Second Chance Ranch Chapter 20

Chapter TWENTY:

Kelly wasn’t sure how Squire balanced on his horse, what with the large picnic basket riding tandem on his lap. She doubted he could even see where he was going, and a wisp of unease tickled her mind. Yet somehow, after about twenty minutes and his game of Twenty Questions, they ended up in the shade of a large oak tree. It stood solitary watch over the prairie, the keeper of Three Rivers Ranch. She waited until Squire dismounted and put the food down, then she practically fell off the horse and into his arms.

She didn’t miss the grunt as all her weight collapsed on him. A rush of heat flared in her cheeks as she stepped away and adjusted her clothes. Squire helped Finn down, who immediately galloped off toward a fence line with Benson.

“Stay where I can see you!” she yelled after them, with absolutely no idea if her son had heard her.

Squire let the horses go to graze, first removing their saddles and spreading out a blanket from a saddlebag she hadn’t even seen. He knelt right in the center of it, pulling out bottled water and various containers of food from the picnic basket his mother had packed. No matter where she chose to sit, she’d be next to him.

She sat on his left and picked up what turned out to be a container of macaroni salad. “I love this stuff.”

She grabbed the container she’d brought of the raspberry pretzel salt. “Try this,” she said, handing it to him.

He looked dubious and made a face when he sniffed it. “With pretzels?” he asked.

“It’ll blow your mind.” Kelly grinned at him and picked up a spoon. 

He took it and scooped out a bite. His eyes widened, and she knew he loved the stuff after just one bite. That was all it had taken for her too.

“Mind, blown.” He loaded up her spoon again, and Kelly laughed.

“So if you’re in a good mood,” he started, his voice low and soothing, like she was an animal he didn’t want to spook. “You wanna talk about me going to College Station?”

Kelly groaned, opened the container of macaroni salad, and nodded. She could endure a conversation like this if she had the big, blue sky—and pasta.

“So I don’t have all the details worked out, and there are so many things we can’t control.” He cleared his throat. “Number one, I haven’t even gotten in yet.”

“You have experience with animals. You have the right undergrad degree. You just birthed a horse, for heaven’s sake.”

He took a bite of a sandwich and chewed slowly. “True.”

“What’s number two?”

“I can’t afford veterinary school. Not unless we find that missing money.”

“We’ll find it,” she said. “We’re getting close.” She plucked a sandwich out of the basket for Finn and glanced around for him. She couldn’t see him anywhere.

“How do you know we’re getting close?” he asked, shifting a bit closer to her. How close she wanted him, she didn’t dare admit—even to herself.

“I just have a good feeling about it.” She met his gaze. The same magnetic pull that had been drawing her to him for weeks yanked. She relived the last few seconds at church, when his hand on her lower back had been firm, but gentle.

Just like his lips, she thought, focusing on his mouth now. He leaned down and kissed her, a barely-there touch of his lips against hers. Something like a growl started in her chest, and one definitely came out of Squire’s mouth as he re-matched it to hers and kissed her properly.

After a few magnificent strokes, he pulled away, leaving Kelly reeling and breathless in the Texas heat. “Okay, number three.” He ducked his head so she couldn’t see his face under his cowboy hat. “I don’t really want to leave you here.”

She didn’t miss the emotion in his voice. Joy that he wanted to be with her rotated with a heavy rope of fear. Was she really ready to continue this relationship? She’d just kissed him like she was, and she really shouldn’t do that if she wasn’t. It wasn’t fair to either of them, or her shattered heart.

Even as she thought that, Kelly knew her heart hadn’t completely shattered. Well, it had, but she’d been putting it back together over the past year. 

She’d been untethered from Taylor for a while now, drifting, and this man—Squire—anchored her.

That didn’t erase the fact that she had Finn to worry about.

Finn.

Her rational mind seized onto Finn. Panic joined the party as she scanned the horizon without seeing Finn.

“Hold that thought.” She stood, brushing sandwich crumbs from her shorts. She shielded her eyes with her hand, her throat closing more and more the longer she looked. “Did you see which way Finn went?”

He stood and joined her. “He ran off toward the hay fields.”

Five minutes. They’d been sitting on the blanket for five minutes. She had a child; she couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted by a handsome man. Not even for five minutes.

“Squire—”

He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. The horses startled, and far away in the distance, a thread of dust rose from the earth. “There.”

“That’s moving too fast to be Finn.”

“It’s Benson,” Squire said, striding forward to meet his dog.

Kelly’s emotions teetered on the edge of a cliff, ready to jump off if it meant she’d find Finn at the bottom.

Benson barked like mad and raced in circles around Squire. He tried to stroke him, to calm him, but the dog wouldn’t settle down. He streaked back the way he’d come, and Squire swung onto his horse, bareback style.

“Something’s wrong,” he said, reaching for her hand. He pulled her onto the animal in front of him and kicked the horse into a gallop. She shrieked, having nowhere to hold onto, and opted for leaning forward and hugging Juniper like her life depended on it.

After what felt like hours but was only seconds, Squire pulled the mount to a stop. “Stay here.” He leapt down and hurried toward where Benson was circling something.

Like she was going to stay there. She slid off the horse, not anticipating quite how far it was to the ground. Her ankle twisted as she hit the dry earth, and she cried out. But she kept going. Her heart hammered; the sun burned so bright; she couldn’t see much past the tears in her eyes.

She stumbled, almost going down. Then Squire was walking toward her, Benson barking excitedly on his heels, carrying someone.

Finn!

“Is he okay?” she asked, rushing toward him as quickly as she could. She limped, and something wet coated her knee and oozed down her leg, but she didn’t stop.

“He fell, and he’s scraped up,” Squire said, eyeing her from head to injured toe. “Just like you. Let’s get back to the house.”

He put all three of them on his horse and told her, “Home.” He didn’t steer, didn’t correct her course. Half an hour later, she delivered them safe and sound to the homestead. He took Kelly and Finn inside and set his mother to work on Finny.

“What about the other horse?” Kelly asked from her location at the dining room table. Pete and Tom both snored softly on the couch, where they’d been earlier, and Frank was gone. 

“The picnic.” Her ankle throbbed, and she kept the ice pack Heidi had given her on it. 

Squire knelt in front of her with a wet washcloth and met her eyes. “This is hot.” He pressed it to her knee before she could protest or tell him she’d do it.

A sting as violent as she’d ever felt stabbed into her knee, causing her to cry out. “Sorry, sorry,” Squire said, pure sympathy in his gaze. More than that, and Kelly studied him for only a moment longer before realizing the emotion as empathy. 

He cut their connection to check on her wound, and he cleaned up her leg and put a bandage on the scrape before standing and going back into the kitchen. Heidi had Finn sitting on the kitchen counter, talking softly to him as she cleaned up his knees and hands.

“I’ll go out in a bit,” Squire said as he returned with a freshly rinsed cloth. “Did you hurt anything else when you fell off the horse?”

“She fell off a horse?” Heidi shook her head as she pressed a cloth to Finn’s knee. “What are you doing to the poor girl?” She put a bandage on Finn, who seemed to be absolutely fine. Benson whined before he licked Finn’s fingers.

“I told her to stay.” He frowned across the room at his momma. “She didn’t listen.”

“I’m not a horse, and I didn’t fall off a horse,” Kelly said. “I slid down, and it was farther than I thought.”

Squire looked away, but not before she caught a smile on his face. A moment later, he started laughing. “I’m sorry,” he said between chuckles. “I can’t help it.”

She punched him playfully on the arm. “Stop it.”

“Not too fond of cowboys now, are you?” he asked, smirking.

She lifted her chin, not willing to tell him she now held him in even higher regard. He was more than just a good-looking cowboy. He was her hero. Who rode horses bareback, tamed wild bulls, and had absolutely roped her heart.

Footsteps came down the hall, and a cowgirl appeared, with Frank right behind her. No one said anything as the strawberry blonde nodded to Heidi and Squire and practically scampered outside.

“What did she say?” Heidi asked.

“Chelsea can stay there if she needs to.” Frank stepped next to Heidi and pressed a kiss to her temple. “What happened to you, little guy?”

“I tripped,” Finn said, his voice starting to pitch up again. “There was this wire I didn’t see, and I got bleeding.”

“A wire?” Squire asked. He left Kelly at the table, reeling from a couple of things. Chelsea? She was coming back to Three Rivers Ranch? Why? 

“Where was the wire, buddy?” Squire asked.

Finn looked over to Kelly, but she hadn’t been there. “You’re not in trouble, Finny,” She told him. “Tell Squire where it was.”

“We were in sector two,” Squire said, glancing to his father. “Down from the river a bit.”

“Coulda been from that coop that got blown over last year. I never did find all of it.”

Squire focused on Finn again. “Was it chicken wire, bud? Like what you saw when we went past where all the hens were?”

“Yeah.” He hiccuped. “Caught my feet.” Tears leaked down his cheeks, though he wasn’t bleeding anymore. He leaned into Heidi, who drew him fully into her chest and shushed him.

“Oh, my dear boy,” she murmured. “You’re okay. Let me get you a popsicle and you’ll be right as rain.” She passed Finn to Squire, who let Finn hug him tightly while Heidi went out into the garage to get the treat.

Kelly wanted to ask about Chelsea, but neither Frank nor Squire said anything more about her, and the picture in front of her was too perfect to mar with her question.

Her pulse skipped and then beat steadily, the same way she seemed to be falling in love with Major Squire Ackerman. A skip, a hop, a fall from a horse, and she was in a steady free fall with the man.

He smiled at her—the barest of gestures—over Finn’s shoulder, and Kelly suddenly felt hot tears burning the back of her eyelids. Not the kind of hot, horrible tears she’d cried when she’d found out about Taylor’s infidelity.

Not the hot, heinous tears she wept out of embarrassment on the way back to the homestead.

But the kind of tears that told her another piece of her heart had just been fused back together, and that she was right where she belonged. Her…and her son.