“Can we? Can we?” Lucas bounced in his seat as the afternoon meal arrived. “P’ease!”
Rainy’s eyes flicked to Nathan, her expression filled with doubt. “Maybe for a short ride,” she agreed. “But not long, you know you go to bed at eight o’clock.”
“Okay,” the boy sagged until Ann reached over and plopped a scoop of sweet potato casserole on his plate.
“Where will you go?” Owen asked as he filled his plate with fried chicken.
“There’s a low rise along the creek that gives a lovely view of the sunset,” Nathan looked up meeting the older man’s eyes as he tried to make Owen understand he would look out for both Rainy and Lucas on the ride.
“Seems silly going out there tonight. You could always just join a regular ride.” Dana Smythe glared at Nathan as Owen passed the salad.
“Mom, you know those rides are too long for Lucas.” Rainy looked at her mother, then back to Nathan. “How long does it take?”
“Only about half an hour. I promise it won’t be too much for Lucas.”
“I can ride.” The boy glared at Nathan again. “Poppa took me to the ponies today. I’m big.”
“You are big,” Nathan agreed with a smile, “but it gets dark fast out here on the prairie, and we have to take good care of the horses. That’s what buckaroos like you do.”
The chatter over the meal was stilted as the family talked of their holiday, plans for their return home, and the near future. Nathan listened, trying to absorb details of a life he had missed. Rainy had finished her online degree in social services and would be looking for work when they returned home.
Nathan looked down at Lucas who was busy eating his dinner. What would the boy do when his mother went to work? Would he stay with his grandparents? Would Rainy put him in daycare? He wanted to know the answers to so many questions and yet, he had no right to ask. He was only a ‘friend’.
As dinner finished, Rainy turned her attention back to Nathan. “I’ll grab a jacket and be right back.” She looked down at her son, and then met Nathan’s eyes. “Lucas you stay here with Mr. Nathan, and I’ll be right back. Be good.”
“Can I have a cookie?” Lucas asked, his eyes pleading.
“Just one.” Again she looked up at Nathan who nodded. “Mom, Dad, what will you do this evening?”
Together the senior Smythes stood from the table, following Rainy toward the stairs. “I think I’d like to stroll by the stream,” Owen mused. “What do you say, Dana?”
“Anne?” Rainy looked back over her shoulder gesturing for Anne to follow.
“I’m watching you,” Anne hissed in Nathan’s ear climbing from the table and shooting him a glare then pointing between her eyes and him. “Are you sure you should leave him alone with Lucas?” she asked falling into step with Rainy.
“I know it’s stupid,” Rainy said as they strode down the hall and up the stairs where a huge quilted tree covered the whole wall, “but I think Nathan truly is sorry, and that he has changed.”
“Yeah, like the leopard changes his spots,” Anne grumbled.
“Anne, we have both made mistakes. I was foolish to believe that I would find true love in high school. I gave my heart and soul to a man I thought would love me forever. That didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean I have to live bitter and angry forever. I’m going to give Nathan a chance to prove that he should have a place in Lucas’s life, at least until he proves to me he doesn’t deserve it. Besides, we’re only here in Wyoming for a few more days then we go home. What can happen?”
Grabbing a jacket from her room Rainy hurried back to the dining room to see Nathan helping Lucas get a cookie from one of the big jars. Easing back into the shadows she watched the man she had once loved with her son.
“You like cookies?” Nathan asked, squatting on his heels to meet the boy’s gaze.
“Uh-huh!” Lucas grinned taking a bite of the peanut butter cookie. “Mimi makes them sometimes.”
A smile flickered across Nathan’s handsome face and Rainy felt her heart soften. “What’ s your favorite?”
“Choc-it-chip. Do you have a horsey of your own?”
“No,” Nathan shook his head. “I just work here on the ranch until I get a new job.”
“Like my mommy?” Lucas asked. “Mommy worked at a store, but now she is getting a new job if she can find one.”
“Just like that. Your mom is a special person,” Nathan grinned. “She loves you very much.”
“Does your mommy love you?”
Nathan’s heart sagged. “I don’t have a mother, but I have a wonderful grandmother, like your Mimi.”
“I don’t have a dad,” Lucas said, “so we’re the same. Kadence has a daddy, he’s really big.”
Nathan swallowed the lump in his throat. Even at this young age, Lucas realized that he had been missing something important in his life. Thinking back to his past, being raised by his maternal grandparents, he knew the pain of being different, and yet when the time had come, he had turned his back on his own child.
“Ready!” Rainy flounced into the room a jacket over her shoulders. She had changed into jeans and a t-shirt, her usual fare even back in high school, but the smile she wore was stiff and tight.
“Let’s go,” Nathan said standing, surprised when Lucas took his hand.
“Do we get to go into the barn?” Rainy’s question was light.
“Normally you wouldn’t get to, but since you’re with me, it should be alright. Lucas, you just watch you don’t get stepped on,” he added looking down at the boy who was finishing his cookie.
“I know.” Lucas looked up with a grin. “Mr. Kade taught me when I was with Kadence.”
“You all set?” Nathan asked a short fifteen minutes later as he checked Rainy’s stirrups. “Lucas can ride right up in front of you where
