Long Way Home

As those words left his mouth, he knew why it was that he’d bought the mare and why he was hanging on to her so fiercely.

It wasn’t that he wanted to keep Jo Lena hanging around him from now on, begging to buy her.

Annie was nine years old and she’d never had a foal. She was possibly a great mare who’d never been taken to her full potential. She’d never even competed in a big cutting futurity. He could train her for that and he could see what he could do with her first foal.

She might prove to be the nucleus of a broodmare band he could build up—one that would be the best in the industry, bar none. He had a lot of winnings in the bank that he’d never had time to spend.

Yes, the reason he had bought the mare and the real reason he had come home was the same: he needed to prove himself where somebody who mattered could see it.

That realization was all Monte could think about after breakfast, when Bobbie Ann shooed her three sons out onto the back porch and firmly shut the kitchen door behind them. He did care what his brothers thought of him, much as he hated to admit he did.

And his sisters. And his mother. And Jo Lena.

He cared what all of them thought, even though he’d give anything if he didn’t.

“Let’s go over to the barn,” Clint said. “Show Monte some winning horses.”

“Good thing you didn’t say winning bulls,” Jackson said, but his tone was light enough that Monte knew he was teasing, not taunting, him.

“Yeah,” Monte drawled. “I’ve seen enough winning bulls to last me for a while.”

“When did the doctor say you could ride again?”

That was Clint. Always wanting to plan ahead, needing to get everything under control.

“That depends,” Monte said evasively, “on a lot of things.”

They walked toward the barn with him in the middle, carefully keeping to his slow pace, as if they aimed to keep him under control. Of course, Jackson couldn’t walk much faster than him.

Which certainly wasn’t fast enough to outrun the other subject on his mind.

“Say,” Monte said casually, “who did Jo Lena marry, anyhow?”

They both looked at him.

“She didn’t,” Clint said, “far as I know.”

Jackson shook his head.

“Jo Lena’s never even dated much,” he said. “Not since you left the county.”

A whole new shock raced along Monte’s nerves.

“No! That can’t be.”

“Why not?” Clint snapped. “Some women take things to heart. Maybe she can’t trust any man after the way you did her.”

Monte stopped in his tracks.

“Who is Lily Rae’s daddy?” he demanded.

“Ray Don Kelley,” Jackson said.

“Jo Lena’s brother-in-law?”

“Yes,” Clint said, exasperated now. “And her sister’s child, you goober. Jo Lena’s Lily’s aunt.”

“She calls her Mommy.”

“Because Jo Lena’s the only mother she’s ever known,” Clint said.

He gave Monte a narrow-eyed look.

“Are you still in love with her?”

Monte held the steady gray gaze with a hard one of his own.

“Not a chance,” he said. “Just wonderin’, that’s all.”

Jo Lena wished, for the hundredth time, that she’d never stayed for breakfast at the Rocking M.

“Can Monte come and see my room?” Lily Rae asked, as she crawled into her bed. “He can play with my Breyers horses if he wants.”

If she could have ten minutes without hearing Monte’s name, she’d be happy. It didn’t even have to be ten minutes of silence.

“That’s sweet of you, Lily Rae,” she said. “Now, let’s read a story and you get to sleep. Tomorrow’s Sunday school.”

Lily Rae sat right straight up again.

“Is Monte coming to Sunday school?”

“I doubt it, sugar.”

“Why not?”

Because Monte refuses to go to church at all.

“Well,” she hedged, “Monte’s in pretty bad shape, don’t you remember? He can hardly walk, he hurts so much.”

It hurt her, too, to think how much pain he was in. Even if she couldn’t bear to hear his name one more time today.

“Monte could pray at Sunday school for God to make him all better.”

“True,” Jo Lena said. “But we can’t decide for him what he should do. Monte has to decide for himself.”

“We can help him, Mommy. We can teach him manners and bring him to Sunday school.”

She had to decide what to do about Lily Rae’s total infatuation with Monte McMahan, for heaven’s sake. Like mother like daughter—it must be a female thing. What a mess!

“And we’ll pray for him at Sunday school!”

Now the child was wringing her hands, she was so excited by this new thought. She had been in a total fit ever since they left the Rocking M and Monte behind.

“Lovey, stop talking now, lie back on your pillow and listen,” she said. “I’m going to read to you now.”

It took two stories for Lily Rae to relax and two more for sleep to come. Jo Lena was totally exhausted by the time she bent over to kiss the fragrant little face once more.

In spite of being so tired she could drop, she had made her routine last call of the day to the senior citizens’ home to check on her father. Now, at last, she could relax. With a last glance in at Lily Rae, she eased the screen door open and went out onto her porch. She leaned against a post and looked up at the stars.

The way she and Monte used to do. Looking at the stars had reminded her of him every single night for six long years. If she hadn’t had Lily Rae, she guessed she would’ve gone crazy.

No, she wouldn’t have. Because God was the One who’d kept her sane.

And given her peace.

Now here was Monte come back, stirring up all the old feelings again.

Except that she wasn’t going to let him do that. No matter how silly Lily Rae was about him.

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