Page 3 of The Cowboy Comes Home

“You can show your face? Won’t you get mobbed by fans?”

“Only if they want to punch me out for killing the show,” Jackson said, rather sourly. Then, with an audible exhalation, he added, “And I don’t blame them, either.”

And that, Tucker thought, was why Jackson Thorpe was the heart and soul ofStonewall.

Chapter Two

Emily Stratton bentto stroke Lobo’s head. The black German shepherd’s fur was soft, and he leaned into her touch. That small sign that the bond between them was strong made her smile. He had come so far since he’d first landed with Chance Rafferty out at his military dog rescue,They Also Serve.

It had been Chief Highwater who had first suggested they take him on. Chance had taken in the dog who had landed on the hopeless list, the ones deemed unsuitable or unsafe for a return to civilian life. She didn’t know exactly what Chance’s success rate was with these dogs the military he’d served in for years had written off, but she knew it was pretty high.

“Each dog is an individual,” he’d told her in the beginning. “And if you handle them that way, most of them will respond. It might involve giving them a place to hide when they’re edgy, or running them until they’re too tired to care, but there’s almost always a way.”

Emily admired the man tremendously, especially knowing that he’d founded the nonprofit in honor of his own MWD who hadn’t come home. He’d had a powerful bond with the dog and had planned to adopt him when the animal was retired. But shortly after Chance had left the service, the dog had died overseas saving his new handler’s life.

The chief had known Emily had helped promote a couple of fundraisers Chance’s wife, Ariel, had set up, so he’d come to her with the idea of taking on a dog at the department. They then talked to Chance, who had agreed to work with them on it. It had taken a while to find a suitable animal, but when Lobo had arrived, Chance had contacted them saying he had a possible. So she and the chief had gone out to the Rafferty ranch, and she had promptly fallen in love.

And thankfully, it appeared to go both ways.

“Well, well,” Chance had said with a grin that sometimes still startled people who had known the taciturn, withdrawn man he’d been before Ariel had come along. “He’s a lady’s man. Never would have guessed.”

They had worked together with the dog for several months before Chance had pronounced him civilized and ready to go. And Emily’s life had changed for the better, the dog filling a gap she hadn’t even realized was there.

Now she stroked Lobo’s head once more as they stood a block away, watching the kids leaving the elementary school. There had been a couple of recent transplants from Austin who had had to make up some classes in summer school. They had been causing a bit of trouble, and bullying the younger kids. Lobo didn’t like bullies, and neither did she. So she had made it a habit to be in the area when the summer session let out.

She spotted another recent transplant—although not one of the troublemakers—coming out of the main building. This one made her smile. It made everybody in Last Stand smile to see the son of their most famous new resident. Famous in Hollywood terms anyway. But they didn’t hold that against Jackson Thorpe, not as hard as he’d worked to become part of Last Stand, never using his status, in fact mostly ignoring it.

And she especially liked the thing with the hat. That he’d refused to wear a cowboy hat when he’d first arrived, because he didn’t feel like playing a cowboy on TV made him one. That had endeared him to all the Last Stand residents who felt the same way. So much that when he’d openedThorpe’s Therapy Horses, to do for other bereaved kids what learning to ride had done for his own son, there had been a formal presentation of one of Yippee Ki Yay’s best sellers, along with the recognition that he’d now earned it.

She’d been a little surprised that the boy wasn’t going to the private school on Hillbend, where his aunt worked, but maybe they’d thought it would be a problem, him having family on staff. She kind of admired that. And Jackson seemed so darned…normal, Emily guessed it made sense he’d want his son raised as normally as possible.

She went suddenly on alert when two of the troublemakers she watched for appeared on the front steps. They walked over to where young Jeremy Thorpe was waiting, looking around as if searching for someone. Whoever was going to pick him up, she guessed, since he wasn’t over in the line for the bus.

She held her place, watching. When the two older boys, who were a good foot taller than Jeremy, split and stood on each side of him, her radar went off. She had to weigh the situation quickly. Sometimes with kids, intervening directly only made things worse for the victim afterward. Especially if he was already being noticed for the simple fact of who his father was. She’d been through this once with Elena’s son, Marcos, who, because his brain worked a little differently, had taken a lot of heat from the same type of kid as these two.

Of course now that didn’t happen, in part because his mother was Elena Highwater now, having married Detective Sean Highwater, and because Sean had spent a lot of time teaching little Marcos—who wasn’t so little anymore—how to fight back.

When the biggest of the two bigger boys leaned over and said something to Jeremy that made him try to step away, she had to move. She decided quickly, cuing Lobo to heel. The dog immediately fell into place beside her. Only a few steps after they’d begun to move the same boy who had threatened Jeremy—and she knew that’s what it was, by the look on the younger boy’s face—noticed them coming. Once she was sure of that, she whispered another command to Lobo, and the big dog let out a trumpeting bark.

Both older kids backed away as if they’d been shoved.

She waved and gave a casual smile, as if she and the big black shepherd were just out for a stroll. “Afternoon, boys,” she called out, acting as if they were going to keep walking. And in fact she did, just far enough to see the two older ones scamper off around the corner of the main school building. Once they were out of sight, she turned back.

Jeremy Thorpe was still on the steps, staring at her. She’d first met him at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the therapy barn. The boy had been so excited it had been infectious. And happy, as she gathered he hadn’t been in a long time, ever since his mother had been tragically killed in that accident back in L.A.

She noticed he felt no need to dodge away as they approached. In fact, he seemed fascinated, as many kids were, with Lobo.

“You okay, Jeremy?”

He nodded, giving her a glance before looking back at the dog. She gave the dog the signal to sit, and relax. The big black dog did so immediately.

“This is Lobo,” she said. “Lobo, this is Jeremy. He’s a good guy.”

The dog lifted a paw out to the boy, who immediately took it to shake, grinning now. “He makes me think of Mr. Chance’s dogs,” Jeremy said.

“Well, that’s because he was one,” she said.

The boy’s eyes widened. “So was my dog. Maverick. Only he’s gold.”

---