“Yes.” Ginger lifted her chin, wondering if anyone else that partnered with the BOP had such strict rules for who they’d take in. She told herself not to back down. She had to protect her friends and colleagues, as well as all the visitors that came to Hope Eternal.
And yourself, she thought, hating that door that opened in her memory bank so easily. Ginger wasn’t the type of woman to make the same mistake twice, and just because Nate was good-looking and grateful for a bottle of water didn’t mean she’d allow herself to be anything but his parole officer for the next six months.
She wouldn’t even have to do that. The Bureau of Prisons would send someone out every couple of weeks, and she could call at any time and have them come and get Nate if things simply didn’t work out.
The image of the blond-haired boy paraded through her mind. Nate’s situation certainly was complex, and he’d been hit with three very large items in the space of five minutes. All at once, Ginger was glad she’d let her compassionate side step over to him and offer him a brief touch of comfort.
She couldn’t even imagine how she’d react to one of her siblings passing away, and her heart leapt into the back of her throat.
“I believe you wanted some insight to Nate,” Greg said, adjusting one of the chairs by the door. He sank into the hard-backed seat, a long sigh coming from his mouth. “He’s the best one in the wing—in the whole Unit. Probably out of any Unit here.”
“Why isn’t he in the satellite camp then?” Lawrence asked. “That has even looser security than here.”
Greg glanced at Lawrence and then Ginger. He swiped one hand through his nearly black hair, and all the exhaustion he felt showed plainly on his face. “He was in the satellite camp for a while. Nine months, maybe? Ten. But it’s crowded there, just like it is here, and we needed him to teach our business and finance classes.” He issued a long sigh. “So we asked him if he’d come back over to River Bay Low, and he agreed. He’s done two jobs here—he’s my office assistant, and he works part-time with our suicide watch team as well.”
Surprise moved through Ginger. This Nathaniel Mulbury really was the best of the best. She’d never heard of an inmate working in the Unit office with the team.
“With his good behavior,” Lawrence said, tapping on his phone. “We have him getting released in five months and twenty-two days.”
“Probably earlier even,” Greg said. “He gets more days for every month of good behavior. He’s never been in trouble in all the time he’s been here. He has the least number of tickets out of any inmate currently in River Bay, through all security levels, and the ones he does have are for little things like not being in line on time, or dropping his shower shoes on the floor too loudly.” He looked back and forth between Lawrence and Ginger.
“If he’s so great,” Ginger started. “Why couldn’t you get him out, Lawrence? Why does he have to finish the five months and twenty-two days at all?”
His brother had died. Nate now had a child to raise.
“The judge said other family members could take the boy,” Lawrence said. “She wouldn’t uphold the will to the point where Nate could just be released to his own care, the way he would’ve been in a few months. So our next best step was the Residential Reentry Center. This way, he’s out, but under supervision. He can take the child with him. And he can have a decent transitional period to work through…everything.”
Ginger nodded, a strangely fierce determination moving through her that Nate would get exactly that. She’d help him get exactly that.
“And the family is okay with that?” she asked.
“His parents are getting up there in years,” Lawrence said. “The father has just been diagnosed with colon cancer, and no, Nate doesn’t know yet.” He sighed, and Ginger supposed even lawyers had a human side from time to time. “His sister is married with two kids under the age of four, neither of whom Nate has met.” He read from his phone, though surely he had these familial facts about his client memorized.
“Her husband got in a motorcycle accident only six months after they got married, and he’s disabled and in a wheelchair. She cried and cried when she told me she couldn’t take Connor on too.” He looked up and shrugged. “It’s Nate or the foster care system.”
“Nate will never let that happen,” Greg said. “Ward and Connor came to visit him all the time. He loves that boy.”
Lawrence nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard. Which is why I petitioned the judge for RRC, and specifically at your ranch, Miss Talbot. It’s only a ten-minute drive from his parents and sister. Bethany—the sister—said she could make that drive to see her brother and her nephew. All agreeable with you, of course.”
“Of course,” Ginger murmured. So many things ran through her head that she couldn’t grab onto any one thought and examine it. She drew in a deep breath. “Okay, so I’ll get the clothes on the request sheet, and I’ll be back here on Saturday morning to get him.” She looked between Greg and Lawrence. “Right?”
“Yes,” Greg said, standing. “He’ll be in the Special Housing Unit, Administrative Detention.”
“Why?” Ginger asked.
“Because he’s in crisis right now,” Greg said. “And to lessen the questions and noise from the other prisoners. We put all inmates in Admin Detention during transfers or before hearings. That kind of thing. It’s not like detention at the principal’s office. He’s not in trouble. It’s to spare him trouble.” He reached for her hand again, and they shook. “I’ll be there to say good-bye to him as well. He’s been a good inmate here.” With that, he nodded and turned to leave the office.
Ginger waited until the door closed and then she took his seat, combing her fingers through her own hair. “Is that all then?” she asked Lawrence.
“That should do it,” he said. “Everything will be ready for you between now and then. You get the clothes. I’ll meet you here with the boy. And…that’s that.”
That’s that.
The words didn’t seem like enough for a man who’d lost his brother and was about to become a father, all within a few minutes. So much was changing, and not for her. She’d have another cowboy on the ranch, which she desperately needed.
She seized onto the gratitude as it slipped through her veins and said, “Okay, then. I’ll be ready, and I’ll be here.” She stood and followed Greg out the door, her focus only on making it back to her truck safely.
Once there, she allowed her mind to wander. Yes, she needed Nate’s help on the ranch. She’d just had a cowboy quit last week, and his appointment through the Residential Reentry Program was a huge blessing for her.
“He’s sure handsome,” she muttered, her mood darkening. “And you’re not going to let him use that against you.”
No, she was not.
She could not.
The last time she had, she’d nearly lost everything, and it was only by God’s grace that she’d managed to hold onto the ranch and her last shred of dignity.
That’s that.
With the decision made that Ginger would only speak to Nate if she absolutely had to, she made the drive back to Hope Eternal Ranch, the pure blackness that existed to her left threatening to claw at her very soul.