The Rancher's Answered Prayer

Dodd had mentioned Walker over the years, even though his marriage to her mother hadn’t lasted long, but Tina Walker hadn’t meant anything to Wyatt, so he’d tuned out the old man whenever he’d started waxing eloquent about the girl. Obviously, he should have paid better attention.

That was in the past, however, and Wyatt had known the only way to settle the current dilemma was to talk to the attorney who had apparently drawn up these ridiculous papers. Using his cell phone, he’d called the number on the will and reached one Callie Billings, the wife of attorney and rancher Rex Billings. Now he and Tina Kemp sat in their warm, homey kitchen sipping coffee and ignoring each other. Callie, as she’d insisted they call her, was a pretty little blonde with a baby boy and a daughter about Frankie’s age playing quietly on the floor. Callie moved about the kitchen with her son perched on her hip, pouring coffee and removing cookies from the oven with one hand.

“Rex should be here any minute,” she said, shifting the baby to the other hip. The front door opened, and Callie smiled brightly.

They heard two thumps, followed by silence. A few seconds later, the swinging door between the dining room and kitchen opened, and a tall, dusty cowboy padded into the space on his stocking feet. The little girl on the floor jumped up and ran to greet him, throwing her arms around his thighs.

“Hello, darlin’.” While Callie went to him, baby and all, he explained the situation. “My boots were filthy so I yanked them off. Now I need to wash my hands.” Holding his hands away from them, he kissed the baby, then his wife.

Wyatt couldn’t help but feel envious. He’d expected to be married and settled into family life by now himself, but somehow it just hadn’t happened. Billings hurried to the sink to wash his hands. Finally, he turned back to the table.

“You must be Wyatt Smith.”

Wyatt stood and put out his hand. “That’s right. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

Shaking hands with Wyatt, Billings glanced at Tina and nodded. He looked to his wife then. “Honey, I’ve been dreaming about your coffee and cookies. Set me up.” He sat down at the table. His daughter crawled up into his lap.

“Daddy, can I hab cookies?”

“Have cookies. What does Mama say?”

“Ask you.”

“Then you can have one cookie.”

“Yay!”

Callie had the cookie wrapped in a napkin by the time Billings set the girl on her feet.

“Sit on your blanket and eat,” Callie instructed gently, as she poured another cup of coffee.

“We were sure sorry to hear about Dodd’s passing,” Billings began as Callie set the coffee in front of him.

“Thank you,” Wyatt and Tina said at the same time.

Wyatt frowned at her. She spoke as if she were Dodd’s next of kin. Then again, Dodd had spoken fondly of her over the years, though if he’d told his nephews nearly as much about her as he had apparently told her about them, they hadn’t been paying attention.

“I was sorry that Dodd left instructions not to have a service,” Billings went on, lifting his coffee cup. “It would have been well attended. He was much liked around War Bonnet.”

“I appreciate you saying so,” Wyatt told the other man, cutting a glance at Tina, who nodded and pressed her lips together as Callie placed a platter of cookies and three small plates in front of them.

“Now,” Billings said, “how can I help you?”

“There seems to be some confusion about my uncle’s will,” Wyatt explained, passing the papers to Billings.

Rex swallowed some coffee and glanced over the papers across the rim of his cup before stacking them on the table at his elbow. “No confusion. Dodd was very certain about what he wanted and how he wanted to do it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Rex shrugged and reached for a cookie. “Your uncle wanted Ms. Kemp to have the house and the mineral rights. You and your brothers get everything else.”

“I told you,” Tina crowed triumphantly. She reached a hand across the table toward Rex. “I’m Tina Walker Kemp, by the way.”

“Not Mrs. Smith, then.”

Both Wyatt and Tina reacted at the same time. “No!”

Billings shot a glance at Wyatt before shaking Tina’s hand. Then he released her and placed some cookies onto plates for her and Wyatt. “Eat up.”

Tina nibbled, but after one bite of cookie, the world as a whole seemed a lot more palatable to Wyatt.

“Mmm. You should market these,” Wyatt told Callie Billings, shaking a cookie at her.

“Don’t even joke about it,” Rex protested. “She has enough to do with me, these kids, my dad and helping her own father run his businesses.”

“If you’re looking to sell Loco Man,” Callie said to Wyatt, “Rex and my dad might be interested in buying. You may know my father. Stuart Westhaven.”

“The banker?”

“Among other things.”

“Beware an ambitious businesswoman,” Rex put in, shaking his head. “Always looking to expand.” He reached out and pulled Callie close to him, kissing her soundly.

Envy knocked around inside Wyatt’s chest again. Unbidden, his gaze stole to Tina Walker Kemp, who stared morosely at her empty plate as if wishing for the return of her cookie or perhaps another. Frowning at himself, Wyatt focused his mind on the subject at hand.

“We’re not interested in selling,” he stated firmly, though once his brothers heard that Tina’s claim was real, they might have other ideas. Blanking his face, he asked, “You wouldn’t know where we might rent a place to stay, would you? There’s four of us, including my nephew, Frankie.”

Rex shook his head. “Not offhand.”

Wyatt grimaced before he could stop himself. “Something affordable to buy, then. Preferably on the east side of town.”

“Lyons might have something for sale.”

“Dix told me they sold that house they remodeled,” Callie put in. “Saw him and Fawn at the grocery store.”

“Well, there’s a realtor in town. He’ll know,” Rex said casually. “I think your uncle was expecting y’all to share, though.”

“Share!” Tina yelped, glaring at Wyatt as if he’d suggested the idea.

“Everyone knows the old house needs some work,” Callie pointed out. She looked to Wyatt then, adding, “Even if you and your brothers aren’t up to that, you could pay rent so Ms. Kemp could afford to hire Lyons and Son.” She smiled at Tina. “They do excellent work, by the way.”

Rent. Wyatt ground his teeth. His business plan didn’t allow for rent, let alone buying a house for himself and his family. He especially did not like the idea of paying rent to live in what was rightly Smith property, but what was the option? Staying in the bunkhouse?

“What about the outbuildings?”

“They’re yours,” Rex told him. “Dodd was very intentional about it. The house and the mineral rights go to Ms. Kemp. Everything else goes to you and your brothers. Technically, you own the ground that the house sits on.”

Well, that tipped the equation in his favor. Wyatt smiled cunningly at Tina Walker Kemp. “Maybe we can work something out.”

She folded her arms mulishly, but Wyatt saw the worry in her big bronze eyes. Suddenly, he wanted to reassure her, promise not to pull the ground out from under her and her son. Literally. But the interested gazes of Rex and Callie Billings squelched the impulse.

Besides, whatever Uncle Dodd’s foolish intentions had been, Wyatt meant to make a home on Loco Man Ranch for himself, his brothers and his nephew—Tina Kemp or no Tina Kemp.

Something told him that she would take nothing less than her due.

So be it.

* * *

Well, wasn’t that just like a man?

Tina had never met a man who could keep his word. In the end, even Daddy Dodd had disappointed her. What did he think he was doing, leaving every square inch of the land to the Smith brothers and only the house that sat upon it to her? All right, the house and the mineral rights, for whatever that was worth.

At this point, she was afraid to hope. Where had hope ever gotten her? As the thought slid through her mind, she quickly followed it with a prayer.

Sorry, Lord. I’m just confused. And frightened. Lord, please, there must be some way to make this work, some way I can keep Tyler with me.

She’d snorted with derision when her ex-husband, Layne, had informed her that he intended to sue for custody of their son. Then his attorney had contacted her, and suddenly the threat had become all too real. Dodd had died only days before. In her grief and panic, she’d gone searching for the copy of the will he’d sent her. At the time, it had seemed as if Dodd had reached down from Heaven and handed her the answer to her problems. She could leave a job that demanded too much of her time and go home to Oklahoma with her son.

She hadn’t given a thought to the land, only to the house. In the back of her mind, she’d sort of assumed that the ranch would go on as it always had, with Dodd’s longtime foreman, Delgado, at the helm and reporting to the nephews. She’d never expected them to leave the big city of Houston, Texas, for the tiny town of War Bonnet, Oklahoma. She certainly hadn’t expected them to take over her house.

She’d decided that she would open a bed-and-breakfast. With the nearest motel room at least 40 miles away, Dodd had often put up folks visiting War Bonnet. That neighborliness was one of the things that her mother, Gina, had disliked so much about small-town life.

Tina smiled wanly at Callie, wishing they had more in common. Perhaps they soon would. Callie obviously placed making a home for her family at the top of her list, but she was also a businesswoman. The fact that Callie and her husband so clearly adored each other was the big difference between her and Tina. Well, that and the fact that Callie’s house wasn’t falling down around her.

Tina wondered if cashing in her small 401(k) to finance this had been wise, but what choice had she had?

Wyatt pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, stretching his hand across the table to Rex. The two men shook as if they were longtime friends.

“We would be most grateful,” Wyatt was saying. “It’s been a long time since I was on a horse, and I’ve never bought a cow in my life.”

“We’re just about through tagging and cutting the calves,” Billings said, hooking his thumbs in the front pockets of his dusty jeans. “Give me another a few days, and we’ll get at solving your livestock problem.”

Callie chuckled. “Be warned. Rex especially loves to shop for horses.”

“No one’s more surprised by that than I am,” Rex told her, hooking an arm about her waist and pulling her close again.

She laughed and said to Wyatt, “My husband has more in common with you than you know, Mr. Smith. He left Tulsa and a stellar law practice to come back here and help out when his father was ill. Then he found that the city no longer had any appeal.”

It was obvious to anyone with eyes what had kept Rex in War Bonnet. Tina wanted to be happy for the couple, but to her shame she found that she could only be envious.

Had Layne ever looked at her like that? She highly doubted it. Why hadn’t she been sensible enough to realize that the only thing about her that had attracted him was her attraction to him?

She had promised herself that she wouldn’t follow in her mother’s footsteps, flitting from husband to husband as if she were a bee darting from flower to flower. Yet, she had been the bee and Layne the flower in their relationship.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Thankfully, she had her son, and he was all she needed. She hadn’t been enough for her own mother, and Tina was determined that her son would never feel that cold realization. Her father, whom she’d seen only a few times in her life, was little more than a name to her.

Tina wondered guiltily if she should relent and allow Layne to have custody of Tyler, but then she recalled her ex snarling at her that he would take everything she valued if she dared divorced him. He’d managed it, too, with everything and everyone but their son.

Dazedly, she felt a hand on her elbow. She didn’t remember coming to her feet, but suddenly she realized that their meeting had ended. Wyatt now seemed determined to escort her from the premises. To cover her confusion and dismay, Tina subtly tugged free of him, smiled at their hostess and nodded at Rex before turning toward the door.

“Thank you for your time,” she murmured.

Wyatt held open the door, saying something about paying Rex for the consultation. Thankfully, Rex insisted that no payment was necessary. Relieved, she tried not to look at Wyatt’s big, broad hand as she walked through the door. They moved through the dining and living rooms and into the foyer, Rex following in his stocking feet. Wyatt opened the front door for her. She pushed wide the screen and crossed the porch, stepping down onto the beaten dirt path that ran through the post oaks to the bronze-colored, double-cab pickup truck parked on the side of the red dirt road.

That truck was more luxurious than any vehicle Tina had ever ridden in. An electronic beep signaled that Wyatt had released the locks. Tina yanked open the door and stepped up onto the running board that automatically slid out from beneath the truck. She buckled her safety belt and waited for Wyatt to get in on the driver’s side.

He started the engine and turned on the air conditioning. Then he spoke. “Looks like we’re stuck with each other.”

Stuck. That about summed up her life. She’d been stuck with her mother and then four subsequent stepfathers. No doubt Gina would have added another name to her long list if she hadn’t tripped on the trailing hem of her dressing gown and fallen down a flight of stairs, breaking her lovely neck in the process. That’s what had prompted Tina to accept Layne’s marriage proposal, only to find herself stuck with a handsome chameleon who’d ultimately cheat on her.

She’d left Layne and met with a lawyer the next day. Layne had never again allowed her back into the house. With no choice but to find immediate employment, she’d found herself stuck in the job of secretary to a demanding real estate developer who expected her to toil the same endless hours that he worked.

Now here she was, stuck with the Smith brothers.

“Oh, Lord, why?” she prayed, not realizing that she’d spoken aloud until Wyatt sighed.

“When He answers, be sure to let me know.”

Chapter Three

He didn’t answer. God never seemed to answer her prayers.

She’d prayed that her mother’s marriage to Dodd Smith would last. As easygoing and affable as he was hardworking, Dodd had been Tina’s friend as much as her stepfather. After only nine months, however, Gina had declared herself bored beyond bearing and ended the marriage.

None of her prayers for her own marriage had been fulfilled, either, with one exception. Her son.

Now Layne wanted to take him, too.

For Tyler, she had left Kansas City and come here. For Tyler, she would put up with the Smith brothers and do everything in her power to make this move work.

“I’ll trade you housing for help fixing up the house,” she proposed, glancing from brother to brother.

She had taken a seat at the table in the dusty kitchen. The brothers had positioned themselves around the room. Wyatt leaned against the sink, his arms folded. Jake stood at the edge of the hallway as if listening to his son playing with hers in the laundry room, where the boys were taking turns rolling small cars into the corner of the sadly sloping floor. Ryder had hopped up to sit on the counter between the sink and the stove. Ryder Smith was only a few years her junior, but he had a sweetness about him that made him seem younger.

“I don’t mind helping out,” he said.

Wyatt shot him a glare. Ryder shrugged. “And once the house is fixed up, what then?” Wyatt wanted to know.

Tina lifted her chin. “You’ll need to find other accommodations. I plan to turn this house into a bed-and-breakfast.”

Jake snorted, and Wyatt rolled his eyes. Ryder, however, lifted his head in surprise and blurted, “Well, that makes sense. Uncle Dodd used to take in folks who came to visit family and friends in War Bonnet.”

Tina could have kissed him. She noticed Wyatt again glared at Ryder. She knew instinctively that Wyatt was the brother she had to convince.

“We have a ranch to get going,” he stated flatly. “We don’t have time to remodel an old house.”

“And we’re going to live where while we’re getting the ranch going?” Jake wanted to know.

“We can convert the bunkhouse into our living quarters.” Wyatt turned his glare on Tina. “The outbuildings belong to us.”

“I never said otherwise.”

“Okay,” Jake interjected, leaning a shoulder against the wall. “So, where do we live while we’re converting the bunkhouse? It hasn’t been used in decades, so I doubt there’s even plumbing.”

“Besides, why does it take all three of us to work the ranch when we don’t even have any cattle?” Ryder wanted to know.

“We’ll have cattle soon,” Wyatt insisted, shifting his feet. “Rex Billings is going to help us find the livestock we need, including horses.”

“You and Delgado can handle that, can’t you?” Jake asked. “Meanwhile, I can work on the bunkhouse and Ryder can start putting this place to rights.”

“What do a mechanic and a fight—” He broke off midword and scrubbed a hand over his face, heavily shadowed now with a day’s growth of beard. “What do you and Ryder know about construction?”

“We know as much about carpentry as we do about ranching,” Ryder put in softly. “I don’t say we can do everything that’s needed, but we can do a lot.”

“Actually,” Jake said, “we know more about construction than ranching. You forget that I remodeled my own house while Jolene was deployed and that Ryder worked in construction before...”

Tina glanced between the brothers, first at Ryder’s bowed head, then at Wyatt, who studied his youngest brother with undisguised concern, and back at Jake. She saw sadness in all of them, deep, heavy sadness. But why? Some time ago, Dodd had mentioned that Jake’s wife had died, but Tina sensed something else going on here.

Wyatt shook his head, then he looked at her and nodded. “Fine. Ryder will work for you while Jake takes care of the bunkhouse and I get the ranch started.”

She doubted she would get a better offer. Still... She made a final demand.

“And you agree to deed me the land that the house sits on.”

Wyatt’s dark gaze held hers for several long, tense moments. “We’ll see. I might just buy you out.”

Surprised by the suggestion, Tina again glanced around the room. Apparently, Jake and Ryder were equally surprised.

“What makes you think I’ll agree to that?”

He shrugged. “Maybe you don’t have the money to renovate this old house.”

He was right, but she’d learned a few things over the years, and she did have some connections to draw on. She knew where to find the very best bargains on building supplies and could call in a few favors.

“I’ll manage,” she told him.

“What about meals?” Jake wanted to know.

“I can cook,” Tina drawled, “if that’s what you’re asking.”

Jake looked pointedly at Wyatt, who seemed to require a moment to tamp down his irritation before saying, “We’ll buy the groceries if you’ll cook the meals.”

“Done.”

He waved a hand. “I suggest we figure out who gets what bedroom and settle in.”

Jake pushed away from the wall. “Frankie and I can share.”

“Actually,” Ryder said, “we may all have to share. Some of the rooms are empty of furniture. Two are uninhabitable. The window is missing in one of the rooms, and either the roof leaks or something’s chewed through the ceiling in another.”

Dismayed, Tina gasped. All eyes turned her way.

“What do you mean the window is missing?”

“I mean that it’s gone.” Ryder spread his hands, palms up. “Including the casing.”

“And something chewed through the ceiling?”

“Well, there are tiny teeth marks around the opening.”

Wyatt let loose a long, gusty sigh. “Okay. Get up to the attic and see what you can find. But watch yourself. The last thing we need is for anyone to get hurt. Jake, you and Ms. Kemp look at the other rooms and decide who goes where. I’ll start unloading our gear.”

“Call me Tina,” she corrected. If they were going to be living in the same house, it seemed only right to be on a first-name basis.

Wyatt inclined his head, laying a hand to his chest. “You can call me Wyatt.”

Jake lifted his hand. “It’s Jacoby, but everyone calls me Jake.”

Tina knew this, but she simply nodded.

“And I’m Ryder,” the younger brother said, smiling.

“Dodd told me all about the three of you,” Tina said, smiling in return.

“That’s more than we can say for you,” Wyatt muttered, moving toward the door.

Ignoring him, Tina pushed back her chair and stood. With so much to do and so much at stake, she couldn’t afford to worry about anything else. Time to get to work.

She and Jake spoke to the boys, warning them to stay in the house out of harm’s way while the adults arranged their living quarters. Frankie nodded compliantly, but as usual Tyler argued.

“Why can’t we go outside?”

“Because we haven’t had a chance to look around yet,” Tina told him. “It’s too dangerous until we know the outbuildings are all clear of vermin and the porch is roped off.”

“Aw, I ain’t scared of no vermin,” Tyler sneered.

“You should be,” Jake said. “Rats, squirrels, raccoons and skunks often carry rabies.”

“What’s rabies?”

“A very serious illness,” Jake explained.

“I don’t care,” Tyler grumbled mulishly.

“I hope you don’t mind shots then, because rabies will keep you in the hospital for lots of shots,” Jake informed him.

Tyler frowned, considering this. Finally, he said, “I better make sure Frankie ’n’ me don’t get rabies.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Jake replied gravely, but Tina saw by the twinkle in his dark eyes that he was amused.

“Call out if you need us,” Tina instructed. “We’ll just be upstairs.”

Tyler nodded and went back to rolling the toy car, accompanied by the sound effects of a revving engine and screeching tires. Tina followed Jake from the room, aware that he silently chuckled, his shoulders shaking with mirth.

“Boys,” he commented softly when she fell into step beside him. “I think they’re all born with a certain amount of stubborn pride.”

Tina sighed. “I think Tyler got more than his fair share.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s played well and been very patient with Frankie today.”

She smiled her thanks for that and wondered why it was so much easier to like Jake than his older brother. The same seemed to be true of Ryder. A pity that Wyatt was the better looking one.

Most attractive, least likeable. Thankfully.

The last thing she needed was any sort of romantic entanglement. She had long since vowed that she would not follow her much-married mother’s path. The only thing on her mind now would be creating a safe, stable home for her son. She’d do whatever she had to do to make that happen. Then Layne and his lawyer could take a hike.

Resolved, she accompanied Jake upstairs to see what Herculean tasks awaited her.

* * *

“The last thing we need is possums in the house,” Wyatt muttered, staring at Ryder, who was covered in dust from his head to his shoes. He had cobwebs in his black hair, which he attempted to brush out with his fingers.

They’d all crowded into the upstairs hallway to hear what Ryder had found in the attic. This day just kept getting worse and worse, in Wyatt’s estimation. First they found the house in sorry condition. Then they’d learned that Tina Kemp actually owned the thing. Now they were obligated to help her fix it up, critters included.