Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
TRACE
C ade sat on top of the fence, exactly how Booker had shown him. Happiness radiated from his pink, wind-kissed cheeks.
“Are you warm enough?”
He gave me the same wry look I knew from Delaney’s face, and his grin stretched wider. I didn’t understand what it was about me fussing around him that was making him so happy. I was just glad he wasn’t finding it smothering.
“I like it here,” he said as he watched Booker ride into the yard with four other horses and Val following him. “Do you like horses?”
“Not as much as Book. But I can ride. I can teach you if you want.”
He nodded quickly. “Yes!”
Booker trotted over on his horse, Doc, and Val darted under the fence, heading straight to Cade’s side. “Might need to get you a horse first. But you can have a go on Doc and see if you like it first. He’s too big for you, but he’s gentle enough for you to see if you want to do more.”
Cade looked around at the other horses, and I could already tell that he was weighing them up. The kid had no fear at all. Even I wouldn’t get on any of those beasts.
“They’re too big as well,” I told him quickly before he could get any ideas. “And they’re not ridable.”
“How come?”
“Because they’re rescues,” Booker said, jumping down from Doc and showing him to a hay net while the others tucked into the feed he’d already put out for them. “They’re still rehabilitating, and even then, most of them probably won’t be able to take a rider.”
“You rescued them?” Cade asked, in interest.
“Yeah.” Booker didn’t elaborate, and I rolled my eyes.
“He buys them from auction out the kill pen,” I explained. Cade’s eyes widened in shock. It sounded horrific, and it was. Maybe he was too young to know about stuff like this, but I was already too far in to turn back now. “When horses aren’t any use to some people, they sell them at auction for slaughter. They’ve usually been neglected, or they’re sick. They sell them for commercial purposes. But Booker brings them back here and helps them get better.”
It was the nicest way I could explain it, but I should have known that Cade wouldn’t be satisfied with half an answer.
“What’s commercial purposes?”
“Dog food. Glue. Sometimes they ship the meat to other countries. A lot you can do with a horse,” Booker answered gruffly.
He had a no-nonsense attitude about a lot of stuff, and we were going to have to have a talk about what was appropriate to say in front of Cade, at least until Delaney had set us some boundaries.
“That’s horrible!” Cade protested.
“Dogs gotta eat, right Val?” Booker said with a shrug. “It’s the way of the world, kid.”
Booker’s dog looked up at him and then leaned against Cade’s legs as if to try to deny it.
“The world sucks,” Cade said sadly.
“Can’t disagree with you there. So, I do what I can to make it suck a little less.”
Cade stared at Booker thoughtfully and then nodded. Damn, Booker was imparting wisdom so easily. It helped that he was a horse hero, and here I was, a boring businessman.
“Of course, your dad has a better mission than I do,” Booker added, and I looked at him in surprise. “I save a couple of horses, but your dad here is going to save this whole town.”
“Really?” Cade asked, turning wide eyes toward me and looking impressed.
My first instinct was to deny it, but the warmth I felt from my son looking at me like I was some kind of superhero was enough to make me want to stand taller.
“I’m going to try to. It’s something me and…your grandpa are trying to do.”
Now that was something that felt weird to say.
Cade looked confused for a moment, and I knew it was the mention of my dad, his grandfather, that had done it. Did he know what my mother had done? He had to have questions, but that was something that felt like Delaney should be involved with. I, at least, needed to know how she wanted to deal with it. I had no problem being honest with the kid and telling him exactly what had happened. But he was exactly that, a kid. And there was stuff they needed to be protected from. Regina Farrington being one.
Then I had a much better idea.
“Ready to go see some more of the ranch?” I asked, and Cade tipped his head to the side in question as he looked around him. “Probably going to need to take the quads to get all the way to the other side and back before your mom gets here,” I added, like it was no big deal.
Cade leaped in the air with a cheer, fist-pumping as he landed. “Let’s do it!” Val yipped in excitement and danced around his feet like she hadn’t just sprinted out to one of the pastures minutes ago.
Booker laughed as Cade started to do a weird little dance, shaking his head at his antics. “Let me pull Doc’s tack off, and I’ll join you.” He glanced at me in question, and I nodded happily.
I wouldn’t begrudge Booker getting to know his nephew. Cade was an amazing kid, and Booker was family. Or at least the part of my family that I wanted my son to know.
“Cade and I will pull out the quads,” I told him, seeing one of those rare Booker smiles that seemed to becoming habit today.
The two of us jogged over to the barn with Val on our heels as Booker finished up with Doc. Cade rushed inside, looking around like it was the most interesting place he’d ever been. In reality, it was just a dusty old barn with a haystack, some equipment I didn’t really know much about, and a tarp covering what we were looking for.
I grabbed a corner and pulled it off with a flourish while Cade ooh-ed and aah-ed like I’d done something impressive and then laughed again.
The sight of the five old quads struck me in the chest. It had been a while since I’d taken mine out. Booker used his all the time, and Dex might have had reason to use his, but the other two had probably sat here unused for nearly a decade. Not that you’d know it from looking at them. They were all in pristine condition. Surprisingly so.
“My grandfather bought these when me and my brothers were around your age. This was his ranch, and he left it to Booker when he passed. The four of us would tear around here all summer with our friend Dex.” I smiled sadly at the few happy memories I had as a kid. This ranch had always been a refuge for us. Booker the most. He was the only one out of the four of us that wanted to be with the animals. It was why our grandfather had left the ranch to him, and none of us had minded. Booker was a part of this land. It had been obvious since we were all old enough to see it.
Cade looked at the quads again and then turned to me. “I have three uncles?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, Xander and Gage haven’t been home for a long time, though. Hopefully, you’ll get to meet them soon.”
I had no idea how true that was, but I’d do everything I could to make it happen. Especially Gage. I wanted my brother to come home. He didn’t have to run anymore, and he deserved to know that.
“I’ve…erm, never ridden one of these before,” Cade said nervously as I grabbed the handles of Booker’s quad and released the brake to wheel it out of the barn.
“Don’t worry, you can ride with me,” I told him. “I think your mom would kill me if I let you loose on one of these solo.”
He laughed then because we both knew exactly how true that was.
I’d just got my quad out of the barn and was showing Cade how it worked when Booker jogged over to us with a grin on his face that I hadn’t seen since he was a kid.
“You ready for this?” he asked.
“Race you to the creek?” I suggested slyly.
We hadn’t done this since we were kids, and Booker laughed at the suggestion. It didn’t stop him from agreeing, though.
“Last one there has to do the grilling,” Booker said as he climbed on the quad and turned over the engine. Val sat down and watched us cautiously. I could see her practically vibrating on the spot. If Booker was going to work, she would have been going with him, and there wasn’t a better game around if you were a ranch dog. “Val, stay,” Booker barked.
Her ears lowered, and she wandered back into the barn. I could already feel Cade getting ready to go after her.
“Don’t worry, she’s going to find a shady spot and nap the rest of the morning away,” I told him, which seemed to make Cade instantly feel better.
Both the quads rumbled to life as I mirrored his move and then glanced down at Cade who was sitting between my arms. “You okay?”
“Hell yeah!”
Part of me thought I should chastise him, but the excitement and happiness radiating around the three of us was something I hadn’t felt since I was a kid.
“Then let’s smoke his old ass,” I cheered as I twisted the throttle, and the quad shot across the ground as Cade cackled in glee.
Booker’s laughter followed us as I heard him take up the chase, and we turned the corner of the barn, heading for the creek at top speed.
My face ached from the constant smile I’d had on my face for the last three hours as I watched Booker fire up the grill in front of me. I knew he’d let us win. I’d had to slow down at one point for fear that Cade was going to bounce off the quad. He didn’t quite have the hang of standing to absorb the bounce of the shocks just yet. But Book had never once taken the opportunity to fly past us.
It still counted as a win, though, and even though Cade had been gracious enough to tell him that he could maybe win next time, we could both see how happy the kid was.
Booker was showing Cade how the grill worked as I brought the food out that he’d put together this morning while I was vacuuming his immaculate lounge. There was no way he didn’t have a cleaner, and I was starting to think I might need their name because, damn, they did good work.
“Mom’s here!” Cade cheered at the same time that I heard the car driving down the gravel driveway toward the house. Val yipped in excitement, bouncing around with him. She’d barely left his side since we got back on the quads. Something told me the two of them were going to be inseparable whenever Cade was at the ranch.
Abandoning the food, I walked over to where she’d parked before and waited for Delaney to pull up. She’d barely made it out of the car before Cade was throwing his arms around her.
“I went on a quad bike, and Uncle Booker is going to get me a horse!” Cade happily told her.
Ahhh, that might have technically been what we’d said, but it also wasn’t. We were going to have to be more careful about how we tried to win this kid over. Thankfully, rather than getting annoyed as she probably should, Delaney laughed and just hugged Cade back.
“It sounds like you had a fun morning,” she said, looking over Cade’s shoulder at me as she raised one eyebrow in question.
“It was amazing!” Cade cheered and then ran back over to where Booker was standing at the grill, getting ready to put the burgers on.
I watched him run with a dopey grin on my face before turning back to the woman who occupied my nearly every thought. “We actually said he could have a go at riding Doc, and if he liked it, we’d need to get a smaller horse for him to learn to ride on. I’m sorry, Laney. We should have asked before we told him that.”
She didn’t look annoyed at all. In fact, she was watching Cade with the same dreamy expression on her face that I probably had.
“It’s not a problem,” she finally said as she turned to me. “I’m just glad he’s happy. Everything went okay?”
“Yeah. He’s an amazing kid.”
She nodded and a flicker of sadness came across her face before she shook her head and started to walk toward where Booker had the grill set up.
“How was the bank?” I asked, grabbing for anything to say to her.
Delaney shuddered dramatically. “Very banky.”
“Hmmm, I’ve heard that said a lot about banks,” I agreed, poking fun at her.
“I don’t think there’s anyone working there under fifty, and they all looked at me like I was about to commit a crime.”
“Well, the last time you were there, you did super glue pompoms to all the checking pens at the desks while they were distracted.”
“Oh my god, I forgot about that!” Her laugh was exactly the same as Cade’s. “If I remember correctly, though, you and Gage were the ones distracting them.”
“And they’ve never let me forget it,” I told her seriously. “Mrs. Burns still tuts at me every time I walk in, and I swear they make the security guard follow me.”
Delaney just laughed harder as we joined the others, and Booker passed her a drink. She smiled down at the glass of lemonade in her hand. It had always been her favorite when she was a kid and neither of us had forgotten, apparently.
“You want cheese on your burger, Mom?” Cade asked as he carefully slid a spatula under a burger and flipped it on the grill under Booker’s supervision. Val licked her lips at his feet in hopeful anticipation that one would drop.
How mad would Delaney be if I got Cade a dog?
“You know it.”
Cade gave her a thumbs up over his shoulder and carried on concentrating on his burgers.
Lunch was the perfect end to a perfect morning. We sat out on the porch eating our fill and telling Cade about all the trouble we’d gotten into as kids growing up in a small town, which, when you thought about it, wasn’t exactly that much. We must have been massive pains in the ass for every adult in our vicinity.
When Delaney told Cade that it was time to head out, the way that he seemed so reluctant to leave was enough to make me happy. I had to get into the office, and I knew Delaney was saying it mostly for my own benefit, but even then, I didn’t want them to go, either.
“You can come back any time you want,” Booker told him. “We’ll get you on Doc next time.”
Cade nodded sadly before turning to me. “And we can go out on the quads again.”
“Any time,” I told him happily.
This was the most fun I’d had in years. I’d happily do it anytime he wanted.
Cade dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Val, nuzzling his face in the fur at her neck. “I’ll see you soon, Val.”
“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?” Delaney asked. “We’re just having pizza, but you’re both welcome to join us.”
“I’d love to,” I answered without even thinking about it. “I’m heading into the office for the rest of the afternoon, so shoot me a text with what you want, and I’ll pick it up on my way.”
Delaney and Cade both smiled happily.
“I’ve got some stuff to do around the ranch,” Booker said. “But next time?”
Cade was happily chatting away to his mom about what he wanted on his pizza as they both headed down the front porch steps before he called out over his shoulder. “Bye, Trace. Bye, Uncle Booker.”
It hit me right in the chest, but I smiled through it, anyway. Damn. I hadn’t realized that would hurt so much.
“Give him time,” Booker said quietly. “It’s easier to say ‘Uncle’ than it is to say ‘Dad.’”
I nodded sadly because, even though I knew it was the truth, it was still a stark reminder of exactly where I stood in his life.
But then, as Delaney and Cade reached the car, he stopped like he’d remembered something. Quickly spinning on the spot, he darted back up the stairs and threw his arms around me as he collided with me and squeezed.
“Thank you,” Cade whispered as he hugged me tight.
As soon as he loosened his hold, I dropped to my knees and pulled my son back into a hug. “Any time, buddy.”
And then he darted back down the steps to the car, not even realizing that he’d just torn out my heart and taken it with him.
I climbed to my feet as Booker clasped my shoulder in support, and I cleared my throat to stop the happy tears that were threatening to well in my eyes.
Cade waved through the car window as Delaney started up the engine and then pulled away, and I stepped forward onto the steps so he’d see me wave back. I never wanted there to be any doubt in his mind that I cared. I didn’t want him to look back at his childhood with the same regrets that I had about mine. Not when it came to family. Not when it came to me. That kid deserved to grow up with all the love in the world, and I was going to make sure that he had it.