“You’re seeing her,” Spencer supplied for him, reaching for another barrel. “Right?” He cut a glance at Nate, who still couldn’t get himself to move.
“I mean, I guess?” Nate guessed.
“Oh, boy,” Spencer said, grunting as the barrel came off the truck and he had to bear the full weight of it. “Okay, I’m just going to tell you this, and then you can do what you want with it.”
“I really don’t want to hear it,” Nate said, pulling his gloves on and reaching for the nearest barrel.
“Too bad,” Spencer said. “I didn’t want you to tell me I couldn’t aim to save my life, but you said it anyway.”
“That was a video game,” Nate said. Spencer and Nick loved their video games, and Nate didn’t mind watching after Connor went to bed. He still slept with Nate at night, and Nate didn’t mind at all.
He’d asked Connor about adoption, and then Bethany when she’d come to the ranch for a few hours one weekend. Her kids played well with Connor, and she’d told him he should definitely adopt Connor.
Nate had talked to his parents, and he’d learned that his mother was starting to forget things and that his father had been diagnosed with stage one colon cancer.
He called them a few times a week, because he was the oldest now and Ward wasn’t around to do it. Sometimes the fact that Ward wasn’t around hit Nate pretty hard, and thinking about adopting Connor usually sent him into a depression.
In the end, Nate had decided to go forward with the adoption. He’d filed all the paperwork with his lawyer, and now they were just waiting.
“This is real life,” Spencer said. “And you should know Ginger’s dated a guy like you before.”
Nate’s blood pressure rose. “A guy like me?”
“A guy in the RRC program,” Spencer said. “He seemed like a nice guy. I actually liked him. Then, one day, he disappeared, and the next thing I know, Ginger is telling us she might lose the ranch and that this guy had stolen thousands of dollars from us all.” He’d stopped unloading to tell his tale.
Nate didn’t know what to make of it. “I’m not going to do that,” he said.
“Yeah, because Hyrum’s back in prison,” Spencer said.
“I’m not going back there,” Nate said, fierce determination in his voice. He wasn’t. He had Connor to think about now, and he couldn’t be irresponsible to the point where he could lose the boy he was going to adopt.
He thought of the next drop he needed to make, and fear slid through his whole body. He kept his head down and kept working, his thoughts tangling about this weekend’s activities. Ginger had actually suggested they go to the mall, because she needed a day away from the ranch, and she wanted some Chinese noodles from a restaurant next to the mall.
He’d asked if she’d wait for him at the bank again, and she’d said she would. He could see the questions in her eyes, but to her credit, she hadn’t asked them. Nate figured he’d have to tell her something soon enough, but she hadn’t revealed her dating history to him, and as he pulled the last barrel off the truck, he realized his relationship with Ginger wasn’t as deep as it could be.
He told himself it was still new, and it was. But he wanted it to be deeper, so he’d have to dig down and find something to share with her.
Spencer’s phone rang, and he answered it with, “Hey, boss,” the way he always did when Ginger called. “Yeah, I can be there. I’m just out at the north bird blinds with Nate.” He looked over at Nate, who waited for Spencer to tell him what to do.
They weren’t anywhere near done here. The barrels needed to be moved to the six blinds out here, and they’d have to walk through some watery areas the truck couldn’t go to get the job done.
“He’ll have to be here alone,” Spencer said, half-turning away from Nate. A couple of seconds passed before he said, “All right, boss. See you in a minute.” He hung up and faced Nate. “Ginger needs me back at the ranch.”
“And I’m not going.” Nate wasn’t asking.
“She said it’s fine if you work out here on your own.” Spencer went around to the driver’s seat. “I’ll come back and get you, okay?” He paused before he got in the truck. “And Nate, for the record, I think you’re nothing like that other guy that was here.”
Nate nodded, though his chest squeezed too tight. “Thanks, Spencer.”
“She trusts you, and so do I.”
“I appreciate that.”
Spencer nodded and got in the truck. Nate got straight to work, even before Spencer had gone. He wanted to show everyone that they could trust him. He could work hard. He could accomplish what they wanted him to accomplish.
And in four months, he’d be on his own, achieving his own dreams. If only he knew what those were.
He used to know what he wanted from his life, but that had all changed when he’d gotten caught up in the fraud scheme. Now, he needed a new purpose, one that would take him and Connor somewhere amazing.
He didn’t really want to leave Texas, as Connor only had one set of grandparents, and Nate didn’t think it fair to go too far from them. He’d spoken to his mom and dad several times over the weeks, and Bethany picked up the phone when Nate called too. Those relationships had been damaged, and he’d been rebuilding them for years.
He felt like they were almost there, and he hoped to move to White Lake with Connor to continue the work he’d been doing to reconstruct the trust he’d ruined with just a few bad decisions.
By the time he’d moved all the barrels, his breath huffed and puffed from his mouth, and his back, shoulders, and arms burned with the exertion he’d had to use to get them where Ginger wanted them.
Spencer still hadn’t returned, and Nate’s stomach growled for lunch. He looked down the road, trying to estimate how far it was back to the homestead. Probably an hour by foot, and Nate looked up into the bright, blazing sun.
He wasn’t making that trek without water, and he’d left his bottle in the truck. He retreated to the shade of the bird blind, though it wasn’t any cooler there.
His phone rang, and Nate quickly swiped on the call from the Bureau of Prisons, expecting to hear Ted’s voice. Nate didn’t want to tell him he hadn’t followed up with Ginger about bringing him to the ranch, but he wouldn’t lie to a friend.
Instead, he heard Dallas Dreyer say, “Nathaniel Mulbury,” followed by a big belly laugh.
Nate chuckled too, because only a few people called him by his full name, and one of them was Dallas. At least the first time they talked. “What’s up, Dallas?” he asked after they’d quieted down.
“Nothing much. Wondering how ranch life is.”
“You know what? It’s not bad.” Nate could honestly say that now. “I think maybe I missed my calling in life the first time I chose a career.”
“Oh yeah? Are you a cowboy now?”
“I think I am,” Nate said. He hoped he could be a good cowboy. “It’s good work.” He rolled his aching shoulder, thinking maybe he shouldn’t have fought the mud so much.
“I’m glad,” Dallas said.
“What’s new there?” Nate asked, surprised he wanted to know. But he missed his boys behind bars, and Dallas had needed a strong core group to watch out for him. Nate worried about what would happen to him once Ted left, as then Dallas would be the one with the most days behind him. Slate Sanders would probably rise to the top, because he had a stronger personality than Dallas, and Luke was happy to let someone else lead.