freighted with…something.

Scarlett cast him a questioning glance, then one at her grandmother. She stepped forward and extended her hand, but immediately Ian put himself in front of her and any threat this stranger might present. “I’m Ian McLaren.”

The stranger, busy examining him, not Scarlett, was slow to respond. At last his hand rose. “Michael Cavanaugh.”

They shook hands, but something in Ian was still uneasy. He could feel emotion in the air, but he didn’t understand it.

Scarlett started to move around from behind him, but he put his arm in front of her. “This is my wife Scarlett. You visiting here?”
What’s your business?
he wanted to demand.

“Ian—” Scarlett danced past him and met the stranger as she did everyone else, with a smile and a welcome. “Mr. Cavanaugh, are you hungry? My Nana’s taken good care of you, I’m sure.”

The man, about his own height, tore his gaze from Ian and looked at her for the first time, taking in her beauty, no doubt. Then he glanced at her swollen belly, and his eyes lit.

Ian stepped again to put himself in between them, some primitive instinct coming to the fore. The stranger radiated no menace—still the hairs rose on the back of his neck, and he couldn’t figure why.

Then the man smiled, and one dimple popped out as he smiled at Ian’s wife.

Ian went still.

Ruby’s hand clasped his arm. “Ian, Michael isn’t here to eat. He’s here for you. Now you hear him out, all right?”

Ian grabbed Scarlett and tucked her into his side, sensing a threat he didn’t understand. “Hear what? What’s going on?”

Michael Cavanaugh faced his squarely with brown eyes that…

Wait.

No
.

The man was talking, but Ian was already shaking his head.

“—brother. My mother’s name is Sophia, and I know what she did to you. She was wrong, and I hope—”

The man looked at him from his mother’s eyes. Ian’s eyes. His… “No.”

“You’re Ian’s brother?” Scarlett smiled hugely. “Ian, isn’t that great?”

But she looked worried, and her tone was false. She knew how he felt about the woman who had abandoned him. Who’d broken his dad’s heart, who’d torn their lives to shreds.

He locked gazes with the stranger who had just thrown a grenade into Ian’s life and sent shrapnel from the past flying at him. “You need to go. Now.”

Scarlett gripped his hand, and he held on, shaking his head. “My dad—” His father would be devastated. “I have no mother.” She’d clearly moved on, and Gordon never had, not really.

“Ian!” But Scarlett said no more, instead wrapped her arms around his middle.

He wanted to shove her away, shove everyone away, to race away from the memories of sobbing as his mother drove off. “I have no mother,” he repeated.

The man still stood there. “She was wrong. And I didn’t know about you until recently, I swear it. She never said a word. She’s a good woman, or I thought she was, but what she did to you…I can’t forgive her either.” What might be sincere anguish lingered in the man’s eyes.

“You don’t know jack. And I don’t want to hear about her. For all I knew she died years ago—she’s dead to me, anyway. She never even cared enough to—”

The man stepped forward, and Ian squared off against him, pushing Scarlett behind him again. “You need to go,” he repeated.

Michael whatever-the-hell-his-name-was held up a palm. “I’m sorry, truly. I don’t mean to cause you harm. I…” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t know the right way to do this.” He locked his gaze on Ian’s. “I can’t excuse what she did. I don’t understand it myself. But she doesn’t have to be part of this. I’d like a chance to stand for myself. I want to know you, and I think you’d like me if you’d give me a chance.”

“I don’t want to know you.”

“Ian! This isn’t like you.”

He whipped a hard glance at Scarlett. “Stay out of this.”

She visibly recoiled. Her brows slammed together.

“Ian McLaren, this is not you,” Ruby demanded. “None of this was his fault.”

“Everybody cut Ian a break,” said the man who’d caused the whole problem. “This has to be a hell of a shock. I don’t blame you,” he said to Ian. “I will go, but when you’ve had some time to think, I hope you’ll give me a chance to show you who I am. I’m not going to defend what our mother did—it seems inexcusable, but I haven’t let her explain to me either. I was too damn mad that she’d known I had a brother and never told me. I’ve been alone all my life, and I would have given most anything to know about you. To have a brother. Now it’s just me—well, her and me because I can’t desert her, even if she screwed up—but if you’d give me an hour. Thirty minutes.”

Ian couldn’t move.

“Do you have a card?” Scarlett asked.

He looked pained. “Afraid not. I’m a traveling veterinarian, and I’m in Austin right now, though my job there has finished. But there’s a woman I’m not ready to leave behind—” He shook his head. “She doesn’t think she needs me or anyone, really, but she’s wrong. So I guess I’ll go back there for now, but here’s my cell number.” He grabbed a paper napkin and scribbled on it, handing it toward Ian.

Ian didn’t move, but Scarlett took it.

Regret shadowed the man’s eyes, and his shoulders sagged. He met Ian’s gaze once more. “Everything I hear tells me you’re a good man. A fair one. I’m a good man, too.” He paused. “I’m not the one who left you, and I’d like to believe you’d give me a chance.”

Ian couldn’t muster his voice. All he could do was stare at a man who resembled him far too much.

“He is a good man,” Scarlett said, squeezing Ian’s hand. “And thank you for giving us a little time to absorb this. You travel safe, you hear?”

“Thank you.” He glanced at Ruby. “You did warn me. Thank you for your hospitality, ma’am.”

He cast one more look at Ian. “You’re not glad to meet me, I know. But I’m damn glad to know you exist.” With a nod, he turned on his heel and left.

They watched him drive off in silence, then Scarlett turned. “Ian…”

He pulled his hand from hers. “No. I can’t talk about it.” He exhaled forcefully. “I love you, but…don’t, Scarlett. Please.”

She pressed her lips together, then slipped her arms around him and hugged hard.

Their baby kicked between them, and Ian curled his body over both of them, this family he loved with every breath in him. “What the hell do I tell Dad?” he whispered.

Ruby’s hand stroked his back. “Take your time, Ian. If it helps any, I was with him for most of an hour, and he really seems to be a good person. My gut says he means you no harm. He’s as innocent as you are in this. And he’s lonely.”

Ian’s jaw tightened, and he stepped back. “Don’t, Ruby. No more. Just—”

Scarlett kissed his cheek. “Call me if you need me. Want me to go with you?”

He shook his head. “Thank you, but…not right now.”

“You’ll still come for supper and bring Gordon?”

Oh, man. What was he going to tell his father? “I don’t know…”

“You do what you need to,” she said. “Just remember I love you. We all love you.”

He unbent a little. “And I count on that.” Accepting love and trusting his heart again hadn’t been easy. His mother’s abandonment had broken something inside him, and he’d lived his life with half a heart.

Until Scarlett. “I’ll be okay,” he reassured her, wanting to take the worry from her eyes.

“I won’t let you be any other way.” She smiled.

God, he loved his fierce little warrior. “Take care of my girls, Ruby. Henry, don’t you let her overdo.”

“I’ve got my eye on her,” said the younger man who’d just entered the dining room.

With one last, lingering look at the woman who’d made his heart whole again, Ian left.

He got in his truck and drove off.

But as soon as he was out of sight, he pulled over and cut the engine.

He had a brother.

Seriously?

The resemblance was too strong for him to deny.

But what to do about this Michael?

He had no earthly idea.

Chapter Two

“L
ook, I know that you’re digging the cozy here in Sweetgrass, but that’s no excuse for letting your brain go to mush. You cannot seriously believe that Cap is better than Wolverine. Wolverine would so kick Captain America’s white-bread butt.” Vinny Mattuci walked around the counter of the cantina pastry chef Spike Allman operated for Jackson Gallagher’s Enigma Games geeks while she waited for Ruby’s Dream to open.

“Shows what you know,” she snorted, staring down the skinny geek standing before her in his thick black Buddy Holly glasses. “Being on the Left Coast has clearly waterlogged your brain. Aren’t you set to go back, anyway?” Enigma was headquartered in Seattle—or had been, but Jackson was intent on luring his employees here to Sweetgrass.

Heaven help Sweetgrass, the little town that had felt like being consigned to purgatory when she’d arrived. But when Maddie Gallagher had asked her to come help out her cousin Scarlett—well, cousin-in-law—Spike had already had enough of New York culinary egos and had decided a change was in order. “Anyway, get back on your side of the counter. You’ll get me cited by the health department.”

It was Vinny’s turn to snort. “There is no health department. We’re in Brigadoon, remember? This place doesn’t really exist.”

“No kidding.” She screwed up her face. “What are we doing here, anyway?”

Vinny chuckled. “We can be bought. Our secret sin.” His eyebrows waggled, and for a skinny geek, he was surprisingly attractive, she had to admit. Probably weighed one-fifty soaking wet, only about five foot ten, and his black hair always looked as though somebody had run an eggbeater through it.

“So back to Cap. This is disturbing news, Pastry Goddess. I think Sweetgrass is melting your brain. All the warm and fuzzy around here is doing a number on your thought processes. Too much heartfelt and homespun. We need a trip to Austin to remind us what the real world is like.”

She’d had enough of the real world, thank you. She was a terrible fit in this down-home, friendly place, and she would move on soon, as she always did.
Have mixer, will travel
was her motto.