The Rancher's Reunion
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Lisa Childs
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PROLOGUE
IT HAD BEEN seventeen years since Cash had stood right where he did now, on the gravel driveway between the barns and the two-story farmhouse. Despite all the time that had passed, he could almost hear the echo of his shouts from so long ago. “You lied to me! You’ve been lying to me my whole life!”
After all the fear and grief and anxiousness he’d grown up feeling, the lie had been unforgivable to him. And so he’d said unforgivable things, too. “You’re not my dad! I hate you! I’m never coming back!”
Even now, he flinched at the guilt and regret over what his eighteen-year-old self had said in the heat of the moment. He’d regretted his words almost immediately, but he’d been too stupid and too proud to take them back.
The summer he’d spent between high school and college, without his family, had seemed interminable. And so he’d returned to the ranch before his classes were supposed to start, but then she had been here.
Now, she opened the door, just as she had then, and stepped out onto the sagging porch. He waited for the flash of anger he’d felt seventeen years ago, for the resentment that she’d taken his mother’s place way too soon. He waited for the anger that the man he’d thought was his father for most of his life had replaced Cash’s mother so quickly, as if she hadn’t mattered to him at all.
At the time, Cash had assumed that it meant he hadn’t mattered at all, either, that coming back had been a mistake. Clearly, he’d thought, he wasn’t missed.
She’d asked him then, “Are you a friend of one of the boys? They’re at school now for orientation. They’re just picking up their schedules and getting their pictures taken, so they should be back soon if you want to wait.”
How hadn’t she recognized him? Were the pictures of him, the few he’d consented to having taken, gone already?
She’d glanced at the house, and her hazel eyes had filled with such concern. “Maybe you should wait out here, though. JJ’s resting...”
Cash had turned and walked away from her, believing that there was nothing at the ranch for him anymore. His mother was gone and nobody else had really needed him.
But now it was seventeen years later and he was older and wiser, though probably just as stubborn as he’d always been. Still, he had returned when she’d called him.
“Doc CC?” she asked as she walked down the porch steps toward him. Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face.
Since she hadn’t recognized him seventeen years ago, she wouldn’t recognize him now. He wasn’t the skinny teenager he’d been then. Plus, he was blond and blue-eyed instead of dark haired and dark-eyed like his brothers. Seventeen years ago, he had discovered why.
But now he just nodded at her in acknowledgment and acceptance of the nickname he’d been given when he’d toured with the rodeo as a veterinarian. His partner in their veterinarian practice in Willow Creek, Wyoming, called him by the nickname, too, so much so that all of their clients only referred to Cash that way. Between the nickname and how much he’d changed, nobody had recognized him as a Cassidy from the Cassidy Ranch in Moss Valley, an hour’s drive from Willow Creek.
“Yes, you called me about a mare,” he said.
Darlene from Cassidy Ranch. Was she a Cassidy now? Had JJ married her?
He had no idea, but she’d been with JJ nearly as long as Cash’s mother had been. A pang struck his heart over how easily a person could be replaced.
“Thanks for coming out on such short notice,” she said as she walked up and extended her hand toward him.
Out of a sense of loyalty to his mother and with the suspicion that he was the only one who still felt loyalty to her, he hesitated for a moment before he shook Darlene’s small hand. It was heavily calloused, and there were dark circles around her eyes. Despite how run-down the ranch looked, she must have worked hard to keep it going. But when he followed her into the barn, all the stalls but one were empty. And the hay in the loft was just a few short stacks of bales that looked moldy with age.
Where were his brothers now? Marsh was only a couple of years younger than him, and the twins only two years younger than Marsh, which meant they were all in their thirties now. Why weren’t they helping at the ranch?
He felt that pang in his heart again, but this time it was of longing, of wanting to know them. Maybe Becca was right. Maybe it was time to come home for real, not just for a furtive visit like he had when she’d listed this property for sale. In stealth. At night. He hadn’t been able to see then what he did now: how run-down it was.
“What’s going on with the mare?” he asked. “Do you have any concerns about her health?”
The woman reached over the stall door and lovingly stroked the nose of the brown thoroughbred horse. “No.” She sighed. “I’m selling her, and I’d like to give the new owner a veterinarian’s report of her health.”
While he did as she’d requested and stepped inside the stall to examine the mare, Cash yearned to ask for a health report, too, though he was interested in JJ, not a horse. With the way that the ranch looked, he could guess JJ wasn’t doing well. Seeing Cash now probably wouldn’t be good for him...
Or for Cash.
So he limited his questions to asking Darlene only about the horse and nothing else. He’d been gone too long and had lost his right to ask the questions he wanted to. He’d lost his family, although he wondered if he’d ever really been a part of it. And now the ranch was for sale.
After he checked over the mare and got back in his truck, he reached in his pocket for his lighter but it wasn’t there. He must have lost it. Even though he had never smoked, he always carried it with him, in his pocket, like someone might carry a rabbit’s foot for luck. The family heirloom was pewter, engraved with the initials CC in the shape of horseshoes. Cash wasn’t sure if it had ever brought him luck or even the clarity and solace he’d sought for so long.
Now that it was gone, he’d decided not to miss it...like he tried not to miss his family or his home.
