Carolyne Aarsen - Second-Chance Cowboy

“I never said you were,” he returned, holding his hands up.

“Not all of us can get into vet school, but some of us can make something of ourselves.”

Her tone puzzled him and he found himself wanting to ask why she’d quit school.

What he really wanted was to ask her why she’d dumped him so casually.

He pushed that last thought back into the dusty recesses of his mind. Clearly he had to do more work to let go of the past and the hurt Tabitha had caused him.

One step at a time, he told himself.

“Well, I’m glad you did. Never could figure out why you dropped out in the first place.”

She looked like she was about to say something. But then the back door opened and Dr. Waters’s and Jenny’s voices broke into the conversation and signaled the beginning of the workday.

Tabitha spun around, striding back down the hallway, leaving Morgan confused and upset. How was he supposed to make a new start in this town when the harshest memories of his past were right here in the form of Tabitha Rennie?

Okay, Lord, You brought me here. You’ll have to help me out.

His prayer was raw and rough. But it came directly from his heart. Because without God’s help, he didn’t think he would be able to do what he needed to do.

And that was keeping his focus on his son. He had been given a second chance with Nathan and he wasn’t going to mess it up.

Not even for Tabitha.

Chapter Three

“C’mon, Tony. Since when did you need money up front from me?” Tabitha leaned on the counter, flashing a teasing grin at the young man behind the counter of Walsh’s Hardware Store. “You know I’m good for it.”

It was Monday morning and Tabitha had sneaked out on her coffee break to order her kitchen sink.

Morgan hadn’t looked pleased at her departure, but since he’d started working at the clinic, that seemed to be his default emotion.

She knew he was stressed. Moving back home, trying to deal with a kid he barely knew. That had to be hard.

Plus, he didn’t seem too happy with the fact that they had to work together. Until her house was finished, there was nothing she could do about it either.

She had kept herself busy on Saturday after working in the clinic, putting the final coat of paint on the spare room of the house, which had been her father’s old room. On Sunday she stifled her guilt and put in some of the casings and baseboards, electing to stay busy and away from church. That was the trouble with a small community like Cedar Ridge. There were too many opportunities to run into people you wanted to avoid, and right now she wanted to avoid Morgan.

Besides, the sooner she got this house done, the sooner she could sell it and move on. Being around Morgan was harder than she’d thought it would be and she didn’t need that extra stress in her life.

Tony nervously rearranged the ball cap he perpetually wore on his head, looking over his shoulder as if to see if the owner, George Walsh, might have made a surprise visit.

“Yeah. I know. It’s just...well...your last check bounced.”

“I told you why. Sepp didn’t pay me on time. That’s hardly my fault and I need this sink to finish the renovations on my kitchen.” It had taken her a few late nights on Pinterest and home reno sites to figure out exactly which sink would fit in her kitchen. All she needed now was to order it, but Tony was being troublesome and she couldn’t charm him out of it.

“I know.” Tony tugged on the bill of his cap again. “Trouble is, the owner found out about the check and told my boss, Mrs. Fisher, that any more orders from you need to be prepaid.”

“How did George find out?”

“He was going over the books with Mrs. Fisher and saw it. That’s when he told her and she told me.”

And there it was again. The ever-present Walsh influence pushing, once again, at the Rennie fecklessness.

I’m not my father, she reminded herself, stifling a far-too-familiar flush of shame. And I’m trying desperately to fix what he broke.

She knew it would take more than the sale of the land and the house to make up for the thousands of dollars her father had stolen from people. But it was all she could do at this moment. And she was determined to do it right.

But if she didn’t get the sink ordered, she couldn’t finish her kitchen, which meant she couldn’t sell the house.

Despair threatened to wash over her, and she struggled to push it back. One step at a time. And the way things were going, she wasn’t sure when she could get more money. Sepp kept cutting back her hours because he claimed Adana needed them more.

She wanted to yell at him but she had no other options. Dr. Waters had made it very clear that now that Morgan was working at the clinic, the possibility of full-time work was gone.

No one seemed to need her.

“Well, I guess when you own the store, you can do what you want,” Tabitha said with forced humor.

Tony shrugged.

“I’d still like to put in the order for the sink, and when I get enough together to pay for it, I’d like you to put it through,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“You don’t have to pay it all,” Tony said. “Just half.”

Which she didn’t have either.

“Just give me the total amount so I know how much I’ll need.” Brave talk, she thought as she gave him a cautious smile, then left. She knew exactly how much the sink, tiles and countertop would cost and how many shifts it would take her to earn that.

Too many. And now that Sepp had cut her hours back, she wasn’t sure how she was going to ever catch up. Her wages at the Brand and Grill and the vet clinic covered her daily expenses. She depended heavily on her tips for the extras.

As she walked down the street to her truck, she fought down her anger at Sepp’s unreasoning dislike of her, and at a father who had let her and her sister down so badly.

She checked the time and hurried her steps. She made quick work of getting to the clinic and slipping inside.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” she called out to Jenny as she pulled on her lab coat.

“Nope. Pretty quiet. Morgan went out. He got a call from the school about Nathan acting up,” Jenny said as Tabitha joined her in the front office. “Asked me not to tell Dr. Waters, so I’m hoping he stays away on his call long enough for Morgan to come back.” She tut-tutted her disapproval. “Dr. Waters has already made a lot of concessions for him. Only the second day on the job and already—”

She stopped talking as the front door opened and Morgan stepped inside, looking harried.

“Everything okay?” Tabitha asked.

His eyes looked at her, then looked away. “Yeah. Fine.”

The curt tone in his voice told her that, clearly, everything was not fine. So did the frown on his face.

Don’t engage, she told herself. He clearly doesn’t want my help.

“You don’t look fine,” Jenny pressed. “Everything go okay with Nathan?”

Morgan shook his head, the look of concern on his face making Tabitha feel bad for him. “He’s been having a hard time at school,” he said. “I knew it would be a difficult transition for him, but he seemed excited about it at the time. He’s just having trouble settling in.”

“Moving to a new school is tough,” Tabitha added. “I feel sorry for the little guy.”

“I’m sure you would know what he’s dealing with,” Morgan said.

His admission and the faint smile accompanying it startled her. It was the first hint of softness she’d received from him. For a moment she longed to explain to him what had happened all those years ago, but she quashed that. It was so long ago it hardly mattered anymore. Besides, even if she did tell him, that didn’t change the fact of what her father had done to his father. That couldn’t be explained away. She could only fix things by staying on the course she had set for herself.