Carolyne Aarsen - Second-Chance Cowboy

“I’m pretty busy,” Tabitha said, and that wasn’t too much of a stretch to say. “Two jobs, and I’m renovating the house.”

“We can find someone else,” Morgan said, giving his father a knowing look.

“Tabitha is capable.”

“She said she was busy.”

Morgan’s dismissive tone shouldn’t bother her. It was better for everyone if they kept their distance. Though his mother, with her relentless disapproval of Tabitha, had passed away many years ago, the shame of what her father had done to his hadn’t.

When Floyd Rennie left town three years ago, he had also left a number of citizens of Cedar Ridge high and dry when he decamped with money they had invested with him for the building of a new arena. It was all part of Cedar Ridge’s great hope to become part of the Milk River Rodeo Association circuit, thereby raising the profile of their local rodeo.

The arena was only half completed when her father left, taking the investors’ money with him.

The most prominent of whom was Boyce Walsh. Morgan’s father.

Her father died a year later, leaving Tabitha the house she was working on now. She had hoped to sell it but the real-estate agent said she could get double for it if she fixed it up.

So she began working on it in her off-hours. But it was taking much longer than she’d hoped.

“There’s not many people close by who can do horse training,” Boyce put in, clearly unwilling to let either Morgan or Tabitha off the hook.

“Amber could,” Morgan said.

“And you know your twin sister is busy with her own life,” Boyce said. “Nor is she living in Cedar Ridge.”

“So, are you ready to order?” Tabitha said, pulling a pad of paper and pen out of her apron. She really needed to change the topic of conversation. Morgan clearly didn’t want her around and she had no intention of spending more time with any member of the Walsh family than she needed to.

They gave her their orders and she hurried off to give them to Sepp.

“You sure were hanging around that table a long time,” he grumbled. “We got other customers, you know.”

She ignored him as she set up the coffeemaker to make a fresh pot of coffee. She knew well enough not to engage with Sepp.

“I don’t pay you to hang around and bug the customers.” He had to get one more jab in before she left.

She wished she could quit, she thought as she cleared a table, trying not to take her anger out on the hapless dishes. She wished she could walk away from Cedar Ridge. Leave it and everything it represented behind her.

But she needed the job to pay for her house renovations. She was going to finish what she had started, and she knew she couldn’t leave town with her father’s debt hanging over her head.

She shot a glance over at the Walsh table just as she caught Morgan looking at her. She flushed and spun away carrying the dirty dishes back to the kitchen. Adana had finally shown up and she was flirting with Sepp, who didn’t seem to be in any rush to get the Walshes’ orders done.

“My last order ready yet?” she asked.

“It’s ready when it’s ready” was all he said. “Scared I’m going to make you look bad in front of your old boyfriend?”

She knew not to say anything more. Sepp was the most passive-aggressive person she knew and the more she pushed him, the worse he would get.

A few more customers came in and Adana took their orders. Finally Sepp was done with Boyce and Morgan and Nathan’s food.

“Service is getting kind of slow around here,” Boyce said as she set their food on the table.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, knowing she couldn’t shift the blame.

“I’d say Sepp needs to hire more waitresses but I know he already has enough,” Boyce continued.

Again, she could only nod as she put Nathan’s burger and fries in front of him.

“Is there anything else I can get you? More coffee? Chocolate milk?”

She looked over at Nathan, who was staring at her. “Grandpa Boyce says that there’s not too many people who can train horses here and that you can. Are you sure you can’t?”

Were they still on that topic?

Tabitha’s resolve wavered as the boy’s eyes pleaded silently with her.

“Miss Rennie has other things she’s busy with,” Morgan said, looking at Nathan, his voice gentle. But she heard a warning in the words.

Stay away from my son.

“I’m sorry, honey,” she said, giving him a look of regret. “Working here and at the clinic and fixing up my house keeps me very busy.”

Then she walked away. She couldn’t get involved though she felt very sorry for the little boy. She only knew snippets of the boy’s story. His mother spent most of her time chasing her rodeo dreams and dragged him along. He didn’t seem connected to Morgan, which made her wonder what had happened between Morgan and his wife.

Not that it mattered to her. Morgan was part of her past. She had her own plans for the future. And they didn’t include sticking around a town that was such a source of pain and humiliation to her.

She couldn’t afford any distractions and Morgan and his son were a huge one.

* * *

“Will you be okay?” Morgan knelt in front of Nathan on the floor of the school’s hallway, handing him the backpack he had painstakingly packed this morning. Young kids ran past them, calling out to each other, their voices echoing in the busy hallway, bumping them in their rush to get to their own classes.

Yesterday morning he and Nathan had visited the school to see about enrolling him for the last few weeks of Grade Two. Though he still had his concerns, he had to think of what the counselor had told them after Gillian’s death. That it was important that Morgan and Nathan find their new normal as soon as possible.

Thankfully Nathan hadn’t objected to going to school, and if Morgan was honest with himself, it gave both of them a break from each other. Taking care of a seven-year-old was way out of his comfort zone. Especially a sullen young boy who rejected any advances Morgan made to him.

“This is a good school,” Morgan said, injecting a bright note of enthusiasm in his voice. “I used to go here when I was a kid.”

Nathan took the backpack without looking at Morgan, saying nothing.

Morgan reached out to lay his hand on his son’s shoulder but Nathan pulled away, then walked into the schoolroom and went directly to his designated locker.

“You can come in with him, if you like,” the perky young woman encouraged with a bright smile. “I know it’s his first day here.”

Just then Morgan caught Nathan looking at him, eyes wide, shaking his head a vehement “No.”

Really? He couldn’t even do this for his son?

He wished it didn’t hurt so much.

“I think I’ll stay here to see him settle in,” Morgan said.

“Of course.” He could tell the teacher was puzzled, but he was fairly sure she dealt with a variety of parents, so he tried not to take Nathan’s clear-cut rejection to heart.

He watched a few more moments as Nathan trudged to his desk, then sat down, holding his pencil case that they had bought yesterday, looking down.

Morgan’s heart broke at the sight but he felt stuck. Nathan didn’t want to spend time with him, and Morgan wanted to get started at the vet clinic as soon as possible.

Wednesday, at the Brand and Grill, was the last time he’d seen Nathan act with any kind of animation when he was talking to Tabitha. Which made him nervous, especially because ever since then, the only thing Nathan would actually talk with him about was training his mother’s horse so he could ride it.

And getting Tabitha to do it.

There was no way he could allow that. He didn’t think he could be around Tabitha that much and, more important for his son, he didn’t want him to build a connection to someone who was leaving soon.