Second Chance Ranch Chapter 11

Chapter ELEVEN:

When Kelly finally returned to her office, Squire was gone. She’d walked through the calving stalls, watching the boys bottle-feed the calves. She’d helped them throw feed to the chickens; she’d visited with Heidi as she instructed Frank on how to plow their garden for planting.

She loved the ranch, everything about it. She loved the silence of the country being broken by the barking of dogs, the chatter of chickens, the whistling of the wind. She loved the wide-open sky. She’d loved coming here, because she felt like she belonged.

She hadn’t told Squire that in so many words, but it was the absolute truth. No one judged her here—and not just on the ranch. The ladies may gossip at the salon or eye couples at the grocery store, but Kelly had always felt accepted in Three Rivers.

She hated that she’d pushed Squire further away. She could tell he was hurting, probably over several things. Kelly didn’t know everything about him and his life over the past eight years, and she wanted to.

She pulled out her phone and texted him an apology, but he never answered. She went home for the weekend with his silence, and somehow that hurt more than turning him down for dinner.

* * *

Saturday dawned early as summer had officially arrived in Texas. Kelly planned another lunch at the park, this time making sandwiches for her and Finn. She slid in a couple of extras in case Squire showed up.

She hoped he would. She hadn’t told him they ate lunch at the park every weekend, because they didn’t. Until now.

She claimed the bench he’d been on last week, fed Finn, and watched him play on the slide. The lampposts had patriotic banners attached to them, and Kelly remembered the huge Fourth of July celebration coming up. Children laughed; dogs barked; mothers scolded. Squire stayed away.

Her mother came and picked up Finn, and Kelly went to work with knotted organs. Her shift at Vince’s was spent obsessing over Squire, not merely thinking about him.

I should call Chelsea, she thought. She and Squire were close, and maybe she’d provide some details on how to win him over without taking things past the point of professional.

Stay out of his personal life, Kelly thought. She shouldn’t have asked him about going back to college, or said anything about him talking to his dad about the ranch. She’d crossed the line and not even realized it.

“Hello, dear.”

Kelly looked up to find Heidi standing in her line, two carts of food behind her.

“Oh, Heidi. Hi.”

They chatted about the weather, the ranch, and Chelsea while Kelly rang up scads of groceries. “Making your monthly trip?”

Heidi glanced at the full belt of food. “This is only for a week. We have a lot of boys coming out for planting.”

“Oh. Where’s Squire this weekend?” Kelly slipped him into the conversation casually, but surely Heidi hadn’t mistaken the interest in her voice.

“He’s at the base this weekend.” Heidi handed her a fistful of coupons.

“I thought he’d been discharged.”

“He has. They’re still doing some rehab on his leg.” She watched the screen as Kelly scanned each coupon. “It gives him trouble sometimes.”

“Yes, he said as much.” Kelly nodded, satisfied at why he hadn’t answered her text yesterday afternoon. It still stung. What? They didn’t have service on the base? He couldn’t spare ten seconds for a text? Squire seemed to have a knack for disappearing when he didn’t want to talk about something.

She finished with Heidi’s groceries and handed her the receipt. “See you Monday.”

Heidi looked at her a moment longer than necessary. “You don’t work here every weekend, do you?”

“It’s my last day,” Kelly said. “I had to give two weeks notice after I got the job at the ranch. Didn’t want to leave Vince high and dry.”

Heidi patted her hand. “You’re a sweet girl, Miss Kelly.” Her eyes sharpened and her grip tightened. “My Squire deserves someone like you.”

She pushed one cart of groceries toward the exit as a bagger pushed the other, leaving Kelly’s ears burning. What was she saying? A passing statement that she thought Squire deserved a sweet girl? Or was she giving Kelly permission to be with Squire, despite the fact that he was her boss?

She definitely needed to call Chelsea.

“Kelly Armstrong,” a man said, distracting her from Heidi’s retreating back and her disheveled thoughts. 

She remembered she should be working, and her hands automatically reached for the pound of butter on the belt. This cowboy had filled it completely, and his cart still held groceries.

She struggled to place him, though he definitely looked familiar. “Yes,” she said with a smile.

“Ranger Glover,” he said. “I haven’t seen you around much.”

“I haven’t been living here,” she said, still scanning groceries. 

He chuckled. “That makes sense. Sometimes I get so isolated up at that ranch.”

Kelly heard something in his voice, and she wasn’t sure what. “I heard you went to college.”

His face brightened while Kelly struggled to remember how much younger than her he was. Maybe he was Squire’s age. If he wasn’t, he was really close to it. “You did?”

“My mama,” she said with a laugh. “She thinks I wanted to be kept up on all the news here in Three Rivers.”

“And me going to college made the list?”

“I think everything makes the list at Glenda’s salon.” She laughed, and Ranger did too.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “My mother goes there too. I’m sure she said something.”

“Did you finish college?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ranger finally finished loading his groceries, and between him and Heidi, Kelly would be surprised to find anything left on the shelves. 

She’d filled her side of the check stand too, and a bagger hadn’t come to help. She started piling things into plastic bags as he pushed his cart through the lane. “Oh, something totally boring,” he said. “Accounting.”

Kelly felt her face light up. “Oh, that’s not boring. I got the same degree.” She smiled genuinely at the man, though having so many conversations in one shift had already started to drain her. Or maybe that was all the obsessing and stewing over what Heidi had meant about Squire needing someone like her.

Ranger leaned against the counter, his expression brightening his darker features. “Did you now? Maybe you and I should go out and talk numbers.” He laughed, and Kelly joined him though a twinge of panic accompanied the action.

He couldn’t be serious. The Glovers were a big family in Three Rivers. Her mama had sent her the news of Stone Glover’s death from only a couple of years ago, if that long. He was Ranger’s uncle, but they all lived up in the hills south of Three Rivers, manning a massive cattle ranch that rivaled the size of Squire’s. 

She’d known his cousins more than him, as Ranger was the oldest in his family. But Bear and Cactus Glover were both older than Kelly, Cactus by just one year. 

She’d known him, of course, even if they weren’t best friends. Mama hadn’t kept her up-to-date with all of the Glovers, so she wasn’t sure if they’d all stayed at Shiloh Ridge Ranch, or if they’d gone off to college, gotten married, all of that.

No matter what, Ranger’s eyes twinkled with interest, and Kelly scanned faster than ever. He continued the small talk, seemingly confident and easy-going. He never did ask her out for real, and as he walked away with his groceries, she told herself of course he wasn’t serious.

“Even if he was,” she muttered as she wiped down her counter. “Once he found out about your son, things would change.” 

They hadn’t for Squire, but Kelly counted him as exceptional. A soft smile filled her face at the mere thought of him, and if Ranger had truly asked her out, she would’ve told him no—but not for the same reason she’d given Ethan.

But because she was hoping to start seeing someone else.

* * *

“Kelly!” Chelsea’s scream nearly blasted Kelly’s ear off. Due to her new schedule, she’d risen early on Sunday morning despite the opportunity to sleep in.

“Hey, Chelsea. It’s not too early, is it?”

“Not for you,” she said. “Actually, not for anyone. We’re on deadline for a new product, and I’ve been working seven days for a couple of weeks now.”

“Wow,” Kelly said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“Definitely. I hear you’re back in Three Rivers. I wish I was there with you.”

Kelly wished that too. Chelsea had always been a voice of reason for Kelly, even though she was also her biggest conspirator and perpetrator of silliness.

“No, you don’t,” she said to Chelsea. “You put this place in your rear-view mirror the moment you could.”

“I’m considering coming back,” Chelsea said, her voice pitching up a little. She wouldn’t elaborate, not until she was ready. Kelly knew that. “But that’s a boring story. What’s up?”

“So…I need some advice.”

“I’m getting that a lot lately. I should start charging.” She laughed. “Tell me everything.”

Kelly wondered who else was asking for advice, but Chelsea lived a whole new life now, working at a big marketing firm in Dallas. Surely it wasn’t someone she knew.

“So my job is out at Three Rivers,” she started. “Your mom said something yesterday that made me think.”

“She’s always doing that.” Kelly thought she detected some bitterness behind Chelsea’s words. Perhaps Heidi had been saying something to Chelsea about coming home to Three Rivers.

She fiddled with a string on her shorts, unsure how to talk about Chelsea’s brother without broadcasting her interest in him.

“What did she say?” Chelsea asked, a touch of impatience in her voice.

Kelly pushed the words out of her throat. “She said Squire deserves someone like me. And we’ve been working together to…solve some problems at the ranch, and—”

“Okay, stop,” Chelsea said, accompanied by a girly shriek. “Are you saying you like him? That you want to be the one Squire deserves?”

“No,” Kelly said, all of the air rushing out of her lungs. “Yes? Maybe. No. I just don’t know what your mom meant by that.”

Chelsea started laughing, but a sticky coating formed in Kelly’s throat. She gazed beyond the row of trees at the edge of the backyard. She envied them. They didn’t care what grew nearby and how close it was. They didn’t think about their neighbor day and night. They didn’t wonder what it would be like to have a second chance at something they desperately wanted.

Kelly didn’t need a new love every spring like the trees blossomed and leaved. She wasn’t even sure she could take such a leap of faith a second time.

Chelsea’s giggles finally subsided.

“What’s so funny?” Kelly asked.

“Squire called me last week. He told me he asked you to prom.” She laughed again, the sound of it filled with true happiness. Kelly wanted some of that too, and she allowed a smile to touch her lips.

“What else did he say?” Kelly thought her words sounded strange coming from such a curved mouth.

“He wanted to know if a relationship between him and one of his employees would work. I—uh—I told him it probably wasn’t a good idea.”

Ice chased away her blurred vision, the upturned lips. “I turned him down, because he’s my boss.” And I’m not ready to date again. She’d spoken true on that point. Squire’s questions about forgiveness niggled at her. She definitely hadn’t forgiven herself. She didn’t even know how someone went about doing that.

“But then your mom said he deserves someone like me, and I thought…I don’t know…maybe….”

“Three Rivers isn’t an office, with a policy, Kelly,” Chelsea said. “So…maybe I told Squire wrong.”

Kelly’s inner well was nearly dry. “Taylor, my ex-husband, was my boss when I started dating him.” She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to settle her this time. “I’m scared, Chelsea.”

“Oh, honey—”

“I mean, what if I cross that professional line again? What if he turns out to be like Taylor?” The questions spurted out of her, her throat bearing the heat as if lava had escaped the earth. “What if I lose my job? What will I do then? Finn and I need financial security.”

Chelsea waited a few seconds, and when Kelly didn’t continue, she spoke. “What if it’s amazing? What if you fall in love with him? What if you and Finn move out to the ranch and the three of you become a family? What if the two of you could run the ranch together?”

Kelly imagined herself as Squire’s wife, living on the ranch full-time. She could still be the accountant. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not ready for another man in my life anyway. I don’t know if I can do that to Finn.”

Chelsea’s long silence made Kelly’s insides wobble like they’d been jelled. “Sometimes, Kelly, we have to let go of what we don’t know, and just go with the flow.”

“You sound like my cousin. She said to take the first step, and God would direct my feet.”

“You have smart friends.”

“But, I don’t go with the flow. I need to know what’s going to happen before I step.”

“You must have gone with Taylor. At least a little bit.”

Chelsea’s words stung, because she was right. Kelly had been swept up by Taylor, by everything about him. His wealth, his good looks. She squeezed her eyes closed against the memories, against the way she’d abandoned what she knew to be right because he was charming, handsome, and rich.

Come to think of it, Squire possessed two of those qualities. And if she found the money for the ranch, he’d be rich too. The thought terrified her. She could not repeat the mistakes she’d made. She wouldn’t. She’d worked too hard to feel comfortable at church again, spent too many nights working up the courage to send a prayer to heaven.

Help me now, Lord, Kelly prayed silently. What’s the next step?

She had no idea, and God seemed to be silent on the subject as well.

“I don’t want to make the same mistakes twice.” Kelly barely recognized her voice, childlike and tinny as it came out.

“You’re not going back to Taylor, are you?” Chelsea asked. “This is Squire we’re talking about. I didn’t know Taylor, but I’m willing to bet he’s nothing like my brother.”

“He is tall, dark, and handsome.”

“I can’t believe you and Squire….” Chelsea drew in a sharp breath. “I bet my mom can see it too. That’s why she said he deserves someone like you. What have you done to make her think that?”

Kelly thought through the seven working days she’d been out at the ranch. “I don’t know. We’ve mostly been digging through files. Your mom never comes out to the administration building.”

“Neither does Squire.” A heavy dose of suggestion rode in Chelsea’s voice.

“Of course he does,” Kelly argued. “He has an office now that he’s the foreman.”

“But he doesn’t need to be out there,” Chelsea said. “He needs to be where my dad is, learning how the ranch operates. And I guarantee that doesn’t happen in an office.”

Kelly hadn’t seen Frank in the administration trailer once since her interview. Her heart pittered and pattered, tumbled and tripped, at the thought of Squire spending so much time in the trailer just to be with her.

The topic moved to Danny, Chelsea’s boyfriend, and by the time Kelly hung up, she still didn’t know what to do.

Three Rivers embodied everything she wanted: Safety, security, someone to love.

She just wasn’t sure she could take the risk. It wasn’t just her heart this time. It was her life. Her son’s life. Their future.

Squire doesn’t want the ranch anyway, she thought, her hopes falling. She wanted to belong somewhere, with someone, but she wasn’t sure she could rely on a man to support her again—especially one with no prospects beyond a near-bankrupt ranch.

She buried her face in her hands. She couldn’t reconcile the two halves of her thoughts, and she ended up going upstairs twice as confused as before.