Chapter 8
Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
Cassidy
Knowing what I did about Lucas’ mom, I felt like I should have gotten the full story before I went to Mrs. Wright.
The poor woman was doing a round trip of a hundred and twenty miles every day just to keep food on the table and pay the bills.
Not only that she worked weekends. No wonder she had no time for her son.
“Do you think Gunner was serious about offering Ruth Keller a job?” I asked Lily at lunchbreak.
She peered inside her sandwich and frowned. “I was sure I made chicken salad.”
“And what have you got?”
“Cheese salad.” She shook her head. “I still have a baby brain. And yes, Gunner always keeps his word.”
“It would be a shame if he had to move. He’s such a quiet, kind, thoughtful boy and a huge city high school might change him.”
“I’m not sure it would, but I understand you’re thinking.” She took a bite of her cheese salad and frowned. “God, I was looking forward to chicken.”
“Mrs. Wright said that she’s going to call her and get her to come in for a meeting.” I picked up a piece of celery and chewed on it.
“Why are you eating that?” Lily asked, “It’s practically water and tastes like watery string.”
“I didn’t go grocery shopping this weekend. I was too distracted.”
“By Gunner?”
“No. Not by Gunner, by the Lucas situation. I’m worried about him and his mom.
” Who was I trying to kid. Of course, I was also distracted by Gunner.
Once I left the ranch and went home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the job he’d been willing to offer Ruth.
He’d done that before I’d even spoken to him about Lucas.
He’d figured out for himself that they needed help.
“At least you know that he’s not being neglected willfully.
” Lily threw her sandwich down. “I’m so disappointed that it's not chicken.” She brushed the crumbs from her lap and then wiped her hands on a napkin.
“I feel bad for her. It must be hard doing it all alone. That journey to Montrose is a trek in itself.”
“I know. Lucas is a good kid, but we know that even good kids can be a handful.” My gaze turned to the kids all running around enjoying their lunch break.
They should all be carefree and happy and that can only come from being made to feel secure at home.
Poor Lucas had to be picking up on the strain his mom was feeling.
“You think that maybe we should do more for those we teach?” I asked Lily, my gaze still on the excited children.
“Every day,” she replied with a sigh. When I turned to face her she was watching them, too.
“When they seem upset when they come into class, when it’s clear their parents don’t understand the definition of a nutritious lunch, when they’re too shy to talk to their peers.
” Her eyes were bright with compassion and empathy, the reasons why Lily was a great teacher.
“I think I might have an idea.”
She frowned. “About what?”
“About how we can give more to the kids.”
“Apart from the hours of prep, teaching and marking assignments. We are both supportive, there when they need us to be.”
“I know, every teacher in this school does an incredible job, but I think we can do more. Not more as such, but we can offer them something different. Well.” I winced. “Gunner can.”
Lily busted out a laugh. “Hah, I knew it. You’ve been thinking about him all weekend.”
“No, I haven’t. This is about the kids.”
“But it involves Gunner?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Maybe Nash and Wilder, too.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed as she moved closer to me. “Go on.”
“The ranch. Gunner said that he could give Lucas some stuff to do, and I was reading that horses, well animals in general, can be good for kids. It can help them with trauma and stress.”
“I don’t think many of the kids we teach are traumatized, though.
” She patted my hand. “I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, though, because it is.
In fact, I love it.” Sitting back, she looked thoughtful as she pulled her phone from her pocket.
“Let me message Nash and get him to organize with Gunner about us all having a conversation.”
I watched as her thumbs tapped out a message, a cute little smile played on her lips.
“You’re sexting him aren’t you?” I tried to grab her phone, but she moved it out of my reach.
“Maybe.” She definitely was because a message immediately came back, and she gave a contented little sigh. “All good. Come around tonight and we’ll talk it through.”
“Just like that?” My chest swelled with gratitude.
That ‘just like that’, after one short conversation, Nash was willing to listen to what I had to say.
I’d not had a lot of dealings with him before Lily came back as I wasn’t Bertie’s teacher, but I knew he was unapproachable and grumpy.
He was a totally different kind of man these days. A happy man.
“Just like that.” She giggled. “Although, I did have to promise something in return.”
“Ugh,” I groaned and threw a stick of celery at her.
When I knocked on the door of the ranch house, I half expected Gunner to be the one to open it, just to mess with me. Thankfully it was Wilder.
“Well, if it isn’t Miss. Turner.” His voice slid over my name like molasses and moonshine. He winked as he opened the door. “Come on in, sunshine. Try not to fall too hard for me. It’s a family trait.”
“Hey, Wilder, how are you?”
“I think I’m okay, although I’m worried about this meeting that you’ve requested.”
“God, you make it sound so formal.” I followed him across the foyer, noticing he had a slight limp. “What happened to you?”
“Sorry?” He asked.
“The limp.”
“Oh, you don’t want to know.”
Without saying anything else, he pushed open the lounge room door to the sound of laughter and the heat from the open fire.
Nash and Lily were on one sofa, with Nash massaging her feet which were in his lap.
Gunner was on the other sofa, his arms waving around as he regaled some tale about horse manure.
As I walked to the doorway, Lily looked up and smiled. “Cass, hey. Come in, sit down.” She waved me in but if I thought she was going to move her legs so I could sit next to her, I was mistaken. “Sit next to Gunner and Wilder will get you a drink.”
“Yeah,” Wilder said, throwing his hands into the air. “Wilder will get you a drink, even though he’s limping. Coffee, sweet tea, coke, OJ?”
I grinned at him. “An OJ would be great.”
“Anyone else?” Wilder asked, halfway through the door. “No. Okay. Great.”
“Why do we keep him?” Gunner asked.
“Because he’s Lily’s favorite,” Nash said at the same time that Lily chimed in with, “He’s my favorite.”
“Hey.” Gunner gave me a head nod and moved further up the sofa.
I sat as far away from him as I possibly could and turned my gaze on Lily and Nash. He looked at me expectantly, still massaging Lily’s feet, while she grinned with one brow raised.
“What?” I asked.
“You said you had an idea and wanted to tell the guys.” Lily pulled her foot away from Nash and sat up. “I didn’t tell them much, just that it was about the kids at school.”
I didn’t have a chance to respond because Wilder came back into the room and handed me my drink. He then limped over to the armchair, sat in it and reclined it.
“I can’t believe you made me do that seeing as I’m injured,” he complained.
“Shouldn’t have hooked up with Monique Porter and then told her ‘it’s not you, it’s me’.”
Wilder’s usual grin faltered. “You can’t force feelings that aren’t there,” he said, and for the first time, there was something hollow in Wilder’s voice. Like maybe he was tired of pretending he didn’t want more. Even if he didn’t know what that ‘more’ looked like yet.
“Which is why you should have made it clear from the start,” Gunner said, “At least she doesn’t work for us, but you’d be best avoiding The Crafty Corner for a while.”
“But Bertie likes it when I take her to buy her crafting stuff,” Wilder protested.
“Yeah well,” Nash said. “You should have thought about that before you hooked up with the cashier.”
I looked over at Wilder and the smirk from before had vanished, replaced with something else. He looked disappointed, like a kid who opened their biggest gift at Christmas only to find it was home knits from Grandma.
“You okay?” Lily asked, clearly seeing the same thing I had.
In an instant Wilder’s wistful look was replaced with a cocky smirk. “Yeah, just remembering how it felt when she stood on my foot with her damn boots on.” He groaned dramatically. “I might be maimed for life.”
“Here’s hoping,” Nash muttered. “Now, Cassidy, what can we do for you? Lily said you had an idea about the ranch.”
“I must have missed when she became a shareholder,” Gunner said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
I turned my head to see expressive brown eyes staring at me, clearly displaying his dislike for me.
“I’m not demanding anything,” I told him.
“I had an idea and wanted to run it past you. It doesn’t mean you have to say yes.
” I turned in my seat to get a better look at him.
“If you must know, you were the one who gave me the idea. You’re the one who told me that it was good for kids.
” I turned my head to Lily. “Did you tell them anything?”
“No honey, it’s your idea. I just told them you had one.”
“Okay,” Nash said, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Tell us all about it.”
I took a sip of my orange juice, unsure why I felt so nervous. It wasn’t like this had been a dream of mine for a long time, or my future was depending on it, but it was important. The more I’d thought about the kids, the more I’d researched it, the more I’d known it was the right thing to do.