Mossy Glenn Ranch 3 -Saddles and Memories (18 page)

They ate quickly and just as they stood to leave, Salt’s phone went off with the chime for Andy’s ringtone.

Rocky made shooing gestures with her hands. “I’ve got the bill this time. It’ll give me a chance to talk to Jen, hopefully. You buy the next one.”

Salt answered the phone as he made his way out of the diner. “Hey, what’s up? Anything new?” He’d promised to wait, and he would, but that didn’t mean he didn’t wish for Andy to get Ty and come back to him. That wasn’t even possible, considering Andy’s job, but they’d figure something out.

“Not much. I hired a private detective recommended to me by your boss, Will. Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just glad he could help, or knew someone else who could help.” Salt had the best bosses. “And the lawyer?”

“I told you I met your bosses’ employers when I was in Texas?” Andy asked.

Salt thought back. “No, I don’t think you did. Probably you were going to share that on our weekend.”

“I think so. They’re good people, too. Anyway, one of them contacted a guy they know who used to be a lawyer here in Montana. A James Stratton. Him and his husband actually flew out here to meet with me. Stratton seems kind of skittish, but he’s smart, and he’s angry on mine and Ty’s behalf. I think he can do anything he tells me he can.”

Salt stepped outside and into a shady spot against the front of the diner. “What’s he told you he can do so far?”

“That Ty is old enough to choose where he wants to live, and that he’s going to go after Brandt for psychological abuse and neglect at the very least, if Ty wants to live with me and Brandt fights us.” Andy sighed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but Brandt is… He’s a fucking mess. I don’t think even dropping him on his head as a baby could have made him like this.”

“Was he really dropped?”

Andy chuckled. “No, but maybe if he had been, he’d be nicer.”

“Maybe,” Salt agreed. “No news on Ty?”

“The PI is talking to his friends, but it’s hard since Ty didn’t have a cell phone or access to the Internet at home. Welsh, that’s the PI, she seems to think that Ty would be easily traced if he’d had either of those things. Last I heard, she’s trying to get into the Internet files of the one place he did have access.”

Salt felt his eyebrows arch up almost to his hairline. “You mean—” He bit off the rest of that. If the PI was breaking into the school’s records—the only place Salt could think of where Ty would have had access, except maybe at friends’ houses—then he didn’t want to know.

“Yeah, I didn’t ask, either. I have to believe he’s okay, Salt. I have to.”

“He is.” Salt believed that. He thought Ty was hurting from his daddy’s death and, though he wouldn’t say so to Andy, from Andy’s handing him over so easily, not to mention Brandt’s nasty everything. “He’s gonna be fine.”

Rocky came out the door, smiling fit to be tied. She waved at him then pointed to the feed store.

“Go on,” he told her. “I’ll walk down there.”

“You and Rocky in town?” Andy asked him.

“Yeah, feed run. Seems our organic food for the horses has arrived.”

“Good. Hey, someone’s at the door. I better go.”

Salt could hear the knocking. “Yeah, you do what you gotta do. I’ll talk to you tonight.” Maybe some phone sex would make them both feel a little better. If Salt could keep from laughing his ass off when he tried to talk dirty.

Salt sauntered down the sidewalk, thinking about everything—him, Andy, Ty, Salt’s job—when his phone rang again. He answered it immediately. “Andy, everything okay?”

“No. Yes.” Andy sobbed and Salt feared the worst, until he remembered the Yes part of that answer.

And the faint, crackly voice of a teenage boy came over the line. “Ty?”

“He’s here, Salt. He’s here. I just… He’s talking to his friend, who brought him over. He’s fine. I need to call my lawyer. See who he wants me to call after that.”

“If there’s anything I can do, sugar, you let me know. I can be on your doorstep in three hours.” Salt would do it, too. He’d only got one day of the previous weekend off. His bosses would shove him down the road if they knew he wanted to go to Andy.

“I might take you up on that. God, it’d be so good to hold you. Oh! I have to go.” Andy sounded happy and scared, and it killed Salt that he couldn’t be there with him.

“I love you,” he said, the words flowing smooth and sweet, like honey off his tongue.

“Damn it, cowboy, you know I love you too.” Andy sniffled and Salt had to rub at his chest. “I’ll call you later.”

“When you can.” Salt disconnected the call. He figured Andy might be busier than he expected to be later.

* * * *

Andy couldn’t stop staring at Ty. He’d grown a lot since Andy had last seen him. Ty had to be almost six feet tall now, and he was thin in that gangly teenage boy way. At least, Ty hoped that was all it was.

“I’d like to talk to you,” Ty said, turning from his friend, a boy who didn’t look to be much older than him. Ty seemed determined and not like the happy, carefree child he’d been.

No surprise there. I practically handed him to the devil.
“Okay. I need to call my lawyer—”

“No,” Ty barked out. “No. I’ll leave if you call anyone!”

Andy held up his hands in supplication. “All right. I won’t—yet, but I’m not going to let you bully me any more than I’ll let anyone else do so.” He’d barely stopped himself from naming Brandt, but Stratton had told him bad-mouthing anyone around Ty could be cause for whoever was doing it to lose visitation or custody rights.

Andy hadn’t been certain he’d get to see Ty again. He wasn’t going to blow it now. “Can I… Can I hug you? Please? I’ve been so worried.”

Ty tipped his chin up. “Why? You didn’t seem to care about me once Dad died.”

“That’s not true,” Andy said, aching to hold his nephew. “I never stopped loving you. You are like a son to me. I helped raise you—”

Ty sneered, looking so much like Brandt that Andy was shocked, but Brandt and Des had shared more than a passing resemblance. “And sent me to live with Brandt. You didn’t want to keep me.”

“I did too,” Andy argued. He couldn’t keep the tears from coming. “I did, but it was pointed out to me that I couldn’t offer you a family—”

“You
were
my family!” Ty yelled, stomping one foot. “You were, and you left me!”

Andy had no comeback for that. It was the truth. He sank down onto the couch. “I did. I did because I thought it was best for you. I’m just a guy who never could settle down with a boyfriend. I never even had a boyfriend except for a few weeks in college. And now.”

“So it was just me you didn’t want. Was I gonna be in the way of all your screwing around?” The bitterness in Ty’s voice was too much.

Andy swiped at the tears streaming down his cheeks. “Stop it. You aren’t listening to me, and I need you to.”

“Why should I?” Ty said with all the petulance of a fourteen-year-old.

“You’re here, aren’t you?” Andy gestured to the room. “Don’t you want to talk about why that is?”

Ty bit his lip and glanced at his friend, who shrugged. Then he faced Andy again. “I can’t believe you sent me to live with Brandt and Mary.”

Andy didn’t see a way around the whole truth, but he would try not to bash his brother and sister-in-law. “You remember how Mary took you into the other room after your dad passed away?”

Ty nodded, his eyes glistening.

“Brandt started telling me how you’d be better off with them. They had a house, with a yard, pets, kids, and I had nothing. Just me, and this place.” Andy held up a hand when Ty looked like he was about to speak. “Please. Let me finish. Mary came back in the room without you. She told me you wanted to go home with them. The way she said it, I took it to mean to stay. I thought maybe you were mad at me because your dad died and I didn’t.”

“That’s just stupid,” Ty muttered.

Andy wasn’t sure about that, but he let it go. “I didn’t know.”

Ty crossed his arms over his chest. He glared at Andy. “I didn’t want to go with them at all. Mary told me you said I had to. Then after the funeral, they told me you wanted to be able to go out and do whatever, that you didn’t want to raise a kid. I didn’t understand why you hated me all of the sudden.”

“I didn’t,” Andy assured him. “I told you, that day I waited for you outside your school.”

“You did, but I’d had months of Brandt and Mary telling me how you were going out of town with one guy or another, and were too busy to talk to me on the phone or come by.”

Andy’s head almost exploded off his neck, just about popped right off. “That’s all lies! I started making sales calls, and maybe sometimes when I was doing that, at night I might have, uh, went out to a club or two. That’s not the same thing. I was
working
, trying to make this company something, for you.”

Ty did cry then, quietly, as tears spilled onto his cheeks. “I’d rather have had you. I lost my home, my dad, my uncle—everything.”

“I’m so sorry.” Andy hadn’t ever hurt so bad inside, not since losing Des. Maybe not even then. He’d had time to prepare for that. “I’m sorry. I was a fool. I was upset. I loved Des, you know that. I love you. Des dying, it ripped me up inside, and I agreed to things I should have thought of and talked to you about.”

“They played you both,” said Ty’s friend. “Though you’re the adult, dude. Not impressed with your brains.”

“I’m not either,” Andy told him. “Ty.” He waited for Ty to look at him. “I need to know, did Brandt or Mary ever hurt you? Physically or emotionally?”

“Every time they told me you had forgotten about me,” Ty said in a cracking voice. “Every time they told me you didn’t want me. But not physically, no. They fed me, kept me clothed, all that, but there wasn’t any hugging not long after I moved in there. No teasing, no laughing. I was there, like some prize they didn’t want. Finally figured out they just wanted the shares to the company, the ones in my name. That’s when I left.”

“You heard them say that?” Andy enquired, sitting up a little straighter.

Ty bobbed his head as he twined his fingers together. “Yeah. They knew I could hear them, too, I think. I was in the kitchen and they were in the study across the hall. Doors were open. Maybe they thought I had my mp3 player going. Whatever, they just wanted me for those shares.” Ty rubbed his eyes and sniffled. “And now I think maybe to hurt you.”

“They hurt us both, but I never should have let it happen.” Andy wanted to stand up, to reach for Ty and hold him. He wanted to make everything as right in Ty’s world as he possibly could. “I should have been smarter, and fought for you. I should have seen past my grief and put you first. That I didn’t, well, it sure makes it clear to me what kind of an asshole I was, but I’m not that guy anymore.”

“You weren’t ever an asshole,” Ty told him. “You were maybe stupid for not seeing how much I needed you. Stupid for thinking I’d rather be with Brandt and Mary. Stupid for letting it go on so long—”

Andy refused to rise to the bait. Ty was right, anyway.

“But if you regret it, then fix it.” Ty took a paper out of his shirt pocket. “Here’s a number where you can reach me. It’s a prepaid cell phone, and you’re the only one who has the number.” And with that, Ty turned and bounded for the door.

“Ty, wait!” Andy sprang up from the couch, but with the coffee table in the way, he couldn’t catch Ty or his friend. Andy ran down the stairs after them, but the boys were gone by the time he hit the first floor. Panting, winded and miserable, he realised he still had the number in his hand.

Andy went to the elevators to get back to his place. The door was standing open, but he wasn’t concerned that anyone would have intruded. He shut the door behind him but didn’t lock it, just in case Ty wanted to come back.

“I should have given him Destry’s keys.” Andy popped himself on the forehead. “Damn it!”

He ran to the nearest window and pulled the blinds aside. Why hadn’t he thought to see if the boys were in sight that way? They weren’t, and he gave a disgruntled sigh as he let the blinds fall back in place.

Andy closed his eyes and pictured Ty. The boy had been hurting, so bad, and Andy needed to decide if he, as Ty’s uncle, should even try to gain custody of Ty. After all, it was his fault Ty had ended up living with Brandt. If he’d just not had his head up his ass, if he’d seen through Brandt’s manipulations— If he’d just talked to Ty in the first place.

He hadn’t, he hadn’t and all the self-castigation in the world wouldn’t change that fact. Was he the right person to raise Ty? And what about Salt?

Andy sat back down on the couch and rested his head in his hands. There were so many decisions to make. Before he’d seen Ty today, he’d thought he was definitely the best person for Ty to live with, but knowing the pain he’d caused his nephew, Andy didn’t see how Ty could ever forgive him.

Brandt wasn’t an option, either.

Salt… Andy had to smile, thinking about the cowboy and Ty. He could just picture Salt teaching Ty the cowboy way. Something told Andy that Salt would make a great parent, or father figure. Ty would surely find peace of a sorts with someone like Salt guiding him.

Would Salt even want to raise a kid? Granted, Ty was fourteen, so legally there weren’t many years’ worth of raising left. Still, taking in a teenage boy, one who was no kin to him? Andy wondered what was wrong with him, thinking that way. He wasn’t going to pawn Ty off on Salt!

Then the thought occurred to him. He didn’t want Salt to raise Ty, he wanted Salt to help
him
bring Ty up to be the man he should be.

With a sudden clarity, he knew he wanted it all. The house, a dog or two, Ty and Salt. Maybe even a horse or three, depending on the size of their property.

Andy wanted that more than he wanted his company to succeed.

“It’s not my company anymore,” he reminded himself. He wouldn’t be using Ty for his shares, either, which meant the majority of the company wasn’t his. That was okay. Andy had always intended to sign his over to Ty once the boy was mature enough to handle the company.

Yet for all he knew, Ty might not want the company. Hadn’t Ty just been yelling at him that he wanted his family? Or he had, back when Andy had acted like family.