A Cowboy In Shepherd's Crossing

“Please do not tell me this is overdressed,” said Mel. She glanced at Lizzie’s blue jeans, barn boots and T-shirt and sighed. “Never mind.”

“I’ve got stuff you can use, Mel. But yeah, even casual silk has no place here. ” Lizzie exchanged a grin with Corrie. “And cotton’s a must.”

“Meaning I might as well leave my luggage in the car, right?”

Corrie laughed. “Let’s get your things inside and we’ll catch up. Did Cottonwood Productions offer you a contract? And are they willing to wait?”

“Yes and no.” Melonie pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes as she trundled a bag up the steps. “When they realized I had to be here, they quietly shredded the whole thing.”

“Oh, Mel.” Lizzie stopped on the top step. “That could have been a huge step forward for you. Wasn’t it worth foregoing Uncle Sean’s bequest to give it a shot?”

Melonie shook her head as she climbed the stairs. “Breaking into cable is high risk. Most pilots go nowhere. Only a few make it, but with nothing to live on, the choice became a no-brainer. Ezra is shopping it around, but I’ve got bills to pay.” Ezra had been a photographer for the magazine. Now he was working freelance photography and videography.

“I hear you,” said Lizzie. “Come on in, let’s get you settled. And I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m hungry. Let’s make some sandwiches and eat them on the porch with the cute kid. We can play with the puppies.”

Cute kid. Puppies. Sandwiches?

Was this her low-carb, former publishing-executive sister talking? The one whose job disappeared along with their swindling father? She reached out a hand to Lizzie’s forehead. “No fever, but possible delirium. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

Lizzie laughed as Zeke popped in, grabbed a cookie, then headed right back out again. “I’m a rancher, Mel. Welcome to the Pine Ridge Ranch. It is—” she slipped an arm around Melonie’s shoulders and gave her a half hug as they moved to the stairs “—real nice to have you on board. I’m hoping you’ll be surprised by the reception you get when you meet the locals. I gave all kinds of people the last two copies of your magazine and they loved them. Who knows?” She lifted the suitcase to carry it up the stairs. “You might land some jobs here.”

Melonie had gotten an eyeful of what Shepherd’s Crossing had to offer when she shot past the farm drive on her first pass through. The small town just north of Pine Ridge featured worn-out buildings, paint-peeling facades and a pervading air of desperation. Not exactly a recipe for success.

She could make a difference. She knew that instantly, but she had no stake, no cash and no reserves to draw on. For a design person like her, Shepherd’s Crossing would be a fresh canvas. She’d love to engage her hands in a project like that, to help renovate a run-down community.

But she’d found out the hard way that nothing came from nothing, and without money... Well, there were no options without money.

“Ladies.”

That voice. Jace’s voice, ringing deep and strong and true. She came face-to-face with him as he crossed the broad front porch. She moved to the screen door and pointed. “They’re taking my things upstairs. Can I help?”

“Let Lizzie know we’ll be running hay all day. Have her text if she needs me between loads.”

“I will. And hey—I was short with you when I stopped by your place. I’m sorry.”

“No harm done.”

“There was,” she insisted, opening the screen door. For some reason she wanted him to understand. “Generally I’m a nice person. Except around horses and dirt and manure.”

He didn’t smile at the joke. He looked almost sorry for her, then put up his hands. “Apology accepted. Those of us who work around all three on a daily basis will be sure to steer clear.”

That wasn’t what she meant and only a thin-skinned, stubborn, boneheaded man would take it that way. A man with the greatest set of shoulders she’d ever seen.

He walked away, climbed onto the big machine and started it up. Then he rumbled it past the barns, down a long lane stretching to faraway fields. And he didn’t look back.

Chapter Two

Jace parked the baler midafternoon and headed toward the ranch house for lunch. Bob “Cookie” Cook managed the ranch kitchen. He was gone for the day, but he’d texted that he’d left a platter of meat, cheese and sandwich fixings in the kitchen, along with a bowl of potato salad. After five hours of baling the important first cutting of hay, he and the others would get the hay under cover before the predicted overnight rain. Wet hay fostered mold growth, so they’d be running the hay wagons back and forth from the field to the hay barns and lofts until dark...and maybe after. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d hauled hay in the dark.

He climbed the steps and met two of the other hands in the kitchen. Harve Jr. was building a sandwich and Wick was already plowing into a monster-sized plate of potato salad. He saw the women on the front porch, laughing together, but the cool reprieve of the kitchen offered more invitation. He’d taken his first bite when the crunch of tires on gravel drew the men’s attention. From his seat, he spotted Gilda Hardaway, the grumpy eccentric who lived in a sprawling, decaying house on an empty ranch near the Payette National Forest. She approached the porch, looking testier than ever.

But then the front door opened. Lizzie came in. She spotted him and motioned him forward.

Wick and Harve Jr. exchanged grins, glad they weren’t summoned.

He stood, swiped his mouth with a piece of paper towel and walked to the porch. “Ladies.” He tipped his head in their direction. “What can I do for you?”

“Not them. Me, young man.”

He was afraid of that. He faced Gilda. “Well, how can I be of help, Mrs. Hardaway?”

She looked him up and down as if he was a science exhibit. Then she sighed. “Can I come inside or do I have to air dirty laundry out here where any Tom, Dick or Harry might overhear?”

“Of course,” Lizzie answered. She opened the white, wooden screen door and let the old woman precede her. Then she sent Jace a questioning look.

He shrugged, because he didn’t know any more than she did.

“We should sit down,” said the old woman.

Jace didn’t want to sit. He wanted to eat his lunch and get back to work. He was on a tight schedule. One band of sheep was still in the hills, and Heath and two other hands were loading lambs for market on the far side of the mountain. Already he heard noise in the kitchen, meaning the other men had wolfed down their food and were ready to haul. One look at Gilda Hardaway nixed his choices. He sat.

The old woman lifted a magazine from the coffee table. She held it up to Lizzie. “That your sister out there on the porch? This one?” She waggled the magazine.

Lizzie nodded.

“We’ll need her in here.”

Jace watched Lizzie fight whatever she wanted to say, because Lizzie wasn’t the kind of woman anyone bossed around. But she kept her lips pressed tight, then called Melonie and Corrie in. If the old woman didn’t want Corrie on hand, she at least had the grace not to show it.

Once the other two women had taken seats, Mrs. Hardaway turned back toward him. “Your name is not Jace Middleton.”

Well, that explained the unexplainable visit. She’d gone batty. Clearly batty because he knew who he was.

“Your father was Lionel Tate.”

Lionel Tate was his father’s cousin. He’d left town a long time ago and died somewhere. Jace didn’t remember where because he’d never known the man. “My father was Jason Middleton.”

The old woman’s frown deepened. “Jason and Ivy took you in as a baby. You were just over a year old, and when they offered to take you in, it was agreed upon because it fit.”

Hairs began to rise along the nape of Jace’s neck. What was she talking about?

“Your mother was angry when Lionel left. Very angry. She handed you over and went off on her own. As far as I know, no one heard from her until she showed back up nine years later with a baby girl.”

“Mrs. Hardaway, I believe you’re confused.” He kept his voice calm as he offered an explanation. “Justine is six years younger than me. She’s just finished her master’s in biochemistry and she’s doing a paid internship in Seattle.”

“Your other sister,” she told him. “Your biological half sister. She is younger than you by nearly eleven years.”

The firmness in her voice—the staunch look in her eye, as if she was the one who was right—unnerved him. “Mrs. Hardaway...”

Lizzie put a hand on his arm. Her sister darted a look from him to the old woman and back, as if embarrassed for him. Or her. Or just plain embarrassed to be there.

“She gave that baby up for adoption, too, because she came here and no one stepped in to take care of that baby girl, and there’s plenty of shame to go around about that. When your folks offered to take her in, too, seeing as she was your sister, they were told ‘no’ because of tough family finances.”

She wasn’t making sense, and yet... He remembered hushed whispers around that time. He’d been plenty old enough to realize something was going on, but never knew what. Snips of private conversation came back to him, conversations that meant nothing then...and everything at this moment. “That makes no sense, because we weren’t poor. My mother was a schoolteacher and Dad was a contractor. He worked all the time. We were always financially solid.”

She locked her eyes with his, then said something that tipped everything into sharper focus. “Your sister is white.”

And there it was. A divide he’d never personally felt in Shepherd’s Crossing because the Middletons had been some of the earliest pioneers in the area. But now—

A mix of raw emotions began churning inside him. “How can that be, Mrs. Hardaway?”

She held his gaze, held it hard, as if this whole thing hurt her more than it pained him. Then she spoke, and he understood the wounded expression. “Because I am your grandmother, Jace. And my daughter Barbara was...” Her mouth trembled slightly. And her eyes looked sad. “Your mother.”

None of this could be true.

It couldn’t.

He’d seen his birth certificate. He had it, back at the house. “You’re wrong, I’m afraid. I have proof of who I am at my home. My family home, Mrs. Hardaway.” He stood, ready to end this nonsense and get to work.

“Your birth certificate,” she said.

He nodded. “It lists everything. Mother. Father. Date and time of birth. Place of birth. We’re haying today, but if you give me a day or two, I’ll bring it by so you can see it for yourself.” Whatever had happened back then, he had government-certified proof of who he was. Clearly the old woman was mistaken.

“It is the practice in many states to alter the birth certificates of adopted children, Jace. Adoptions back then were meant to be private affairs for a reason. I have the original certificate here.” She reached into an old purse and withdrew a folded, faded sheet of paper. Then she handed it over.

He didn’t want to look at it.

What if it was true?

He unfolded the paper and read the information there. And his heart chugged to a slow, draining stop in his chest.

“Jace.” Lizzie had stood, too. She gripped his arm gently.

He read his birth date.

The time of birth, the place—all exactly the same as his certificate at home. But the names were different. He swallowed hard, wanting to shove the paper back at her and walk out the door. Wanting—

“I know this is hard, but there’s a reason I’m here today.” The old woman hunched forward. “I have things to fix.”

Not on his dime.

He set down the paper. He didn’t crumple it and throw it back at her, which is what he wanted to do. No. He set it down and started for the door.

“Jace.” The old woman stood and began to hobble after him. She looked frantic, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care one bit, he—

“I’m not looking for forgiveness.” She rasped the words and his heart lurched. “I’m looking for help. For labor.”

None of this was making sense, but he turned back. “Listen, Mrs. Hardaway...”

“Gilda. Please.” She held out a picture of the old, rambling house on Hardaway Ranch. The place must have been a beauty in its time, but that was a generation or two back. Now it was a neglected wreck with a grumpy recluse living inside. “I had to tell you the truth, Jace, because I need you. Your sister’s gone off, leaving her two babies. If we don’t step in and do something to claim those little girls, they’ll end up in foster care. And I can’t let another wrong go unchecked.”

Now she had his attention. “What do you mean about my sister? About babies?”

“Valencia.” Corrie breathed the word softly. She folded her hands tight in her lap, as if praying.

“You know her?” asked Mrs. Hardaway.

“I have met her twice, but it’s the children I know best. Two beautiful children, twin girls. Ava and Annie. Rosie watches them here on the ranch. But I believe that Valencia has a mother working at the Carrington Ranch. Correct?”

“She did, but she’s left there and gone to Florida. Lora Garcia is her adoptive mother and she wants nothing to do with Valencia or those children,” Gilda told them. “She has made that clear. But I cannot turn my back on another child. I’ve done that three times.” She stood and locked eyes with Jace. “I must make amends, but my house is unlivable for children.”

“You’re thinking of taking these children?” This reclusive woman could barely care for herself. “Impossible. If what you say is true—”

“It is,” she interrupted firmly, then waited.

He prayed.

In his head, quiet as can be, he prayed because right now he had no idea what to do. Except he knew he couldn’t turn over two small children to an elderly woman with health issues and a laundry list of regrets regarding children already. He’d seen the two little girls at Rosie’s house a time or two. He hadn’t thought much of it. Now he’d be able to think of nothing else. “I will take charge of the children.” He thought he glimpsed a gleam of approval in her eye, but if he did, it was short-lived. “Unless you have objections to their dark uncle taking charge.”

She flinched, but then shook her head. “No objections at all. I don’t have energy for little children, I’m not what they need, but I’ve got money.”

He didn’t need her money. “I—”

She raised a hand “To hire you. And her.” She poked a finger toward Lizzie’s very surprised sister and Melonie’s eyes opened wide. “To make a difference. I want my house to be beautiful again. To be a place I can be proud to leave for these children. It’s time I took charge, Jace. And I’ve seen your work.” She tapped the magazine as she drew Melonie into the conversation. “It’s remarkable and inviting. I want you to do the designing.” She turned to face Jace again. “I want you to make her designs come true. If you can both look at the project once the hay is in the barn, you can come up with an estimate and I’ll give you start-up costs. Then we’ll have begun to fix two things. My great-grandchildren will have a place to live. And maybe the ranch won’t look sad and lonely anymore.”

Renovate her home. Her ranch. Take on the custody of twin toddlers he didn’t know.

Six hours ago he’d lamented his lack of family in Shepherd’s Crossing.

What a joke. Because now he seemed to have more family than he knew what to do with...

He caught Melonie’s eyes across the room. She had the grace to stay quiet, but what choice did he have?

He turned toward Lizzie and Corrie. “I’ve got to help get the hay in. Rain’s expected and my house isn’t ready for two little kids. Can I impose—”

Melonie stood up. “It’s no imposition. You can have my room here. I’ll bunk in the stable with Lizzie.” She faced her sister. “There’s room, isn’t there?”

“Always, Mel. It will be like old times,” Lizzie said quietly. “The horses won’t bother you?”

“Not as long as they stay downstairs.”

They’d thrown him a lifeline. A lifeline he’d gladly take hold of. “I’d be grateful,” Jace told them. “Just until I can get things right at the house. And—” he turned toward Melonie and had to eat his words from that morning “—the advice you offered this morning?”

“About your house?”

The sudden addition of two toddlers negated his reluctance to change things up. “I’m ready to take it.”

He went through the door and didn’t look back. The women would sort things out with Gilda, and they’d be more diplomatic than he could be right now.

He crossed to the hay stacker, climbed in and turned it on. He spotted Wick and young Harve making bales in the far field. He aimed the stacker that way while his mind churned on what he’d just heard.

He hated that it made sense. He hated that the two wonderful, faith-filled people he loved weren’t really his parents and had never trusted him enough to tell him. Why would they keep this a secret? It wasn’t like there was shame in adoption.

He’d been hoping for local jobs to crop up again. He’d said that often enough, and here was a mammoth one being laid at his feet, a job that hinged on something he’d never much thought of until just now. The color of his skin and the accidents of birth.

His grandmother hadn’t wanted him thirty years ago. She’d made sure he was tucked in with a lovely black family because it fit.

And now it didn’t.

His phone buzzed. He pulled it out. Glanced down. I scheduled a meeting with Gilda Hardaway for 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. Okay?

It was from Melonie Fitzgerald, telling him what to do and how to do it. Could this possibly get any worse?

He sighed, texted back Yes and shoved the phone away because he was pretty sure it could get worse.

And there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

Chapter Three

Two borrowed portable cribs.

A mountain-sized stack of disposable diapers.

Creams, lotions, shampoos and bottles. Lots of bottles. Two babies had just moved into the ranch house.

Melonie Fitzgerald had never changed a diaper in her life. Nor had she cared to.

By hour three she’d changed two under Corrie’s watchful eye. “Done.” She set the wriggling girl onto the floor and stood up to wash her hands.

The baby burst into tears. Big, loud tears.

Then the second one noted her sister’s agony and followed suit. The babies looked around the room at all the strange faces and kept right on crying.

“Here, sweetie.” Lizzie picked up one. Corrie lifted the other. And still they cried.

“Mel, Rosie brought bottles ready to warm. Can you do that for us?”

“Sure.” She slipped into the kitchen, took out the bottles and stared at them. Then she picked up her smartphone and asked it how to warm a baby’s bottle while the twins howled in the front room.

No answer and they had two screaming babies and a perfectly good microwave. She searched for directions.

Oops. Microwave warming was not recommended...but desperate times called for desperate measures. She followed the non-recommended directions, made sure the formula wasn’t too hot, shook it and tested it again, then recapped the bottles.

“Mel?” Lizzie’s voice sounded desperate.

“Coming.” She brought the bottles into the great room and handed one to Lizzie and the other to Corrie, but Corrie surprised her. “You take charge of this one.”

“Me?”

Corrie nodded as she tucked the baby into Melonie’s arms. “I promised Zeke I’d take him to play with the puppies. We don’t want him to feel left out.”

“Corrie, thank you.” Lizzie looked up from the straight-backed chair and Melonie was glad she didn’t look any more skilled than Melonie felt at that moment. “We’ll get the hang of this. Won’t we, Mel?”

Don’t say what you’re thinking. Just smile and nod.

She did and Lizzie grinned, because Lizzie always knew what Mel was thinking. She sat down primly and posed the nipple near the baby’s mouth.

The baby... Ava, maybe? Or Annie? She wasn’t sure so she peeked at the baby’s arm.

Ava. She knew because she’d surreptitiously put a tiny dot on her right forearm.

The baby grabbed hold of that bottle, yanked it into her mouth and proceeded to drink as if starvation was on the horizon. From the looks of the wee one’s chunky thighs, Melonie was pretty sure her desperation was vastly overdone.

“Are they supposed to be this big?” she whispered to Lizzie. “They’re like monster-sized.”

Lizzie burst out laughing. “I was thinking the same thing. But Rosie said they’re ten months old, so that’s almost a year. And Rosie has been taking wonderful care of them. And she said she’s happy to continue being their nanny while we all work.”

Work.

Melonie drew up a mental image of the picture Gilda Hardaway had flashed her way. The two-and-a-half-story home was a skeleton of its former self, but with help...

“This is them?”

Jace’s voice drew her gaze. He was framed in the screen door, looking every bit as good as he had that morning, which meant she needed to work harder to ignore it. He opened the door and walked in. Once inside, he glanced from one baby to the next and she wasn’t sure if he was going to run screaming or cry.

He did neither.

He set that big, black cowboy hat on a small table, crouched down in front of her and Baby Number One and smiled.

Oh, that smile.

Melonie’s heart did a skip-jump that would have done an Irish dancer proud. She quashed it instantly. She was here to do her part, whatever that might be, and then leave. Her dream wasn’t here in the craggy hills of western Idaho. It resided south, in the warm, rolling streets of Kentucky and Tennessee, where she yearned to show folks how to create a pocketbook-friendly version of Southern charm.

He started to reach out for the baby, but then his phone rang. He glanced at the display and made a face. “Justine.” He turned to face Lizzie. “How do I explain all this to my kid sister?”

“The same way it got explained to us,” she said softly. “But first.” She stood and crossed the room, then handed him the baby. “Let Justine go to voice mail for a few minutes. Meet your niece. This is Ava.”

Melonie frowned. “That’s Annie. This is Ava.”

Lizzie frowned, too. “No, I’m sure that—”

Melonie shifted the sleeve of the baby’s right arm. The tiny black dot showed up.

“You marked her?” Lizzie lifted both eyebrows in surprise.

“Well, we had to do something,” said Mel. “Even Rosie said she had trouble telling them apart except when they’re sleeping. Annie brings her right hand up to her face. Ava brings up the left.”

“Well, let’s try this again.” Lizzie handed the baby to Jace. “This is Annie. Annie, this is your Uncle Jace and he’s a really good guy.”

Jace looked down.

The baby looked up. She squirmed into a more upright position in his arms, then squinted at him. Her right hand reached up and touched his cheek and his face. And then she patted his face with that sweet baby hand and gurgled up at him.

“She’s talking to you.” Lizzie grinned. “Look at that, Mel. She’s talking to Jace!”

Annie looked around, then back at him. She frowned slightly, then touched his cheek again and laughed.

“She likes you.”

He met Melonie’s gaze across the room. “I think she finds me an interesting specimen at the moment. They’re pretty little things, aren’t they?”

“Beautiful. And this one—” she eased up, out of the chair “—is sound asleep. Should we put her in bed? Hold her? What do we do next?”

Rosie came up the front steps just then, carrying two bags. “Don’t let her sleep now, or she’ll keep you up tonight. Except that once Ava’s asleep, she does not want to waken, so good luck with that.” She smiled as she said the words, then set down the bags. “What do we do if Valencia comes back? How do we handle this?” she asked. She faced Jace. “The women filled me in on your story. What if your half sister returns? Do we simply allow her to take these babies, knowing she abandoned them once? Should we call the authorities?” Concern deepened her voice. “I can’t understand such behavior because the preciousness of life is very important to me. But what do I do if Valencia comes to my door when I’m watching the girls?”