Page 4 of Stolen Hearts

Managing. It wasn’t healing. It wasn’t whole. But it was something. A step. She’d take it.

“What did you work on this morning?” Her question got him talking about things she’d heard plenty of times before—mucking out stalls, feeding cattle and finally, inspecting ditches that carried runoff water from the mountain to ensure the fields weren’t flooded.

Navy gave a contented sigh, and Kyle chuckled. “I think she’s out.”

“Of course she is. I swear you’ve got magic hands.”

Suddenly, a loud, metallicclangrattled the window. Rhae froze, her gaze shooting to her daughter sleeping in the big Marine’s lap, then darted to Kyle’s face.

He was staring into space, expression harder than it had been when looking down at the baby.

Deep down, Rhae knew Kyle would never harm her child, but the first few months on the ranch, she had concerns about the men around Navy. Soon, she realized her fears were unfounded. Not one of the men in the program would harm a fine brown hair on Navy’s head.

The farm equipment outside clanked again. Rhae picked up her notepad and pen and wrote some notes about Kyle’s behavior to add to his file. The man had heavy trauma and an official diagnosis of PTSD. Loud noises were triggers, but he was far more relaxed than she’d ever seen him after a noise set him on edge.

He gently ran his fingers over Navy’s back. “You know, I’m an uncle.”

She tilted her head. “You never told me that.”

He nodded. “I missed out on this stage. By the time I got off the street and…reconnected with my family… Well, when you can’t even play with your nephew, then it’s time to admit you may need some extra support.”

“It took a lot of strength to reach out for that support. You should be proud that you took that step.”

“I tried the VA first.”

Kyle’s injuries weren’t visible. He had all his limbs, but he was still broken in ways that she could help with.

“They gave me drugs,” he went on. “I took them for a while before I realized I didn’t want to walk around in a haze. The Black Heart is a much better place for me.” He suddenly met her gaze directly, something he didn’t always do or hold it for very long. His glance drifted back down to Navy in his lap, her lips pursed around the bottle nipple, giving an occasional suck in her sleep.

“And I get to hang out with two pretty ladies. The best medicine ever.”

Navy’s body went totally slack in sleep. Kyle’s lips quirked at one corner. “My work here is done.”

Rhae knew the drill. She glided to her feet and moved over to take the baby from the vet. She offered him a kind smile of gratitude for putting her child down for her nap so easily.

As soon as she scooped the baby out of his arms, he stood, tugging the brim of the cowboy hat he wore. “I’ll be back tomorrow, Miss Rhae.”

She faced him, the baby curled up in her arms. “We’ll be here.”

His boot steps faded down the hall. When she eased Navy into her playpen for her nap, she heard a new step at the door. Straightening, she saw a woman standing there.

The tall woman could be a model for her beauty and poise. And the wide smile on her face was so genuine that Rhae couldn’t help but smile in return.

Willow Malone co-owned and ran the Black Heart Ranch with her brothers. Over the past months since Rhae came to work on the ranch, she’d come to think of Willow as a friend.

She paused in the doorway and looked down at her dusty boots. “I don’t want to track in any hay. We just finished loading the truck.”

“I saw.”

She glanced at the baby asleep in the playpen. “I thought you might like some lunch.”

Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food. She’d gotten a late start this morning and didn’t get a chance to grab breakfast from the dining hall.

“I’d love some lunch. Let me just grab the baby monitor.” She walked quietly to her desk and switched on the monitor that would broadcast every noise the baby made while she stepped out for a few minutes.

They each filled trays with soup and sandwiches. Willow picked up a dish of homemade chocolate pudding. “You need to try this. It’s Faye’s recipe.”

Faye was a fixture around the ranch. She seemed like she wasn’t quite an employee, not quite family. While Rhae wasn’t sure of what to make of her, she knew one thing—every time she heard the words “Faye’s recipe,” she knew it was food she couldn’t turn down. But her hips were warning her to step away from the pudding.

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