Texas Hope: Sweetgrass Springs Stories (Texas Heroes Book 16) Read online

  Michael rolled down his window. Ajax leapt against the rolled-down back windows, always eager to greet.

  “Howdy. Need any help?” The man grinned at the pup. “Hey there, little guy.” His gaze went past Ajax to Monroe. “Hey, buddy.” He looked at Michael again. “Anything I can help you with?”

  “No, I’m fine, just—”

  “Nothing wrong with your truck?”

  Michael shook his head. “You coming from Sweetgrass Springs?”

  The man nodded. “Yeah. Name’s Randall Mackey. Folks call me Mackey.”

  “You grew up here?”

  “Nope. Not until sixth grade, that is. You been to Sweetgrass? Got family there?”

  “Sort of.”

  One black eyebrow arched. “There’s a story, I’m guessing.”

  “Yeah. But not with a happy ending.”

  “Don’t be so sure. Stories have a way of ending different in Sweetgrass than you might think. Dreams seem to come true when you least expect them. You should stick around. Place might grow on you.”

  Actually, it already had made an indelible impression. “Don’t think the welcome mat will be rolled out for me anytime soon.”

  Green eyes lit with curiosity. “That so? Who wouldn’t be hospitable to you?”

  “You might not know him.”

  “Son, everyone knows everyone else here. Who’s this un-neighborly citizen?”

  “Ian McLaren.”

  The man could not look more shocked. “Ian? Made you feel unwelcome? You sure you got his name right?”

  “Yeah.” He faked a smile. Pointed to the dimple, then pointed to his eyes. “Either of these look familiar?” Why was he continuing this discussion? What was the point?

  Mackey’s eyes rounded, and his mouth dropped open. “No. Way.” He cocked his head. “How…?”

  “I shouldn’t be talking about this. Ian’s unhappy enough already.”

  “Ian has been my best friend since we were kids. My wife and his are cousins. The man I know would never say a cross word to a stranger.”

  “But I’m not just a stranger.”

  “You aren’t, are you? What, a cousin or…” Mackey scratched his head. “I don’t recall Gordon talking about having any siblings, though.”

  “I’m Ian’s brother.”

  Silence. “Brother? But how—” Mackey shook his head again. “His mother is still alive? You’re hers?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But not Gordon’s.” Mackey whistled. “Wow.”

  “Yeah. Only that’s not what Ian said, not that I blame him. I’m mad as hell at her myself. I only learned of his existence recently.”

  Another whistle.

  “Dad, you okay?” called out the boy.

  Mackey stirred and tore his gaze away. “Fine, son.”

  “Can I get out?”

  “Hold up, buddy, just for a second.” His green gaze shifted, all serious now. “So you’re just…leaving?”

  “He doesn’t want me here. I can’t really blame him.”

  “He’s the best man I know. He’ll get over it. He’s been through a lot, he and his dad. It was really hard for him to learn to trust Scarlett because of what—” He closed his mouth in chagrin.

  “What my mother did. I get it—or at least as well as I can. I don’t begin to understand what she was thinking. Maybe the best thing I can do is stay away from him, but…” He exhaled. “I always wanted a brother. A large family.”

  “No other siblings?”

  “Just me.”

  Mackey stared off in the distance, then, as if reaching a decision, clicked his gaze back to Michael’s. “Look, Ian is a thinker. He’s not impulsive. Give him a little bit of time—but not too much.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “What do you do for a living, anyway? Could you hang around and do some ranch work?”

  “Yeah, but I can do more. I’m a vet.”

  “What branch? I was in the SEAL Teams.”

  “Thank you for your service. No, I meant, I’m a veterinarian.”

  “No shit? Man, we could use a vet around here.” Mackey stared off again, his eyes calculating. “Large animals or small?”

  “All those plus exotics. I’ve traveled around.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d—” Mackey shook his head.

  “What?”

  “It’s just…my wife and I have a horse operation, and there’s this yearling I’m concerned about. He and another colt were rough housing in the pasture, and Blaze wound up with a bite in his chest that required five sutures. He won’t leave them alone, and they’re inflamed. Our vet had a heart attack and is being advised to shut down his practice. But I can call this vet in San Antonio.”

  “That’s a long way from here, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. And Blaze has only been in a trailer once. He’s a little high-strung.”

  A glimmer of hope rose in Michael. It might lead to nothing, but regardless, having an ally in one of his brother’s friends couldn’t hurt. “He could do more damage to himself in a trailer. I’d be glad to take a look at him.”

  “Ian might want to kick my ass for telling you this, but you should know that though he raises cattle, horses are his first love. Having a vet who knows horses in the family couldn’t hurt.”

  “I don’t want to push him too hard. This was a big shock for him.” Michael made up his mind. “I’ll be coming back soon, anyway.”

  “Yeah?” Mackey’s brows rose. “For real?”

  “He doesn’t have to deal with me if he doesn’t want to, but I just finished running a practice for a buddy, and I have some offers but hadn’t accepted any of them.” Michael smiled. “It might be better for me not to spend much more time in Austin. There’s a stubborn as hell vixen back there who needs to miss me for a while, but I’d rather not go too far.”

  Mackey snorted. “Got one of those at home.”

  They shared a grin of commiseration.

  “It’s getting late.”

  “Then we’d better get started.”

  “You could stay the night at our place. The Star Bar G has a foreman’s cabin that just got vacated when my sister-in-law Penny and her husband moved into their new house.” He shook his head. “My wife Rissa’s gonna kill me. Ian and she are close, too.”

  “I can get a motel room.”

  “Not around here you can’t, though the Benefields just opened a bed and breakfast, and Jackson might have space in his geek hotel.”

  “What?”

  “Long story. Rissa and Penny’s brother is a video game bazillionaire who came back and married his teenage sweetheart, now he’s moving his company here. He’s renovated some of the old vacant space downtown and made office space and temporary housing out of it. Plus Ruby rents out rooms in her house.”

  “I met Ruby. She’s a nice lady.”

  “She’s the best. Town would have died without her. But her granddaughter is married to Ian, so it might be awkward if you stayed there.”

  “She stuck up for me with Ian.”

  “Ruby never met a stray she didn’t want to take in. Half the town is here because of her.”

  “Look, I left my number with Scarlett. Maybe I’d better just give Ian time. I’ll look at your horse, then head out.”

  “You give Ian time, and he’ll take more. Dude moves like a snail. Too damn responsible, to everything and everyone. Carries the whole blasted population on his shoulders.”

  “He sounds like a really good man. I don’t want to make things hard on him.”

  “I would never set out to hurt my best friend, and I know at least a dozen ways to kill you if you tried to.” Mackey’s grin didn’t hide the fact that he was serious. “Who you really need to talk to is Gordon. My bet is that Ian’s mostly bent out of shape, worrying about protecting his dad.”

  “He’d be right to do so. I love my mother, and I wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t left, but…she was wrong. No child should ever experience abandonment.”
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  “Amen. You’re talking to a man who just adopted a boy whose mom chose a series of wrong men over him, time and again.” Mackey considered Michael. “But you didn’t have anything to do with your mother’s decisions. And so far, you seem a lot more like Ian than different from him.”

  Michael looked away, pondering. “I’m at a loss to know what’s the right thing to do.”

  “And I never met an impulse I didn’t want to pounce on.” Mackey grinned.

  “I need to think. And Ian needs time.”

  “Good grief, you are his brother, aren’t you? Two snails in a shell.”

  Michael grinned. “Thank you. I think.” He hesitated, but in the end, a hurt animal won. “Let’s go see your yearling. The rest can wait.”

  Mackey slapped the door frame and nodded. “You got it. Follow me.”

  Ian drove off blindly. Wished Blue were with him. Damn, he felt alone in this. He gunned the engine and drove hard. At first he didn’t know where he was headed.

  But then he did. His thinking spot, the small clearing on a hill across the river from the ranch house. It was family land. It was his refuge. Had been since he was much too young to drive. In the years after his mom—

  He didn’t have a mom. He could barely remember her, except for that last day. That day, he’d never forget.

  She’d come to him when he was playing outside, roping a fencepost that was far taller than his skinny frame. The rope was a smaller version of the one his dad used, one Gordon had cut down for him until his arms grew long enough to manage a full-sized rope.

  He’d missed only twice out of ten attempts.

  “You’re so much like your father,” he’d heard. His mom said stuff like that. He’s your child more than mine, Gordon.

  Or I want more for him. Ian never understood it when she said that. He had everything. Well, almost everything. He only had a pony, but his dad swore that when he grew a little more, he’d have his own horse. Ian couldn’t wait. The horses spoke to him. They understood him without words.

  “I have to go, sweetheart,” his mother said that day.

  “Okay.” He nodded but didn’t turn around. She left all the time, making trips to Austin or San Antonio. She always said she needed things Sweetgrass couldn’t give her.

  He didn’t understand what that meant.

  “I’m going to miss you.” Her voice sounded funny.

  He turned. She was all dressed up, the way she liked to. We need go somewhere, Gordon. Anywhere. Sometimes she said that, too.

  “When are you coming back?”

  Her eyes, just like his own, looked sad. “I’m so sorry. I have to go away for a while. I wish I could make you understand. I—” She bent to him, then kneeled on the ground, even though she was wearing white pants. She gripped him in a hard hug. “I love you, Ian. I wish it could be different.”

  “How long is a while?”

  She pressed her lips together. “I don’t know, baby.”

  “Why do you have to go, Mommy? Please don’t go.”

  She pulled back, and there were tears in her eyes. “I tried, Ian, I promise I tried hard. I just…I have to. I’m dying here.”

  He started feeling really scared. “Mommy?”

  “You’re upsetting the boy,” his father grated. “You have no right. You’re the one doing this to us.” His daddy looked so angry.

  Ian’s stomach hurt.

  “Gordon—”

  “Get out.”

  “Daddy—”

  She turned away. “Don’t make him hate me.”

  “You’re doing that just fine on your own.”

  Ian started after his mother. “Mommy, don’t go!”

  His dad crossed to him in long strides. Picked him up and hugged him hard. “We’re gonna be just fine, son.” He pressed Ian’s head to his broad shoulder, but Ian struggled to turn around. “No. Don’t look, Ian. It’ll be better this way.”

  Ian was really scared now. His daddy sounded all wrong. He heard an engine start, and a car drive away. He pushed against his dad, kicked him, too. “Let me down.”

  His father gripped his jaws in one big hand and held him still. “Hear this, Ian, and mark my word. We’re gonna be fine. Your mama doesn’t know how to be happy here, but you and me, we’re part of this place. You love the ranch, right?”

  Tearfully Ian nodded, shocked that his dad’s eyes were wet.

  His daddy didn’t cry. Not ever.

  “This is home. This is our land. Belongs to you much as me. We got roots here, and you’ll be fine.”

  “But what about Mommy?”

  His dad’s face looked hurt. “She can’t love this place, son, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. But we will be fine here, I promise you that. Now—” He set Ian on his feet. “I think it might be time for you to meet your new horse.”

  He’d been flabbergasted. “Horse? A big horse? For me?” There was nothing Ian loved more than horses but—He glanced back over his shoulder at the plume of dust rising from the road.

  His dad squeezed his hand, his eyes kind and sad and full of love.

  “He’s not full-sized yet, he’s just a colt. But he’s yours. You’ll raise him and train him.”

  Joy crowded out some of his fear. “You mean Shadow? He’s mine?”

  “He sure is, son.”

  This was the best present ever in the whole wide world. His very own horse. “But…I don’t know how to train him.”

  His dad smiled and clasped his shoulder. Tucked him into his side. “I’ll help you, and you’ll do fine. You’re going to be a good horseman, Ian, and you’ll take care of this land that your ancestors fought and died for.” His father waved a hand to indicate all that was in sight for miles. “This is what forms us, Ian. This is who we are. We’re McLarens. The Double Bar M is our home.”

  Of course it was. He knew that already. Everybody knew this had been their home for generations.

  But a horse of his own?

  Now that was really something.

  Ian climbed to his thinking spot and stared out across the same land where he’d been born, where he’d planted himself, the land that owned him and would be his legacy to the baby growing inside his woman. The woman he loved more than life itself.

  Shadow was gone now, but he’d been the beginning of Ian’s prize herd, the heart of his heart—until he’d met Scarlett.

  He was planted here. He’d dreamed of traveling—his mother’s legacy, perhaps—but he’d assumed he never could. Scarlett had insisted, however, that they would find a way to travel, and seeing the world with her and their children was a dream he would work hard to make happen.

  But his dad had been right. At his core, he was this land, and this land was him. His father had stuck with him from that day when his mother had vanished in a cloud of dust. He hadn’t even known until recently that his mother had wanted to take him with her—offered, at least. But she hadn’t meant it, or she’d have fought harder for him.

  So where the hell had she gone? He’d assumed she was dead, since he’d never heard one word from her after that day.

  I can’t excuse what she did. I don’t understand it myself. But she doesn’t have to be part of this. I’d like a chance to stand for myself. I want to know you, and I think you’d like me if you’d give me a chance.

  He didn’t want to. He wanted the man who claimed to be his brother to go away. Before his dad—

  Hell. He had to tell his dad. Now that Ian himself loved a woman, he understood better why his father had never given his heart again. How would Gordon take it? On the heels of his stroke, what would this news do to him?

  He could have gladly lived his whole life not knowing it himself.

  Then, fresh on the heels of the plume of dust in his memories, a new one rose into view, heading his way.

  He recognized the Range Rover driven by his oldest friend, Jackson Gallagher. He didn’t need a brother. He had them already in Jackson and Mackey.

  He smiled a little and
shook his head. He wouldn’t let Scarlett come with him when he was so upset, so she’d sent someone else who loved him. That woman didn’t give up. Stubborn didn’t begin to describe Scarlett Ross McLaren.

  But she loved just as fiercely. She’d sent him the friend who’d known him before and after that long-ago day. The one who’d known him best. The favorite receiver when Ian was the team’s quarterback, the genius IQ buddy who’d helped Ian survive math.

  “No, I don’t need to talk about it,” he said as footsteps approached from behind him. “I’m fine.”

  “Sure you are, you lying sack of dog turds,” Jackson said amiably and clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Buzz off, Wiz. Don’t you have a small country to purchase or a company to buy up?”

  “Taking a vacation day from world domination,” Jackson responded easily. “Wondered if you might want to go fishing.”

  “You don’t fish.”

  “It’s only an excuse to drink beer, anyway, from what I can tell.”

  “You don’t drink beer often either.”

  “Details, details.” Jackson stood beside him and stared out. “What is it about this place? I own an island, for cripes’ sake. And other houses.”

  “Sweetgrass is home. And yes, I’m fine.”

  “I always wanted a brother. Instead I got sisters. Wanna trade?”

  Ian found a grin. “Keep them. Ris and Penny are too scary.”

  “Scarlett says he seems nice.”

  “Don’t start with me, Wiz. I’m not feeling real rational right now.”

  Jackson chuckled. “Let’s go play my newest game. You can’t mope while I’m kicking your ass.”

  “I’m not moping. I’m—” Ian exhaled harshly. Bent to pick up a rock, then launched it as far as he could throw. Maybe not as far as he could launch a football back in the day, but he still had the goods. “Damn it, Jackson. What the hell am I going to tell Dad?”

  “The truth is a good start. Your dad’s a strong man.”

  “He had a stroke. He’s not as strong as he used to be.”

  “You gonna tell him that?”

  His lips curved. “Not on your life.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just want this to go away.”

  “Doubt it’s likely, but good luck with that. You figure out how to remake reality, I want to know.” Jackson glanced over. “Meanwhile, you know we got your back, right?”