Page 41 of Rancher's Strength

“I was so worried you wouldn’t come home like my mom and dad.” Tears streamed down her face when she looked up at me again, and my heart broke open for her.

“Oh, my girl.” Quickly, I pulled her onto my lap, and she flung her arms around me as I held her tight. “I can’t promise I’ll always come back, that’s not for me to know, but what I can tell you is that I will be fighting with everything I have to get home to you, Sawyer, and Auntie Lexie. I know losing your parents isawful.” How was I supposed to make sure she knew I was here for her no matter what happened? I wanted to tell her I’d always come home, but that wasn’t realistic, so I hoped the words I told her would be enough.

“You don’t know how it feels,” she mumbled into my shoulder.

“Actually, I do sweets, only I lost mine in a very different way.” Talking about my parents wasn’t something I did often or, quite frankly, at all. It was part of my past that I liked to keep in its place, but I wondered if Ruby needed to know I was aware of her feelings.

“You don’t have a mom and dad either?” She sat up, her blue eyes wide and waiting for me to talk.

“My parents did some bad things when I was about Sawyer’s age. They just didn’t come home one day. My older brother tried to pretend everything was okay, but one day, when we went to school, we weren’t allowed to go back home.” My older brother. I hadn’t thought about Luke for years. I wondered where he was and whether it was time to track him down.

“Where did you have to go?” Ruby’s soft voice brought me back to this moment.

“I went to a place called foster care. My brother Luke and sister Natalie were sent to different places than me.” I hated thinking about this, while I was pretty good at pushing it to the back of my mind, there were times of the year when it was impossible to ignore.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I saw them a few times when I was little, but it’s been more years than I can remember since I’ve seen them.” That wasn’t the total truth. I’d tracked Natalie down to Louisiana years ago, but I didn’t have the desire to let her know I was there. She seemed to be doing well and had a good life, so I didn’t want to upend the proverbial apple cart byshowing up unannounced. But that had to be eight years ago now.

“I’m sure glad you and Auntie have Sawyer and me. My life would be over if I lost him too.” Her tiny voice cracked, and I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “So, what happened to your mom and dad?”

“Well, my dad passed away a long time ago. I hadn’t seen him again, but I found out years later.” I didn’t just stumble upon it; I found it when I was combing through information, trying to find any scrap I could hold on to when I was younger.

“Like mine,” she whispered. Not quite like hers. Mine was shanked in a prison brawl and bled out before they could get him to the infirmary, but she didn’t need to know that.

“As far as I know, my mom lives somewhere in Florida with a new family.” I shrugged, and it was as shitty as you might think. Part of me was glad she’d cleaned herself up, but there was still a part of me that was bitter that my siblings and I weren’t good enough to come back for.

“She just forgot about you?” Ruby scrunched up her face, and I could tell behind those eyes was a brain working full force to make sense of this.

“Seems that way.”

“I don’t like your mom,” Ruby said, a frown across her sweet little face. “You’re amazing, and she just forgot you. Well, she can’t have you back, even if she begs. I won’t let her. Sawyer and I belong to you now, so she can stay away; we’re your family.” With a curt nod, she ended the conversation and managed to heal something I’d thought I’d put behind me years ago.

Right here on these steps, I had the same conversation with Lexie’s dad, Aaron, years ago. And Ruby’s words were almost exactly the same as his. “We’re your family now and that’s all there is to it.”

A strange car pulled into the yard. It was flashy and expensive. Both doors opened, and a man and woman got out. The bleached blonde hair I’d know a mile away. “Ruby, go in the house, get Sawyer and Auntie Lexie, and go up to your room. Stay there until I come to get you. Understand?” I said, my voice firm. She nodded quickly before running into the house.

Standing, I walked down the porch steps and met Violet and Desmond Tucker before they had an opportunity to get to the sidewalk.

“What do you want?” I asked roughly.

“Oh, come now, Ryder, we’re just here to offer our congratulations,” Violet said in her fake sing-song voice. She smiled and batted her eyelashes up at him.

“We don’t want your congratulations.” Folding my arms across my chest, I glared at the man standing opposite me.

“Now, Ryder, surely we can be civil. Vi was just being neighborly,” Desmond drawled in his exaggerated Southern accent.

“I know all my neighbors, and you’re not one of them.”

The crunching of the gravel made me turn to see who else had decided today was a good day to drop in for a visit. The silver half-ton belonging to Lexie’s mom turned the corner and came to a stop beside the shiny black car.

“Get the hell off my property, you dirty cunt.” Helen was barely out of the truck before she started yelling. She didn’t bother shutting the truck door, so she flew to my side.

“That’s no way to talk to an old friend,” Violet huffed, placing her hand on her chest in mock embarrassment.

“Don’t see any friends, old or new, here.” Helen was barely over five feet, but right now, I swore she stood as tall as I was. “I think I told you to leave.”

“This isn’t over,” Desmond said as he pointed at me. “How are those kids doing? Their actual grandmother sure misses them.” His smug smile made my blood boil.

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