Mia got to her feet. “Aren’t we going to go to the house and get into dry clothes?”
“Nope,” Jesse answered. “We’ve got three more trips to get the animals crossed over. Why change when we might have the same problem next time?”
She kicked at the water, sending a spray all over him.
He chuckled and did the same right back at her.
Before long, they were soaked from head to toe, and Jesse was sure that the folks back at the ranch could hear their laughter.
She reached out and gave him a push, and he fell backward to sit in waist-deep water. He grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her down beside him.
She looked over at him and grinned. “Bet I can beat you to the top of the ditch,” she challenged.
Before he could answer, she jumped up and scaled the slippery bank like a monkey going up a tree. Jesse had to concentrate to get up to the top without falling backward, but he made it on the first try. He poured the water out of his boots, put them back on and untied his hembra from the post. “Come on, pretty lady. The worst part is over. From here, it’s clear sailing to your new five-star home. Hey, Mia, close the gate before you untie your animal.”
“Yes, sir…boss!” Her tone was cold but not quite as bad as it had been that morning.
“Progress,” he muttered under his breath.
She had to hustle to catch up to him, and when she did, the first words out of her mouth were, “So you and mama were, like, friends and nothing more?”
His worry radar shot up into the red zone. “Why are you asking?”
“She never mentioned you one time when I was growing up. I didn’t even know you existed until we moved in with Poppa and Nana. They told me that you and Mama were inseparable until you went to the Air Force right out of high school. What happened that y’all didn’t stay friends?” Mia asked.
“Time and distance,” Jesse answered.
“Since you came home, y’all are good friends again, right? I know that she tells you stuff, and you tell her things,” Mia said.
“Yes, that’s right.” Jesse wondered where she was going with this line, so he answered with as few words as possible.
“So,” Mia sucked in a lungful of air, and then blurted out, “has she told you who my father is, or does she even know? Was she sleeping around with more than one guy, and is that the reason she’s never told anyone?”
“Yes and no,” Jesse answered.
“What does that mean?” Mia frowned.
“It means that I will never lie to you. Yes, I know who your father is. Yes, your mother knows who he is. No, she has never been a person who sleeps around. You were conceived out of deep love between two people,” Jesse answered.
Mia stopped in her tracks and locked eyes with him. “Who is it? I have a right to know.”
“Yes, you do, but it’s not my place to tell you. Your mother has worked hard to make sure you have a good life, so she should be the one to tell you, and I’m sure she will when she feels like the time is right,” Jesse answered.
“I don’t like you so much,” she said.
“Well, darlin’, I’m not too fond of you either,” he said. “But maybe we can remedy that in the future.”
“Why should we?” she asked.
“Because working for a boss you like is a lot easier than working for one you hate,” he answered.
* * *
Addy drove Sonny out to the barn after dinner so he could see the alpacas. She set up a folding chair for him and wrestled a bale of hay out of the enclosure so he could prop his feet up. The two babies ran back and forth from their mothers to inside the barn, where they checked out every corner. At the faintest sign of something strange, they took off back to their mamas for protection.
“Nosy little devils, aren’t they,” Sonny chuckled.
The small side door at the end of the stalls opened and Jesse waved. “Hey, y’all. I thought I might find you out here. What do you think, Dad? Do we need to do anything different?”
“Just keep the big doors that lead out into the pasture closed for a few days,” Sonny said. “I’m thinking maybe we need to rope off a section on that side for them, rather than turning them out in the whole twenty acres.”
“I’ll get Henry and the boys on it the first of the week.” He closed the door tightly and started down the aisle separating the stalls.
Addy’s heart pounded with each step that he took toward them. She stared at his lips and wished they were alone so she could see if another kiss would be as hot as the one they’d shared.
“How much trouble was it to get them over here?” Sonny asked.
“Tell you in a minute.” He went straight for the tack room and returned with three bottles of cold water. “It’s hot in here even with that little breeze. You need to stay hydrated, Dad.” He handed the first bottle to Sonny and the second one to Addy. “So do you. We can’t have either of you dropping from heat stroke.” He sat down beside Addy and chuckled. “Mia and I both got cooled off on the first trip, but we’re pretty well dried out now, except my boots are still a little sloshy.” He went on to tell them the story about the ditch.
Sonny laughed until he got the hiccups, and tears rolled down his cheeks. “I would love to have seen that. You do know you could have loaded them in a trailer and brought them over in less than an hour, don’t you?”
“And miss all that fun?” Jesse chuckled with him, and then grew serious. “She tried to manipulate me into telling her who her father is, Addy.”
Her breath caught in her throat and she forced herself to remember how to breathe. “And?”
“She played on the fact that we were best friends and asked me if I knew who it was. I told her I would never lie to her, that I knew but that I wouldn’t tell her because it wasn’t my place,” he told her.
“Good answer,” Addy said. “She needs a few weeks to get over this thing with Ricky before we tell her.”
“I agree,” Jesse said. “Got to get back to the fencing. See y’all at supper.”
“I think I’m ready to go, too, Addy,” Sonny said. “Heat is a little worse than I thought it would be. Just put my chair over behind the panels by the hay. I’ll probably be ready to come back in the morning when it’s cooler.”
See you later? Jesse mouthed at Addy over the top of Sonny’s head as he headed toward the tack room.
She gave him a brief nod and handed Sonny his cane. Tonight, she would get the full story of what all happened between Jesse and Mia, but that was secondary to the idea that she would get to spend time with him—alone.
* * *
Jesse picked up another wire stretcher from the shelf and walked with his dad and Addy out to her SUV. He held his dad’s cane while Sonny hiked a hip into the passenger seat and grabbed a hold of the hand grip on the ceiling.
“All settled?” Jesse asked.
“Yep, but it gets harder to get in and out of a vehicle every time,” Sonny admitted. “Don’t wait until you are past seventy to retire, son. Do it as soon as you can and enjoy a few years when you can travel.”
Jesse patted him on the shoulder and stretched the seat belt over his chest. “Been there, done that already, Dad. I’m ready to do ranchin’ work until I drop now. Fasten this thing. Addy’s always driven too fast.”