Lynn Patrick - The Long Road Home

When Alyssa started to turn toward the backseat again, Priscilla raised her voice, “All right, enough, both of you!”

Thankful that they both went silent for the moment, Priscilla took a big breath. Surely they wouldn’t snipe at each other the whole time they stayed with her. More than anything, she hated confrontation. Hated the fact that she’d yelled at the nieces she loved. She’d avoided mean-spirited sniping since she was a kid. As unbelievable as it seemed, she wished one of Alyssa’s friends would text her so the girls would leave each other alone. Checking the rearview mirror, she realized that Mia had pulled out her cell phone and was already involved in playing some game.

“So what is it with you and that guy?” Alyssa suddenly asked.

“That guy...Sam? What do you mean?”

“You were into him on the whole ride.”

Priscilla squirmed a bit. That might be true, but how had Alyssa even noticed when she’d been so into Logan?

“Sam and I went to high school together. We were just catching up.”

“On what?”

“On what we’ve been doing with our lives.”

“You live in the same town.”

“We do now, but Sam was gone for a lot of years. He just moved back recently. I didn’t even know he was here.”

“But you’re glad to see him, right?”

“Well, sure. It’s always nice to see old friends.”

“Looked like he was more than a friend, Aunt Priscilla. Was he your boyfriend?”

Priscilla felt her face grow warm. How ridiculous. “No...well, we had one date, but that was fifteen years ago.” And she didn’t have to explain it to a sixteen-year old.

Though she couldn’t help but remember that toe-tingling kiss they’d shared after the prom. And Sam’s declaration that he wanted her to be his girl.

“Then you broke up?” Alyssa probed.

“Uh, we weren’t exactly...together. He left town.”

“Just like that?”

“Uh-huh.” The day after the date, Sam had been gone. Hadn’t even said goodbye. Worse, she’d learned that the only reason Sam had asked her was because a couple of his football player friends bet he couldn’t get her to venture out from behind her thick glasses and give him a good time.

“I wouldn’t let some guy like that get away,” Alyssa said.

“I didn’t exactly have a choice.”

“He’s pretty cool,” Mia said, leaning forward. “A real cowboy. You are going to let me take those lessons with him, aren’t you?”

“I said we would talk about it. I want to make sure we do things that both of you enjoy. And your grandmother may have some ideas about your activities. She wants to see a lot of you while you’re here.”

“I want to go back to the ranch, too,” Alyssa said. “I love riding.”

Mia snorted. “Since when? You said it was boring.”

“I was bored doing the same thing all the time. But going out to the ranch is different.”

Right, Priscilla thought. The ranch had Logan. That fact, as well as going back into Sam’s territory made her more than a little nervous. Logan had been friendly, but not too friendly. Surely he realized Alyssa was too young for him. She couldn’t fault him for her niece’s new crush. She could still fault Sam...but she could handle anything, including him.

She hoped.

“Well, Grams and Gramps will want to spend all day tomorrow with the two of you,” Priscilla said. “But I’ll see about making arrangements for later in the week.”

“Yay!” Mia said.

Alyssa simply grinned.

Making Priscilla want to roll her eyes. Whatever made her think having a teenager as her responsibility for half the summer was going to be a piece of cake?

CHAPTER FOUR

SAM’S CELL BUZZED in his back pocket. It was after supper and he was alone doing dishes and thinking about how nice it had been to see Priscilla again. Maybe it was someone calling about lessons or rides for the next day, so he pulled the phone free with some excitement.

Pop.

He answered, “Yeah, Pop, what’s up?”

“You need to get over here, right away.”

“Are you okay?” Sam’s pulse rushed. “You didn’t fall again?”

“Don’t worry, I’m still on my feet. I got a bone to pick with you, Sam.”

Sam let out a breath. He didn’t know why he bothered worrying about the old man. So Pop had a bone to pick with him. Well, when didn’t he?

“Yeah, I’ll come by as soon as I’m done here.”

“Now, boy!”

That familiar, imperious tone made Sam’s gut clench. He took a really deep breath and told himself to stay calm. “All right. Be there in a few.”

“You’d better be!”

What was wrong this time?

Leaving the cabin, Sam climbed into the truck and headed for the main house a half mile down the road. Pop was always demanding his presence, never to have his company, rather to chide him about something. Just like in the bad old days. The reason he’d left and hadn’t looked back for so many years. It had taken something he didn’t even want to think about to make him consider coming home.

When Priscilla assumed Pop was his reason for returning to Sparrow Lake, he’d let her. Despite his reservations, he had wanted to check on the old man, but he had other reasons, too. He couldn’t go back to rodeoing, not after what had happened to him. Something he would never forget. But he didn’t owe Priscilla big explanations. Not about that. Not about the past. He’d always done what he’d thought he had to. Now he was starting over. And he’d known Pop had retired and was done with the land. He’d had to find a new way to make a living, but he was no dairy farmer.

He pulled up in front of the farmhouse, a white two-story with a wide porch, and parked in front of the steps. Not knowing what to expect, he entered the front vestibule with a sense of trepidation.

“Pop?”

“In here.”

Though nearly seventy, Dwayne Larson had a voice that was as deep and strong as it had ever been. Sam followed it into the dingy front parlor that looked exactly like it had fifteen years ago. Too crowded with old furniture, most of which was stacked with newspapers and magazines that his father refused to throw away. Why he still wanted to read Midwest Dairyman and keep years of back copies when he was retired was a mystery to Sam.

Ensconced in his favorite recliner, the casted leg up, Pop grumbled, “About time. What took you so long?”

Sam refused to respond to the bait. “What do you need, Pop?”

“For you to be responsible.”

Uh-oh. What new crime had he committed in his father’s eyes now?

“You’ll have to be a little more direct.”

“The boards you left lying around the parking area!”

“What boards?”

“The ones with big nails in them. Do you want to ruin your client’s tires?”

“This afternoon, the parking lot was fine. No boards with nails or otherwise.”

“You calling me a liar, boy?”

“No, of course not.”

Though Sam wondered about his father’s medication. If he was taking those pain killers he said he wouldn’t touch, they could be making him imagine things. How would he have seen the parking lot anyway in his condition? Or had someone put this particular idea in his head?

Sam tried to cool down the confrontation. “When I leave here, I’ll swing by the parking lot on my way back to the cabin.”

But Pop wasn’t having any conciliation. “A horse ranch in Wisconsin is a silly idea anyhow.”

Not a new sentiment. Sam knew his father didn’t approve, even if he had rented the land to Sam and had signed a contract agreeing to the business.

“It’s not the only ranch in Wisconsin, Pop. There are several west and north of here. It’s just the only one in this area, which gives me an edge in making it work.”