Teaching the Cowboy (32 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“W
hat’s that, princess?” John pointed to the bulge in Liss’s pants pocket and she looked down at it, considering.

Pride beamed on her face as she pulled the thing out. It was a smooth black stone. Must have found it on the beach. “Can I take it home?”

He laughed. “Don’t you have enough rocks in that bucket on the porch? You’ve gotta leave some here for the bugs to hide under, honey.”

Her face fell. “I like them all.”

John knelt down and rested his elbows on his thighs, looking up to meet her face. “I know. They’re pretty. Different than what you’re used to seeing, right?”

She nodded.

“They’re just too heavy to tote across the country.”

Landon trudged over from where he’d been standing near the water and pulled the hood of his windbreaker up over his head. “Hey, kiddo, why don’t you let me help you sort through them. You can take the ones that are really special and leave the rest here as a gift for whoever comes next.”

She frowned but nodded.

John bobbed his head at his son who managed a wary grin in response.

“Hey, Liss?” John said.

“What?”

“Maybe they’ll be here the next time we come back,” he said.

Her eyes widened and cheeks flushed, and not from the wind. “We’re coming back?”

John shrugged and stood. “Sure, why not? Seems like an okay place to vacation.”

Liss did a little pirouette there in the sand. “It’s wonderful!”

“Well, there you go. Something for you to look forward to.”

“When can we come back?”

“I don’t know, but when I do, you’ll be the first to know, princess.”

“I hope you’d let me know, too,” Landon said quietly.

John put his hand on his son’s shoulder and squeezed as he met his gaze. He didn’t have any words. Didn’t really need any.

They weren’t okay. John’s gut said they wouldn’t be okay for a while, but Robert was right. How John treated Landon would set a benchmark for the future. He didn’t want to be the kind of father whose kids were afraid to tell things to. Landon had always been his listening ear in recent years. John hadn’t returned the favor. He hated that he hadn’t.

He trudged up the dunes toward the house with Liss on his heels.

Peter called her back. “Liss, look!”

They both turned to see Peter, with Phil, squatting down and peering into a hole he’d made in the sand. Liss took off at a clip.

“Love you, Daddy,” she said into the wind.

“Love you, too, princess.”

He stood there amongst the reeds watching his kids for a while. They were out of their element and thriving for it. It made all the decisions he’d made up until then—well, almost all of them—seem worth it. Even all the hard ones. Things weren’t done being hard, though.

He turned and caught sight of his other kid, held by her mother, inside the glassed-in porch. He hurried up to them.

“I love seeing you all together,” Ronnie said when John had let himself into the porch and kicked off his shoes. “Didn’t happen much at the ranch, except for meals.”

John scratched his head and blew out a breath. “Yeah. I think, well, I wasn’t trying hard enough. I wanted to be a good dad.
Do
want to be a good dad, but I think all I wanted was to do better than Charlene. All that time I had the bar set too low.”

“Maybe so.”

Ouch. “Do you think I’m getting better?” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and they turned to watch the kids on the beach.

“I think you’re wonderful away from home. But what’ll happen when we go back to Wyoming?”

“I’m gonna let Eddie do his job, so I can do mine.”

“Easy to say.”

“And hard to do. I know, honey. It’s just like you told me last year. I can’t make promises, but I can make plans.”

She laughed. “I’ll take that.”

When he looked down at her, there was wariness in his expression.

“What?” she asked.

“You mean that? You’re not gonna get fed up with me and leave? Take Joey away?”

She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t do that again. It wouldn’t be fair for Joey.”

“No, it wouldn’t.”

“She belongs with her brother and sister, for as long as they’re at home.”

They watched from the deck as Peter and Liss ran ankle deep into the choppy waves, shrieked, and then ran back to dry land.

John wrapped his arm around Ronnie’s waist and drew her closer to his side. He shoved his other hand into the pocket of his jeans.

“And what about you? Where do you belong?”

She didn’t answer. She kept her eyes locked on the kids until they all started heading up the shallow dunes toward the beach house. “I,
we
, belong wherever you are.”

“We?” He furrowed his brow.

She turned her body slowly in his arm and looked up at him. “We. I didn’t feel right this morning. Well, I never feel right lately.” She rolled her eyes. “Less right than usual. Anyhow, I took a test. John, I’m pregnant.” After a cringe, she added, “Again.”

His jaw dropped but no words came out. Pregnant? How? He pulled both hands free to rake his fingers through his hair and paced. Another baby? “I thought you were on birth control, or else I wouldn’t have, you know.”

Yes, you would’ve.
Hadn’t he put that out to the universe? That he wanted more just like Joey?

Ronnie raised one shoulder sheepishly. “No. I was supposed to have an appointment, but cancelled it because the timing was bad. How would you even know about that?”

“Sorry, I saw the stuff, the pamphlets, on the kitchen counter and just assumed.” He huffed. “Wow. Another baby.”
What are you doing? Hold the woman.

He wrapped both arms around her shoulders and laid dozens of kisses on her cheeks, forehead, and lips.

“I guess you’re not upset.”

“Hell no, woman. To see you pregnant and having my baby? I’m over the moon. I’m going to be there this time, all the way. Are you going to give me that?”

She nodded and sniffled. When he pulled her back from him a bit, he could see her eyes were welling up.

“What’s wrong, honey? You scared? What is it? Tell me and I’ll make it okay.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m just, I feel bad about how I handled the Joey situation and—”

“Shh.” He pulled her against his chest once more. “It’s in the past. You were scared and I admit I was pretty unreasonable myself, giving you ultimatums like that. You’re not Charlene. You’re a better woman, a better mother. We could have both did different, but there’s no use dwelling over it. I’m going to give you everything you want, honey. Anything that’ll make you happy.”

She sniffed again and pulled back as the kids filed into the screened porch and kicked off their sandy shoes. Ronnie handed Joey to Landon when he extended his arms, and he sidled away from them, babbling at her without ever making eye contact with John.

“Hold up kids, I’ve got some news.”

Ronnie yanked his belt loop. “John…”

“Shh,” he whispered. “It’s not that. You can keep that to yourself for a while. Whenever you’re ready to tell.”

“Then what?”

He raised his voice loud enough for the kids and also his dad who’d joined them on the porch with Phil and the Silvers.

“Well?” his dad asked.

John reached into his jeans pocket, and nudged out three of the four items inside. He handed one to the Silvers, one to his dad, and then stood in front of Landon, waiting for the boy to meet his gaze. When he did, John took one of his son’s hands, opened it so it was palm-up, and laid the key inside.

“What’s this for?”

“What’s the point of having money to burn if you can’t use it to solve a few problems?”

John circled back around to Ronnie and put his arm back around her waist. “Everyone’s so damned good at secrets I figured it was high time I had one of my own.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” his dad said. “I’ve got steaks on the grill and the wind’s picking up.”

“Okay, then. Out with it. When you all were flitting around this week, exploring the coast and leaving me behind as always, I needed to occupy myself.”

Peter groaned and mumbled something borderline vulgar.

John ignored it. “I bought this house.”

Echoes of confusion were murmured around the room and when John looked down at Ronnie, she wasn’t exempt from it. He gave her a squeeze. “For you.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. Once we fell into it last week and everyone started filling up the place, it just felt right. Whenever you want to come home or see the ocean, it’ll be here, for all of us.” He looked up at Landon, who finally gave his father a smile.

“And I’ll get better at taking some time off. Delegating, so we can come together. We’ll block it into the calendar every year.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, John,” Sid called from the kitchen where she was tending the stove.

He ignored her, too.

“This is your culture, right? North Carolina is important to you, so it’s important to me by extension.”

Liss wedged herself between him and Ronnie and looked up at both of them. “Can I come, too?”

Ronnie laughed. “Of course you can, sweetheart. I wouldn’t go anywhere without you. Who else would I have to keep my side warm at night?”

Liss shrugged.

“Can I claim a permanent room? Liss snores,” Peter said, already poised with one foot on the stairs.

“We’ll work it out later, Pete,” John said.

Peter grumbled but bobbed toward the television.

As the room cleared out, his dad walked over and draped an arm around both John and Ronnie. “You did good, boy. Smart, and easy, right? Get Eddie trained up real good and sic Sid on him to keep the ranch in shape, and I don’t see why you can’t spend a few months out of the year here. I’ll help him, too. You could even set up an office here so you could handle your operations stuff from a distance.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

With a wink, he followed the family out of the porch. Ronnie started after him, but John pulled her back.

“What is it?”

He pulled her into a corner where they couldn’t be seen from the kitchen and sat them in the corner, drawing Joey onto his lap. “I’ve got something for you.”

“Something
more
you mean?”

“Yes.” He fished in his pocket again.

“What more can you give me? You bought me a house, for chrissakes.”

“Lots more. This was selfish. I didn’t want you feel like you had to run away, so I gave you someplace to go where I could be with you. I’ll build you another house besides.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “That’s neither here nor there. We’ll deal with it when we’re back in Wyoming. The guesthouse is too small for all of us and the main house isn’t quite right, either. It’s my parents’ house. I want a fresh start, so we’ll build something that works for all of us.”

Her eyes widened.

He pulled the ring from his pocket and placed it in her palm. “I told you, honey, no one’s gonna take care of you the way I will. I love you more than anything. Are you gonna let me take care of you?”

She stared down at the heirloom diamond and sucked in some air.

“It was my mother’s. Dad always thought he’d pass it down to Landon or Peter, figurin’ I wouldn’t get a second chance, but here I am.”

She chuckled and worked the ringer over the knuckle of her left fourth finger. Perfect fit. “Right. Here you are.”

“I love you.”

Ronnie stood and cradled his face between her hands, drawing him into a kiss that nearly took his breath away. “I know, John, and I love you. I’m in love with you, John Lundstrom. Thank you for opening up. To all of us.”

“Honey, I didn’t have a choice. You and these kids mean more to me than stupid pride. Family’s everything. All your family and the folks who might as well be. My mother taught me that, but I guess I wasn’t ready for the lesson.”

“Y’all come get these steaks before they turn into charcoal briquettes,” Mr. Silver called out.

John smiled and gave Ronnie a nudge. “Go on. You need the iron.”

About the Author

Holley Trent is a Carolina girl gone west. Raised in rural North Carolina near the Inner Banks, she currently resides with her family on the Colorado Front Range. She writes quirky contemporary and paranormal romances that always have a hat tip toward her home state.

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