Arlene James - The Rancher's Answered Prayer

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.