After the Rodeo
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Claire McEwen
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Chapter One
JACE HENDRICKS STOOD on the porch of his run-down farmhouse on his run-down ranch and listened to the social worker give him the rundown on everything he was doing wrong.
“Kids this age, and in this situation, need predictability,” she was saying. She was Mrs. Roxanne Sherman, an older woman with stick-straight gray hair and dressed in a gray business suit, as if she was trying to blend in with the fog that had rolled in from the Pacific this morning.
Mrs. Sherman had been assigned to his case when Jace first brought his sister’s scared, sad kids to his Northern California hometown of Shelter Creek to live with him. And she’d been on his case ever since. “Children need a schedule they can count on and a parent they can count on,” she reminded him. “Someone steady and reliable.”
That was pretty unfortunate, seeing as the kids’ mom, Jace’s sister, Brenda, and her boyfriend, Neil, had each been sentenced to almost twenty years in prison for various felonies.
Then it hit Jace like a dash of cold water. Mrs. Sherman was talking about him. He was the parent. He was the one who had to be steady and reliable. And if she thought those two words described him, she wouldn’t be delivering this lecture.
“Right,” Jace said carefully, because it seemed like she expected him to say something. “I am trying to be that kind of person.”
He looked out at the kids, who he’d told to go play in the front yard. Though yard was an aspirational term. Right now it was just the raggedy stubble of weeds he’d mown, a few pieces of rusted-out farm equipment and the chopped-up trunk of a rotten oak he’d taken down yesterday.
Eight-year-old Amy, her red curls blowing in a wild halo around her head, was balancing on the stump of the oak. Six-year-old Alex, always so quiet and withdrawn, was perched on the seat of an ancient plow, reading a book. And Carly, fifteen and impossible to figure out, was leaning on the fence by the road, talking on the cell phone she’d conned Jace into buying her when she first arrived at the ranch back in June.
Who the teen was talking to, Jace had no idea. School had only started a month ago and the kids were new to Shelter Creek, but Carly’s phone was already buzzing constantly with incoming texts and calls.
“Jace,” Mrs. Sherman said sharply, sensing, perhaps, that his mind was drifting. “You have to take this seriously. These kids need a more child-friendly atmosphere than this.”
That was one of Mrs. Sherman’s favorite themes. And Jace got it. This ranch wasn’t exactly kid friendly yet. But he wished she would cut him just a little slack. He’d bought the property just three months ago. It might need a lot of work, but it was the only ranch around here he could afford.
After over a decade on the road chasing rodeo glory, Jace hadn’t owned a home of his own when he’d taken the call from Social Services, informing him that his sister was in jail and her three kids were headed for foster care.
Jace had been in a hotel room outside of San Antonio that night, celebrating his victory at the rodeo there with a bottle of bourbon and a blonde gal named Lovey. But once he’d put the phone down, he’d no longer been in the mood to celebrate. He had felt all of his dreams, dreams that had finally come together, sliding out of his grasp. Taking everything familiar right along with them.
He’d spent a long time making a living as a fairly good bull rider, knocking around the circuit for years. But then, somehow, just about a year ago, he’d started winning. And winning some more. After a decade of living out of his truck and paying his dues, somehow Jace’s time had come. There wasn’t a bull out there that he couldn’t wring a ride from. He was a rising star, on the winning streak he’d almost given up hoping for.
And then one phone call changed everything. Jace couldn’t let his nieces and nephew be raised by strangers. He wasn’t going to let them endure any more uncertainty or abuse. They deserved a good childhood, not one that they merely tried to survive. Not a childhood like he and Brenda had endured. And not foster care, where, the social worker on the phone had warned him, the kids would probably be split up because the system was bursting at the seams and no one wanted to take in three older children.
Who knew where they’d have ended up? He might be the most unqualified parent on the planet, but he’d never hurt the kids. The memories of his own father’s rage were etched too deep for that.
Plus he owed it to them. He owed it to Brenda. He’d known for a while that she was struggling. He’d known she had a problem with drugs. He should have checked on her and the kids more often. Should have tried to get her to rehab again. But he’d had his own goals to pursue, and maybe he’d been attracted to those rodeo lights and the thrill of riding those bulls as a way to deal with his demons, just like Brenda had been driven to drugs.
So right there, over the phone from San Antonio, Jace had agreed to take the kids. He’d tossed the bourbon in the trash, sent Lovey on her way, and called his agent and said goodbye to everything he’d worked so hard for. When dawn hit with its dim promise, Jace had been on the road to Los Angeles to get the kids. Each mile under his truck’s wheels had pulled him further from everything he’d ever wanted and toward a life that was nothing but questions. Where to live? What to do for money? And how the hell was he going to raise a bunch of kids?
Jace barely caught Mrs. Sherman’s next words. Something about clearing out the logs and setting up a play structure for Amy and Alex.
“Okay,” he assured her. “I’ll look into it.” Gulping in a breath of misty air, Jace tried to cool the worry pressing hot on his chest. He didn’t have the money to buy some fancy play structure right now. Most of his funds had gone to purchasing this ranch and fencing off some of the best grazing land on the property. The last of his money was set aside for the cattle he’d buy soon. The start of his herd.
Maybe he could nail some of this old junk together to make a structure, though he doubted that’s what the social worker had in mind.
He turned to face Mrs. Sherman, wishing she’d go, because no matter what he did it wouldn’t be adequate in her eyes. She’d wanted Jace to buy a house in town. Raise the kids in a safe, controlled setting. But walking away from rodeo had already felt a little like dying. If Jace moved to town, he might as well be buried, too. No way was he going to survive in some nine-to-five job, if he even qualified for one.
At least a ranch was something he could get excited about. He was planning to raise beef cattle for now, but maybe eventually he’d raise his own line of bucking bulls, so when the kids were older he could be a part of the rodeo again.
And even if Mrs. Sherman couldn’t see it, growing up on this land would be good for the kids. On a ranch he could be around for them. He could provide them a healthy life with a lot of time out of doors. In fact, maybe once Mrs. Sherman left today, he’d take the kids down to the barn. He’d managed to find a couple docile horses—just older trail horses that had come cheap—and he was determined to get the kids riding. They all seemed happier around the horses.
Jace wanted to make them happy. He wanted to be happy, too. But most days they were all just getting by.
“It’s not just a play area,” Mrs. Sherman said. “This ranch isn’t safe for kids. All of this old, rusty farm equipment should be disposed of, and the barbed wire fences lying on the ground have to be replaced or removed. Your porch is falling down. It has to be repaired, along with any outbuildings or structures that the children might get into.”
What she was asking for was huge. The acres closest to the house were basically a junkyard of the previous owners’ abandoned belongings. And just about every building on the property was falling apart. That’s why this land had come so cheap.
He tried to explain. “All that is cosmetic. I need to focus on getting the barns and pastures ready so I can get cattle in here. Then I can start earning some income.”
“These are safety issues.” Mrs. Sherman’s crossed arms and pursed lips allowed no argument. “Plus, cleaning up the property will increase the children’s sense of order. It will improve their self-esteem and their feelings of security.”
Jace bit back the words he wanted to say. That their sense of security would probably improve if he could earn an income. But he couldn’t start an argument. He needed Mrs. Sherman on his side. He forced the frustration out of his voice. “I understand. But cleanup will take money. And I need the rest of my savings to get my herd started.”
“You can always get a job.” Mrs. Sherman’s voice dripped with deceptive sweetness. Sugar on a toothache.
Even though she drove out to check on Jace from Santa Rosa, a city surrounded by ranches and vineyards, somehow Mrs. Sherman didn’t think agriculture counted as real work. Jace was tempted to ask her if she knew where her food came from, but figured it wouldn’t help their relationship much.
“Ranching will be my job.” Jace forced his voice to stay calm. “I know you don’t see it, but this property is starting to come together.” He pointed west, toward the hills rolling parched and brown out toward the Pacific coast. “There’s a valley just past that hill. Folks call it Long Valley and it’s a part of my ranch. I finished repairing the fences there last week. That means I can bring my first cattle in. They’ll graze there while I get everything else up and running. I’m on my way to making this ranch profitable. I hope you can be patient.”
For a moment, something like regret shadowed Mrs. Sherman’s impermeable expression. “I don’t make the rules, Jace. You’ve said you want to legally adopt the kids. To do that, you need to show you can support them, long-term. I have to be able to write something on the forms where it asks for your income.”
“Right.” Jace forced the air past the tightness in his lungs. “And I will have income. Soon.”
“And everything cleaned up and kid friendly.”
“Yes,” Jace managed. “That, too.”
“I know you’ll figure it out, if you want to create a comfortable home for the kids.” Maybe Mrs. Sherman meant to be reassuring, but it sounded a lot like a threat.
“Just give me a little time.” Jace pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. Suddenly the damp morning felt sticky. His stomach seethed like he’d swallowed a rattler.
He’d been on the road for years, been his own man, accountable to no one but himself. Now he was being micromanaged by Social Services.
For about the millionth time in the past several months, he cursed his sister and her addictions and her drug-dealing boyfriend and her neglect of these poor kids. But that took him nowhere but down, so he tried to do what he did before a ride on a bull—pull in a deep breath and center himself for whatever came next.
Though sometimes Mrs. Sherman seemed more dangerous than the toughest bull. It wasn’t just his life and his well-being at stake anymore.
“I’ll do my best to implement all of your ideas.” He had to push the words out through the cracks in his pride.
“That’s good.” Strange how she could keep her voice so brisk and to the point when he felt like he was being turned inside out. “Now. There’s still something else we have to discuss. That citation a couple weeks ago.”
And there it was. The thing Jace had been hoping she’d overlook. But of course she wouldn’t. And she probably shouldn’t, because even Jace could see that a guy who got arrested in a barroom brawl might not be the best foster dad.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “About that.”
“The sheriff sent me a report. He said he had to detain you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jace’s boyhood manners, pounded into him by his dad’s fists, emerged at times like this.
“You were drunk and disorderly.”
“Well, more disorderly than drunk, actually.” He’d been a few sips into his first beer when his best buddy, Caleb, heart all broken up over his girlfriend, had started a fight down at the bar. “I was defending a friend.”
“A fight is a fight.” Mrs. Sherman sighed, a breathy, long-suffering sound. “It’s not your first arrest for this type of thing. When you agreed to take the children, the social worker in Los Angeles chose to overlook your history of...” she paused, as if she couldn’t bring herself to say the words “...bar fights. Because you assured her that you didn’t engage in that type of behavior anymore.”
And Jace had meant it. As of that moment, he’d made a promise—no more drinking or late nights in bars. No more buckle bunnies like Lovey. “I don’t fight, as a rule,” Jace assured her. “My buddy, he’d had his heart broken. And he kind of lost it. He’s a veteran and has a bit of a temper. I was trying to break up the fight, but then some other guys jumped in and it got out of hand.”
“I see.” The social worker nodded, but her pinched expression made it clear that she didn’t. “And this friend of yours, the veteran with the temper, he has access to the children?”
Access? Where was she going with this?
Jace had a sudden image of Caleb trying to coax Alex up onto his big gentle horse, Newt. His buddy was sweet with the kids, something Jace wouldn’t have guessed from a tough, ornery ex-marine.
“He’s a good guy.” Jace tried to make his voice sound confident. Dad-like. “I’ve known him since we were both younger than Alex. He doesn’t show his temper around the kids. In fact, he’s helped me out with them a couple times.”
At Mrs. Sherman’s sharp look, Jace rushed to reassure her. “Not with babysitting. I don’t leave them with him—or with anyone, actually, yet. But he let me bring the kids by his ranch to ride his horse before we got horses of our own. And since he got back together with Maya—she’s his fiancée now—he doesn’t really have much of a temper at all.”
“You can’t make excuses when you have children, Jace. You just have to do the right thing.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I could remove the children for this.”
Jace’s heart stopped beating. Just froze solid in his chest with an icy kind of pain.
“But I won’t,” Mrs. Sherman went on, as if she hadn’t just about killed him with her previous words. “I am going to give you a warning instead. No more bars or fighting. No more sticking up for your buddies. If you want to be a father, act like one.”
Jace nodded, his heart starting to beat again, relief making him mute. He knew he could do better. He had to. No way was he going to let his nieces and nephew go live with strangers. What if they ended up with someone abusive? He’d never forgive himself. He might not have a clue what to do with Amy, Alex and Carly, but he was family. And he was trying.
“I think we understand each other,” Mrs. Sherman said. “Let’s give this all six weeks. That should be plenty of time for you to make repairs and start earning a profit from those cattle you keep telling me about. Then we can revisit this discussion.” She delivered her verdict in the same false-friendly tone she used for everything. Like it was no big deal. Like she hadn’t just boxed him into an impossible corner.
“Six weeks.” The words were heavy on his tongue. “That’s not enough time.”
“I think it should be plenty.”
Mrs. Sherman didn’t think. That was her problem. She just demanded, with no understanding of reality. Jace couldn’t afford to hire help, which meant he’d have to do the repairs she wanted all on his own. And cattle didn’t just magically multiply. There was this thing called breeding. Gestation. He opened his mouth to explain, but the social worker flashed him a brittle smile and shifted her big handbag on her shoulder.
“Now, I’ve got to get going. You have my card. Call me if you need anything. And make sure you keep out of trouble.”
Mrs. Sherman waved to the kids as she headed toward her bland white government-issue sedan.
Jace watched her as she backed out of the driveway. The morning fog usually felt refreshing, but right now the air felt thick, like it was pushing in on him, trapping him. It got a little lighter as the social worker started down the lane toward the main road, though. Once she was out of sight, maybe he’d be able to breathe again. But just as the road started to curve around the first sharp corner, she stopped. Reversed. And leaned on her horn.
What the...? Was there an elk in the drive? The local tule elk seemed to have a special love of this property, wandering through at all hours of the day and night. But most people would just sit back and enjoy the sight of them. Not lean on their horn to scare them.
Of course, Mrs. Sherman had already made it clear she didn’t have much appreciation of this type of landscape or this type of lifestyle. So maybe elk didn’t do much for her, either.
The little kids had climbed up on the rusted frame of an old tractor and were craning their necks to see what was up. Jace went to join them.
“What’s going on?” Carly was interested enough to put her phone in her pocket.
“I’m not sure.” Jace squinted. “Elk maybe?”
As they watched, the social worker reversed farther up the driveway.
“Do you think she’s scared of them?” Amy asked. “Even Alex isn’t that scared of them.”
Alex glared at her from behind his dusty glasses.
“Amy, not cool,” Carly said. She might be a grumpy teenager but she was good with her siblings and protected Alex most of all. He’d had the hardest time with all the changes and seemed to miss his mom more than the other two did.
Jace automatically reached for Alex’s glasses, cleaned them off and set them back on the little boy’s nose. “There you go, buddy. Now you can see all the action.”
Alex regarded him solemnly and Jace wished, as he did every day, for a smile. For some excitement. Hell, he’d even take misbehavior. Anything but the fear and worry that seemed to have taken up permanent residence inside Alex’s heart. Though maybe it wasn’t fear. Jace had no way of knowing because Alex almost never spoke.
The social worker honked again and Jace sighed. “I’d better go find out what’s wrong with Mrs. Sherman. Will you three stay here? Carly, will you watch them?”
When his oldest niece nodded, Jace jogged across the field, jumped over the downed wire at the end of it, crossed a weed-filled drainage ditch and came out on the lane behind Mrs. Sherman’s car. And then he stopped. A group of people were coming around the corner of his driveway, carrying signs. Jace read I speak for the animals! Save the Elk! and Wildlife Matters!
The meaning slowly sank in. Protesters. Almost two dozen of them. But what were they doing here?
Jace recognized Bunny Chadwick, local octogenarian firecracker, who constantly wrote letters to the editor of the Shelter Creek Sentinel when Jace was in high school. And there was Ed Portman who’d run the Boy Scout troop and made them go on grueling ten-mile hikes during the one year Jace had tried scouting. And Mrs. Sutcliffe, Jace’s seventh grade teacher. Was activism the newest hobby for Shelter Creek retirees?
When Bunny spotted Jace, she raised her hand high in the air. It must have been some kind of cue because the entire group halted. And then they broke into an enthusiastic rendition of the old protest song, “We Shall Overcome.”
Jace’s boots seemed to grow roots.
Mrs. Sherman stepped out of her car and glared at Jace across the sedan roof, her penciled eyebrows touching her hairline.
His heart iced over again. Whatever this situation was, it wasn’t going to help his case with the social worker. Not one bit.
The song ended on a wavering note and the group broke into cheers. Like they were proud of themselves.
How could they be happy when they were probably ruining Jace’s chances of keeping his family together?
Of course, they couldn’t know that. It was just more of his bad luck that they’d showed up here while Mrs. Sherman was on one of her visits.
And what was all this about elk and habitats anyway? When animals crossed his property, he just let them be.
Bunny stepped forward, a big manila envelope in her hand. “Jace Hendricks,” she yelled out as she crossed the distance between them. “We, the members of Habitat Heroes, have been trying to reach you.”
Jace somehow got his legs moving again and took a few steps to meet her. “You have?”
“We have.” She shook a finger at him. “You should be more organized, young man.”
Young. Ha. He was past thirty and had been feeling about ninety lately.
“You’ve got no phone line on this ranch and no one around town knows your cell phone number. What if there was a wildfire? How would anyone reach you to give you a warning?”
Fires were a real danger around here, but Jace had never thought about giving his phone number to anyone aside from Caleb. He glanced at Mrs. Sherman, stomach clenching when he saw that her lips were pressed into a thin line. She probably hadn’t thought about that, either, but thanks to Bunny she sure was thinking about it now.
“We sent you three different letters in the mail. Did you even get them? Did you even open them?”
Guilt tugged on Jace’s conscience. Come to think of it, there had been some mail, but he’d been letting it pile up. He was too tired by the time he got the squabbling kids into bed to do more than crack a beer and drink it slumped in a chair on the rickety porch before falling asleep himself.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to say something. He glanced at Mrs. Sherman again. She looked more disappointed in him than ever. “I didn’t see the letters. No.”
Mrs. Sherman reached for her phone and started typing something on it. Probably a note, to remind herself to take the kids away from Jace as soon as possible.
Bunny nodded sagely. “I suspected as much. Well, in this envelope I have a petition. We’ve collected over a hundred signatures, which is about a tenth of the population of Shelter Creek.”
“Signatures? What for?”
“Because you built a fence right across prime tule elk habitat. Your land, Long Valley, is a big part of their range and now they can’t access it.”
“Save the elk!” Someone shouted from the crowd.
“Save the elk! Save the elk!” Others took up the chant.
Bunny turned around and beamed at her disciples and then handed the envelope to Jace. “Here you go. A photocopy of our petition. We’ll be presenting it at the town council meeting Wednesday evening. That’s the day after tomorrow. I suspect you’ll want to be there.”
And with that, she spun on her heel and rejoined her gang of protesters. They turned away, Mrs. Sutcliffe waving and smiling at Jace like she hadn’t just destroyed his hopes. Jace watched them march off down his driveway, Ed leading them in a rousing chant. What do we want? Habitat! When do we want it? Now! The chant faded as the group made their way down the lane to where their cars were probably parked along the main road.
As the usual country quiet settled back in, Jace glanced at the kids, still standing on top of the old tractor. Safe. At least, for now.
Mrs. Sherman cleared her throat. “You don’t check your mail?”
“Not often enough, clearly.” The words were dry as dust in Jace’s mouth.
“Well...” Her voice was careful, brittle, like it might just fragment from her complete disillusionment. “Why don’t you start?” With one last disappointed glance, she got in her sedan and drove away.
