“I should have stayed in Cactus,” she said. “I should never have come back here. When Granny went to the nursing home five years ago, and Mama and Daddy moved out there, I should have stayed.”
Driving to the hay barn, she remembered coming out to Sunflower Ranch five years ago and all the old memories that flooded her that day. Mia was fourteen that spring, and Addy had just started managing a home health care facility. That’s when Sonny was first diagnosed with MS, and Pearl had made arrangements for Addy to come see him every two weeks. Pearl had whispered that he was too damn stubborn to see a doctor as often as he should. The disease progressed quickly at first, and before long, Addy was out at the ranch almost every day.
“Mia loved it here, and Pearl said that she was the grandchild they had never had,” Addy muttered as she got out of the truck and hooked up the hay hauling trailer to it. “So here we are, and Jesse is here. And what am I going to do?”
“Who are you talking to, Mama?” Mia came out of the tack room with two new pairs of gloves.
“Myself,” Addy answered. “Don’t you ever have a conversation with yourself?”
Mia nudged her with a shoulder. “Of course. I have to talk to someone who’s as intelligent as I am every now and then.”
“If you were all that smart, you’d figure out a way to keep your hired hands working,” Addy told her.
“I’m only a year older than some of those guys,” Mia reminded her.
“Dated any of them?” Addy asked.
“Hell, no!” Mia got behind the wheel.
“What does that mean?” Addy slipped into the passenger seat.
“I love you, Mama. I’m glad you kept me and didn’t give me away, but I damn sure don’t want a baby at my age. I’ve got plans, and babies aren’t a part of that until I’m at least thirty.” Mia backed the trailer out of the barn and drove toward the hay field.
“Good for you,” Addy said.
“Besides, who knows what kind of man my father was. You don’t want to talk about him, and I respect that, but he could be a serial killer for all I know.” Mia didn’t even grind the gears as she shifted from low into second.
“That’s not showing a lot of faith in my judgment,” Addy told her.
“No shade on you, Mommy dearest. He might have been a good man at the time, but I would like to know what kind of genes he threw into me before I have kids of my own.” She slapped the steering wheel. “Not a boy in sight. If they show up to work at all today, I’m firing the lot of them, and calling a bunch of girls to come help me next week.”
“Temper! Temper!” Addy scolded. “Look over there under that big scrub oak tree. I do believe that’s four guys all hugging what shade they can before you start cracking the whip over their heads.”
“It’s a good thing they’re here.” Mia braked and brought the truck and trailer to a stop. “They don’t know how close they came to losing their jobs.”
“I’ll drive. You get out there and make ’em sweat. Nothing sexier than a guy with big muscles and a sweaty body,” Addy teased.
“God, Mama!” Mia shook her head.
“No, I’m not a god, but thanks for thinking I am,” Addy giggled.
“If that’s the truth, then why aren’t you flirting with Jesse? He’s pretty darn sexy, and he kept stealing looks at you all during breakfast.” Mia jumped out of the truck and whistled for her crew to get to work.
Oh, my sweet spitfire of a daughter, you may come to regret saying that in the next few weeks.
Chapter Three
You all settled in, Dad?” Jesse asked.
“Ready to go.” Sonny laid his cane to the side of the passenger seat. “I’m so glad you’re home, son. I was wondering if any of you boys would ever come back to the ranch.” He patted Jesse on the shoulder. “I keep saying that, but I want you to know that I really mean it. Henry wants to retire as soon as summer ends, and you’ll need to take over, but that’s not the only reason I want you here. Your mama is going to need you if…when…” he stammered.
Jesse leaned across the console and gave his dad a quick hug. “That gives me six months to get a handle on things, Dad. And the new trial meds are helping so I expect to celebrate your hundredth birthday with you here in about twenty years. Don’t you disappoint me!”
“You know I’ve always loved you as much as if you belonged to me and your mama by blood, don’t you? I regret that I didn’t tell you boys that as often as I should have.” Sonny wiped away a tear hanging on his eyelashes.
“You did just fine, Dad. We all three knew we were loved,” Jesse assured him and then started the slow drive around the property line fences.
Sonny cleared his throat, took out a hanky from the bibbed pocket of his overalls and blew his nose, then put it back. “Thank you for that, Jesse. These damned drugs make me as emotional as a teenage girl, but while we’re on the subject, do you ever wonder about your biological parents? The other boys asked questions years ago, and we answered as best we could.”
Jesse sure hadn’t thought about having this conversation the very morning he got back home. “I looked into it myself a few years ago. I found out my birth parents’ names and that they had died. Maybe that should have bothered me, but it didn’t. Some guys I knew in the service that had been adopted had issues, but I never did. You and Mama loved me so much that it didn’t matter. The only thing I wondered about was why you and Mama didn’t adopt me right away, rather than waiting until you did the paperwork for Lucas and Cody.”
Sonny sighed, inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly. “All your mama ever wanted was a family, and it was my fault we couldn’t have kids, not hers. She loved me enough to stay with me even after we found out why after almost twenty years of marriage, we didn’t have children. If we couldn’t have our own flesh and blood, I didn’t want to have any kids at all, but I love your mother more than life, and she wanted children, no matter how we had to get them.”
Jesse felt his heart fall down into his cowboy boots. His own parents hadn’t wanted him, and that didn’t bother him, but the thought of Sonny not wanting him was another matter. Jesse felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he blinked them back.
Sonny went on, “Your mother talked me into trying out foster care, just to see how it would go.”
“Dad, you don’t have to tell me all this.” Jesse got out of the truck and opened a gate, jogged back to the truck and drove through it, then hopped out again to close the gate.
“Sorry that I couldn’t do that for you,” Sonny said when Jesse was behind the steering wheel again.
Jesse patted him on the shoulder. “No problem.”
“Now, where were we?” Sonny asked, then went on before Jesse could answer. “Oh, yeah. Back to when the foster lady brought you to our house. You were a big baby at nine pounds, but you scared the bejesus out of me. I was terrified that I’d drop you or do something wrong. There I was the same age as you are right now with a baby in my arms. I’d always managed to steer clear of even my buddies’ newborn babies, but Pearl was so in love with you from the first moment she took you from that social worker’s arms, that she wanted me to feel the same thing.”