Coming Home to Texas (18 page)

Chapter Eighteen

E
llie pushed the enter button on her laptop with a flourish. “There,” she pronounced to the room. “The Blue Thorn Fibers online store is officially up and running. Phase one is complete. And three days before my September first deadline—I'm ahead of schedule.”

“Oh, we've got phases and schedules now, do we?” Gunner commented from his seat on the couch.

She turned around in the office chair to face the room. Gunner, a due-any-day-now Brooke and Audie filled the couch, while Gran applauded from a side chair. Nash, too fidgety to sit down, had alternated between pacing near the wall by the windows and leaning against the bookshelves.

“Well, I've still got to pay the bills working at the Austin Restaurateurs Association until the actual shop is up and running,” she answered her brother. “You've never had a retail arm of Blue Thorn. You have no idea how much work running a place like that can be. We definitely need to ramp things up slowly.”

“Bison meat, bison leather goods and bison yarn all in one shop?” Gunner raised an eyebrow. “You're sure this is going to work?”

She'd explained the business plan to Gunner a dozen times now and had begun conversations with their cousin Witt to come on board to run the retail meat business. “Yes, Gunner, it will,” she declared, determined to keep the frustration from her voice. It had taken her all summer to figure out what was next in her life, but now she was jumping into it with both feet—and a smart plan. She refused to be stymied by Gunner's nagging doubts. “The ranch is doing well, but it could still do better. This gives us two additional income streams
and
increased visibility.”

Gran gave Gunner a look. “How many times are you going to make her convince you? We all voted yes. Now let the girl get on with things.”

Ellie looked over to Nash for a show of support, but he seemed to be preoccupied with his smartphone.

Brooke peered at the computer screen. “The website sure is nice looking. I had no idea Robby was so talented.”

Ellie waited for Nash to reply to that, but the man's head was still bent over his phone. She tamped down her annoyance and spoke up herself. “Well, he wasn't that great as a car guy, but once Nash got him on the computer we found out where his real skills lie. He took to website design like a fish to water, didn't he, Nash?”

Nash grunted and nodded, but didn't look up. Something must have been wrong—he'd been so loving and attentive since she'd moved to an apartment halfway between Martins Gap and Austin, spending all his free time on the weekends with her either there or here on the ranch. In the past six months her entire life had righted itself into a splendid new future.
I thought I knew love with Derek, but You
'
ve given me a man who shows me what true love is. Thank You, Lord.

“Are you serious about hiring Marny once the store is open?” Gran asked. “I know you've patched things up between you, but are you sure?”

“We'll need some help, and I want her to have a future here in Martins Gap. Besides, she's one talented knitter—and so fast. I told her she could sell hand-knitted bison socks on commission and you should have seen how her eyes lit up.” It had taken a lot of prayer and communication to get to the heart of Marny's anger and helplessness. Ellie considered her repaired relationship with the girl to be one of the greatest achievements of her reshaped new life. Yes, Marny had hurt her, but they'd moved past it, and now Ellie truly wanted her to succeed. If working in the Blue Thorn Shop once it opened helped that to happen, then Ellie was all for it. “I only wish Mick would come back.” With only a misdemeanor criminal mischief on his record, Mick had enlisted in the military shortly after graduation. “I hope he gets himself straightened out.”

“If he can't do it on his own, the army will likely do it for him,” Gunner remarked. “I think it may have been the best thing for the guy. He may sorely miss his father's inattention by the end of boot camp, but all that supervision should do him a world of good.”

“We'll see.” Ellie stared hard at Nash, his inattention getting under her skin. Launching the online store for Blue Thorn Fibers was a big deal for her—why was he tapping away on his phone?

Her irritation was cut short by a
ding
from the computer. “Look at that! Only up and running for fifteen minutes and already we have our first sale!”

“Hooray for Aunt Ellie!” Audie cheered, running up to throw her arms around Ellie and plant a big sloppy kiss on her aunt's cheek. “What'd they buy? What'd they buy?”

Ellie opened the transaction section of her website software to bring up the order. “Eight skeins of Blue Thorn wool and bison blend. And guess what color, Audie?”

“Russet!” Audie pointed to the screen that showed the small selection of available colors. No one ever doubted the natural color of the bison yarn would get any other name than Russet. The burly calf Audie had named—now a full-grown adult—had become as much a Blue Thorn fixture as his mother, Daisy.

“Oh, look,” Ellie said, scrolling through the rest of the order. “They ordered the men's sweater pattern, too.”

“Where are they from?” Audie asked. “Can you tell?”

Ellie punched the few keys that brought up the customer information, then froze. She spun in the chair, only to find herself staring into the face of her first customer. “You?”

“Why not?” said Nash, who now stood right next to her. “You've never made me anything before.”

Ellie felt her cheeks flush. “You know why.”

Nash got the oddest look on his face as he pulled her up out of the chair. “Well, now you can just make it after.”

“After what?”

“After we get married.” He fished into his pocket and got down on one knee. Ellie felt the room spin, barely hearing Audie's delighted whoops and cheers. “You said it's okay after. I just think of it as a down payment. Well, that, and this.” He produced the most exquisite ring: a round white diamond hugged on either side by swirls of tiny blue sapphires—similar to, but wonderfully different from the family heirloom Brooke wore on her finger. Ellie's heart burst in a million directions as she watched Nash slip the ring on her finger. It was perfect. She loved it. She loved him. She stared at it, then at him, her heart so filled with joy it felt as if she couldn't hope to produce breath or words.

She felt something bump up against her hips. “Aunt Ellie,” Audie whispered loudly. “You're supposed to say yes.”

Nash's hand came up to touch her cheek in the way that always made her knees buckle. “That is sort of what I am hoping for.”

It was as if all the
yeses
in the world fought to get there first—speech felt entirely beyond possible. Instead, she began to laugh and cry and nod furiously all at the same time as she threw her arms around Nash's neck, holding him like the lifeline he'd become.

“Looks like yes to me.” Gran laughed.

Nash kissed her, then said “I love you” softly into her ear, sending tingles zipping out through her fingertips. He kissed her again. “You saved me.”

It was what they had come to say to each other over the summer—a promise, a ritual between them. “You saved me,” she said, marveling at the ring on her finger and the purely perfect state of the world. “My hero.”

“Grow old with me right here in Martins Gap.” His arms slipped around her waist and she forgot anyone else was even in the room. “You can knit me a sweater and bake me biscotti every year until I'm eighty.”

“Every year until you're ninety, Natsuhito,” she corrected. “And maybe a few more years after that.”

“Not-so
what
-o?” Audie balked.

Ellie would have explained, but she was too busy—her future husband was giving her the world's most perfect kiss.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
THE FIREFIGHTER DADDY
by Margaret Daley.

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Dear Reader,

Life loves to throw us a curve, doesn't it? The event we are sure spells disaster can often be the door to something so much better. We may plan one move, only to discover God has something altogether different in mind. The life of faith isn't always a “fun” adventure, but it is always for our good—even when we can't see it.

If this is your first visit to the Blue Thorn Ranch, I invite you to go back and meet Gunner Jr. in the series' previous book,
The Texas Rancher
'
s Return
. You'll also be delighted to know Gunner and Ellie's cousin Witt gets his story next, with the Buckton younger twin siblings, Luke and Tess, to follow after.

As always, I love to hear from you. Email me at
[email protected]
, visit my website at
www.alliepleiter.com
or find me on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Firefighter Daddy

by Margaret Daley

Chapter One

T
he sound of a loud crash from the rear of the shop reverberated through Snip and Cut Hair Salon. Sarah Blackburn held her scissors poised over her customer's white hair for a second then whirled around and looked at her mother in the station next to hers. She was in the middle of shampooing a client. “I'll take care of it, Mom. Mrs. Calhoun, I'll be right back.”

Sarah made a beeline for the small kitchen area, her heart pounding. What had Nana done now? Please, God, let her be okay.

Sarah entered the room and came to a sudden halt. Nana stood in the middle of a puddle of red and brown dyes splattered all over the tiled floor with a large cat racing through the color mixture toward the open bay window. The tomcat, with splashes of red and brown on its white fur, leaped onto the table, jumped to the windowsill and wiggled his big body under the raised screen, disappearing from sight.

“Oh, dear. Sammy didn't even finish his food.” Her forehead knitted, Nana glanced at Sarah. “I need to find him.”

Before her grandmother started for the rear door, Sarah moved into action, cutting off her path. She slung her arm around Nana's thin shoulders and turned her away. “You've got dye on your legs. I need to scrub it off before it turns your skin red and brown.” She sat her grandmother in the chair nearby, grabbed a wet cloth and began scrubbing the dye off her skin.

“Sammy will get hungry if I don't go get him.”

“Nana, the tomcat is long gone. How did you get him inside? He usually eats outside on the back stoop.”

“I left the door open while I fixed his food. He came in.” Nana beamed. “Until lately, Sammy hasn't always come to me.”

“Sammy,” as her grandmother called the white tomcat that had been showing up lately at the shop, was a stray that Nana thought was her pet when she was a little girl.

“Mama, what did you do?” Sarah's mother asked as she charged into the kitchen.

Nana peered at her daughter and pursed her lips. “My job. I was preparing a dye for a customer. One bowl slipped from my hand, and I must have dropped the other. The sound scared Sammy. I've got to find him.”

Sarah's mom sighed, her shoulders drooping forward as she faced Sarah. “Go finish Mrs. Calhoun's cut then style Beatrice's hair for me. I'm taking her home—” she glanced at Nana “—and get her cleaned up. Good thing they're our last clients.”

As her mom took over with Nana, Sarah reentered the front of the small hair salon, plastering a grin on her face, when she didn't feel like smiling. Not when she understood her grandmother's need to look for what she thought was her pet. Three days ago Sarah's dog had disappeared. A lump lodged in her throat at the thought of not seeing Gabe again. Her late husband had given her the black Lab on their second anniversary, and Gabe had helped her get through the deaths of Peter and her unborn child. Many late nights she'd held the Lab and cried over her loss.

“Is everything okay?” Mrs. Calhoun's question drew Sarah from the past, and she mentally shook Peter from her thoughts.

“Nana dropped a bowl of dye. No big deal. Mom is taking care of her.” Sarah shifted toward Mrs. Miller, who was sitting in her mother's booth with wet hair. “I'll be with you soon. Mom had to drive Nana home.”

Beatrice Miller snorted, muttering, “I told your mother Carla needed to be put in a nursing home.”

Sarah took a deep breath and refrained from saying anything to the woman who wasn't that many years away from retirement herself. She hurried to her customer, snatching up her scissors. “I only have to make sure it's even, Mrs. Calhoun, then blow-dry your hair and—”

“Nonsense. It's almost dry, and I love this short cut the way it is. You have more pressing issues to take care of, dear.” The older woman winked at Sarah in the mirror and gave her a huge grin as she turned and pointedly looked at Mrs. Miller.

It was people like Mrs. Calhoun that had made it bearable coming home to Buffalo, Oklahoma, after fleeing five years ago because of the overwhelming memories of what she'd lost, crushing her until she hadn't even wanted to leave her house.

It was the thought of Mrs. Calhoun's smile and wink, which Sarah carried with her through fixing Mrs. Miller's hair and listening to the woman's complaints the whole time she did, that helped. After she left the shop, Sarah cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, locked up then slid behind the steering wheel of the restored yellow MINI Cooper that Peter had given her on their first anniversary.

As she headed to her mom's house, she glimpsed a sign for the highway that led to Tulsa, and the urge to go there swamped her. Only home three months, she felt as though she were experiencing the loss of Peter all over again everywhere she went in Buffalo. She hadn't even been able to drive by the house they had rented and had been thankful it wasn't near any of the usual places she frequented.

She approached the intersection where an old man had run a stop sign and changed her life forever. Forcing herself to continue, since it was the fastest way home, she crept toward it, her hands shaking. Usually she avoided it. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and kept going at ten miles under the speed limit.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a poster on a telephone pole of a black Lab. She pulled over to the curb, fortified herself with a deep breath, climbed from her car and then jogged over to the picture to read it.

One look at the black Lab on the sign and she knew it was Gabe. Her spirits soared at the prospects of getting her dog back. She snatched the poster from the pole, hurried back to her car and drove through the intersection with her mind focused on seeing Gabe again.

* * *

When Liam McGregory entered the kitchen to fix the dish he was going to take to his second meeting with the Single Dads' Club, he came to an abrupt halt and scanned the mess. What happened? After putting away the groceries, he'd only left to wash up and check the mail. No more than ten minutes.

His seven-year-old niece, Madison, stood on a stool with a mixing bowl in front of her, dumping something that looked like sugar into it. Obviously she'd already put flour in, because the counter was covered in a dusting of white powder. Madison stirred whatever was in the dish while looking at a book next to her. “Milk is next.”

On a chair pulled over from the table, Katie put a half-gallon milk carton down on the counter after pouring some into a glass and then passed it to her older sister. “Here.” In the middle of the transfer, hands wobbled and the white liquid splashed all over the marbled-granite top, dribbling its way through the flour.

“I'm not gonna let you help me next time.” Madison dumped what was left into the bowl, grabbed the carton and poured more straight into the concoction she was making. “You spilled most of it.”

“You did, not me.” Katie's expression morphed into her pouting one, her baby blue eyes narrowing. She snatched the milk from her older sister so hard more went flying out of the half-gallon container and splattered everywhere.

“Madison and Katherine McGregory, what are you two doing?”

Both girls suddenly twisted toward Liam, Madison's ponytail whipping around so fast it hit Katie in the cheek. Two sets of blue eyes, round as saucers, fixed on Liam.

Madison recovered quicker than her younger sister. “We're helping you, Uncle Liam. Aunt Betty said you've been working hard and we need to pitch in more.” Her set jaw challenged him to disagree.

He inhaled a calming breath and moved toward his nieces, who he'd adopted when his younger brother died six months ago. “How you two can help me is to make sure the black Lab has water in his bowl out back.”

The girls hopped down from their chairs at the counter and raced for the door to the backyard. Katie tried to go first through the entrance, but Madison quickly maneuvered herself into the lead. Only eighteen months separated them in age, but Madison was determined to make sure her younger sister remembered she was the oldest.

Before Liam began cleaning up, he needed to check that they weren't creating another mess outside, or they might never make the meeting for single fathers and their children started by the church his brother and nieces attended. He walked to the large window in the breakfast nook that afforded him a good view of his fenced-in yard. The black Lab came up to Madison and Katie, his tail wagging. His nieces lavished attention on the lost dog with no tags they'd found three days ago at the nearby park.

As far as his nieces were concerned, Buddy, their name for the dog, was theirs to keep. Reluctantly they'd agreed to help Liam put up posters about the lost Lab before he'd gone on his twenty-four-hour shift at the fire station yesterday morning. Liam had tried to explain to them that Buddy's owner was probably looking for him.

Buffalo had more than twenty thousand people but with a small-town feel to it. Residents looked out for each other. However, Madison and Katie were sure they were going to get to keep Buddy. Just another problem in the myriad issues he had been dealing with the past six months.

As Madison took the water bowl over to the outside faucet and filled it, Liam sighed and headed for the mess that needed to be cleaned up before he started dinner. How could two little girls manage to cover the whole counter on one side of a big kitchen with various ingredients in such a short time?

When his brother had died in that work-site accident, Liam's life had changed completely. Sure, he was still a firefighter. But everything else was different—new town, new family, new friends, new problems. When Gareth had asked him to be Madison and Katie's guardian if anything happened to him, he'd readily agreed, never thinking anything would.

Liam grabbed a wet washcloth and began wiping up the sugar-flour-milk mixture. When he peeked into the bowl, on closer inspection, he found a partially cracked egg in the middle of the concoction. He took the bowl to the sink and dumped it in the side with the garbage disposal.

Chimes rang in the air. The doorbell. Liam quickly checked on Madison and Katie then headed for the entry hall. When he opened the door, a petite woman with long blond hair framing an attractive face stood on the porch with a poster about the lost dog in her hand.

“Can I help you?” he asked, drawn to her dark brown eyes with their long, black lashes.

She smiled, and his attention zeroed in on her mouth and a dimple near its left side. “I hope so. I saw this on my way home from work, and I'm sure this is my dog. He's been missing for three days.”

“Come in. I think I can help you. I'm Liam McGregory.” He pushed the screen door open, and she stepped inside.

“I'm Sarah Blackburn.”

She held out her hand, and Liam shook it. Her hair—a cascade of curls—instantly reminded him of his ex-wife. He stepped back, thankful she looked nothing like Terri.

He'd started to tell the woman about the dog they'd found, when the sound of the back door opening followed by running feet and a couple of deep barks announced his nieces as well as the black Lab heading this way.

Liam turned toward the hallway that led to the back of the house. The dog appeared and made a beeline straight for the woman next to him.

The black Lab lunged for her, propped his front paws on her shoulders and licked her. She had the biggest grin on her face.

“I thought I lost you.” Sarah Blackburn hugged the Lab.

Madison halted by the entrance to the hallway. “Uncle Liam, we didn't mean to let him inside. He barged past Katie before we could catch him.”

“I tried. Buddy is super fast.” Katie, followed by Madison, moved to Liam.

He glanced at his nieces, who flanked him, staring at the woman hugging the dog. Tiny lines grooved their foreheads as they assessed what was going on. “I'm assuming from your welcome, he's your dog,” he said, bracing himself for a protest from Madison and Katie.

The lady peered at him and nodded. “I didn't think I was going to find him. The few times he's gotten out of the backyard, he's always been on the porch when I came home from work.”

Liam braved a glance toward his nieces. Katie's mouth hung open, while Madison's eyes glistened. “Girls, this is Ms. Blackburn, and the dog we found is...” He peered back at the woman.

“His name is Gabe. I live down the street on the next block,” she said, gesturing in that direction. Then with her hand stroking the Lab, she calmed him and knelt next to him so she was more on the level with his nieces. “Have you two been taking care of him for me?”

Katie crossed her arms over her chest.

Liam prepared for her outburst, but instead Madison stepped forward and patted the Lab on the head. “Yes, we have. Are you sure he's your dog?”

“Here, let me show you.” Sarah walked a few paces away and swung around to face Madison next to the dog. “Gabe, come.”

The Lab walked to her.

“Sit,” she said, and when he did, she ran him through some commands, which he performed.

“He knows tricks. We didn't know that.” Madison crossed to them. “Can I try one?”

“Sure.”

“Bud—Gabe, shake my hand.” The dog held his paw up, and Madison shook it, grinning from ear to ear. “Cool.”

“His name is
Buddy
.” Katie stamped her foot, her lower lip sticking out.

Liam moved to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Honey, we don't want to confuse Gabe with another name.”

“Buddy is friendly with everyone. We don't know for sure you're his owner.”

“Katie, you knew this was a possibility. I talked to you about it.” When he'd trained in Dallas to be a firefighter, he'd never received a course in dealing with a six-year-old losing something she had quickly bonded with, especially on top of losing her father six months ago.

“I tell you what. You all can walk with me to my house, and I'll show you a photo of Gabe and me. Will that prove to you I'm his owner?” Sarah asked in a calm, patient voice, as though she knew exactly what Katie was going through.