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She put the car in Reverse and hit the gas, but all that happened was the whirling sound of a spinning tire. She gripped the steering wheel and tried again, pressing harder on the gas pedal.
“Whoa. You’re just digging in deeper. Go forward.”
She gritted her teeth against his short demand and reached up to shift gears. His hand stopped her. The touch startled her, and she jerked back.
He didn’t even seem to notice her reaction. “Hold on. Let me put one of those branches in front of the tire.” Without waiting for her to agree, he sprang out of the car. Running hunched over, he gathered some of the larger limbs that covered the ground on the edge of the cedar break. Climbing back into the car, he nodded. “Now go forward. Keep the pressure on the pedal nice and steady.”
Holding her breath and sending a quick prayer, she followed his instructions. After a few bounces, they were back on the road. She couldn’t help giving him a big grin. “Thank you.”
“Well, it was my fault you ended up in the ditch.”
With a slow U-turn on the highway, she headed back toward his plane.
“Are you going to be able to drive the plane to the airport?”
“Yeah. I think a wing is damaged, but it can move across the ground without a problem. The Kirkpatricks aren’t going to be happy. I think I ran through their fence a couple of times back in high school.” With one hand on the door, he turned to face her. “You don’t mind following me to the hangar, do you? I’ll need a ride to town.”
“Town? You’re not going to the ranch?”
“You don’t need to drive all the way out there.” He glanced over her stacked and labeled boxes. “You look busy. Do you need help?”
He didn’t know she had been hired to stay with his dad? She made herself stop chewing on the inside of her cheek. She hadn’t even introduced herself.
“I’m Karly Kalakona. I was hired as the new housekeeper and to care for your dad after he had the stroke. I’m heading to the ranch anyway, so it’s not a problem. I’ve never been to the ranch, so it would be great if you could show me where to go. I mean I know where the ranch is, but once on the ranch I have no clue.” Stop rambling, idiot. No, she reminded herself, no more name-calling. Be kind to yourself.
She held her expression neutral as his eyes narrowed. The space in her old Volvo seemed to get smaller and warmer. The heavy raindrops hitting the roof was the only sound for what seemed like hours. Taking his hand off the door, he turned and looked straight at her. Karly pushed her dark hair back.
“You’re moving into my dad’s house?” His friendly tone had been replaced by a sharp edge. “Who hired you?”
“Uh...Pastor John Levi. He was married to your sister, Carol, right? He told me he still helps your dad with the ranch.” Silence. Tyler stared out the windshield. She was getting the feeling he was not happy. “Is there a problem?”
He shook his head. “I just thought...” Instead of finishing the sentence, he sighed and looked back at her. “How do you know John?”
“A little less than a year ago I started attending his church, and a few months later they helped me get out of a bad situation. When your father had his stroke, Pastor John asked if I would be a live-in assistant. Your father had always been a great support to me so I really wanted to repay all the help I found here in Clear Water.”
“You look really young for a nurse.”
“I’m not a nurse.”
“Do you have nursing exper—?” Flashes of lightning flooded the car with white light, followed by a rolling boom of thunder. Bryce cried out, covering his ears. She reached for him again.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re safe.”
“Hey, big guy, have you ever gone bowling?”
Bryce looked up at Tyler and shook his head. Karly couldn’t keep from raising her eyebrows. Bowling? What did that have to do with anything?
“Well, I’ll have to take you so you know that’s what it sounds like. A giant marble ball hitting a bunch of wooden pins. Sounds scary, but it’s actually loads of fun.”
“Really? I wanna go, Momma. I wanna go bowling.” He looked at his new hero. “When are we going?”
“Now, Bryce, I don’t know. We have a lot of things to do and you just got your braces off.” She cut a glance to Tyler. “Between the surgeries and physical therapy, we have to be careful of the activities we pick.” She didn’t want Bryce disappointed in the things he couldn’t do. She wanted him to focus on what he could safely accomplish. “We have to get moved into our new home and get you back in school.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His narrow shoulders slumped. Well, at least he wasn’t crying.
“Sorry, big guy. Your mom’s right. We gotta get you all settled in. Then we can make plans. Right now, I’ve got to get my plane to the hangar.”
Her son perked back up. “Can I ride in your airplane?”
Tyler considered her. His eyebrows rose.
Great, he was going to make her be the bad guy again. “Sorry, sweetheart, you would have to get out in the rain. I need you to stay with me in the car.”
Tyler reached across the back of his seat and tugged at Bryce’s foot. “Hey, we’ll do it another day. I promise.” He grabbed the door handle, jumped out of the safety of her car and darted through the rainstorm to his plane.
She had a feeling she might be headed down a road she had not planned. With a sigh, she watched her son focus on every move Tyler made. Karly saw a joy on his small face that she hadn’t seen in a good while.
Her son should know by now that a pretty package wrapped in easy smiles and good manners could be masking a monster.
Unfortunately, Tyler Childress would not be the first man to break his promise to them.
* * *
Blinded by heavy rain, Tyler pushed the Piper back from the tangled fence. Hopefully, none of the Kirkpatricks’ stock would test the damaged wire. He needed to call Henry and let him know. Yeah, so much for proving to his dad he had managed to become a responsible adult.
He could hear Dub Childress’s voice now. Don’t start with the excuses, son. Somewhere along the way your choices put you in this position.
The argument already played in his head. An argument he needed to avoid. Yes, he’d procrastinated coming home, had buzzed the house one too many times and flew needless circles over town. By the time he’d headed to the airstrip, the storm had hit and livestock had escaped one of the ranches, blocking the only way to land.
So no excuses, Dad. It was my fault I ran a young mother and her child off the road.
With the plane turned in the right direction, he climbed up and pulled the door shut to the cockpit. He wished he could just stay there—his favorite place in the world. A place he was in total control.
Behind the seat he pulled out a towel. With a quick rub through his hair, he tried to stop the dripping, at least. He had so much mud on him, keeping the interior clean was a lost cause. Much like his relationship with his dad. Maybe this time he would manage...
Eyes closed, he stopped the pointless words. Clear Water was the last place he wanted to be. He knew he should have been here sooner, but every time he and his dad walked into the same room there was a fight. His mother had said it was because they were so much alike. He didn’t buy that.
He was nothing like his dad. Obstinate didn’t even begin to describe the old rancher. He was as hard to move as the rock that held the hills steady. Now that his mother and sister were dead and buried, there wasn’t anyone to soften the blows between them.
His fingers tightened around the controls. How did his father do it? How did he stay at the ranch and live in the home where memories of his mother and sister were in every corner? The silence of things they would never say, or moments they would never see, contaminated everything.
Tyler rolled his head back and took in a lungful of air. When had he become so melodramatic? He needed to get the plane in the hangar, call Henry about the fence, not to mention find out why his dad and John had gone ahead and hired someone without waiting for him. He had told them they needed a certified nurse.
Instead, he found a single mom barely out of her teens and a kid with special needs moving in on the ranch. One of John’s lost sheep. His dad would do anything for John Levi, the perfect man who had married his sister.
Karly and Bryce had charity case written all over them. So how was he going to handle this without a fight? Could he kick a single mom and her kid into the streets?
Easing the battered wings over the cedar post, he turned the plane onto the narrow asphalt road that led to the county airport. He had vowed not to say or do anything to get his dad upset, but that plan was already rolling downhill and picking up speed.
The discussion to sell the monstrosity of a ranch would have to wait at least a couple of days, if not weeks. First, he needed to get a certified nurse in the house so he could go back to his own life without worrying about his father.
He parked the plane in the small hangar right next to his dad’s plane, a vintage Mustang. The faded gray Volvo station wagon pulled in behind him. Maybe she could stay on as a housekeeper and he could get an agency to do daily nurse visits. Firing Ms. Karly Kalakona would not be an option, unless she was lying about who she was and were she came from.
The clouds lit up again, and thunder shook the old metal walls. Scanning the building, he found nothing had changed. Half of his childhood happened in the barns, the other half here in this metal hangar. His father had spent hours teaching him to fly. It was a passion they shared and had brought them together—until Tyler had announced he wanted to leave the ranch and make flying his life, not just a hobby.
He forced his jaw to relax. The muscles burned from the tension. Pulling a duffel bag from the back, he glanced over at the plane he’d learned to fly in as a kid. Things had been so much easier back then. He hoped his dad was okay. He had to be.
Tyler stepped out on the concrete, stomping some of the mud off his boots. He checked a few damaged areas on the right wing before heading to the car.
In the gray Volvo parked behind him, Karly smiled. She was saying something to her son. He had to admit she was a dark-haired beauty. Not his usual type. There was sweetness mixed with a spine of steel. Like his mom and sister. He froze in midstride.
His dad wouldn’t dare. One of their long-standing fights the past few years was about Tyler’s love life. Every time Dub called, he told Tyler he needed to settle down with a solid family kind of girl. His father hated every woman he brought to the ranch. They all spent more time estimating the value of the ranch than appreciating the raw beauty of the land.
A knot formed in his gut. He wouldn’t put it past the manipulative old man to use his health crisis as a means to play matchmaker. One more attempt to get Tyler to do what his father thought was best for the Childress name.
Karly opened her car door and stood. She was taller than he expected.
“I called the ranch and told Adrian that I picked you up and we’re heading that way now.”
“Adrian?”
“De La Cruz, one of the trainers.” She looked at him as if he didn’t have a brain. “He has a little girl about ten. I was told you went to school with him.”
“Adrian works for my dad? When did that happen?” Surprise made his words sharper than he intended.
“Um...I don’t know?” Her stunning eyes went wider, and her fingers tightened on the door frame.
Way to go, Childress, scare the girl. Why was he barking at her? “Sorry. I’ve been gone too long, and it’s been a long day.” He made his way to the passenger side of her car and folded into the tight space. She smelled like his mother’s kitchen during the holidays. Now she was making him think of Christmas cookies before Thanksgiving.
Four weeks. Surely he could manage four weeks without yelling at his dad or getting tangled with the new hired help. He knew right away that Karly was not the kind for a casual relationship, and that was the only kind he had managed to have the past ten years. He lowered his gaze to the worn leather handle of his bag.
Definitely not looking at the exotic tilt of her dark eyes with hints of gold, or the silky ponytail that swung when she talked. No, none of that caught his attention. She’s a mother, Tyler. That alone should make her invisible.
Chapter Two (#ulink_29fb1d58-0c20-5fd8-984c-ff0387ef6eb0)
For most of the ten miles to the ranch, Karly sat forward, her tight muscles sore from strain. She wasn’t sure what made her the most nervous, the storm or Tyler Childress.
The gossips adored talking about all the trouble Tyler got into while in high school. People loved to gossip—the more scandalous the better. She tried not to pay attention, but now that he was next to her she had to wonder how much was true.
Pulling through the stone pillars, she glanced up to the wrought iron archway where the letters spelling Childress boldly stood, surrounded by silhouettes of horses in motion. If things worked out, this would be their new home for the next year. Enough time to get Bryce’s physical therapy done, some of the medical bills paid off and a bit of breathing room to figure out where to go to next.
Living out of her car was getting old. She needed a plan and Bryce needed to be in school. This was the perfect job for her—that was, if the younger Childress didn’t kick them out.
He had spent the whole trip staring out the window. She’d glanced at him. He didn’t seem to want to be here. Maybe he would be leaving soon. “So how long do you plan on staying?”
He shrugged. “I’ve taken the next month off. I need to speak with the doctors tomorrow, figure out what Dad needs and when he can come home.”
Oh, no. He hadn’t been told. “Pastor John is bringing him home this evening.”
With his elbows resting on his knees, Tyler pressed the palm of his hands into his eyes. “John’s bringing him home today? I thought he had at least another week in the hospital.”
“The nurses can’t keep him in bed, and he tries to leave every few hours. He tells everyone he’s walking home.”
She drove around a cluster of twisted live oak trees. At the end of the narrow asphalt drive, the redbrick ranch house sprawled long and low behind a shaded yard of lush, green carpet grass. She slowed down and took a moment to find her breath.
A home. A real home that Bryce was going to get to live in, hopefully, for the next year. She blinked a couple of times to stop the tears from spilling down her cheeks. Tyler would think she was crazy if she started crying. Thank You, God.
“Are you okay?”
She didn’t dare look at him. “Yes. I’m just not sure where to go. I haven’t been to the house before now.”
He pointed to the right. “Go to the back. We’ll pull into the garage and unload from there.” Facing her again, his blue eyes intense. “I don’t get it. Dad doesn’t have a way to leave. He can’t drive, and from what I understand he can’t walk that well, either. So why is John bringing him home?”
“He told the pastor that if someone didn’t drive him home he’d start walking. Your father seems very determined to get back to the ranch. So Pastor John’s giving him a ride. They should be here within the next couple of hours.” She skimmed the area around them, avoiding eye contact. “He’s leaving AMA.”
He threw his head back against the seat. “Seriously? A man with brain damage and a broken arm is allowed to leave against medical advice and no one calls me? That’s what AMA means, right? Against medical advice.”
“I believe that’s what it means.” She didn’t know what to say.
“Great. And no one thought to hire a real nurse?” His voice low as he stared back out the window.
“Horses! Momma, look. Horses!”
The drive forked. To the left, a couple of large barns, two outbuildings and several pens made what looked like a small resort for horses. A sharp right put them in front of a giant wooden garage door that belonged on a fortress. Rich wood and large wrought iron hinges brought to mind another time and place.
“Can we go see the horses? Please, Momma.”
“Bryce, it’s raining, and we need to get set up. Besides, the horses are off-limits. You cannot go to the barn area without me. Do you understand?”
“But, Momma...”
“Bryce.” She lowered her chin and looked at him through the rearview mirror.
“Hey, we need to help your mom unpack the car. Well, maybe repack first, then unpack and find out which room is yours.”
“Oh, I can take care of—”
“I’ll be in a different room? Is it far from yours, Momma?” Worry filled his young eyes. He had seen too much in his short life, and it was her fault.
“Right next to mine.” Sleeping together had become their norm since the night Officer Torres had arrested Billy Havender, her last life blunder. No more mistakes. “Bryce, it’ll be okay. Pastor John told me our rooms are connected through a bathroom.”
“You’re in my sister’s room?” His Florida Key blues narrowed. How did someone have eyes that blue without contacts? She didn’t think he wore them. She hadn’t thought about whose room she would be living in. The offer of a salary, plus room and board, had been all she’d needed to hear.
“Pull up. I’ll run inside and open the door.” His voice was gruff as he looked away again.
“Oh, Pastor John gave me the remote.” Digging it out of the console, she hit the button. The left door slid to the other side instead of overhead. As she pulled into the large space, the feeling of crossing the threshold into a special world washed over her. What if she couldn’t do the job that was needed? What if they didn’t let her stay? She stopped herself. No self-doubt allowed.
The concrete space was large enough to hold three cars along with a workshop. Currently only a large silver Suburban with the ranch’s logo sat in the opposite end of the garage. Color-coordinated boxes lined the organized shelves, sorted by shape and size. She skimmed over her car, filled with a hodgepodge of boxes she had saved from the drugstore Dumpster.
