Brenda Minton - Second Chance Rancher

“She needs to be locked up,” Lucy said on a huff, her gaze shooting to the wrecked truck.

He gave her a quick look, trying to come to terms with the woman at his side, because the girl he’d known hadn’t been this cool person with the clipped tone. A smile took him by surprise but he tamped it down because he didn’t need her ire. That’s exactly what he would get if she knew he’d even dared to think of that girl and that summer. It was safer to keep the conversation on Maria, her little sister.

“She’s just a kid.”

She responded with rapid-fire Portuguese, then briefly closed her eyes and shook her head.

“She’s a kid who ran her truck through a neighbor’s fence and left.” She spoke again in English.

He shook his head and walked away, because she knew better. Lucy followed, still talking. He hid a smile as she continued to rant about their mother leaving town, her irresponsible brothers and the call from Aunt Essie telling her she was needed in Bluebonnet Springs.

“She didn’t know what to do.” He defended her aunt.

“I know. And it isn’t her responsibility. I should have been here.”

He stopped because something needed to be said. She nearly ran into him, so with his free hand he reached out to steady her. Her dark eyes snapped as she looked down at his hand on her arm, not saying a word, but clearly reinforcing the Don’t Touch policy.

Yeah, that was the Lucy he remembered. She’d been wearing that Hands Off sign for a long time. “You’re here now,” he offered. “Maybe if you stay, you can help her out.”

Wrong words. Her dark eyes narrowed. Try as he might, he was a man and he noticed that even spitting mad, she was beautiful. Not the flowery, glossy kind of beauty, but strong and wildly feminine even in jeans, a plain T-shirt and boots.

She scrubbed a hand over her face and sighed. “I plan on staying. And I’m sorry about the fence. I’ll help you get your cattle back in, and then I’ll see to getting the fence fixed.”

They stood side by side studying the wrecked truck and the fence. Dane’s dog, Pete, a black-and-white border collie, sniffed the tires.

“I’m sure she’ll be okay, Lucy. She’s been through a lot.”

“I know she’s been through a lot.” She kept a steady gaze on the truck but he saw moisture gather in her eyes. “I thought Maria was staying with Aunt Essie.”

“I think she might have stayed there for a few weeks but eventually she moved back to the ranch.”

“I can’t say that I blame her. Essie is used to living alone. But I wish someone had told me our mother had skipped town again. If nothing else, I could have taken Maria to Austin with me.”

Dane shot her a look, knowing she was talking more to herself than to him. She confirmed that by giving him a hard stare that seemed to ask what he was looking at. So he shrugged it off and started clipping wires wrapped around the wheels of the truck.

He wasn’t getting involved. He was just going to fix his fence and head home to his own life. Lucy Palermo could take care of her problems. He’d take care of his.

* * *

After pushing the truck out of the way, Lucy had helped Dane get his cattle back. They’d patched the fence but she promised she’d be back to make it right. As she headed up the dirt drive that led to the home she’d been raised in, she felt that old familiar tightening around her heart. She recognized it as panic. A few deep breaths helped to ease the pain. There was nothing here to fear. Her father was gone. His life claimed by a bull he’d hoped would be his ticket to the big time.

Her mother wasn’t in the kitchen pretending there was nothing wrong with a man who randomly drank, quoted the Bible and then beat his children for the slightest infraction.

Lucy parked in the circle drive, just a dozen feet from the front steps of the house. It no longer looked like a home, not with the lawn covered in weeds, flowers growing wild up the posts that supported the porch roof and no lights glimmering from inside. The one thing that had been a constant had been the facade of this home. It had looked like a house where a happy family lived. The house had been a real metaphor for their lives. Picturesque on the outside, dark and painful on the inside.

As she headed for the front door she gave herself a pep talk. She didn’t have to stay here. She could take Maria with her back to Austin. Why should either of them stay in Bluebonnet now that Maria would be graduating high school? It seemed like the perfect solution.

She stepped through the front door, chastising herself for reliving the past. The house was quiet except for the ticking of the grandfather clock in the dining room. The air conditioner hadn’t been turned on and the temperature inside must have been at least ninety degrees. It felt cooler outside than in. To top it off, the place had the distinct smell of neglect. The trash hadn’t been taken out. The dog had been left to run inside. Her mother had abandoned her duties. Again.

That left Lucy to pick up the pieces and keep her siblings on track. At twenty-nine she was tired of being the family glue, but since there was no one else, she would do what needed to be done.

She would clean up the mess. She would find her younger sister. She would make sure her twin brothers were clean and sober. For years, since their father’s death, the family was like a spring that had been coiled up tight and then turned loose. They’d all gone off in different directions, a little wild, a lot unpredictable.

She’d picked the Army, even before her father’s death, because it had seemed like the antithesis to her childhood. Every day in the military she’d known the time to get up, to eat and to go to bed. She’d usually known what each day would require. Most importantly, it had meant being thousands of miles from Bluebonnet.

There had been surprises. There had been pain. And death. But she’d survived. The same way she’d survived her childhood.

“Maria, where are you?” Lucy yelled. From the back of the ranch house, the dog barked. Maria didn’t respond, but Lucy guessed if she followed the bark, she’d find her sister.

She opened the door at the end of the hall. Maria was passed out on her bed. The dog growled from the pillow next to her. Lucy scanned the disaster of a bedroom. Clothes covered nearly every surface. The chair by the window, the dresser, the floor. It looked like a department store had exploded. The windows were wide-open, letting in the heat of late May.

What a mess.

“Stupid poodle.” Maria, dark hair tangled and smudges beneath her eyes, reached in a half slumber and pushed the dog off the bed.

“Be nice to the dog,” Lucy warned.

Maria sat up quickly, then held her head and groaned. “Go away.”

“Right, because a seventeen-year-old can be trusted to take care of herself.”

“Marcus and Alex are here. They’re adults. And I’m almost eighteen.”

“Our brothers are in Waco and we both know that. I got a call from Essie, letting me know you were running wild and she’s taking care of the livestock. But you, on the other hand...”

“She should mind her own business.” Maria fell back on the pillow and covered her head with a blanket. “I hate you.”

“Right, because alcohol is your friend and I’m not. How long has our mother been gone? And why aren’t you with her?”

“She went to California a couple of months ago. She and husband number three are back in love. I don’t like to be a third wheel. And I haven’t been drinking.”

“Of course you haven’t. Get up out of that bed. You have a fence to fix.”

“What?” She brushed a hand through the tangles of her curly, chestnut hair.

“You ran through Dane Scott’s fence, Maria. Last night. You even left the truck where you wrecked it.” Lucy shook her head and gave her sister another long look. “Get up. I’ll help with the fence but I’m not doing all the work.”